SSO for IRMA using AAF Rapid IdP

31 January 2026

University Office recently completed a single sign-on (SSO) implementation for IRMA in collaboration with the Australian Access Federation (AAF), enabling an Australian university to authenticate users securely via AAF’s Rapid Identity Provider (Rapid IdP). Rapid IdP provides a streamlined pathway for institutions to connect their existing identity platform (e.g. OKTA or Entra ID) to federation-enabled services, reducing complexity and accelerating go-live.

This implementation ensures IRMA only permits access for authenticated users by relying on secure SAML assertions issued after successful sign-in. SAML assertions are digitally signed and exchanged in a controlled, standards-based flow, enabling IRMA to validate that a user has been authenticated by the university’s identity system before granting access. This approach strengthens security controls by ensuring authentication is performed centrally, consistently, and in line with institutional identity policies.

Key Security and Operational Benefits

Authenticated Access: IRMA login is gated by a validated SAML authentication outcome, preventing unauthenticated access attempts.

Joiner/Leaver Controls: New staff gain access based on central identity enablement and role assignment, while staff who cease employment can have access revoked immediately through standard offboarding processes—supporting timely, consistent deprovisioning.

Reduced Administration: Centralised authentication reduces reliance on manual credential processes and simplifies user access management.

Assurance and Compliance: Authentication policies including MFA enforced through the institution’s identity platform and inherited by IRMA access workflows.

University Office continues to support Australian universities and sector partners to implement secure, standards-based authentication patterns that reduce risk and improve user experience while maintaining strong governance over access as staff join, move roles, or leave an institution.

If you would like information relating to our Integrated Research Management Application (IRMA), please email sales@universityoffice.com.au.

Learn more:
Australian Access Federation (AAF)
Rapid IdP

SCU Launch NextGen Animal Ethics

19 August 2025

Southern Cross University has successfully gone live with the new IRMA NextGen Animal Ethics coversheets, a significant advancement in streamlining animal ethics application and management processes. Introducing a new level of automation and collaboration to fundamentally transform how animal ethics submissions are handled.

NextGen Coversheets support a wide array of ethics processes including:
- New applications and variations
- Notifications of activities proposed under other authority
- Submission and revision of investigator competencies
- Management of standard operating procedures
- Annual progress, animal usage, adverse event, and final closure reporting

Key Features and Benefits

Collaborative submissions: Multiple researchers and support staff can access and work on a single application.

Customisable Coversheet Fields: Design, modify, or remove fields to precisely match institution's specific requirements for ethics data collection and compliance.

Smart, Dynamic Logic: Conditional logic to show or hide fields based on user responses, simplifying the application process to ensure investigators only see what's relevant to their submission.

Standardised Templates: Use predefined templates for different types of ethics submissions, such as new applications, variations, or annual reports, to ensure consistency and speed up the creation process.

Seamless System Integration: Integrate with other internal systems to pre-populate researcher data and send out information to support automated workflows, eliminating redundant data entry and ensuring a smooth process.

Role-Based Access: Assign different views and permissions to specific user roles—like primary investigators, administrative staff, or committee members—so everyone sees only the information relevant to their part of the process.

Enhanced Review and Documentation: Reviewers have the ability to provide annotated feedback against responses to individual questions directly within the coversheet. This targeted feedback streamlines the revision process for investigators. Additionally, responses to individual questions can reference and be linked to any attached supporting document, ensuring all relevant information is easily accessible and verifiable.

Automated IRMA (AI) workflows: Status driven workflows can be easily created to support different workflow requirements for different coversheets, with the ability to send workflows to a wide range of recipients including:
- All linked investigators
- Primary investigator
- Department or centralized roles
- Committees
- Any other required email recipient

This comprehensive functionality ensures that Southern Cross University's animal ethics processes benefit from improved automation, compliance, and transparency.

Explore the power of IRMA coversheets to create tailored solutions that meet your institution's ethics and research management needs. If you would like information relating to our Integrated Research Management Application (IRMA), please email sales@universityoffice.com.au.

NextGen HDR Dashboard

13 May 2025

University Office has released a new NextGen HDR Candidature Dashboard to help HDR candidates, supervisors and graduate research administration roles more easily and effectively manage candidature requirements and milestone obligations.

Candidates can quickly see critical candidature details, supervisor information, and milestones, with the powerful new timeline component providing IRMA users with an enhanced way to view time sequenced events relating to any IRMA record type.

The new timeline component is interactive, allowing users to open items in new browser sessions as shown in the example below where a HDR candidature completes required annual report questions and uploads supporting documentation.

University Office plan to incorporate the new timeline component into other IRMA dashboards and NextGen interfaces including existing Funding and Research Outputs dashboards.

IRMA NextGen continues to evolve and support Universities to deliver cutting-edge tools that enhance research excellence. If you would like information relating to our Integrated Research Management Application (IRMA), please email sales@universityoffice.com.au.

NextGen Costing & Pricing

17 January 2025

University Office is excited to announce the launch of enhanced Costing & Pricing functionality, empowering researchers and administrative staff with a streamlined and intuitive platform to support their work.

Building on the existing UX1 capabilities, all prior functionality has been seamlessly migrated into IRMA NextGen. This ensures users can access familiar tools while benefiting from an updated design and significant performance improvements. The enhanced interface fosters greater efficiency and accuracy, supporting our commitment to providing world-class research management solutions.

IRMA NextGen introduces a range of value-adding features, including more sophisticated pricing models, budget limits, and streamlined workflows. These tools aim to reduce administrative overhead and provide researchers with more time to focus on innovation and discovery. This has been supported by feedback which highlighted the platform’s user-friendly design and expanded capabilities.

IRMA NextGen continues to evolve and support Universities to deliver cutting-edge tools that enhance research excellence. If you would like information relating to our Integrated Research Management Application (IRMA), please email sales@universityoffice.com.au.