Administration

There is no guarantee that you will receive full funding. Contact the Deputy Dean for Research to discuss whether the project goals need to be adjusted based on the allocated funds. You can also try to find additional funding.

All projects funded from external sources must be described in a contract. The project manager, associate dean for research, project financial officer and legal counsel should be involved in the contract negotiation – establish contact early.

The projects with which the Executive Unit for the Financing of Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation must have a contract between UPB and UEFISCDI. In addition, there must be a cooperation agreement (consortium agreement) between the project partners.

Submit the contract and the agreements before the deadline. It's also important to make your support network aware of the deadlines.

If UPB is responsible for the contract, use the contract template provided by UPB. The project officer can assist in drafting the contract. The support network must be involved in deciding who signs the contract.

1. Kick-off meeting for the start and administration of the project:
• How is reporting organized? Who reports what / when?
• Clarify the partners responsibility (risk assessment)
• Developing a schedule of meetings
• Go through the procedures for registering your work schedule (if required)
2. Fixed-term contracts: employment procedures. Hiring own employees: UPB can hire its own employees to perform the project tasks based on an employment agreement.
3. Use of fonds:
   • All parties in the project should have access to the project budget and resource usage. Transparency is important to avoid conflicts when it comes to the use of resources.
   • Follow the UPB regulations on scientific equipment purchases. For questions, contact the University's Purchasing Division.
   • The research vice-chancellor and researchers must be able to clarify the use of allocated funds.
   • Contact the project economist if you have any questions about the use of allocated funds.
4. Cooperation within the project team: eg Microsoft Teams cooperative programs.
5. Website: create your project site. Contact your faculty IT manager for assistance.

The Principal Investigator has overall responsibility for the technical and financial management of their research award. This includes the management of the project within the terms and conditions of funding, adherence to reporting requirements and timely communication of significant project changes.
Responsibility for the day-to-day management of project finances may be delegated to administrative or other staff as governed by the Post Award Management Policy. However, accountability for compliance with UPB policy and Funder requirements ultimately rests with the Principal Investigator. The Principal Investigator (PI) is accountable to their Head of Department.
Expenditure should be charged directly to the account for which the purchase is intended, must be in line with the awarded budget, must be in accordance with the funder’s terms and conditions and should only be incurred between the actual project start and end dates. Any deviation from the original budget (outside of the terms and conditions of award) should be flagged to, and approved by, the funder prior to the commitment of expenditure.

There are a number of reporting tools available to assist with award management. These are detailed on the Research Management Information pages.
These include spend reports. On a monthly basis, spend against budget and spend detail reports from Oracle Grants are distributed to PIs, Departmental Administrators (DA) and Research Services by email, and are also stored centrally within EMSYS.
OBIEE / ICA Operational Dashboard reports are also available for daily reporting. Nominated departmental staff will also have access to reports, including a number of Exception Reports and a Balance Management Report. The regular running and review of the exception reports is the responsibility of the academic departmental administration.

Expenditure included within the EMSYS costing and the application to the funder and subsequently awarded by the funder is considered as eligible expenditure.
Any deviation from the terms and conditions of the award should be flagged to, and approved by, the funder prior to the commitment of expenditure. For example, research staff should not be replaced by technicians without approval by the funder. Likewise, equipment should match the details included within the application submitted to the funder. If there are discrepancies, the funder may refuse to reimburse the costs.
Ineligible expenditure charged to the research project account, which is not paid by the funder, will have to be borne by the Principal Investigator and the department.

Virement refers to the transfer of funds between budget headings (if permitted by the funder). The Principal Investigator (PI) and Departmental Administrator (DA) should check the funder’s letter of agreement and terms and conditions before committing any expenditure which should therefore be in line with the budget allocations entered into EMSYS by the University Research Services team. If further clarification is required, the University Research Services teams should be consulted before contacting the funder. Written approval must be received from the funder.
University Research Services teams will reallocate the budget if permitted.
In exceptional cases, funders may agree to virement of budgets that conflict with their standard terms and conditions, but they must be contacted in advance. Approval from the funder must be received in writing.

End of project financial statements are submitted and signed off by the Faculty Research Services teams. The statements are sent to Principal Investigators (PI) and Departmental Administrators (DA) for review before submission to the funder. Prompt replies are necessary to ensure timely submission of invoices. Late submission may result in a financial penalty that will be borne by the PI’s department. this could mean a reduction of the award value or non-payment of the final invoice if statements are not received within the time scale set by the funder.

When a project is undertaken by a number of institutions and UPB acts as the lead, the other institutions are defined as research partners. In other cases the College may contract out elements of a project to third party subcontractors.

Administrative arrangements relating to the financial and contractual relationship with research partners and subcontractors is the responsibility of the University Research Services team who liaise with them on matters including:

• Budget details
• Invoicing
• Obligations to the main funder
• Financial reporting
• Contractual terms (if applicable)

Please see the Research Partner and Professional Fees Guidance for further information.

Scientific reporting requirements depend on the funder’s terms and conditions. It is important that the Principal Investigator (PI) understands their responsibilities and obligations to the funder under the terms of the grant.

If the scientific reports include financial data, they should be checked against the financial statements prepared by Faculty Research Services teams to ensure there are no discrepancies.

Most funders have set deadlines for the submission of scientific reports. It is the Principal Investigator’s (PI) and the Departmental Administrator’s (DA) responsibility to ensure that reports are submitted on time. Failure to submit these reports on time or to communicate a delay in the submission of the report can result in financial penalties which will be borne by the PI’s department.

As income is received, revised budgets will be calculated by RS/JRO. Income received will be budgeted at the income rate (i.e. the actual conversion rate at time of receipt), whereas the outstanding income will be budgeted using the Exchange Rate Table. GBP award budgets will never decrease below the level initially set up.

When a budget increase is calculated, the decision on how this should be allocated will be made through discussion between PIs, Department Administration and RS/JRO. Any increases to directly incurred (DI) budgets (e.g. research staff, consumables, equipment etc.) must be justified by the PI and, if necessary, approved by the funder before RS/JRO will increase budgets on ICIS. Indirect cost budgets should always be increased in proportion with DI budget increases. Consideration should be given to allocating additional budget to budget categories that will increase the College’s rate of recovery, e.g. overheads on fixed price awards; PI time on EC awards, where this is allowed by funders’ terms and conditions. Budget increases will only be applied to awards if they exceed £10,000.

A budget increase template is available on SharePoint [RS/JRO ONLY]

This is when the funder extends the end date of the project but no additional funding is provided. The Principal Investigator should inform their Departmental Administrator and Faculty Research Services team when the funder has given formal confirmation that the end date of the project can be extended.

This is when the funder extends the end date of the project and provides additional funding. An extension record needs to be created, costed and approved in InfoEd. Further information is available in the InfoEd section (see user guides for extensions and supplements).

This is when the funder provides supplementary funding to an existing project but the project dates do not change. A supplement record needs to be created, costed and approved in InfoEd. Further information is available in the InfoEd section (see user guides for extensions and supplements).

As soon as the Principal Investigator (PI) suspects that a research agreement is at risk of early termination, it is important that the PI contacts the Departmental Administrator (DA) and their Faculty Research Services team immediately. Faculty Research Services teams will review the contractual obligations and commitments and negotiate a preferred so lution with the funder. If there is a reduction in funding a budget adjustment will be required against the project number.

• Raport final: Scrieți un raport final.
• Dovezi documentare: asigurați-vă că arhivați toate documentele și salvați toate datele relevante.
• Rezultate:
  • Publicați-vă rezultatele și înregistrați-vă publicațiile în platforma de cercetare a universității.

Before Faculty Research Services teams can initiate project closure, they will confirm with the Principal Investigator (PI) and the Departmental Administrator (DA) that:

• The PI has submitted the final scientific report on time
• The DA has cleared overspends, disallowed costs or surpluses and closed any open Purchase Orders

The final payment is usually subject to receipt of the scientific report.

Most research agreements are reimbursed based on actual expenditure incurred. If spend has not reached the budget value at the end date of the project, the budget is underspent and the funder will not reimburse the full budget. Funders that commonly fall into this category are char ities, UK Research Councils, EU Commission, and some awards from UK government departments.

Most contracts with industrial funders are based on milestones and instalments (i.e. fixed price) instead of spend, so in these cases, the budget is likely to be reimbursed in full as long as the Principal Investigator (PI) meets the deliverables set out in the contract.

Any spend incurred after the end date of the project or disallowed by the funder (ineligible costs) must be removed by the Principal Investigator (PI) and the Departmental Administrator (DA) as soon as requested by the Faculty Research Services team. Delay in doing this will prevent the Faculty Research Services teams from closing the project and archiving the file.

Faculty Research Services teams are responsible for managing the transfer of grants contracts to or from Imperial College. Approval to accept or release an award is required by the Head of Department (HoD). The time taken to transfer an award depends on the funder and the complexity of the transfer. It is important that the Principal Investigator informs the HoD and Faculty Research Services team of an impending transfers at the earliest opportunity.

Income adjustments for net exchange gains or losses will be processed by Grants Admin on request from RS/JRO. Adjustments will be charged to the G00000 account for the main award cost centre using analysis codes 567134 for exchange gains and 169619 for exchange losses.

Gains and losses on payments to Research Partners made in the same foreign currency as the related income will be charged to a central College account. The income rate will be used to calculate the gain or loss. Income adjustments for accounting gains and losses on Research Partner expenditure will be processed by Grants Admin on request from RS/JRO. Adjustments will be charged to a Central Finance account using analysis codes 567134 for exchange gains and 169619 for exchange losses.