What budgets do we set in the University?
Currently, the University formally creates budgets in UFS and monitors them via Cognos reports, for three areas of activity:
- Chest income and expenditure
- Research grants and contracts
- Expenditure on buildings
Institutions are free to establish local budgets for any activity. It is possible to set up non-Chest budgets on UFS, but please speak to your Finance Business Partner/institution Finance Manager.
Chest budgets
Most institutions receive some central funding from the University. It is this central funding that is known as the ‘Chest’ budget or allocation. This is an institution’s share of income collectively earned by the University as detailed below:
- Funding body grants from the Office for Students (OfS) for teaching, research, and other activities)
- Fees paid by students
- Investment income from the University's general Trust Funds
- Other Income which includes the profit transfer from Cambridge University Press and Assessment (CUPA)
- The Chest share of research overhead income received by 3rd party research funding bodies
The How and when does the University set its budget? section of this chapter details the process by which Department Chest budgets or allocations are set each year.
In general Chest budgets relate to one financial year and Chest allocations are distributed annually, at the beginning of the University’s financial year.
The table details those sources of funds (SoF) for which budgets are created in the General Ledger module of UFS.
| SoF Code | SoF Name | Main Usage |
| AAAA | Chest Non-Pay | Recurrent funding for consumables and other non-pay items. |
| ABAA | Chest Stipends | Recurrent funding for the pay costs of academic and academic-related staff. |
| ACAA | Chest Wages | Recurrent funding for the pay costs of assistant staff. |
| A*** Others | Special Expenditure | Specific to Institution. |
| AHAA | Equipment Grants | General institutional equipment |
| A*** | Non-recurrent grants | As specified in the letter/email awarding the grant |
| ABAD | Unpaid Leave of Absence Savings | Budget equals saving in pay costs made by a Chest-funded member of staff taking Unpaid Leave of Absence e.g. an academic who is granted a Royal Society Fellowship |
| FABM | Incentive payments for non-professorial staff | Recruitment incentive payments for non-professorial staff. |
| AAAC | Vacation Study Grants | Expenditure on field trips and vacation study. |
Budgets in UFS can be either positive or negative. Expenditure (e.g. stipends) is entered into UFS as a positive budget, whilst income (e.g. research grants) is entered as a negative.
Research grant budgets
The budget for a research grant or contract is set when the grant or contract is awarded. All applications for research grants and contracts must now be costed on ‘X5’ on a Full Economic Cost (fEC) basis.
More information on the costing process is available from ROO webpages.
Budgets for Research Grants are input into the Grants module of UFS by ROO for the whole life of the grant, generally extending over several years. More information on the setting, monitoring, and controlling of research grant budgets can be found in FPM Research Grants.
Budgeting for buildings
In the University most buildings-related expenditure is managed by the Estates Division (ED). This includes routine running costs, refurbishment, and construction of new buildings. Budgets for these activities are managed by ED directly. The budget for the routine running costs of the University’s estate is set as part of the annual Planning Round, more details of which are given in the How and when does the University set its budget? section.
Major investment, such as refurbishment or the construction of new buildings, has a separate approval process. Budgets will be prepared by ED or contractors employed by them and these budgets will be submitted to the Technical Sub-Committee of the Estates Committee (for minor works up to £3m) and Planning and Resources Committee (PRC) (for major projects over £3m) for approval. As part of this process the expected contribution from the institution to the cost of refurbishment or new building will be agreed.