IU REDCap Day 2025 highlights collaboration and innovation: IT News : Indiana University

Scientific advancements depend on the collective efforts of dedicated researchers working on projects that vary in scope, size, and focus. While safe data management and storage are critical to the success of research projects at all levels, adhering to security standards can be complex, time-consuming, and expensive for individual researchers.

Dr. Paul Harris creator and designer of REDCap.Recognizing the need for a pioneering solution to address these data collection and management challenges, Dr. Paul Harris, a professor of biomedical informatics and biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt University, designed and created REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) in 2004.

REDCap is a self-managed, secure, web-based platform designed to support data collection and data management for research, operations support, and quality improvement projects. REDCap offers features such as data entry forms, data validation, audit trails, and user access control.

For more than 20 years, REDCap has given research teams “an easy way to do the right thing” for their data management needs by providing a cost-effective platform that protects data security and ensures data quality for researchers, institutions, and research participants.

REDCap’s core mission of supporting responsible, safe, and efficient data collection led to the platform’s widespread adoption by more than 7,700 institutional partners representing millions of global end-users.

Indiana University was one of the first 100 institutions to adopt REDCap. IU REDCap is supported by Research Technologies, a division of University Information Technology Services, in partnership with the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI), providing full privileges on IU REDCap to over 5,000 active users working on 27,000 research projects at universities, hospitals, research institutions, and community health partner organizations across Indiana.

External Modules and Advanced Topics Panel” featuring Dan Foley, Christopher Hobbick, Michelle Lore, Beverly Musick, and Jeff Warvel.In what has become an anticipated tradition, IU REDCap Day brings together current and potential users of the platform once a year to learn about new functionality, to see how REDCap is being used to solve problems, and to build relationships with other people who work with IU REDCap.

Sessions at the recent IU REDCap Day included content related to streamlining research consent, ramping up alerts, reducing bad actors in data, using REDCap as a regulatory binder, creative applications of REDCap, and an overview of survey basics in REDCap.

Dr. Paul Harris gives IU REDCap Day 2025 Keynote address titled “What’s Old, What’s New, What’s Next, and What Matter”.This year’s REDCap Day participants, which numbered over 120 in-person and almost as many online, also had the opportunity to hear Dr. Harris deliver the keynote address. With his unique perspective as the platform’s designer and creator, Dr. Harris discussed REDCap’s origin story, recent developments, and goals on the horizon.

In addition to providing a look at the past, present, and future of the platform, Dr. Harris also reflected on why “building a recipe” for innovation and research collaboration continues to drive development and improvements to REDCap.

View agenda, presentations, and recordings from recent and previous IU REDCap Days

The Biomedical and Health Research Services (BHRS), a group within UITS Research Technologies, offers IU REDCap workshops online and in-person at Indiana University. Whether you are new to IU REDCap or an advanced user interested in new features, visit REDCap in UITS IT Training or stop by the IU REDCap office hours.