Researchfish 2026 reporting changes removed four question sections — Awards and Recognition, Use of Facilities and Resources, Engagement Activities, and Public and Patient Involvement — from UK Research and Innovation’s annual outcomes submission, paused new studentship data collection, and introduced a replacement “Public Engagement and Involvement” question. The changes apply from the 2026 reporting period onwards, and they land eighteen months before Elsevier’s confirmed closure of the entire Researchfish platform on 31 July 2027.
Researchfish is the web-based outcome-reporting platform that UKRI, NIHR and more than 90 other UK research funders have used since 2014 to collect publications, outcomes and impact data from grant holders on a shared, cross-funder basis. It began as a Medical Research Council initiative in 2009 and was acquired by Elsevier in 2022.
Contents
- What changed in Researchfish reporting for 2026
- Which sections UKRI removed, and what replaced them
- Why Researchfish is shutting down in 2027
- What happens to studentship data and ongoing submissions
- What replaces Researchfish, and what institutions should do now
- Frequently asked questions
- Looking ahead
What changed in Researchfish reporting for 2026
UKRI began a review of both the Researchfish common question set and its own additional funder questions in 2025, aiming to cut unnecessary reporting burden without losing data quality. The resulting changes took effect for the 2026 submission period, which ran from 2 February to 12 March 2026, according to UKRI’s “Reporting your project’s outcomes” guidance.
Researchers no longer need to complete four sections that previously applied to most awards. UKRI also strengthened the Intellectual Property and Licensing section to capture a wider range of IP rights, and refined the scope of the Spinouts section so it applies more precisely. These are not cosmetic tweaks — dropping four full question sections materially shortens the time grant holders spend each spring completing an annual submission that many institutions have long flagged as disproportionate to its analytical value.
Which sections UKRI removed, and what replaced them
The table below sets out exactly what changed, based on UKRI’s published “What you need to report” page, last updated 7 May 2026.
| Section | 2025 and earlier | 2026 reporting period |
|---|---|---|
| Awards and Recognition | Required for eligible awards | Removed |
| Use of Facilities and Resources | Required for eligible awards | Removed |
| Engagement Activities | Required for eligible awards | Removed; replaced by new funder question |
| Public and Patient Involvement | Required for eligible awards | Removed, except for some specific co-funded schemes |
| Public Engagement and Involvement | Did not exist | New additional funder question introduced |
| Intellectual Property and Licensing | Narrower IP categories | Widened to capture more IP rights |
| Spinouts | Broader scope | Scope refined and tightened |
The net effect is consolidation: rather than separate boxes for facilities use, awards, engagement and PPI, most of that reporting now sits inside the single new Public Engagement and Involvement question, unless a specific co-funded scheme still requires the older PPI format.
Why Researchfish is shutting down in 2027
Researchfish shutdown 2027 refers to Elsevier’s confirmed decision to close the platform entirely on 31 July 2027. The announcement, made in late January 2026 and reported by Times Higher Education and Research Professional News, means the tool that has tracked outcomes for UKRI, NIHR, the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK and dozens of other funders will cease to exist, not merely change ownership.
The timing is notable. In 2024, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology had explicitly urged UKRI to consider alternatives to Researchfish from 2025 onwards. UKRI nonetheless ran a tender, found no viable replacement, and renewed its Researchfish contract roughly six months before Elsevier announced the closure, according to reporting by the LSE Impact Blog. Elsevier acquired Researchfish in 2022; by 2026 the company judged it a niche UK-focused product overshadowed by larger assets such as Scopus and SciVal.
- Researchfish began as a Medical Research Council pilot in 2009 and was rolled out across all UK Research Councils in 2014.
- Elsevier has stated it will let customers export and retain their data before the platform is decommissioned.
- Funders and institutions have from now until 31 July 2027 — roughly eighteen months from the announcement — to establish a replacement.
What happens to studentship data and ongoing submissions
For the 2026 submission period, UKRI is pausing the collection of studentship data and will not add any new students to Researchfish, as confirmed in University of Cambridge Research Services guidance drawing on UKRI instructions. Existing studentship records are not being deleted, but the pipeline that previously registered new UKRI-funded students into the platform has stopped.
This does not remove the underlying reporting obligation for other award types. Grant holders must still confirm that their Researchfish record is accurate and up to date every year an award is active, and — as Cancer Research UK’s guidance states — for funders such as CRUK that requirement continues for three years after an award ends. Institutions should treat the studentship pause as a scoping change, not a signal that outcome reporting generally is winding down before 2027.
What replaces Researchfish, and what institutions should do now
No single UKRI-mandated successor has been named yet. Wellcome is already building its own outcome-reporting platform rather than waiting for a sector-wide solution, a move flagged in the LSE Impact Blog’s analysis of the closure. Left unmanaged, that pattern risks the exact fragmentation Researchfish was designed to prevent: a federated, report-once model in which multiple funders drew on one dataset, rather than researchers re-entering the same outputs into several incompatible systems.
The Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information, launched in 2024, calls on funders to make openness “the default” and to back community-governed research information infrastructure — a standard that any Researchfish successor will be judged against. The UK government has separately trebled funding for its Metascience Unit to £49 million, underlining the policy tension: investment in analysing research outcomes is rising just as one of the few sources of comparable, cross-funder outcome data prepares to disappear.
Research administration teams should treat 2026–27 as a transition window: export and archive existing Researchfish records before July 2027, confirm which funder-specific question sets still apply to co-funded and studentship awards, and monitor funder-by-funder announcements rather than assuming a single unified replacement will emerge before the deadline.
Frequently asked questions
Is Researchfish shutting down?
Yes. Elsevier confirmed in late January 2026 that it will close Researchfish entirely on 31 July 2027. The platform will remain fully operational and supported until that date, after which funders including UKRI and NIHR must rely on alternative systems for outcome reporting.
What is the future of Researchfish?
There is no confirmed sector-wide successor yet. Wellcome is independently building its own reporting platform, and other funders are expected to weigh similar options. Whether a shared, funder-neutral replacement emerges before July 2027 depends on coordinated action across UKRI, NIHR and charitable research funders.
What is Researchfish?
Researchfish is a web-based system, used since 2014 by UKRI and over 90 other funders, for collecting the publications, outcomes and impact data of publicly and charitably funded research. It let researchers report once while giving multiple funders access to comparable, cross-funder outcome data.
What is the Researchfish guidance for the 2026 reporting period?
UKRI’s 2026 guidance removes four question sections, pauses new studentship data entry, and adds a new Public Engagement and Involvement question. Grant holders must still confirm their record is accurate even where no new outputs exist, per UKRI’s published “What you need to report” instructions.
Looking ahead
The 2026 changes to Researchfish reporting are best read as the final adjustments to a platform already scheduled for closure, not the start of a longer redesign. With the 31 July 2027 shutdown confirmed, the substantive question for UKRI, NIHR and the wider funder community is no longer how to simplify Researchfish’s question sets but what open, community-governed infrastructure — consistent with the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information — should take its place before the deadline arrives.
For institutions building research administration capacity around outcomes reporting, standards, and post-award compliance, CASRAI’s research administration resources track how funder mandates and reporting frameworks intersect with broader research-information standards.