Case Study: King’s College London strengthens research collaborator due diligence with Xapien

How KCL's research assurance team use Xapien for potential collaborators

King’s College London’s research assurance team faced a growing challenge in meeting new UKRI compliance requirements for its extensive international research collaborations. Their manual due diligence process, relying on Google searches and academic input, was time-consuming and prone to error, risking significant information gaps. To address this, they turned to the due diligence tool from vendor Xapien to thoroughly vet around 200 new potential partners annually.

By implementing Xapien, the team reduced the time to gather information from a full day to just over an hour per report. The tool provided comprehensive, holistic profiles by combining sanctions screening, corporate data, and web sources into a single, trusted report. This solution gave KCL the necessary depth of insight to evidence its due diligence, protect its £3.5 million in research activity, and confidently secure UKRI funding.

King’s College London

Andy Webb

Director of Research Assurance