If you’ve ever applied to a Research Council for funding, you’ll be familiar with J-eS,  RCUK’s joint submission system.  However we’ve recently been informed that things will be changing from next year.

The Je-S system has come to a natural end, and in the words of RCUK:

‘This is a fantastic opportunity to design a smarter, simpler more user friendly service in line with the latest digital standards. Work is already underway to design the new awards service. This work is based on extensive user research to ensure that when the changes come into effect you will find they better meet your needs.

So what sort of improvements can you expect?

As an applicant, peer reviewer, research manager or administrator you will no longer use the Je-S system to apply for grants, submit reviews or manage your research organisations grants activities. There will be an entirely new external portal. In future the whole grant application form will be digitised which means in the majority of cases no more uploading of attachments. And there are other improvements such as in built formatting for font size and word count, improved dashboards to help you manage your grant activities as well as guidance relevant to a particular funding opportunity close at hand all on the one screen while you are applying’

We can expect to see the new system being piloted in March 2017, parallel running of both systems from May 2017 and the new system being used for all submissions and reporting by early 2018.

The RSB office will be able to pass on more information about the new system once we’ve seen it demonstrated in June, but if you are planning to submit a new RCUK application from may 2017 onwards, you probably won’t be using J-eS. Watch this space, and don’t forget the RSB team can help with applying to the Research Councils for funding, as well as anyone else you might be thinking of so do get in touch if you need support with an application.