ListEdTech has released its fourth annual Higher Education Grant Systems Report, providing an updated overview of the state of Grant Management systems used by higher education institutions for 2023. Built using data compiled from over 1,000 North American higher education institutions, the report aims to present a fact-driven overview of Grant Management System use, trends, and market developments since the previous report’s release in July 2022.
Background
In establishing the scope of this year’s report, the authors specify that their analysis covers Grantee systems. Distinct from Financial ERP or Grant Accounting Modules (used to track grant expenditures within the context of an institution’s financials) and Grantor systems (Grant Management Systems used by the sponsors of a grant), Grantee systems are used by grant recipients to manage the following:
- Compliance systems used for risk management in areas of Human (IRB), Animal (IACUC), and Financial Conflicts of Interest (COI) compliance
- Facilities research systems used to manage the resources and infrastructure covered (at least partially) by the research grant
- Funding opportunity systems used to search for private and public funding opportunities
- Sponsored project management systems used as a primary system of record for conducting and managing research and grant proposals through their full lifecycle
- Technology transfer systems used to manage intellectual property and commercialization that arises from sponsored research
Current Market
The report outlines eRA software market leaders by the percentage of clients based on unique higher education institutions (left graph) and as a percentage of the total student enrollment within each client institution (right graph). Similar to the 2022 report, Cayuse remains the market leader in both cases, followed by Kuali and Huron.
Unlike the 2022 report, the 2023 report does not include homegrown systems and focuses solely on vendor solutions. However, the authors estimate that homegrown systems currently represent about 25% of the market.
When viewed in the context of the past decade’s market trends, Cayuse again remains the overall market leader, followed by Kuali, Huron, Research Dataware, and Inteum. Together, these five vendors represent 65% of the overall market.
Within these rankings, the report further breaks down the data by different sectors, noting that most implementations occur within the public 4-year or above sector (63%) and private not-for-profit 4-year or above sector (26%). In the larger public 4-year or above sector, Cayuse retains the highest share of the market at 9% of implementations.
Market Forecast
The 2023 report includes a market saturation projection through 2027 for the three main types of Grant Management Systems (Grantee systems, Grantor systems, and Other systems including Financial ERP). As noted in the report’s introduction, Grantee Research systems remain the most commonly implemented Grant Management Systems – a trend projected to continue over the next four years.
While all three product sets are expected to continue growing in saturation over the coming years, the report indicates that growth rates will differ between product sets. Grantee systems are anticipated to grow faster than the others, followed by Grantor systems and Other systems, which are expected to grow at a much slower rate.
Conclusion
With higher education leaders pressured to expand their research capacity and capability despite reduced funding, many will continue to find value in Grant Management Systems capable of handling more research without placing an undue burden on faculty or finances. As shown in Figure 2, Cayuse remains the most widely adopted provider since becoming the industry leader in 2015. This trend is expected to continue as Cayuse builds on its global base of over 650 customers in higher education, healthcare, and for-profit research.
To read the full 2023 ListEdTech report, download your free copy from https://cayuse.com/listedtech/
