Achieving Resilience at the University of Melbourne

Challenge

The University of Melbourne is Australia’s highest-ranked university, and one of the top public research universities in the world. With over $700 million AUD in annual research revenue, partnerships with major health service businesses and research institutes, and research-oriented faculty that includes a 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner, the university works hard to maintain its prestige and substantial output.

The Office of Research Management stands at the center of Melbourne University’s research activity, with a staff of over 200 administrators, lawyers, financial experts, and more, providing end-to-end research administration for pre-award, post-award, and research contracting processes. Here, teams covering infrastructure, ethics, integrity, governance, and finance collaborate to process a high volume of impactful research projects. 

The scale and scope of the office’s responsibilities necessitated a robust, integrated digital system that could manage all aspects of research operations, from personnel and finance to project workflows and data integrity. However, as years passed and research volume continued to increase, the university’s decades-old, heavily customised management software began to show its age, with issues including unreliable data, increasingly frequent errors, and potential compliance risks. 

“Our whole system was over 20 years old, and it had a lot of customization and a lot of integrations that were built over a long time. We were keen to make sure some of those integrations and outputs continued to function.”
Executive Director,
Office of Research Management

With this software integrated more widely into HR and finance systems, leadership knew that they needed to search for a replacement that could provide more reliable long-term stability and integrations with operational workflows beyond just research management.

Solution

The specific requirements for a new research management system meant an extended search for a vendor with solutions that could meet research administration demands, integrate with other systems, and grow alongside the university. The University underwent multiple procurement processes to find the right vendor, vetting three different providers who ultimately could not meet the university’s needs.

Eventually, the team underwent a fourth procurement with Cayuse. This time, they were impressed not only by the software’s capacity to give research teams the tools they needed to do their jobs, process large grant rounds from the Australian Government, and integrate into existing systems, but also by the Cayuse team’s dedication to serving as a partner before, during, and beyond implementation.

As with any new system change, administrators and researchers were nervous about making the switch to new software in the first place. Not only does a new system present a cultural shift, but its implementation can also be a lengthy process that disrupts operations and, in worst-case scenarios, puts projects at risk.

However, the university was reassured by Cayuse’s attention to detail and responsiveness. As the Office of Research Management’s Executive Director noted, the difference was “Cayuse’s willingness to say, ‘your data will be secure; if there are timeline or speed issues, we’ll be able to address those,’ and other reassurances.”

“It took a long time to find a product that would not just suit the needs of the business, but also have the infrastructure and willingness to go with us to make sure it meets our needs. Cayuse was willing to go through that journey together with us.”
Executive Director,
Office of Research Management

After speaking with other universities and confirming their positive experiences with Cayuse, the Melbourne team opted to implement Cayuse Sponsored Projects and Proposals (S2S), with the potential to add new modules over time to build a comprehensive, integrated administrative management system.

Results

Overall, administrators, researchers, and leadership at the University of Melbourne have been very pleased with Cayuse, from the implementation process to the functionality of the software itself.

Despite the large scale of the Cayuse implementation, the Office of Research Management’s Executive Director shared that the process was “one of the best implementations the university has had.” When asked why the Cayuse implementation was better than others, he expanded that, “it’s because of the hard work done by teams on both sides, but also just the willingness to listen and share and change… it was good to just be open and honest and take the feedback and work positively together.”

He also highlighted several notable benefits to the new management system, including ease of use, data reliability, and integration capacity. “There’s better authentication and data validation now,” he pointed out, adding that, “wherever there are missing fields and information, [the software] asks you to enter them in before you proceed. In the old system, you just kept going, and it would be missing data.”

Cayuse’s intuitive user interface and application speed mean administrators spend less time fielding process questions, with researchers capable of handling many administrative tasks on their own without encountering disruptive technical issues. Additionally, ERP integrations configured during implementation meant smoother workflows across the research lifecycle and beyond.

“We’re very positive about the system; the researchers are positive. I think going with Cayuse was a great decision for us.”
Executive Director,
Office of Research Management

With the continued growth of Melbourne University’s research efforts anticipated in the years ahead, teams are very happy with their new management system and optimistic about future expansion. Thanks to Cayuse’s dedication to serving not just as a vendor, but as a partner in research operations, they know that the university is set up for expansion and success for years to come.