Research project implementation process

Funders will announce the application criteria for each scheme when the call for proposals is launched, and the Principal Investigators (PIs) should pay close attention to the details of the call, eligibility and assessment criteria,and use them to build their application. This should include checks to ensure that partner institutions and co-investigators are eligible for the scheme.

The proposed activity must meet Frascati's definition of research and satisfy the public benefit test, that is, the research must be conducted for the benefit of the public and not solely for self-interest or for private or commercial consumption.

The principal investigators should note that UPB prohibits the research funded by tobacco companies or the use of classified research or materials. The proposed research should also meet the ethical and moral standards of UPB described in the Code of Ethics, and to pay due attention to the collection, use and storage of data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Submitting your proposal for inter partes review is strongly encouraged, and many departments or faculties will have their own local inter partes review processes to support PIs in developing a competitive case for support and high-quality applications.

The research and any sub-projects (i.e. a research project with a discrete budget and scientific objectives within the general grant, carried out by another department) must have adequate resources to make sure that the project is able to achieve its scientific results within the proposed term. Depending on the terms and conditions of the funding, the principal investigator should carefully consider the following:

Academic staff time – Set realistic time commitments for the academic staff involved in the research, i.e. principal investigator, co-investigators.

Researchers, Technicians, and Other Support Staff – Determine whether project-specific postdoctoral researchers, technicians, or PhD candidates must deliver the proposed work plan.

Non-staff costs, including equipment and facilities – Include any other operational costs for the project, such as supplies, travel and conference attendance costs, if allowed; Equipment requests do not have to comply with the funder policies and, if applicable, may require an agreed contribution of the department to costs. Future purchases may be subject to UPB Regulations on Public Procurement. The existing equipment can be identified in UPB’s facilities directory, but note that not all funders will support access or maintenance fees for the existing equipment.

Space – Consider physical resource requirements such as office or laboratory facilities and whether the work requires associated costs, e.g. external room rental rates, construction works.

Open access publication and data storage – If the funder terms allow, consider including the open access fees and, where appropriate, specialized data storage costs.

Costs for partners and subcontractors – Projects involving partners or subcontractors are often managed by the primary institution which will submit a single joint application to the funder. The primary institution must obtain details of the costs from third parties at the level of detail requested by the funder. Where UPB is the primary institution, the partner or subcontractor costs should be entered by UPB into the pre-award and funder submission system using the appropriate cost categories and duly authorized by the partner institution prior to submission.

All the costs should be justified within the support case, setting a clear link between the requested resources and the research results.

Regardless of the funder, the costs associated with all the research projects should be prepared using UPB's pre-award management system using the Full Economic Cost (FEC) methodology. The price should take into account an acceptable level of financial recovery before approval of the funding applications, but remember that many funders will set or restrict the price themselves. This process will often take place in parallel while filling out the application in accordance with the funder's submission requirements (i.e. electronic submission or paper application form).

Important issues to remember:

Interdepartmental and interdisciplinary projects – The budget of the main department must be entered in the primary proposal. IPs should create sub-projects for any of the internal departmental partners in the pre-award management system. Collaborating departments should record their budgets as separate subprojects. These allow one co-investigator to separately manage cost, price (recovery), attachments and internal approval routing with respect to their share of the overall collaborative project budget to support their own scientific investigation. These should be separately approved by each department; The institutional approval will be provided by the research services team of the main department delegated for approvals on behalf of UPB.

Multi-institutional projects: UPB Leading – UPB costs should be entered into the award system as a 'lead project', with research partner costs provided separately by the partner organization through their research services team.

NB: UPB should not calculate costs on behalf of its partners, as each institution's costs are different. Although the funder considers the award to be a joint funding, in administrative terms, a single institution will act as a "lead" to coordinate and manage the award, transferring funds to its research partners.

Multi-institutional projects: UPB as a partner – here UPB does not lead the overall application, as the departments should still view the costing, pricing and internal approval process, as any other type of application would do, using the pre-award management system and registering the overhead and recovery rates. Approval should be obtained from the relevant research department and services, before the final costs are provided to the lead external partner.

Directly Allocated Costs – PI and Co-I Time – PI and Co-I time are estimates of each academic staff contribution to the project and entered as designated persons.

Direct staff costs incurred – These costs are research-specific and will be charged directly to the project.

Indirect, real estate and infrastructure technical staff – Indirect costs – Non-research specific costs such as general office and basic laboratory supplies, library support and other services; Real Estate Rate – research costs associated to the premises, such as repairs, utilities, rent, insurance and existing equipment; Infrastructure Technicians – health and safety support, shop and laboratory management, equipment maintenance and management. All of these costs are calculated using the rates established by UPB and will depend on the percentage of the teaching and research staff time dedicated to the project.

Non-personnel direct costs – This covers project-specific direct costs, e.g., supplies, travel and equipment. All cost estimates must comply with UPB's procurement policies, including tendering requirements and written offers where necessary (including any applicable VAT).

Equipment and Facilities – Applicants should discuss with the UPB's Director of Research Facilities before requesting new equipment or installations and the total costs should include VAT, where applicable. A limited number of FEC loading facilities are available for use. Access and maintenance charges for the use of other UPB facilities may only be included where the funder conditions allow.

Price – This should be reviewed and checked in order to be aligned with the funder and UPB pricing policies prior to submission. NB: Many funders do not cover the full cost of research.

Applicants should carefully read the funder's guidelines to make sure that all the required documents are provided in the correct format. Additional documents may include CVs, lists of publications, supporting statements from the institution or the head of department.

Funders can indicate limits on page numbers, font size, font type, and margin size for each supporting document. Failure to comply may represent the return or dismissal of an application at an early stage of assessment.