OmniStar Blog

We love the impact that our pioneering work in grants, ethics governance and research can deliver. We set out 15 years ago to transform lives with technology that makes a difference. That vision and purpose still underpins what we do today and is at the very heart of what we love about OmniStar. Today we are honoured to play our part in solving some of the most challenging health, social, technological, and environmental problems facing mankind. It’s been said that a moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience and we believe our Insights blog is proof of the impact we create by reimagining grants, ethics and research for a better tomorrow.

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Effective Project Management Best Practices in Grant-making

Managing resources efficiently, be it for projects or grants, is a complex task; however, when one implements best practices.

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Why is Grant Management Important?

Managing grants efficiently is critical to ensuring that the money is used appropriately and results in positive community impact. To get the most out of grant funds, they need to be managed closely.

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Why CRMs are not Grant Management Systems

CRM’s are built for a different domain requirement (than GMS). They are built for industry sectors such as Sales, Services and Marketing to manage customer relationships. Avoid making a costly mistake by trying to twist a CRM into a grant management system!

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When to Use Built-for-purpose Grants Management System

There are lots of systems that claim to be able to provide grant management capabilities. This article covers the considerations and common pitfalls when selecting other than a purpose-built grant management system.

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The Use of Research in Grant-making

Majority of grant-making organisations that aim to make a long-lasting impact and are working towards solving the real, complex community problems rely on rich, high-quality research for their decision-making.

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How to Manage Grantor Grantee Relationships

The better the quality of the grantor grantee relationship the better is the engagement in the grant management process. Find out how you can improve your relationship with your grantees.

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How to Design a Grant Program

A well-designed grant program helps you mitigate the risk associated with a poorly design grant program. Find out some of the key steps to consider when designing your grant program.

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Grant-making Best Practices

With a grants management solution built on grant-making best practices, grant managers like you, can expect improvements in several aspects of your grant-making. These include productivity improvements from more efficient grant application and assessment processes, and better alignment of your grant programs with your organisation’s objectives.

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Grants Management Platform is best for Grants Management

You would not set out today to build a bespoke FMIS; so why take on the risk & cost of a bespoke Grants development on your CRM. See why a purpose-built Grants Management System is the best choice.

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Effective Grant-making Strategies

Designing a grant program is undeniably complex and requires time and thoughtfulness. Learn about some of the important steps to consider when designing your grantmaking strategy.

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Breaking Down the Grants Management Process

Grant management is a complex and lengthy process and following a well-designed grant management process proves highly beneficial when giving out grants.

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Why is research governance important?

Conducting research in the absence of clearly defined guidelines and policies may or may not be entirely ethical and of great quality. Good research governance is essential to protect the interests of participants, researchers, funders, and other stakeholders.

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What is Ethics in Research?

Ethics in research is a discipline of philosophy that addresses the moral implications of scientific research. It is a complex topic as when ethical violations occur they result in serious and long-lasting consequences for researchers.

The New OmniStar Acquittals Feature

Software Release

The Acquittals feature is a new edition to the financial reporting process. It is a simple and straightforward procedure which our grant giving clients will find most valuable. One of the key benefits of this feature is the reduction of the administrative burden particularly when complying with the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO).

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How to grow your research program?

A close understanding of the funding landscape combined with a strategic approach can boost your chances of success of securing long-term research funding.

Ethics review in Australia

Media Release

Dr. Gordon McGurk of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) discusses the streamlined efforts that NHMRC are undertaking to streamline ethics reviews.

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Does your organisation need a Research Management System?

A researcher’s journey is longer than it appears. It demands the completion of numerous tasks. So how can research organisations simplify this journey for their researchers? Implementing an advanced research management system would be a straightforward answer to this question.

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What is a Research Management System and Why Should You Use One?

A Research Management System (RMS) is a platform that manages a research grant or contract's pre, post-award, and publication phases. When research organisations implement an efficient RMS, they increase the researcher’s efficiency and ability to collaborate.

F1 Solutions and Chrysalis, forging research advancement.

Media Release

Together, F1 Solutions and Chrysalis will provide a complete service offering that drives research excellence and innovation now and into the future.

What’s new in OmniStar 5.1.1?

Software Release

F1 Solutions is continuously improving OmniStar for clients across Australia. In version 5.1.1. we have added a number of new features to make OmniStar more intuitive and configurable.

Four OmniStar features to boost your performance

OmniStar Insights

We’re always looking for new ways to make your work life easier. Scroll down to read more about new OmniStar features that’ll free up time for you and your colleagues.

Supporting The University of Western Australia’s Research Programs

Media Release

F1 Solutions is proud to support research excellence as UWA endeavors to be world leaders in cutting edge research.

The May round up of monthly features.

OmniStar Insights

In May we spotlighted four of our favourite features to help our users efficiently manage their projects in OmniStar.

5 Features To Stay On Top of Your Projects

OmniStar Insights

Here’s a round-up of our top five favourite OmniStar features and a brief description of them we put together for you—in case you have missed them in our release notes.

F1 Solutions Joins ARMS as Platinum Corporate Partner

Media Release

The ARMS Executive is pleased to announce that Australian-based software development company, F1 Solutions has joined forces with our Society to become a Platinum Corporate Partner.

What’s new in OmniStar 5.1?

Software Release

OmniStar 5.1 brings with it a number of new features to improve existing functionality in the system, simplifying and enhancing the capabilities associated with common tasks.

OmniStar is highly configurable

OmniStar Insights

If software does not simplify your life then its not very good is it? Like the trusty swiss army knife, OmniStar has a simple fix for almost every challenge grants, ethics or research management could throw at you.

OmniStar Research selected as the future-proof Research Management System for The University of Queensland

Media Release

We are proud to announce another one of the leading Group of Eight universities, The University of Queensland (UQ), has just gone live with MyResearch powered by OmniStar Research, on 27 January 2021.

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How Technology Will Shape Research in 2021

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt workplaces all over the world, Australians have turned to health and medical researchers to help them navigate the impacts of the virus.

What’s new in OmniStar 5.0?

Software Release

OmniStar 5.0 ushers in significant improvements to existing features & user experience, in addition to introducing several new features to provide more flexibility and configurability for end users.

What’s new in OmniStar 4.9?

Software Release

From application status and version control to tracked changes and COI, OmniStar 4.9 is truly intelligent. Lift performance and get more control from end-to-end.

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Managing your ethics review panels

Managing ethics review panels can be a difficult & complex task. Add to that the need to manage the meetings, decisions and communication and the task can be complicated and time-consuming.

What’s new in OmniStar 4.8?

Software Release

OmniStar 4.8 heralds a host of updates for our end – users. Login and enjoy a new and improved external portal, as well as an updated application viewer.

ORCID Integration

OmniStar Insights

The Australasia ORCiD Consortium, launched in April 2015, to provide a national approach to adoption and integration of ORCiD. Since then, universities have been encouraging researchers to create and include their ORCiD unique identifier when applying for grants

What’s new in OmniStar 4.5?

Software Release

Major changes available in Omni 4.5 include improvements to the review process and the introduction of new features such as meetings and generic forms.

What’s new in OmniStar 4.7?

Software Release

Several important changes have been added to OmniStar 4.7, these include improved navigation, a configurable homepage, enhanced meeting functionality.

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OmniStar Ethics, the platform for REGIS

We are proud to announce that OmniEthics has been announced the platform for NSW Health’s Research Ethics and Governance Information System (REGIS).

What’s new in OmniStar 4.6?

Software Release

Huge improvements have been made to our feature stack. The most notable being the ORCiD integration, ensuring Universities and Institutions have a single source of truth for their data.

What’s new in OmniStar 4.4.1?

Software Release

Significant improvements to existing features with a number of new features that provide more flexibility and configurability for end users

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Overcoming research management challenges

Research has grown at 3.71% from 2010 to 2014. Although this is a good sign of a thriving industry, various problems come with it. In this article, we will discuss top hurdles that research administrators and managers are facing and how they can manage it.

What’s new in OmniStar 4.4?

Software Release

OmniStar 4.4, brings users increased performance and better user experience with the ability to set and forget new interactive user-friendly data migration tool interface. Users can now also schedule emails to be sent out at a specified time.

What’s new in OmniStar 4.3?

Software Release

OmniStar 4.3 includes the introduction of application track changes, data migration tools, and a new and improved external portal.

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Human Research Ethics Application

In 2016, The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia, developed a new ethics application form which completely revolutionised the way in which research data is collected in human research tests.

Why SmartForms solve so many problems!

OmniStar Insights

The rise of the digital era has seen the death of many once-loved items, think CD players, basic hand – held calculators and address books. Smartforms now bridge the gap between paper and electronic, solving the problems faced with each.

Experience OmniStar

Arrange for a demo to see OmniStar in action and speak with our expert team today about how we can help you reimagine grants, ethics and research.