APPENDIX F
CONTENTS:
GUIDELINES
FOR PREPARING A RESEARCH PROPOSAL
These guidelines
are to help those for whom preparing a research proposal for submission to a
funding body is a novel experience, and to remind those with more experience
of some of the issues that need to be taken into account.
Developing
your research proposal
It is generally
a good idea to discuss your proposal with as many people as possible before
finalizing it. It can be a good idea to ask interested people in the Unit to
meet to discuss it at an early stage, as well as to send it to any outsiders
you may wish to consult.
All proposals
involving SSRU staff as applicants or members of research project teams which
are intended to be carried out at the Unit (either solely or in conjunction
with another School or Research Unit within the Institute or another institution)
must be seen and agreed by the Unit Management Team and the Dean of Research
before submission to funders. The steps to be followed are (i)
discussion and agreement in principle by the Unit Management Team including
the timetable for the application process; (ii) seen in draft form by a member
of the Management Team; (iii) sent in near final draft form to the Dean of Research
and the Unit Manager at least three weeks before final submission date; and
(iv) signed by the Unit Director and the Dean of Research or their representatives. Sufficient
time for this process needs to be built into all plans for submission of applications
to funders. The point of these procedures is not ritual gatekeeping, but to
give all research proposals the best chance of success.
The next section
’Making a Budget’ contains a list of issues to consider when preparing a budget.
This should be discussed with the Unit Manager, at an early stage. Aside from
the salaries of researchers and the direct costs of undertaking the research
which need to be included in the budget, proposals for work to be carried out
at SSRU will also need to cover the costs to both the Institute and to the Unit
‘housing’ the research.
For consultancy
income the Institute charges a standard 30% overhead charge.
For research grants, most funding bodies expect to be charged and to pay institutional
overheads. These are normally 60%, except
for research councils (the ESRC, MRC etc.) which are now set at 46%, and charities
(which are usually exempt from paying overheads), though some are now willing
to pay 10%-20% or to allow for specific costs usually covered by overheads such
as accommodation costs. Projects receive a quarter of
all overheads above 30% as project director overheads. Apart from this, the
Unit benefits directly from Institute overhead payments, and
the Institute takes into account the level of the overheads on our research
grants when considering our financial viability and provision of core resources,
so it is important to include overheads in your budgets at the maximum level
possible. Where a research grant is to be held jointly with one or more other
departments in the Institute or other institutions, an equitable share of the
overheads must be credited to SSRU. It is the responsibility of the member of
staff submitting the application to negotiate this.
Research grants
also need to include funds to contribute to the running costs of the Unit.
Every member of staff uses a basic level of secretarial, administrative
and computing support and office costs aside from the direct costs of the project
on which s/he is working. These services include the Unit Secretary dealing
with telephone calls, monitoring callers at the door, keeping post records and
bookings for the seminar room, taking and circulating notes of meetings; the
Unit Manager managing the administrative and financial side of all research
projects, and the Information Systems
Officer and the Software Development Officer providing computing support
and development. You therefore need to include in your budgets the necessary
sums for basic secretarial/administrative and computing support and for office
costs (telephone, photocopying, stationary etc.) and computer rental, in
addition to whatever the research project itself may require. The costs
listed in ‘Making a Budget’ (which are based on actual costs per researcher)
should be used. Proposals which do not do this will be referred back to you!
If you know
who in SSRU or the Institute will work on a preposed project if this receives
funding, it is often good to name them in a proposal (in which case the post
will not need to be advertised).
The 'pink'
form is an internal Institute record accompanying each application (copy kept
by the Unit Manager). It is important to take this seriously, particularly with
respect to the accommodation needs of the project, if funded. [There
is a box on the pink form now which enquires as to whether ethical questions
about the research have been considered. SSRU has a set of ethics guidelines
developed by Priscilla Alderson, (Appendix G).
Finally, copies
of the finished proposal should be given to the Unit Manager and to the Research
and Consultancy Administration Office. Both need to be kept informed of the
outcome (copy of letter from funder, granting or rejecting the application);
also any revisions to the original proposal (e.g. start date, funding, % of
researchers time, personnel etc.).
Layout will
be determined by the funder’s application form and guidelines. Certain costs
may be disallowed, but the following are the most common expenditure items:
Staff
(including all payroll costs)
Institute
Indirect costs (overheads)
For consultancy budgets: 30% of the gross income will be deducted by the Institute as an overhead charge so the sum budgeted must cover this. For research budgets: 60% of staff costs should be added except for research councils, (46%) and charities (variable).
Indirect costs
are those costs which cannot be directly calculated and charged to a project
but which are incurred by the Institute in providing the necessary infrastructure
and support for the project. These include accommodation and associated costs,
equipment and furnishing, administrative and central services such as payroll,
personnel, research administration, finance, library and central computing.
These ‘overhead’ costs are calculated as a percentage on the salaries included
in a research grant application.
Institute of
Education overheads need to be costed into all research and consultancy applications.
SSRU also needs
a contribution from research project grants to the administration of projects,
computing advice and support, basic office costs, and the purchase of computers.
Currently the
costs are set at £420 per full-time employed member of staff (FTE) per month.
This is made up of £140 for administrative/secretarial costs, £140 for computing
staff, £80 for office costs, and £60 for computer,
printer rental. (Laptop rental is £*** per month). For part-time appointments
there should be a pro-rata reduction, so that a half-time post would incur overheads
of £210 per month.
Overheads also
need to be paid for all consultancy income. This should be calculated on the
basis of £18 per day. This fee needs to be paid whether or not the Consultancy
work is physically undertaken in SSRU buildings. Research and Consultancy administration
can provide guidance sheets in connection with the costing of consultancy contracts,
the fees that should be charged, and those cases where VAT is payable.
These SSRU
overheads of £420 per full-time post per month or £18 per day consultancy must
be costed into all research proposals and consultancies.
Following the
recent commitment to replace all computers and printers on a 3 yearly cycle
SSRU has implemented a computer ‘rental’ system where all computer equipment
is bought and owned by the Unit and is ‘rented’ out to projects for £60
per FTE per month computers and £20 printer (included in the above
mentioned £420 SSRU costs per FTE per month). Individual funders rules vary
on the funding of such equipment, so please check before developing the budget.
NAMING
OF RESEARCH STAFF IN RESEARCH PROPOSALS
(Information
provided by the Dean of Research, 1997)
1. Occasionally those named are not employed at
the Institute or, if they are, were not appointed following advertisement and
interview. As such appointments do not comply with the Institute's Recruitment Procedure, it is not automatic that agreement will be given
to employ the named individual. Three outcomes are possible: (i) Approval given,
but often after some delay; (ii) the person has to be formally interviewed;
(iii) permission is only given for temporary employment until a full and open
recruitment for the post has to be undertaken.
2. When a research proposal includes a named research
officer, her/his current employment position and the circumstances of her/his
initial appointment will have to be clarified.
If you are
preparing a research proposal and wish to name a research officer, please check
with the Institute's Personnel Department as to whether all the above criteria
have been met.
3.
Where one or both of the first two criteria is/are not met, the person concerned
should not be named in the research proposal. If however, you particularly wish
to do so, a request for an exception to the Recruitment Procedure should be
made to the Institute's Personnel Department and a decision received before
the research proposal is formally submitted. A formal interview might have to
be held before the appointment can proceed.
Where the third
criterion is not met, an application would have to be made for promotion or
the award of an additional/discretionary increment under the terms of the Promotion
Review. These arrangements apply to both teaching and research staff. They do
not apply if the person is to be paid on a fee basis.
It is believed
that these revised arrangements will ensure that we reduce the uncertainty felt
by those who are named in a research proposal and then find that their appointment
is not automatic, while at the same time enabling the Institute to ensure that
we recruit the best quality staff and observe fair recruitment practice