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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.
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