CDP 11 Principal Investigators Skills 3 Finance Skills for Managing Grant Funding

Nicola Martin – Head of School Finance (Humanities) Philippa Walker – Institute Manager

http://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/employment/training/personal-development/academic staff/

Quick Guide to Project Finance

• • • • • • • Cross Faculty Grants Cross Institutional Grants Multiple Funder Grants Task Codes Extensions Recruitment Common issues: – Can we Vire money?

– What happens when someone leaves the grant?

– How do we deal with a promotion not budgeted?

Cross Faculty Grants: fRaill

• • • •

fRaill operates across Humanities, MHS and FLS All financial management and approval sit in the home faculty Each faculty/school is awarded the DI, DA and FEC costs of the grant Each faculty/school has a separate task code and spend/budget accordingly

Cross Institutional Grants: CoDE

• • • • CoDE is an ESRC large grant and operates across Humanities, Race Relations and University of Glasgow Each partner has a separate task code and spend/budget accordingly Glasgow has a subcontract (via contracts office) – we raise a call-off-order and receive the goods (person time) in accordance with a quarterly invoice All other expenditure comes through the home faculty

Multiple Funder Grants: ELSA

• • • • • • Elsa is funded by the ONS and the NIH, subcontracted through UCL Each funder has a task code, much like a cross faculty/institutional grant However, the total budget is split across these tasks so you need to work out your spend across A and B e.g. A0101 and B0101 can be used in conjunction to appoint an RA Invoicing is done separately to each funder (even if it is to a subcontracted third party) so you need to be aware of all T&Cs Sometimes one funder might have a % budget cut policy or a year on year confirmation of funds – you need to work with the contracts office, the research office and the research finance team to ensure these grants are managed correctly from set-up through to invoicing and final report You cannot usually vire across Task A and B here, but might be able to vire from A05 to A0101 still, check your T&Cs!

Task Codes

• • • • Each grant or section of a grant has task codes. For a simple grant there will be Task A only, for a cross faculty/institutional grant or a grant with multiple funders there may also be Tasks B and C etc. Each Task is broken down into sub-tasks with specific budgets: – A01 (inc. A0101 and A0101) are for Directly Incurred Staff Costs – – A05 is for travel and subsistence A07 is for consumables – usually equipment and software licences, but not desks!

– A10 – A14 is for Directly Allocated Staff, estates and indirect costs and any agreed contribution from the School – these should not be spent from!

Your award/contract will be much more complicated than this in terms of what you have asked for, but all costs will fall under one of the main task codes If you charge something to the wrong task code you can move it – just keep an eye on your task spend and the lines of expenditure as well as your total spend when you check project finance

Grant Extensions

• • • • • You can ask for an extension to the end date of your grant from your funder This extension might bring more money, but it could be a no-cost extension No-cost extensions can be tricky for invoicing: – you need to be sure about when invoicing should be completed • sometimes it is up to the new end date but with no additional costs, • • sometimes all invoicing must be completed within the original life of the grant make sure you know which it is and talk to the research finance team about it No-cost extensions can be tricky for DA staff: – You need to be sure about % buy-out on grants – If the life of the grant is extended but there are no additional funds, it is likely that the buy-outs will cease No-cost extensions can be tricky for DI staff: – You need to be sure that you have enough money left in A01 (inc. A0101/A0102) to cover a contract extension if appropriate – You need to make sure that the FECs are covered (Indirect and Estates costs) • Make sure you know what is happening with all of your staff and talk to your school accountant and research finance team about it

Recruitment

• • • • You can begin the recruitment process when you have the award letter Staff cannot begin work until the official start date of the grant Contracts can end at any time up to the end date of the grant Timeline: Allow 12-15 weeks from writing the JD to a start date!

– Write a job description – Seek faculty approval via PCM – 1 month – – Send approved PCM and word versions of Job Description and advert to HR for advertising – 1week An RA/Lectureship post can be advertised externally as soon as approval is given. This kind of post should be advertised for 28 days to meet EU regulations – – Add any people on the short-listing panel to the Job Train system with HR Shortlisting and Interviewing are dependent upon schedules, but you need at approximately one month from the close of the post to the interview date and at least 2 weeks from appointment to Start date  – Administrators: Some special requirements An administrator post will need to go via the HERA team for grading before it is approved by the faculty – speak to your HR partner for help with this process – An Administrator post must be advertised for 1 week redeployee and can then be internal or open to all for however many weeks you choose – I usually opt for 2 weeks internal if I think we need someone who knows the university systems, or 2 weeks open to all if we want to recruit from a wider pool – All other procedures are the same as for Academic posts, and the timeline remains the same.

Common Issues

• • • Can we Vire Money between task codes?

– Check your terms and conditions, some funders allow it and others don’t – – Make sure you have enough money to cover anticipated expenditure in all tasks Talk to Research Finance!

What do we do when someone leaves?

– DA staff are named so they can take a portion of the grant with them to their new role, as appropriate. They may not wish to, or you may not think it appropriate, so you can re-consider the other staff % on the grant with the help of your school accountant – DI staff can be replaced: cost up what you have remaining in A01 and work out (with the RO) how much you can buy of another person How do we accommodate promotions?

– Staff on grants, whether DI or DA, can apply for promotion – Academic staff apply through the promotions committee – – Administrative/Academic related staff apply through the HERA re-grading process If approved, you need to see if there is enough money in your grant to cover this – If there isn’t enough money, you need to speak to your Head of School and School Accountant – preferably before the promotion comes through!

Key Points:

• The Research Support Office (RSO) are your key contact for research costings and related queries.

• Management of research projects is the joint responsibility of the PI and faculty/school administrators.

• Review the expenditure on your project regularly via project finance or by requesting reports from your Research Finance team.

• Expenditure should be within the project time period – fees and expenses should be submitted as soon as possible before the end date.

• You can only spend on Directly Incurred (DI) budget lines, not Directly Allocated (DA) budget lines.

Key Points:

• Know the T’s & C’s of your funder – these will vary between different funders.

• Partners/Subcontracts – liaise with the RSO as soon as you are aware of these.

• Delayed start/extensions/changes to budget – liaise with the RSO/Research Finance team as soon as you are aware.

Research Finance Contacts:

• • • •

MHS EPS HUM FLS

Khalil Mohammed/Michael Watson Julie Thomson Elizabeth Langton Alison Bate

Useful Web Links: Research and Business Engagement Support Services

http://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/services/rbess/

Research Support Services

http://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/services/rbess/governance/resea rch-support-services/

TRAC/fEC

http://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/services/finance/trac-fec/

Questions and ideas to share

http://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/employment/training/person al-development/academic-staff/