Research Funding

On this page:

• Determining if funding is a research grant or contract
• Sponsor terms and conditions
• Full Economic Costing (fEC)
• X5 costing tool

Pre-Award Services

The Research Operations Office (ROO) are responsible for assisting departmental administrative and academic staff to understand the processes and requirements associated with research grants and contracts. They work with departments to negotiate research contracts, check applications for research funding and provide guidance on the management of research projects. The Research Operations Office is organised into School teams, with each department having a named research grants advisor and contracts manager.

Before the grant is captured on UFS, a number of steps need to be completed in the Pre-Award stage :

• Establishing the funding
• The application process

Determining if funding is a research grant or not

When funds are received from a body external to the university, the following criteria are used to determine if those funds can be classed as a research grant or should be recorded as something else eg. a donation.  If the answer to one or more of the following questions is ‘yes’, then the funding is classed as a research grant or contract.

• Are there proposal forms?

• Are there terms and conditions?

• Are there deliverables?

• Are financial reports required?

• Are there disposal terms for equipment or property?

All research grants and contracts must be recorded and administered using the grants module of the University Finance System (UFS). For reasons of indemnity and legal compliance, Departments are not permitted to apply directly to funding bodies without the involvement of the Research Operations Office (ROO) or to account for monies received under the above criteria in donation or other General Ledger (GL) accounts.

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Sponsor terms and conditions

All external funding bodies (known as ‘sponsors’) have their own terms and conditions covering how funds should be applied for and administered when received. You should review these before applying.

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Full Economic Costing (fEC)

The full economic costing methodology was adopted for costing all research grant proposals in September 2005. This allows departments to budget for:

• costs that would be directly incurred by the academic department;
• the salary costs of all personnel involved, including the Principal Investigator (lead academic responsible for the research);
• an allocation to proportionately contribute to estates costs and central services;
• an element to provide for continued investment in the research infrastructure of the University.

Not all sponsors accept fEC, particularly charities. However, all research grant proposals must be costed on a fEC basis regardless of whether or not the costs are eligible for reclaiming from a particular sponsor. This is because the University needs to record the full economic costs of all research. There are some exceptions to this eg. EC and NIH.

Costing grants proposals on a fEC basis also allows Departmental Administrators and Heads of Departments to make informed decisions on individual grant proposals in relation to costs versus income. It is important that all costs are included in applications so that research is not underfunded. If you need any help with costing or advice on sponsor’s terms and conditions please contact your School Team within the Research Operations Office.

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X5 costing tool

X5 is the software used to prepare proposal costings in line with fEC requirements. All new proposals must be costed using X5; awards or contracts which include a financial value will not be accepted unless an X5 costing is completed.  There are videos and short guides to assist the use of X5.

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