What you need to know about reporting to Researchfish

Illustration of the seabed. Three yellow angle fish swim around a locked, wooden treasure chest.
  "chest-805006_1280" by Larisa Koshkina.

Here we explain the importance of reporting your research outcomes to Researchfish, how it can impact future research funding, and what you can do to get ahead and meet the requirements of your research funder for the forthcoming annual return.

Who needs to report to Researchfish?

Principal Investigators who hold an award from a funder who uses Researchfish must report on the outcomes, outputs and impact of their research annually.  Funders gather this information from Researchfish to measure the pathways to impact of research they have funded.

Importance of reporting to Researchfish

Research funders will want to know about activities undertaken at all stages of the research project.  Outcomes and outputs data will be analysed to identify impact, which will be reported to internal and external stakeholders, and supports University of Kent researchers obtaining future funding.

Some funders will impose sanctions, where their standard terms and conditions for Researchfish reporting are not met by award holders, which could prevent Principal Investigators from applying for future funding.

Registering with Researchfish

Funders will email the Principal Investigator directly about joining ResearchFish with a link to create an account and associate it with the award.

When to add research outcomes to Researchfish

Outcomes can be recorded at any time throughout the year but the annual fixed submission period varies according to each funder.  Add your research outcomes and impact to Researchfish throughout the year to make submitting your annual return quick and simple.

Submitting your Researchfish return

These steps will ensure you are complying with funder requirements:

  1. The funder will email each Principal Investigator to inform them of forthcoming submission periods.
  2. During the submission period each Principal Investigator must login to Researchfish and, when all information is complete, press the Submit button.
  3. If there are no research outcomes to report, login and add “not applicable this year”, for all mandatory questions required by funders on each grant.
  4. Once complete press Submit within the submission period.
  5. Gathered data are made available via Gateway to Research.

Get help and support

Contact the Office for Scholarly Communication who can answer your questions about Researchfish.

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