eResearch Software and Services

The University of Michigan (“University”) seeks proposals from qualified Suppliers of eResearch Software and Services. The University of Michigan (“University”) is not liable in any manner or to any extent for any cost or expense incurred by the supplier in the preparation, submission, presentation or any other action connected with proposing or otherwise responding to this RFP. Such exemption from liability applies whether such costs are incurred directly by the supplier or indirectly through the supplier’s agents, employees, assigns or others, whether related or not to the supplier. In submitting a proposal, Supplier agrees that all materials associated with, attached to, or referenced by the submitted proposal will become the property of the University and may be incorporated into a subsequent contractual agreement between the successful supplier and the University in an order of precedence as follows: (1) Contract Terms and Conditions; (2) Statement of Work; and (3) RFP. The University expects to enter into an agreement with the successful supplier for a five-year term with an option to extend for additional two-year terms as mutually agreed upon between the University and the supplier. Response to this RFP confirms an understanding that this is not a contract or offer of business by the University. The University’s standard terms and conditions will apply to the contract as a result of this RFP, and are included as an attachment. BACKGROUND ON THE UNIVERSITY The primary scope of this RFP includes the three University of Michigan campuses located in Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Flint, as well as Michigan Medicine. The mission of the university is to serve the people of Michigan and the world through preeminence in creating, communicating, preserving and applying knowledge, art, and academic values, and in developing leaders and citizens who will challenge the present and enrich the future. With nearly 50,000 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at 19 schools and colleges on the Ann Arbor campus, the university is highly ranked nationally and throughout the world. The College of Engineering, College of LSA (Literature, Science, and the Arts), and the Ross School of Business are a few of the top choices for students. Michigan Medicine includes the top-ranked U-M Medical School and the University of Michigan Health System, which includes the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital, University Hospital, the Frankel Cardiovascular Center, the Rogel Cancer Center, and Metro Health. Michigan Medicine’s adult hospitals were ranked number 11 in the nation by U.S. News and World Report in 2020-21 and C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital was the only children’s hospital in Michigan nationally ranked in all 10 pediatric specialties analyzed by U.S. News and World Report for 2020-21. The U-M Medical School is one of the nation's biomedical research powerhouses, with total research funding of more than $500 million. The University of Michigan-Dearborn (UM-Dearborn) is one of the three campuses of the University of Michigan. UM-Dearborn is a comprehensive university offering high-quality undergraduate, graduate, professional and continuing education to residents of southeastern Michigan and beyond, attracting more than 9000 students. Faculty and students have the opportunity to collaborate across all three campuses in research and scholarly activity. UM-Dearborn is located ten miles west of Detroit and thirty-five miles east of Ann Arbor. The campus is strategically located on 200 suburban acres of the original Henry Ford Estate in the Greater Detroit Metropolitan region. The campus has four main colleges: CASL (College of Arts, Science, and Letters), CECS (College of Engineering and Computer Science), CEHHS (College of Education, Health, and Human Services), and COB (College of Business). The University of Michigan-Flint is a comprehensive urban university of diverse learners and scholars committed to advancing our local and global communities. It was founded in 1956 on a commitment to bring quality Michigan education to Flint and the surrounding area. We value excellence in teaching, learning and scholarship; student centeredness; and engaged citizenship. Within its sixty-year history, the University has experienced significant growth in academic programs and services. Background In Fall 2023, Huron Consulting Group announced the end of life date of October 2031 for the current platform used to facilitate the majority of business processes associated with research administration across U-M including Michigan Medicine. U-M eResearch systems, including Regulatory Management, Proposal Management, Animal Management, and COI (M-Inform) are built on this software platform and will need to migrate to a new solution. The eResearch on-premise software currently in use was initially implemented in 2005. The software has been highly customized by internal U-M staff in order to meet requirements. These changes have helped U-M run the research enterprise smoothly and have allowed us to build new functionality as the regulatory and business needs changed over the past 20 years. The software replacement project includes significant efforts in transitioning existing business processes for central offices and departments to a new software solution, reengineering existing business processes, building new training materials, reestablishing integrations between the systems and among other U-M systems, and rebuilding all reporting mechanisms, including the data warehouses and existing reports external to the data warehouse. Below is a high-level overview of each module we intend to replace, along with relevant statistics to demonstrate the significant number of transactions and the volume of research supported. Grants & Contracts Management Module - supports proposals, contract lifecycle management for funded and unfunded agreements, awards, outgoing subcontracts Submitting over 6,000 proposals per year requesting approximately $6.5 B in sponsored funding in FY25 Approximately 2,000 of our submissions totaling $4.1 B were submitted via Grants.gov using system-to-system in FY25 Received over 1,700 new awards with a value over $1.1 B in FY25 Negotiated over 5,700 contracts in FY25 Diverse portfolio: Submissions and awards from 56 federal agencies plus 2,500+ distinct non-Federal sponsors in FY25 Processing over 8,000 award modifications in FY25 Managing over 10,500 active projects worth in excess of $10.3 B This module supports 6,000 unique investigators and 1,500+ active research administrators Regulatory Management Module Institutional Biosafety Committee Research with Recombinant DNA and Other Biohazards 710 Unique PIs with approved Institutional Biosafety Committee Applications Institutional Review Board (IRB) Research (and some non-research activities) involving human subjects 8,900 Unique PIs having submitted Human Subject Study applications 31,460 Unique Human Subject Study team members 3,750 New Human Subject Study applications per year (on average) 7,836 Active fully regulated IRB (board reviewed) studies 25,460 Active IRB exempt/not regulated studies Animal Research Components - Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) Compliance / Animal Operations and Medical Records / Facility Management / Controlled Substance Registrations 3800 Animal Researchers (users), 200+ Central Office users Currently Approved 3 year multi-species animal Protocols - 750 Historial - 7,000 Active Census Units/Cages - 55,000 (2,500 new/old per week) (“new” are due to purchases/transfers/breeding activities) Historical - 3.5 million Monthly Billing/Recharges - $3.3 million (approx. 4,800 charges) Historical - Charges 780,000, Monthly Charge Statements 350,000 Open Animal Medical Records (all USDA and active treatment non-USDA) - 5,000 Historical - 200,000 Controlled Substance Registrations - 250 Managed Facilities 2,400 Active Animal Researchers - 3,950 Conflict of Interest (COI) 16,000+ annual disclosures for FY25 747 active individual COI management plans 203 active institutional COI management plans We have customized our software to include the following areas in our current state, though some of the functionality may not be part of traditional research administration software platforms: Export Controls Research Security RFP Timeline We are conducting a Request for Proposals (RFP) to available software solutions, associated services including implementation, integrations with U-M systems, and backfilling, and pricing to inform our decision-making process. It is not necessary to respond to all components of the RFP in order to be considered for any one area. We aim to select finalists to invite for presentations to our campus community and to conduct 60-day proofs-of-concept (POC) in 2026. This step will also include sharing a short video overview of your product(s) from the Principal Investigator’s point of view, no longer than 5 minutes. POCs will entail setting up a “sandbox” or demo environment for U-M staff to test and explore using specific scenarios to evaluate your product. For example, vendors may be asked to mock up the attached IACUC Protocol (Attachment C) in the POC. During the RFP process, we will test product APIs in an exercise to add test data into the software as well as APIs we would use to extract data into a data warehouse. Any configurations or testing done would be disposed of after the assessment is completed. We aim to complete the RFP process and to engage with the finalist for design and implementation starting in 2027. All systems must be migrated to new solutions by September 2031.