Initiating a New REDCap Project

Owned by Mandavi Kashyap
Last updated: Apr 25, 2023 by Melissa Hall
3 min read

The CRU operates on a cost-recovery model. An annual platform maintenance fee applies to help us recover overhead costs for maintaining the REDCap platform, such as system administration, backups, and supplementary license fees.

To provide cost-effective, high-quality support, and flexibility for different needs, the CRU offers service plans. Visit the CRU Website for a breakdown of the service plans available. All tiers will include a level of advanced support and discounts will be available for researchers with multiple projects.

Request a new project

To initiate a new project within REDCap with the CRU, please follow the following simple steps:

  1. Complete our intake survey to request a new REDCap project for research work. You will be asked to provide information about your study to help us best serve your needs.

  2. Fill in the required information and submit the request to CRU.

  3. Our team will review your request and either reach out to set up an intake meeting and/or create your project.

CRU’s REDCap Terms and Conditions

The following individual terms must be accepted prior to creating a REDCap project with the CRU. These terms are outlined in the intake survey.

  • It is the researcher’s sole responsibility to ensure that all required certifications and authorizations are in place for your study, and that you are in compliance with all applicable federal and provincial laws and University policies before submitting your project to the Clinical Research Unit.

  • An annual maintenance fee (selected from the website) will apply to your project on an annual basis. This fee helps to offset overhead and system maintenance costs for the REDCap platform.

  • REDCap is only to be used for non-commercial purposes.

REDCap Terms of Use:

1.6 “Non-Commercial Research Purposes” means for internal research, internal operations and internal educational purposes only, which research, operational or educational uses are to be conducted by Licensee in a manner consistent with its tax-exempt status and may include research funded by commercial (for profit) organizations, but shall not include use of the Software as the basis for providing a contract or other services to any entity.”

  • For security purposes, REDCap user accounts automatically expire after 6 months of inactivity. Logging in sporadically will ensure accounts stay active.

  • To begin active data collection, you must request to move the project from Development to Production status. The user must thoroughly test their project before moving to production.

A CRU REDCap Administrator will delete all the test data when moving a project into Production. The CRU will not be able to recover any real data that was not collected in a Production environment. 

  • If you need additional REDCap support services beyond what is included in the annual maintenance fee, please contact the CRU to request additional support.

Our team is happy to help. Additional support (i.e., beyond the advanced support included in the annual maintenance fee) is available at your request for additional fees.

Examples include: consultation on how to use existing REDCap features/configuration, writing branching logic, production data recovery, etc.

  • Please acknowledge the CRU in publications based on data collected in REDCap (e.g., in the “Acknowledgments”, and “Methods” sections).

Example text: "Study data were collected and managed using REDCap electronic data capture tools hosted at the University of Calgary Clinical Research Unit. REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) is a secure, web-based application designed to support data capture for research studies."

Requestors need to accept the CRU’s REDCap Usage and Fee Policy outlined in the intake survey

Contact us

If you have any issues with your new REDCap project, please contact our support desk at cru@ucalgary.ca