Research administration teams work with information spread across systems, files, and processes. Research Data Spring is one place to start making sense of it.
RDS connects people, processes, and trusted information to help teams across Clemson’s colleges and departments make sense of their data, find approved guidance, and spend less time searching or repeating administrative work—leaving more time for work that supports research. Explore RDS dashboards, knowledge services, and workflows. The RDS AI assistant, built with ChatGPT, is in development. Each service follows its approved access and information-governance requirements.
How RDS can help
Choose a service area to see what is available now and what is still taking shape.
Service status:Available nowIn developmentFuture direction
Enterprise Analytics
Understand your information
Explore research administration dashboards and reports, currently delivered through Power BI. RDS organizes prepared data into shared measures so reports can use consistent definitions.
How this works
RDS prepares and routes data from supported sources through source-specific feeds. A shared Power BI semantic model holds the relationships, measures, and definitions used by reports and selected workflows.
Available nowPower BI dashboards and reports for approved data.
Future directionExplore shared measures and patterns across participating colleges and departments when data, common definitions, and access allow.
Enterprise Knowledge
Find trusted information
RDS prepares selected, approved SharePoint content for its retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) service, which finds relevant passages and sources to support AI responses. The RDS AI assistant that will use this service is in development. SharePoint search is also available for files you have permission to view.
How this works
RAG stands for retrieval-augmented generation. RDS prepares approved documents and metadata for retrieval. When a user asks a question, the retrieval service finds relevant passages and source references from its approved index. Once the assistant connection is ready, ChatGPT can use that material to reason over the sources and formulate a grounded answer with citations. The assistant is still in development; this process does not search arbitrary SharePoint files or personal computer folders.
In developmentThe RDS AI assistant, built with ChatGPT, is being developed to let people ask questions about selected, approved RDS knowledge and see source citations. It is not generally available yet.
Future directionExpand searchable sources as owners approve content and access.
Enterprise Automation
Spend less time moving information by hand
For supported sources, RDS can receive scheduled data files, prepare and route them to an approved location for reporting, and support selected workflows that use trusted Power BI information.
How this works
Each source follows its own approved connection and schedule. Some feeds prepare and route files to a shared location; Power BI can refresh models from that data. Selected workflows can then use information from published models.
Available nowNightly file routing and preparation for supported sources, plus selected business workflows using published data.
Future directionExplore alerts when approved data meets a defined condition or a workflow event needs attention, routing a notification to the appropriate people. AI agents could also help monitor approved feedback for recurring themes and sentiment, then surface reviewed insights to inform a process. Triggers, recipients, and any automated steps would be agreed for each use case, with appropriate human oversight.
Enterprise Reasoning
Get help grounded in approved information
The RDS AI assistant is being developed with ChatGPT to connect to approved services and reason over the information they return, helping people make sense of results and sources.
How this works
RDS services provide approved information, shared analytics, and workflows; their owners continue to manage the content and access. The ChatGPT-based RDS assistant is in development as a conversational way to reach those services and reason over their results. A Microsoft Teams agent can also connect to the RDS DOR AI Gateway through MCP. The information available in each experience depends on approved service connections.
In developmentThe AI assistant and its connections to approved knowledge and analytics services are being developed and validated. It is not generally available yet.
Future directionAs RDS evolves, explore AI capabilities—including purpose-built applications—that connect approved information and support appropriate workflows. Ideas will be shaped by user needs, data readiness, governance, and demonstrated value.
Built around your needs. One request may use several RDS services. A future dashboard option, for example, could open the RDS AI assistant so someone can ask about a chart or measure. Any connection would use approved context and respect information owners and access rules.
Have a need or idea that is not listed? Talk with ERA about current services, work in development, or future possibilities.