ReAACT - Science and Technology Support & Management online

Author : Julianne Freire Pepeu
Date added : 2000-08-31

Brief Project Background

ReAACT consists of a Web-based system designed to support the management of the entire life cycle of science and technology projects, from proposal submission to final reporting, through proposal selection, contracting, project follow up and evaluation of project results, also dealing with all the administrative reporting related to the program. The system also has a number of by-products, such as a national roster of researchers.

Results

The management of the Science and Technology projects life cycle was a very expensive and time consuming operation for Fund Agencies. PADCT Program (from Brazilian Government) decided to automate it and the results were amazing.

ReAACT supports the management of the entire life cycle of science and technology projects, from proposal submission to final reporting.

In general, the process participants - Program co-ordinators, consultants, advisory committee members, agencies technical staff and the proposal team - are distributed over vast geographic areas (this also holds for members of the same proposal). Using the Internet, every information and operation is easily available for all participants, anywhere, anytime.

The system eliminates the handling and storage of big amounts of paper, as well as the need of sending information via the post services. The Web is the only appropriate infrastructure for this kind of process, since it can deploy the system anywhere in the world (and this is really needed in this process), using any kind of a large number of hardware and software platform.

As all data related to the process is electronically stored and transmitted, relevant information can be gathered easily and rapidly. Some parts of the system are also available in off-line versions, which are totally compatible with on-line versions, allowing for work off-line while filling forms and then connecting to transmit data to the server. Users can easily download the off-line programs and install them on their computers and do this for a number of reasons. Working on a laptop, for example, in a site where no Internet hook is available is just one of them.

Results:
The process has been very satisfactory: the system accelerates and optimises the whole processes of selection and evaluation and improves the mechanisms to monitor and follow up projects being funded.

Results of ReAACT can be divided in: Associated Programs, Supported Rounds and General Numbers.

- Associated Programs: three Brazilian programs have been using ReAACT (PADCT, RHAE, FACEPE)

- Supported Rounds:

PADCT:
4 finished rounds (contracted projects)
3 rounds (proposals submission process)

RHAE:
2 finished round (proposal evaluation process)

FACEPE:
1 finished round (proposal evaluation process)

- General numbers:

Demand (PADCT + RHAE + FACEPE):
3.478 proposals
3.220 institutions
17.227 applicants
2.577 consultants
11.439 evaluation reports

Contracting (PADCT):
945 contracted proposals (27.19% of the 3.476 evaluated proposals)
1.425 institutions
6.842 applicants
R$ 133.681.928,83 contracted

Savings (supported rounds):
paper (proposals, curriculum, evaluation reports): 2.968.385 pages ~ R$ 30.000,00
mail: R$ 892.702,80 ( at least )
air-tickets and daily expenses (5 meetings): decrease of 2 to 1 evaluation meeting ~ R$ 1.000.000,00
time: decrease of 9 to 5 months from evaluation rounds until contracting proposals and increase in the number of demand proposals

Detailed Description:

ReAACT consists of a Web-based system designed to support the management of the entire life cycle of science and technology projects, from proposal submission to final reporting, through proposal selection, contracting, project follow up and evaluation of project results, also dealing with all the administrative reporting related to the program. The system also has a number of by-products, such as a national roster of researchers.

ReAACT has different groups of users: Program co-ordinators, consultants, advisory committee members, program technical staff and the proposal team. So the system provides different process viewpoints: the user (or applicant) view and the Program (or manager) view. The Program view is divided into two phases: the proposal submission and evaluation process and the project monitoring and following-up process.

User view

Below, we briefly present the possible user (or applicants) views of the system according to the process sequence (from proposal submission to contracted project execution).

1. Applicants access the call for proposals available on the Internet.
2. Applicants download and install the Proposal Form software in their local computer for filling in the proposal data.
3. Each applicant registers his curriculum.
4. After filling proposal data, the co-ordinator of the proposal submits it via Internet. The proposal is then available for evaluation.
5. After the submission deadline, the applicants (and the public in general) can access general reports about the demand generated by the proposals submitted.
6. After evaluation, the proposal co-ordinators receive the appraisal and results related to their proposals, by electronic mail.
7. Each co-ordinator has access to all the data about his proposal through the applicant module.
8. After proposal evaluation, applicants (and the public in general) can access reports with overall evaluation results.
9. In case the proposal is contracted, the co-ordinator can access the applicant module in order to: (a) follow the processes or procedures of the disbursed resources by the program; (b) justify the expenditure of resources allocated to his team; (c) inform the results reached by the project.
10. After project contracting, the applicants (and the public in general) can access general reports with the results generated during the project's progress.

Program view - Proposal Submission and Evaluation Process

Below, the system's views that the Program (or managers) has access are briefly presented, according to the process sequence (from proposal submission to the publication of proposal evaluation results).

1. The call for proposals is approved and made available on the Internet.
2. Monitoring of proposal submission.
3. Monitoring of consultant pre-selection.
4. Publication of the report on the demand of submitted proposals.
5. Monitoring of the proposals' initial appraisal.
a) Verification of proposal adequacy to required rules
6. Monitoring of consultants' selection.
a) Selection of consultants by Program staff (inviting the members by e-mail) and distributing proposals for evaluation.
7. Monitoring of consultant evaluation.
a) Consultants prepare and make available their evaluation.
8. Monitoring of evaluation results.
9. Publication of the proposal evaluation results.

Program view - Projects Monitoring and Evaluation Process

Below, there is the view that the Program (or managers) has access to, according to process sequence (from the contracting projects to the publication of project implementation results).

1. Program co-ordinators celebrate the contracts.
2. The projects are contracted.
3. Technical staffs evaluate and inform about projects' technical merit.
4. Program select consultants in order to evaluate projects.
5. Consultants inform about projects' scientific merit.

During the whole process, Program co-ordinators have access to financial, technical and strategical reports concerning the projects and programs.

The use of this system makes it possible to track every scientific project and scientist or student working under Brazilian grants, in the country or anywhere in the world.

Barriers found:
The low speed of Internet in some places of the country;
Big number of users at the same time (we resolved this by using a more powerful server machine);
Some users were not familiar with Web;
Time available for implementation of some modules was very short.

Future plans:
In the near future we are planning to develop a generic and parameterized ReAACT, easily configurable to any type of S&T program, this version will be able to manage the entire life cycle of every type of projects.

Lessons

ReAACT has two partners who give political support:
- Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT)
- National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq)

Project Information

Total budget in US$ : -

Contact Information

Julianne Freire Pepeu

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