Research & Knowledge Exchange Transformation: Building the £1M ROI Business Case
The Challenge: Scaling Research in a Fragmented Landscape
The University of Greenwich aimed to make Research & Knowledge Exchange (R&KE) a primary growth engine, targeting 20% of institutional income. However, the operational foundation was manual and fragmented. A third-party review confirmed that technology alone wasn’t the answer; the university needed a holistic transformation of its operating model, data governance, and systems to meet its 2030 ambitions.
The Solution: Enterprise Architecture as a Strategic Catalyst
As Enterprise Architect, I led the end-to-end analysis and design of a future-state R&KE architecture, bridging the gap between academic vision and technical execution.
Key Technical Milestones:
- Lifecycle Mapping: Conducted a deep-dive analysis of the research lifecycle—from bid development to REF output curation—exposing critical gaps in ethics workflows and financial visibility.
- Integrated Platform Design: Defined a future-state architecture covering pre-award pipelines, electronic ethics, and post-award integration with the Oracle finance environment.
- Evidence-Based Procurement: Led a structured vendor evaluation and scoring process, ensuring the selected supplier met rigorous functional, architectural, and value-for-money criteria.
- Benefits Realisation Model: Developed a comprehensive business case that quantified the transition from manual “pain points” to a streamlined, automated operation.
The Outcome: A £1M+ Per Annum Transformation Roadmap
The resulting strategy provided a defensible, board-level investment case that aligned directly with institutional goals.
- £1M+ Annual Financial Benefit: Achieved through licence rationalisation, process automation, and improved grant recovery.
- Strategic Scalability: Established the governance and data quality required to support long-term research growth and REF compliance.
- 100+ Architectural Artefacts: Produced a complete library of capability models, integration designs, and change frameworks to guide the implementation.