購買或建造您的 RIMS

Prepare for the AI-native era of research

This is a pivotal moment for any research institution making decisions about its future information infrastructure. Across higher education, AI adoption is moving from pilot mode to institutional operating assumption – and the organizations that will benefit most have already solved the prerequisite problem: clean, structured and continuously maintained data. A Research Information Management System (RIMS) – sometimes called a Current Research Information System (CRIS) – is the foundation that determines how successfully many academic AI systems will perform.

The decision to buy or build a RIMS is, therefore, more important than ever. Choose well and your institution can enter the AI-native era of research administration with infrastructure that grows in value. Delay, or build a system that cannot meet new integration and data quality demands, and you could spend years catching up.

The background of your decision

The buy-or-build decision should be seen in the context of four converging forces that are reshaping the modern research management landscape:

• The emergence of AI as an institutional operating expectation – As noted, universities have begun building their own internal AI systems. This helps control risks, reduce dependency on external vendors and bring much-needed enterprise-level coordination. However, AI performance largely depends on data quality – a problem for the many institutions that suffer from data silos and outdated, fragmented infrastructure.

• Compliance wave – A growing compliance wave (including the US NIH immediate open access requirementopens in new tab/window in force since July 2025) has turned funder mandate management into an increasingly complex problem that traditional workarounds such as spreadsheets cannot reliably solve.

• Rankings competition – Intensifying global university rankings competition is increasing the importance of native bibliometric integration in institutional systems. Factors like the rise of Asian and Middle Eastern institutions and the impact of national excellence initiatives are making it harder to keep pace, but even minor improvements can result in significant positional shifts.

• Researcher mobility - A relocation of research talent is underway, creating specific and underappreciated infrastructure demands. This is driven by geopolitical shifts, international funding competition and the search for specialized skills, as well as changes in government budget priorities that have resulted in diminished public funding in countries such as the US, UK, Japan, France, Australia and Sweden.

研究亮點

與自己動手做 (DIY) 解決方案相比，使用 Pure 顯示出顯著的總體擁有成本 (TCO) 優勢：

註：小型機構：≤ 200 位活躍研究人員。 大型機構：≥3000 名活躍研究人員。

* 內部軟體開發的資料變化太大，無法包含在內。 實際 TCO 會更高。 使用 RIMS TCO 計算器使用自訂本地估算進行比較。

Pure 比 DIY 提供 70% 的附加價值

您可以進一步降低 RIMS 解決方案的總擁有成本

根據對採用 DIY 和 Pure 解決方案的大學進行的研究，參與者遵循以下建議，使用 Pure 將總體擁有成本降低了高達 50%：

• 購買而不是建造

• 在雲端中託管

• 建置前做好準備

• 分階段導入和發布

• 簡化升級流程

• 應用其他機構的最佳範例

The Buy Option: Faster rollouts, tested features, predictable costs

Commercial RIMS excel where a faster implementation process is a priority and institutions value system innovation and alignment with industry-standard practices. The best of these products are already tested and validated and generally offer predictable subscription fees. By contrast, custom-built systems can be riskier because of their uniqueness and often entail significant, variable maintenance costs. Vendor systems are also typically strong in areas where external connectivity is required – such as showcasing, collaboration and funder liaison – without compromising security.

In 2026, Elsevier surveyed users of its Pure RIMS across seven global regions: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East/Gulf, Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The survey found that no respondent shifted toward a build approach after adopting Pure. Median administrative time savings were 20%, although the more durable impact lies in the way a RIMS like Pure redirects institutional capacity from system maintenance to system management. For rising institutions in the Gulf, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific, the RIMS is not just an efficiency tool — it is a window into the global research landscape; at Manipal Academy in India, 70–75% of incoming PhD fellows report discovering their department through the Pure portal before joining.

The Hybrid Option: The value of supplementary builds

Commercial RIMS platforms differ significantly in how deeply they cover research grants administration, from basic award tracking through full pre- and post-award compliance workflows. Institutions with complex federal or multi-funder requirements should evaluate this capability specifically: the grants landscape is too nationally specific for any platform to cover in full, and hybrid architectures (commercial RIMS + supplementary internal tools for specific gaps) are common even among satisfied users.

A final word

For most institutions, the case for buying a proven RIMS has never been stronger, while the conditions under which building is justified have become significantly narrower over the last five years.

Although many university IT departments are now focused primarily on developing sovereign AI systems, building a research information database is still achievable. However, building and maintaining the integration ecosystem that makes such a database credible, compliant and connected – supporting the enterprise-level adoption of native AI – is not.

Discover more about RIMS

The following resources provide extended coverage of RIMS evaluation, acquisition and implementation, including:

• Why you need a Research Information Management System (Elsevier)

• What are Research Information Management Systemsopens in new tab/window (Association of College and Research Libraries)

• Procuring a research management systemopens in new tab/window (JISC)

• Why does one need a CRIS?opens in new tab/window (euroCRIS)

• How to decide if your institution is ready for a RIMS

You can explore Elsevier’s RIMS, Pure, here.