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Research Grant Administration in DCS

NB: information here has not been updated for a while, but may still be relevant

Sources of research funding

You will find detailed information on the web pages of the funding bodies: Additional pointers can be found in web pages maintained by the Research Support Section.

Application procedure

I am too often asked to help with submission of grant applications at the last minute. Please involve me, or at least inform me, as soon as you know that you intend to submit an application. We (Margaret Davis and myself) will always do our best to help, but please note that I am not employed full-time and last-minute requests to meet imminent deadlines risk incurring my wrath.

For further information you might want to consult Alan Bundy's guide on "Writing a good grant application".

We can advise on financial aspects of your grant application including costs of research personnel, support staff, travel, equipment and other costs. We can also help in filling out forms, getting signatures, sending in applications. The later you leave it the more you will have to do the running around yourself!

If you apply for a grant without my help, please give me a copy of the application so that I will be able to deal properly with future enquiries.

Please inform me when you hear whether the application has been successful or not.

Starting up a grant

If your proposal is successful, there will be some initial paperwork. We can deal with most of it for you -- just send us all the correspondence you receive, making it clear whether or not you have taken any action. If you wish to deal with this paperwork yourself, please pass copies of all correspondence to us anyway so that we know what is going on and can take over later if required. Once the initial paperwork has been completed, an account will be opened at Finance Office for your project. We cannot help you unless we have a complete pictures of your funding requirements/requests.

Staff

We handle all personnel matters on grants. This includes: advertising positions, arranging for contracts, arranging for work permits, extending contracts and work permits, helping new staff to settle in the department, etc. Just tell us exactly what you want and we will make it happen.

Equipment

LFCS has an equipment policy which is difficult to define but it works! The final say is with the PI; s/he can buy small items without prior agreement by their relevant head of insititute; equiment will be ordered by the COs; directors of LFCS/ICSA are to be consulted on all major equipment issues. Other costs: mainly to support machine infrastructure (maintenance, print server, file server, computer server provision).

Travel

What is there to bear in mind: travel request forms (available from all secretaries); tickets; expense claims; payment of conference fees (possibly in a foreign currency).

Grantholders can arrange their own travel without asking for permission. They can sign their own travel request forms or arrange travel themselves as they wish.

RAs have to check with their grantholder that their planned travel is okay (e.g. does the PI want them to go; what is their reason to go). RAs should take the travel request form to the grantholder, myself, heads of Institute or Ian for authorisation. I will ask whether the grantholder agrees to a trip before signing a travel request form.

PhD students have to get permission for grant-funded travel from the relevant grantholder. For PhD students I normally double-check with the grantholder that permission has been granted before signing a travel request form; again, the grantholder, mkl, heads of Institute or Ian can also sign travel request forms).

RAs or PhD students who travel without authorization risk having to pay their own travel expenses.

I will sign expense claim forms without asking grantholders as I assume that these expenses have been incurred in connection with a travel request which has been properly authorised.

All travel invoices, including travel not booked through the secretaries, should be passed to Margaret (or me). Please send all invoices you might receive from travel agents to Margaret. Make sure your RAs do the same. We need all this information for our records.

Note that there is limited travel funding available directly from the institutes, apply to the institute director in the first instance.

Finances

I will compile periodic spending summaries and discuss them with grantholders to optimise spending and avoid underspending. I will make sure that the grantholder is informed about all matters connected with his grant and is agreeable to my suggested financial implementations.

I will compile financial information on all grants held by LFCS and ICSA and will inform the heads of LFCS/ICSA as required.

Interim and final reports

Annual reports are required by some funding bodies. We will help with financial and other non-scientific aspects of these.

All funding bodies require a final report. Again, financial and other non-scientific aspects of these will be handled by the LFCS/ICSA administration.

General

The LFCS/ICSA administration handles all non-scientific issues related to the running of a grant: liaising with grant bodies, liaising with research personnel, liaising with other sites related to the project, transferring money to other sites, sorting out legal matters (if need be!), liaising with finance office, updating PI on a regular basis about expenditure on the grant, maximising expenditure on grant in the final stages, arranging for PIs to support each other's staff, if possible, when problems arise (e.g. bridging funds for RAs), etc.
Monika Lekuse. Please mail me if you have any comments on this page.