Click on a date below to find past UnivRS releases notes since March 2020. Please check this page often for updates.

Past Release Notes

    • A video demonstrating how to approve project records in UnivRS was uploaded to the IT Knowledge Base to guide Lead Principal Investigators, Department Heads, Directors and Deans through the approval process in UnivRS.
    • The following improvements were completed to improve the end-user experience and preserve data integrity in UnivRS: 
      • Over 700 funding agencies / organisations were added to UnivRS to this module to simplify the application process.
      • The RSO Approval Coordinator role can update the employment start and end dates of USask employees to verify eligibility to apply for, hold and administer research funding more accurately.
      • Permissions were expanded for the RSO Approver and Super User (Pre-and Post-Award) roles to provide additional read-only access to vetted human ethics protocols, biosafety permits and radiation safety permits. This read-only access will streamline the institutional approval process and business operations within the OVPR. More information is available in the IT Knowledge Base.
      • Help text was added to the project application workflow to better guide researchers through the grant submission process in UnivRS.

  • Research Ethics*:
    • The following reports were standardized to easily find information about where biohazardous materials or radioisotopes are stored on campus:
      • Compliance Projects - Biosafety - Location Per Bio-Permit Holder
      • Compliance Projects - Biosafety - Room Per Bio-Permit Holder
      • Compliance Projects - Radiation Safety - Active Room
      • Compliance Projects - Radiation Safety - Active Room Per Bio-Permit Holder
    • The connection with HSE / Canvas was updated to continue importing training information into UnivRS for individuals associated with human ethics protocols, and biosafety and radiation safety permits. This connection provides a crucial, system-based control to adhere to internal and external policies and requirements.
    • Several improvements were completed to improve the end-user experience and preserve data integrity in UnivRS, including: 
      • Lab and WHIMS expiry dates were added for all personnel listed on a pending or approved biosafety permit. This improvement reduces the number of clicks needed to find training information in UnivRS.
      • The project status was added to the Compliance Records Directly Linked to this Application section to make it easier to review and manage permits and protocols. 
      • The date was added to the Permit Conditions section to make it easier to find and report biosafety and radiation safety permit changes.
      • Type of work, containment level and classification columns were added to the Location section to biosafety and radiation safety templates. 
      • The Compliance Coordinator and Compliance Specialist roles can set existing Committees from active to inactive in UnivRS should that committee no longer be needed. Visit the ICT Knowledge Base for instructions on how to remove committee members.

    • The RSO Specialist role has a new Things to do on their dashboard to indicate when a project has been submitted to the agency. This improvement makes it easier to monitor projects and aligns with the Things to do for amendments.

    • The following improvements were completed in UnivRS to preserve data integrity related to Research funds: 
      • The number of clicks needed to create a Research fund was reduced. This improvement simplifies the process and builds efficiencies in the system. Visit the ICT Knowledge Base for more details.
      • Research funds created from the dashboard can only relate projects set to the Fund Requested or Active workflow statuses in UnivRS.
      • Over 1600 Research fund records were updated to better streamline the fund close-out process.
      • New filters were added to the Research fund list page to help easily find information.

  • Research Ethics*:

    • New filter options were provided for the Compliance Coordinator and Compliance Specialist to generate summary reports more easily, such as the name of the assigned Specialist.

    • The placement of the List documents that are being submitted along with this application field was standardized in applicable human ethics templates to make it easier to enter and locate information in the system.

    • Lead Principal Investigators, Department Heads and Deans are notified in real-time, when an online approval has been bypassed by an administrator. This ensures the approval process is efficient and transparent for research-related projects in UnivRS.
    • Metrics associated with multi-stage project applications can soon be generated in the University Data Warehouse (UDW) because of data improvements made to the Title and Application stage fields in UnivRS. Contact ICT for more information.
    • The RSO Approval Coordinator can update the Primary approval home field on active business cards to help resolve faulted academic approvals in real-time. Visit the ICT Knowledge Basefor more information.
    • The following improvements were completed in UnivRS for the RSO Approval Coordinator and RSO Specialist roles: 
      • Fields associated with Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) can be updated on existing organisations to help generate institutional metrics on NCEs.
      • A new filter - Agency - Countries - was added to the Project list page to quickly find projects funded by a specific country or a country's economic level.
      • The Physical file location field now defaults to No File to reduce the number of clicks needed to process a project application in UnivRS.

  • Research Ethics*:
    • Radioisotopes can now be created within a compliance application record in UnivRS. This improvement makes it easier to process a permit request and can save up to 5 minutes per submission. 
    • The Biosafety - Permit conditions field was standardized to ensure preferred formatting was displayed on a permit generated by UnivRS, including bulleted lists.
    • Permit renewal notifications were updated in UnivRS to direct Lead Principal Investigators to Biosafety forms now stored in PAWS. This change streamlines and simplifies the process of amending or closing an active Biosafety permit.
    • The Compliance Coordinator can update a person's E-mail address in UnivRS. This improvement ensures preferred e-mail addresses are up-to-date to receive timely notifications about their active protocols. Visit the ICT Knowledge Base for more details.
    • The Type of appointment field was defaulted to Unknown to reduce the number of clicks needed to create a business card in UnivRS. Other was also removed as a choice option from this field to help preserve data quality in the system.
  • Pre-and Post-Award:
    • The approval process was streamlined to reduce the number of clicks needed for Lead Principal Investigators, Department Heads and Deans to access and approve project applications, projects and amendments in UnivRS. For more information, please visit the IT Knowledge Base.
    • OVPR staff can now find projects associated with a country's economic level in UnivRS. This improvement will help develop briefing notes and plan international trips and visits. For more information, please visit the IT Knowledge Base.
    • The International Project Detail - Output Template in UnivRS now includes the date of acceptance and lists each country associated with a research project in a separate row. These improvements simply reporting and analytical needs within the OVPR.
    • The RSO Approval Coordinator can now create business cards in UnivRS from within the person record. This feature simplifies the process of adding a new business card in UnivRS and reduces the number of clicks in the system. 
    • The following improvements were made in UnivRS for the RSO Approval Coordinator and RSO Specialist roles: 
      • The Related Information (Curriculum Vitae) tab was removed in the project application and projects templates.
      • Project records can now seamlessly move between the In Preparation and Discarded workflow statuses.
      • The University of Saskatchewan appointment or affiliation and Type of appointment fields can be updated on active business cards in UnivRS.

  • Research Ethics*:
    • The Protocol Deviation, Unanticipated Problem & MMI list page was added to the navigation menu for the Committee Chair role in UnivRS. This page makes it easier to find, review and report on information associated with active human ethics protocols.
    • The location data model was improved to more accurately capture information associated with Biosafety and Radiation Safety permits. Location options were expanded to align them with campus infrastructure.
    • The following improvements were made in UnivRS for the Compliance Specialist and Compliance Coordinator to simplify the validation process and make it easier to re-use validated information throughout the system:
      • New radioisotopes entered by a Compliance Specialist in UnivRS will now automatically default to active. 
      • New person and business cards entered by a Compliance Coordinator in UnivRS will now automatically default to submitted for review. 
  • Pre-and Post-Award:
    • A new choice option - Instructor - was added to the Type of appointment field in UnivRS to re-align with About-Us (HR system). Over 400 business cards were manually updated to make it easier for the staff in the Office of the Vice-President, Research portfolio to verify applicants' eligibility with agency requirements.
    • A new field - Internally reviewed - was created in the project application templates to better track and evaluate the effectiveness of the USask Internal Grants Programs. A script was run in UnivRS to identify project applications that were internally reviewed since 2017.
    • Faculty can now clone project applications set to the Invited workflow status in UnivRS. Cloning reduces the time spent entering data by copying information from an existing record into a new record. Instructions on how to clone are available on the IT Knowledge Base.
    • The RSO Approval Coordinator can now start the academic approval process for project applications in UnivRS. Previously, all academic approvals were bypassed if submitted on behalf of a Lead Principal Investigator by a staff member in the Office of the Vice-President, Research portfolio. Instructions on how to start the academic approval process are available on the IT Knowledge Base.

  • Research Ethics*:
    • A new report - Summary Report (Non-USask Applications Accepted) - was created in UnivRS to automate a manual task completed by the human ethics staff. This new report will reduce administrative overhead within the unit and ensure data is preserved in the report.
    • Training expiry dates are now available in Radiation Safety application and project templates for listed team members in UnivRS. This improvement streamlines the review process and helps ensure mandatory training is complete before issuing a nuclear substance permit.
    • New biological materials entered by a Compliance Specialist in UnivRS will now automatically default to active. This improvement simplifies the validation process and makes it easier to quickly re-use validated information throughout the system.
    • A review of e-mail addresses in UnivRS was completed to confirm that notifications are delivered to preferred addresses, especially for contributors external to USask. These notifications keep Lead Principal Investigators and their team informed of important changes to their protocols and/or permits, such as upcoming expiry dates. 
    • A bug preventing amendments from being numbered was resolved. All existing amendments were manually updated to include the correct number in UnivRS.

    • A bug preventing new biological materials from saving without error was resolved.

  • Pre-and Post-Award:
    • An updated Pre-and Post-Award Information Guide is now available for download on the USask Knowledge Base.
    • A new field - Early career researcher - was created in the project application templates to track success rates and other metrics in the OVPR. Data is collected on a go-forward basis.
    • A new section - Countries where this project, or any part of this project, is being conducted - was created in the project application templates to provide a more user-friendly interface for end-users. 
    • Hint text was added to the Institutional Priority Area and Institutional Signature Area sections in the project application and project templates to guide end-users on how to quickly locate available options.
    • An e-mail notification was developed in UnivRS to automatically notify Financial Operations staff of a fund closure request in real-time. This notification is estimated to save this unit at least 15 hours of administrative overhead per week.
    • The Research Facilitator in the School of Rehabilitation was formally added to the academic approval process to better support their internal review of grants.

  • Research Ethics*:
    • A copy of pending expiry and out of compliance notifications was added to human ethics projects in UnivRS to help the staff respond to inquiries from Principal Investigators.
    • Invoice reports were updated for human ethics staff to streamline billing processes.
    • The unit of measurement choice groups for radioisotope order limits were updated to re-align with radiation safety requirements.
    • The primary and secondary contacts listed on 20+ human ethics protocols were updated through a web service by the UnivRS team. This web service significantly reduces administrative overhead by updating information via a script rather than staff manually creating and processing amendments. 
    • In consultation with the human ethics staff, 208 legacy protocols that did not contain an expiry date in UnivRS were manually resolved. 

    • A bug preventing locations from automatically populating a biosafety amendment was resolved. 

  • Curriculum Vitae (CV):
    • A new self-led CV training course is available for faculty and staff to learn the CV software in UnivRS. This self-led course allows end-users to learn at their own pace and target desired parts of the CV software. Individuals can enroll in this course or the instructor-led course through the ICT Training and Development website.  -
  • Information guides, quick sheets and training videos were moved to the USask Knowledge Base. Please visit the USask Knowledge Base to find how-to articles for using UnivRS.
  • Curriculum Vitae (CV):
    • The Researcher role was granted edit permissions to the Contributor field in the project application and project templates in UnivRS. This edit access will allow individuals to list all contributors on a project application or project for CV purposes.

  • Pre-and Post-Award:
    • A bug preventing Special Instructions from being included in fund request notifications to Financial Reporting was resolved.

  • Research Ethics*:
    • A new field - E-mail - was added to the project members tab in the compliance project templates to make it easier for the Research Excellence and Innovation staff to locate contact information.
    • Functionality that allowed students to be added or removed as part of a human ethics renewal was removed as per business specifications. The ability to add or remove students is expected to be handled via an amendment.
    • Added a new field - Assigned specialist - to human ethics review templates to better manage workloads and identify contact persons in Research Excellence and Innovation.
    • A new field - Exempt Type - was added to human ethics review templates to identify why a submission was exempt for future reference.
    • Added a new field - Date of denial - to the human ethics review template to document when a submission was denied. This date is automatically calculated when the workflow status is updated by the Compliance Specialist role.
    • Expanded the workflow permission for the Compliance Specialist to archive biological materials that can no longer be used on campus.
    • Expanded the filter options for the Compliance Specialist, Compliance Coordinator and Chair roles in UnivRS to quickly locate reviews related to human ethics submissions.
  • Curriculum Vitae (CV):
    • Contributors listed on a given record can now assign entered Annotations to their CV. This improvement provides flexibility to the end user in cases where more than one contributor is listed.
    • Edit permissions for the Unit Administrator was expanded to allow the Contributor list to be updated in the Project (post-1998) templates.
    • New events entered into UnivRS will now default to the For Validation workflow status. This change will prevent duplicates from being added to UnivRS.
    • Hint text was added to all CV-related templates in UnivRS to remind end users of a validation service offered by the UnivRS team. This service involves validating all CV-related records via a script to significantly reduce time spent by an end user updating each record in the system.
    • CV-related records set to Discarded will no longer appear in the list page for the Researcher and Unit Administrator role. This change keeps the list page clean and avoids unnecessary filtering in the system.

  • Pre-and Post-Award:
    • Created a new workflow status in the project application templates called Invited. The Invited workflow status is intended to capture information related to multi-stage application processes, where the first stage contains no funding if successful.
    • Create permissions for the RSO Specialist role was expanded to allow new Organisations and Agency Programs to be created when needed.
    • Additional filter options were provided to the Finance and Fundsetter roles to search by Institutional Signature Area and Institutional Priority Area in UnivRS.

  • Research Ethics*:
    • Team members listed in ethics protocols or permits will now be automatically alphabetized by the system when saved. This change will make it easier for end users to quickly locate individuals in a given record.
    • The Post Approval tab in the Compliance Project templates now displays the status of the record in the short description. This change saves the end user time by having information readily available on the screen.
    • The Human Ethics - Biomedical Vice-Chair is now automatically assigned to respective biomedical amendment submissions in UnivRS. This change reduces administrative overhead and streamlines the review process in Research Excellence and Innovation.
    • Edit permissions for the Compliance Specialist was expanded to allow the Meeting date to be updated regardless of the workflow status in UnivRS.
  • Curriculum Vitae (CV):

    • A new field - Contributor List - was added to the Projects (pre-1998) templates to allow individuals to list all contributors on a project application or project for CV purposes.


  • Pre-and Post-Award:
    • The filter options were expanded for the RSO Approval Coordinator and the RSO Specialist roles to allow the Application ID and the short descriptions in the list pages in UnivRS to be searched.
    • The short descriptions displayed in project application, projects, amendments and academic approval list pages were expanded to make it easier for end users to quickly find information about the record.

  • Research Ethics*:
    • With the Research Excellence and Innovation staff, the 2019/20 annual report for the Research Scholarly and Artistic Works (RSAW) committee was compiled to share intake and processing metrics about human ethics protocols.
    • The Things to do was expanded for the Chair role to quickly identify human ethics submissions that were resubmitted for review.
    • The short description displayed in the compliance project list pages was expanded to include the original Approval date and the Expiry date for each record.
    • The Certificate of Approval and Certificate of Re-Approval was updated to reference current TPCS documents and effective approval dates.
    • A new field - Specialist comments - was added to the review templates to allow Compliance Specialists to share high level notes with the Chair role. Any entered comments are displayed on the list page and make it easier for the Chairs and Vice-Chair role to manage their workload.
    • The link displayed in the UnivRS Reminder: Compliance Record Expiring was updated to redirect end users to a new Knowledge Base article.
  • Curriculum Vitae (CV):

    • Several fields were changed from mandatory to optional to make it easier for end users to create new Journals in UnivRS (i.e., Publisher, Country and ISSN).


  • Research Ethics*:
    • A new notification was created to remind Lead Principal Investigators to renew their active biosafety permits. This notification included a copy of their current permit for review.
    • A new field - Current protocol version date - was added to the Biomedical - Prospective renewal template to align with updated business requirements.
    • Functionality was added to report protocol deviations associated with approved human ethics behavioural templates.
  • Curriculum Vitae (CV):

    • On May 22nd, the UnivRS team migrated additional data stored in CVMS to UnivRS to record projects awarded before 1998. These projects pre-dated the legacy system in the Research Services and Ethics Office and needed to be manually cross-compared with data already stored in UnivRS to avoid duplicate records. From the UnivRS dashboard, this migrated data is accessible under the Projects left-hand menu in the Projects (pre-1998 or before USask employment) list page.


  • Research Ethics*:
    • A new notification was created to remind Lead Principal Investigators to renew their active biosafety permits. This notification included a copy of their current permit for review.
    • A new field - Current protocol version date - was added to the Biomedical - Prospective renewal template to align with updated business requirements.
    • Functionality was added to report protocol deviations associated with approved human ethics behavioural templates.
  • Curriculum Vitae (CV):
    • Physical file numbers used internally by Research Services and Ethics (RSEO) staff have been removed from project application and project records migrated from the RSEO legacy database. Physical file numbers will no longer surface on a USask Standardized CV, Form 1 or Form 2 generated by UnivRS.

    • An accreditation report was created in UnivRS to ensure the College of Medicine and College of Nursing could quickly generate information similar to their retired CVMS system.

    • An annotated CV has been released in UnivRS to include comments related to their achievements and accomplishments. These comments were also added to the draft version of the USask Standardized CV.
    • Each CV-related record now displays where the item will appear in the USask Standardized CV when saved. End users can also search for all items in a given section to quickly identify and update respective records in UnivRS.
    • Hyperlinks to each CV-related record is now available in the USask Standardized CV, Form 1 and Form 2 to make it easier to find and update the information in UnivRS.
    • The Assessment and Review Activity template was split into two templates to make it easier to enter information. The two templates are called: Journal and Conference Reviews, and Assessment and Organizational Reviews.
  • Curriculum Vitae (CV):

    • On February 28th, the UnivRS team migrated data stored in CVMS to UnivRS.  CVMS is the in-house CV system used by the Colleges of Medicine and Nursing for promotion, tenure and accreditation purposes. This data migration was the last stage of the CV Management Module and UnivRS is now the largest system for CV data at the University of Saskatchewan. Training sessions and instructions on how to review and validate your CV are available on the USask Knowledge Base.


*The research ethics software was released to USask staff in Research Excellence and Innovation and in Safety Resources. All faculty and staff should continue to submit their human ethics, animal ethics, biosafety, cannabis safety and radiation safety forms to the respective unit via e-mail.  Additional information is available on the Research Excellence and Innovation website and Safety Resources website.


Need technical assistance? Contact UnivRS Support

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