Report - Understanding Institutional Demand in Research Management Software: Where to Play, What Matters and Who Matters

Why this report?

This report provides a deep-dive into the heart of what’s driving procurement for research software, where institutional pain is rising, and how the market is fracturing under political and fiscal pressure.

The landscape for research management software in higher education has changed dramatically. Funding cuts, compliance chaos, and shifting political winds are disrupting what institutions buy, who makes decisions, and how value is defined. In this environment, legacy assumptions no longer hold—and most vendors are flying blind.

We conducted extensive institutional research and competitive analysis to understand how buyer behavior is evolving, which solutions are failing, and where the next wave of opportunity lies across CRIS, RAS, RE, FAR, and IPM systems.

If you develop, sell, or invest in research management software, this report will give you the strategic clarity others are missing.

What you’ll learn:

🛑 Market Disruption: How new funding caps, regulatory volatility, and political interference are reshaping vendor strategies and driving institutions away from monolithic systems.

🧠 Buyer Behavior: Why finance and compliance teams—not research offices—are now leading the conversation, and how procurement timelines and power dynamics have shifted.

🌍 Regional Playbooks: What makes North America’s Tier 1 buyers different from institutions in Europe, APAC, and the Middle East—and why a one-size-fits-all product strategy won’t work.

🔍 What Institutions Really Value: Compliance automation, integration, and real-time visibility are now table stakes. What’s next? Systems that help institutions prove their value to politicians, donors, and the public.

💡 Vendor Positioning: What the market’s top players—Elsevier, Digital Science, Clarivate, Cayuse, Workday—are getting right (and wrong), and where new entrants have an opening.

Who this is for:

• Software vendors targeting the research management ecosystem
• Product teams looking to align with emerging institutional priorities
• Investors & strategists evaluating M&A and whitespace opportunities
• Sales & marketing leaders seeking narrative ammunition for skeptical buyers

What you get:

📄 A 117-page report with actionable insights to drive strategy and tactics
🧩 Subsegment deep dives into CRIS, RAS, RE, FAR, and IPM
📊 Primary research and data-backed analysis of procurement shifts, buyer psychology, and regional variation
🗣 Forward-looking vendor strategy frameworks

In a market defined by compliance chaos, political pressure, and strategic uncertainty, the winners will be those who understand what’s actually changing—and adapt first. This report shows you how.