Frequently asked questions

The RII Research Analytics (RA) team provides routine reporting on research and sponsored projects at MU. These primarily include proposals and awards (grants) submitted and obtained by our research community. The team also prepares competitive intelligence analyses primarily focused on federal funding priorities.

The RA team publishes monthly reports for the MU community typically updated by the 8th business day of the month. These reports consist of static reports, which are in PDF or Excel formats, as well as dynamic reports where the user can select filters and download datasets in Power BI. The monthly reports contain data through the last full fiscal month (reports published in November will contain data through the end of October).

Please visit our reports page for information on how to access published reporting.

RA also delivers ad hoc reports that are in Word, Excel or PDF for inquiries that are sent to our intake inbox. These reports may contain data through the last working day, depending on the request. 

We may also work with individuals to create custom reports (in Power BI, Excel, etc.) to provide information not currently published in our monthly reporting or reduce manual data manipulation on the user’s end. Contact us to discuss the possibility of a custom report. 

For MU (and UM) data, RA uses PeopleSoft grants, finance and HR data. Grants data typically comes from the ePSRS, which is filled out by department research administrators and contains information such as a project’s sponsor, title, and MU researchers involved (listed for shared credit). External data sources such as publication data, the NSF HERD survey, NIH RePORTER and the NSF Awards Search may also be used depending on the context of the report. These are publicly available.

The RA team publishes periodic news posts about critical data changes, updates to reporting structures and other relevant RA news on our Sharepoint site.

In addition, users can receive an email once a month letting them know that monthly reporting is available. Please email us and include your username (pawprint) along with “subscribe” in the subject line. 

All MU faculty and staff already have access to RA reporting. All you need to do is sign in with your MU credentials to view reports available on the reports and access page.

If you would like to be notified when data have been updated, please email us and include your username (pawprint) along with “subscribe” in the subject line. Once a month, you will receive an email letting you know that reports has been updated.
 

If you do not want to receive monthly updates in the future, please email us and include your username (pawprint) along with “unsubscribe” in the subject line. You will still be able to access our reports – all MU faculty and staff can access RA's online reports by signing in with their university credentials.

You can submit a request by emailing us. Typical turn-around time is 2-4 business days, but that can fluctuate based upon the complexity of the request or the current workload of our team. Please let us know when you would like a response in your request and we will try our best to accommodate your deadline.

Our reports page contains high level access, Power BI usage, and general resources. For more specific or individualized trainings, you can contact us at researchanalytics@missouri.edu to schedule a session.

Please visit our definitions page, which also includes a link to our data dictionary used in the monthly pivot table.

RA reports on the data in PeopleSoft and does not change any records – to update information, start with your department research administrator or the Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA), who can direct you to next steps.

This is most likely due to data entry issues in the shared credit tab on the PeopleSoft grants module. Please check to see if you are a listed investigator on the shared credit tab for your sponsored project. Additionally, note the effective date of the shared credit. If you are not on the list of investigators for shared credit at the time the funds have been issued or spent, you will not appear in our reporting for that time period. Please reach out to your department research administrator or the Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA) to correct any data issues. 

Shared credit deptids are manually selected at the time of the proposal and must be manually revised if there is a necessary change. If a change is required, keep in mind that the effective date is an important element in historical shared credit data. Please reach out to your department research administrator or the Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA) for any revisions.

For reporting purposes, we only have one PI per award or proposal. This is derived from the selected PI in PeopleSoft. There may be multiple co-PIs however there is only one name selected as the PI. Contact your department research administrator or the Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA) if you think that your role has an error.

The NSF HERD survey is the primary source of information on research and development (R&D) expenditures at U.S. colleges and universities. The survey collects information on R&D expenditures by field of research and source of funds annually. It also captures types of research, expenses and R&D personnel headcounts. The survey is typically submitted in January for the previous fiscal year and data is released to the public around November-December.
RA completes this survey for MU only. The UM System Controller’s office completes the HERD survey for the other three campuses.

Grant and contract expenditures classified as research/R&D (purpose codes RESBA, RESAP and RESDV) in the PeopleSoft grants module (not instruction “INSTR” or other sponsored activity "OSA") are included in the survey. In addition, internal (institutional) expenditures spent on R&D purposes, as designated by PCS codes 21 and 22, are also included. Other funding that is earmarked for research, such as USDA capacity funds, Spinal Cord Injury Research Program, and NextGen expenditures, are also counted. Indirect costs not recovered from externally-funded sponsors are also counted towards HERD.

AAU phases are based on HERD survey submissions. Phase I includes all federally-sponsored expenditures (USDA expenditures are in Phase II, except USDA NIFA AFRI-sponsored expenditures, which are in Phase I). Phase II includes all industry and state/local government-sponsored expenditures, as well as USDA-sponsored expenditures not captured in Phase I. For more information on AAU phases, please visit their website.