All staff-members at SSRU are encouraged to develop research or consultancy proposals. Staff may hear about opportunities for these via information circulated within the Unit or Institute or other sources, or may be keen to develop their own ideas and approach a funder.
Consultancy is any activity undertaken by the Institute or by an individual employee of the Institute that involves offering advice, analysis or evaluation to another organization and for which a fee is normally charged. Advice and guidance on costing consultancy work is available from the unit manager. Consultancy applications are subject to the same processes regarding their development and approval as research. Further information on consultancy is provided below.
Staff-members who are considering developing a research or consultancy proposal should in the first instance discuss this with their line manager, and decide who should be involved in developing the proposal and which single individual should be responsible for leading or otherwise coordinating this work. This 'lead applicant' should then discuss the proposal with the unit manager.
The unit manager will then raise the matter at UMC and an academic member of the Unit Management Committee (UMC) will be identified to:
At the same time the unit manager will be responsible for:
Where the lead applicant is a member of UMC another UMC academic member will be identified to fulfil the liaison role.
The UMC liaison person and unit manager will together use the UMC research proposal assessment form to guide their consideration of the proposal both at the development and the approval stage.
In terms of the development stage, the lead applicant should pass a draft proposal to the unit manager at a minimum of eight working days before the deadline/target submission date, so there is time for consideration and support to be given as well as time for the proposal to be sent for comments to the Dean of Research. A lead-in time of ten days will be necessary for projects that are international in focus or in collaboration, or which are seeking funds from research councils. The assessment form will be used to guide the initial assessment and will be passed to the lead applicant with comments from the UMC liaison person.
Lead applicants need to consider ethics when developing proposals. The Unit has a research ethics policy [insert link to policy here]. Ethical considerations are taken into account in the research proposal assessment form.
In terms of the approval stage, the lead applicant should submit the final version of the proposal to the unit manager at least three working days before the submission deadline/target. The assessment form and the extent to which UMC comments have been addressed will be used to guide final assessment by UMC.
At this stage the lead applicant should check IOE risk management guidance and decide which sort of risk assessment form needs to be completed for the proposal in question. The lead applicant should complete the necessary form [and submit this also to the unit manager. If in doubt the lead applicant should seek the advice of the unit manager.
Once UMC approval has been given the lead applicant should complete a 'pink form' (for research) or a 'blue form' (for consultancy), available from the unit manager and obtain the signatures required at the Unit level prior to the unit manager obtaining approval by the Institute. All research needs to be approved by the Institute Finance Office and Dean of Research. All consultancies over £10,000 need to be signed by the Institute's Finance Office, and those over £20,000 also by the Dean of Research. All submissions of research and consultancy proposals for Institute approval will occur on-line from 2005.
Finally a copy of the final application in the form of a hard copy and a Word file should be given to the unit manager at the point of submission.
To produce an accurate budget for a proposal the following information should be given to the unit manager:
Working project title ______________________________________________
Funder ______________________________________________
Start Date _________________ End Date ___________________
Named staff FTE Start date End Date
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
Unnamed staff
Scale/Grade Spine point FTE Start date End Date_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
Different funders will have different rules about which staff can be funded. Applicants should familiarise themselves with these rules. Staff already known to be required to work on a project must be named, if they are left unnamed and the proposal is accepted, the post must be subject to proper recruitment processes involving either internal or external recruitment. When costing for an unnamed position, the mid point of the salary scale should be used unless the proposal demands otherwise. This gives more flexibility in terms of recruitment.
These should be costed per hour or at set fees and be included in the 'Exceptional category' on budgets.
The two costs above can be combined to form a single cost that must be added to the staffing section. It is calculated as a fractional FTE using one of the Clerical or Administration pay scales. Please note that this will form part of the total staff costs when overheads are calculated.
These costs are important because every researcher working in the Unit has cost implications for the administration of the unit.
Funders' allowances
This overhead is levied by the Unit to cover basic costs such as central administration, heating and lighting, and building maintenance. The Unit pays a support cost to the Institute of Education to cover these costs based on its staff and student FTEs. The Unit charges funders for these as a percentage of the total staff costs for research projects and a percentage of the total cost for consultancies.
Those writing proposals should discuss at what level this is set with the unit manager. Funders often have conditions regarding what percentage of overheads they are prepared to pay (eg. 46% for ESRC), or on what staff they will pay them (eg. MRC will not pay overheads for core-funded staff). It is best to cost indirect costs into projects at the highest possible rate.
The Unit has a standard paragraph explaining the need for indirect costs, which should be included where necessary in proposals sent to funders, in consultation with the unit manager.
"Indirect costs are those costs which cannot be directly charged to a project but which are incurred by the Institute of Education in providing the necessary support for the project. They include accommodation and associated costs, equipment and furnishing; administrative and central services such as payroll, personnel, finance; academic services such as library, central computing; and departmental support. These costs are currently calculated at 107% of payroll costs. However, depending on the nature of the research and funding body involved, we may not charge this in full. In this case we have asked for a contribution of **% towards these costs. The Institute will contribute the balance."
Unit costs
These are costs that are specific to and are set by SSRU and are in addition both to the Administrative and Computing staff support costs and to the Indirect costs discussed above. They cover basic unit resources and must be charged on a per FTE per month basis.
NB. Office and Project costs should be clearly distinguished in budgets used internally within the unit but should be added together under 'Consumables', for budgets to be seen outside SSRU
"The use of computers and printers is charged at an internal rental fee of £60 per FTE per month. It ensures that researchers have access to up-to-date equipment, networked PCs (no older that 3 years), printers and access to unit servers. The fee also includes basic software such as Windows NT, Microsoft Office, and email and internet packages."
Software required in addition to those packages listed above must be costed separately. Estimates for this cost can be obtained from the Information Systems Officer
Equipment
In addition to computer and printer rental discussed earlier budgets should include costs for items such as:
Consumables
In addition to the office and project costs discussed above, budgets should also include adequate amounts for the following where appropriate:
Travel & subsistence
This should include all travel for researchers, delegates and participants that should reasonably be covered by the budget. If possible distinguish between different types of travel. Please give full information to the unit manager regarding number of people and number of journeys. Mileage costs are set by the Institute at 42p per mile (car) and 12p per mile (bicycle). Other costs should be discussed with the unit manager but the following are general guides:
Conference attendance
Often included under 'Travel'. Each proposal should detail what will be required in terms of conference attendance by staff working on the project. As a general guide, each staff-member might attend one conference per year. Details and actual costs should be included where available. Where a proposal involves hosting a conference or workshop, include: travel and honoraria for speakers, hospitality, room hire, printing, stationery and promotional costs. Details should be discussed with the unit manager but the following are general guides:
Exceptional costs
When a proposal has been accepted, the lead applicant should immediately write to the funder requesting a letter of intention and a contract. The funder may issue a contract rapidly, in which case a letter of intention is not required. However if there is to be any delay in the issuing of a contract, it is important that in the interim they send us a letter of intention. Writing to request these avoids any confusion regarding when the request was made etc. If the funders have little experience in funding projects, offer the services of Unit to create the contract.
Ensure that the funder includes the following information in their letter of intention:
This letter or the contract itself should be carefully checked by the lead applicant and then passed to the unit manager to check and begin negotiations.
The unit manager will discuss issues regarding intellectual property and timelines with the lead applicant and check the budget details, and that other clauses are acceptable to the Unit and the Institute.
When the contract is received, a project code will be allocated by research administration. The unit manager will contact the lead applicant with details of that code.
Lead applicants must inform the unit manager if they require a post charge code for the new project. The lead applicant should ask the unit secretary if they require an Institute photocopy card or a pin for the Unit's copier.
Lead applicants must discuss any recruitment needs with the unit manager as soon as possible.
Full-time staff must only undertake consultancy work under the auspices of the Institute. Part-time staff can choose whether to undertake consultancy within or outside the auspices of the Institute. If the work is done outside of the Institute, then Unit resources should not be used nor should the Unit or Institute be part of the representation of the person or the work undertaken. Income from Institute based consultancy is subject to a 30% overhead charge by the Unit. Remaining income can be used to pay for direct costs or salary of the consultant up to FTE. Remaining funds are divided between the Unit and the research project or staff member involved with a split of 50/50. The Institute's full policy can be read via the research and consultancy administration web pages.