Summary
University Intelligence is your institution's research intelligence dashboard. It brings faculty activity, publications, peer comparisons, and collaboration networks into one place, so you can see what changed this week and decide who to contact.
Everything is organized into two tabs. Faculty Engagement is where you act on faculty work: who to reach out to today, recent publications, and the full roster. Research Intelligence is where you see your institution's position: top-line indicators, ranked peer comparisons, your topic portfolio, and collaboration networks.
When to use
Open University Intelligence when you want to:
start your week by seeing which faculty are worth contacting now
find recent publications from your institution in a specific time window
check how your institution's research output compares against a peer set
look up a faculty member's recent work before a meeting or an event
understand which research topics your institution is concentrated in
Before you begin
University Intelligence must be enabled for your workspace. If you don't see it in the sidebar, it hasn't been switched on for your workspace yet. Contact your FirstIgnite representative to have it enabled.
You must be signed in. University Intelligence shows no data to a signed-out visitor.
Your institution must be identified. The first time anyone in your organization opens University Intelligence, you're asked to choose which institution the dashboard should be built around. This is a one-time step for the whole organization, and it's covered in step 1 below.
Have your institution's ROR ID ready only if your institution is small, very new, or outside the main research directory. ROR is the Research Organization Registry, a public directory of research institutions, and most customers never need it because their institution is found by name.
Step-by-step instructions
1. Identify your institution.
The first time University Intelligence opens for your organization, a welcome dialog appears over the dashboard titled Let's find your institution. It can't be dismissed, because the dashboard has nothing to show until an institution is chosen.
On the Search directory tab, start typing your institution's name and select it from the results. The search covers a global research directory of more than 210,000 institutions. Then select Confirm.
Result: The dialog closes and the dashboard begins loading your institution's data. This choice is saved for your whole organization, so colleagues won't be asked again.
2. If your institution is not in the directory, enter a ROR ID instead.
Select the Enter ROR ID tab. Fill in Institution name and ROR ID, then select Save & continue. The ROR ID must be a complete address in the form https://ror.org/0a1b2c3d4. You can look yours up at ror.org.
Result: Your institution is saved and the dashboard loads. If the address is incomplete, the dialog tells you so and the save button stays unavailable until you correct it.
3. Wait for the first load to finish.
The very first time you open University Intelligence, a loading screen walks through what's being prepared: indexing publications, building your peer set, mapping faculty and topics, and finding industry signals and patents.
Result: The loading screen clears itself once your data is ready, and you land on the dashboard. Later visits are much faster; you won't see this screen every time.
4. Set the time window.
In the filter row, open the date range control and choose one of Last 28 days, Last 3 months, Last 6 months, Last 12 months, or Last 3 years. New accounts start on Last 6 months.
Result: Every section on the page reloads for the window you picked. A slim indicator appears at the top while the new numbers load.
5. Choose who you're compared against, and what you're looking at.
The filter row holds three more controls:
Institution: switch the dashboard to look at any institution in the directory, not only your own. Useful for looking at a peer directly.
Peer set: the group of institutions you're ranked against. New accounts start on R1 Public, a preset of large public research universities in the US. Select the chip to open the editor and choose your own comparison group.
Topic scope: narrow the whole dashboard to specific research topics or domains. Select the chip, search your institution's topics, choose the ones you care about, then select Apply. You can also select Save as my default so the scope is there next time.
Result: Each change reloads the affected sections. When a topic scope is active, a strip near the top of the page states exactly what's in scope and gives you one click to clear it.
6. Move between the two tabs.
Select Faculty Engagement or Research Intelligence in the tab row.
Result: The new tab opens with all of your filters still applied. You don't need to set your institution, window, peer set, or topic scope again.
7. Share the exact view you're looking at.
Copy the address from your browser and send it to a colleague.
Result: Your filters travel in the address, so your colleague opens the same institution, window, peer set, and topic scope you were looking at. This works whether you're using University Intelligence on its own or inside the main FirstIgnite app.
Tips
Your filters follow you between visits. University Intelligence remembers your last institution, window, peer set, and topic scope in your browser, so closing the tab and coming back doesn't reset you to defaults.
A shared link always wins. If a colleague sends you a University Intelligence link, its filters take priority over your remembered ones, so you see exactly what they saw.
Clearing a filter clears it for good. Once you clear a filter, it stops coming back on your next visit.
Changing a filter steps you out of a saved view. Saved views live at the bottom of the Faculty Engagement tab and apply a whole filter set at once. As soon as you adjust an individual filter, you've moved away from that view, and the dashboard stops claiming you're still in it.
The Patents lens is one click away. It isn't in the tab row. Open Research Intelligence and use the Patents card to see your institution's patents; there's a back button to return.
The Outreach log is reachable from the page header. On Faculty Engagement, the Outreach chip in the header takes you there and shows how many drafts are waiting.
Common issues
"We couldn't automatically find your institution."
This banner means your organization hasn't been matched to an institution yet. Select Find your institution and complete step 1 above. Until you do, the dashboard can't show your data.
Your institution is not in the directory.
Use the Enter ROR ID tab, described in step 2. This covers institutions that are registered with ROR but not yet in the main research directory, typically smaller, newer, or non-US institutions.
You would rather continue without choosing an institution.
You can continue with limited features. Sections that need an institution to compare or rank against will stay empty until one is chosen. You can complete the choice later from the institution control in the filter row.
The page sits on "Loading University Intelligence…"
University Intelligence waits for your organization's institution setting before drawing anything, so a slow connection can hold this message briefly. If it doesn't clear, reload the page. If it still doesn't clear, contact support.
University Intelligence is not in the sidebar.
It hasn't been enabled for your workspace. Contact your FirstIgnite representative.
A tab you used before is gone.
University Intelligence was consolidated into two tabs. The old Faculty tab is now part of Faculty Engagement, and the old Network tab is now part of Research Intelligence. Old bookmarks still work and send you to the right place.
Frequently asked questions
Does choosing an institution affect my colleagues?
Yes. The institution is set once for your whole organization, so everyone sees the same institution's dashboard. Changing the institution control in the filter row only changes your own view for that session; it doesn't change the organization's setting.
Can I look at an institution that is not mine?
Yes. Use the institution control in the filter row to point the dashboard at any institution in the directory. Your organization's own setting is unchanged.
Why don't I see research funding amounts?
Funding dollar figures are currently unavailable across University Intelligence while the underlying data is reviewed for accuracy. The dashboard relies on publications, citations, patents, and faculty activity instead. Active funding opportunities aren't affected by this.
How current is the data?
A Live indicator sits in the top bar. Publication data for the current calendar year is always partial, because only the months indexed so far are counted. Where that matters, such as rank movement and multi-year trajectory charts, the dashboard says so directly underneath the chart.
What does the peer set actually control?
It's the group behind every comparison, rank, and percentile on the Research Intelligence tab. Changing it changes where your institution places. Small peer sets move in large steps, so a rank change in a small set means less than the same change in a large one.
Is there anything I need to install?
No. University Intelligence runs in your browser as part of FirstIgnite.