Research Funding

1
Research Funding

• Dr Campbell Thomson

Research Services
2
Overview

• Context
• Competitive Grant Funding
• - Constructing a research budget
• - Infrastructure and full costing
• - Cost versus price
• Block Grant funding
• - SRE, ERA and transparent costing
• Roles and responsibilities

3
Overview

• Context
• Competitive Grant Funding
• - Constructing a research budget
• - Infrastructure and full costing
• - Cost versus price
• Block Grant funding
• - SRE, ERA and transparent costing
• Roles and responsibilities

4
Context
Government investment into research 2010-2011
5
Context (cont.)

• Government investment into higher education
  research is about 41
• Dual funding system
• Competitive schemes 1.6 billion (ARC NHMRC)
• Block funding schemes 1.7 billion
• Competitive grants encourage researchers to
  compete on quality and impact Block funding
  provides a research base to allow institutions to
  make strategic choices

6
Overview

• Context
• Competitive Grant Funding
• - Constructing a research budget
• - Infrastructure and full costing
• - Cost versus price
• Block Grant funding
• - SRE, ERA and transparent costing
• Roles and responsibilities

7
Competitive Grant Funding

• 
  2009
  
• ARC competitive funding 550 million
• NHMRC competitive funding 625 million
• Other competitive programs 400 million
• (including CRCs) 1,575 million

8
Overview

• Context
• Competitive Grant Funding
• - Constructing a research budget
• - Infrastructure and full costing
• - Cost versus price
• Block Grant funding
• - SRE, ERA and transparent costing
• Roles and responsibilities

9
Constructing a research budget

• Forms the basis on which your project is funded
• A well constructed budget should include all
  direct costs of your project
• A well justified budget should increase your
  chances of having these direct costs funded
• 2005 ARC Discovery Project round UWAs average
  grant size increased from 248,000 to 360,000

10
Project costing template
11
Project costing template (cont.)
12
Project costing template (cont.)
13
Project costing template (cont.)
14
Other DIRECT project costs

• Equipment
• Maintenance and travel
• Overseas per diem and accommodation (ATO)
• Relocation and appointment expenses (HR)
• Animal agistment costs
• Occupational health and safety costs
• External audit costs

15
INDIRECT project costs

• Laboratory/office space
• Existing research support/administrative support
• Libraries
• Power and lighting
• Computer services and telecommunications
• Building maintenance/cleaning

16
How to calculate indirect costs

• Percentage of direct costs
• Apply a multiplier against all professional
  salaries
• - High cost school/centre 127
• - Medium cost school/centre 114
• - Low cost school/centre 100

17
Overview

• Context
• Competitive Grant Funding
• - Constructing a research budget
• - Infrastructure and full costing
• - Cost versus price
• Block Grant funding
• - SRE, ERA and transparent costing
• Roles and responsibilities

18
Infrastructure

• Infrastructure indirect costs
• When to apply infrastructure charge
• On all research grants, contracts, tenders and
  consultancies with the exception of
• - Australian Competitive Grants
• - Bona fide donations
• - Scholarship stipends
• Full infrastructure should be applied if IP or
  publishing rights are not fully retained

19
How to calculate infrastructure

• Percentage of direct costs 35 or 15.
• Current University policy
• Apply a salary multiplier against all
  professional salaries - 127, 114, 100
• Contracts and tenders must be fully costed to
  comply with competitive neutrality policy
• NOTE All contracts and tenders must be
  submitted through the Research Grants Office and
  must be signed by an authorised signatory

20
What happens to infrastructure recoveries

• 68 to the school/centre
• 32 to central services
• - 35 to Universities Facilities
  (ACU/CMM etc.)
• - 35 to Academic Services
  (Research Services/Legal Services/Financial
  Services etc.)
• - 30 to the Library

21
Fully costed budget using of direct costs
Fund Body University Total
DIRECT COSTS
Postdoc Fellow 71,267 - 71,267
Research Assistant 66,836 - 66,836
CI (LVLC 1) (20) - 20,716 20,716
equipment 100,000 - 100,000
INDIRECT COSTS
35 of direct costs - 90,587 90,587

TOTAL 238,103 111,303 349,406
22
Fully costed budget using salary multiplier
Fund Body University Total
DIRECT COSTS
Postdoc Fellow 71,267 - 71,267
Research Assistant 66,836 - 66,836
CI (LVLC 1) (20) - 20,716 20,716
equipment 100,000 - 100,000
INDIRECT COSTS
Post doc x 127 - 90,509 90,509
RA - - -
CI x 127 - 26,309 26,309
(90,587)
TOTAL 238,103 137,534 375,637
23
Overview

• Context
• Competitive Grant Funding
• - Constructing a research budget
• - Infrastructure and full costing
• - Cost versus price
• Block Grant funding
• - SRE, ERA and transparent costing
• Roles and responsibilities

24
Cost versus price

• Price Amount charged or paid by the research
  sponsor
• Cost The sum of all costs, direct and indirect,
  associated with a research project

25
Overview

• Context
• Competitive Grant Funding
• - Constructing a research budget
• - Infrastructure and full costing
• - Cost versus price
• Block Grant funding
• - SRE, ERA and transparent costing
• Roles and responsibilities

26
Metrics (HERDC)

• Research income categories
• Category 1 income ACG e.g. ARC, NHMRC
• Category 2 income Public Sector
• Category 3 income Industry
• Category 4 income CRCs
• Publication categories
• A1 Book
• B1 Book chapter
• C1 Refereed journal article
• E1 Refereed conference article

27
DIISR block funding flows 2009

• Research Infrastructure Block Grant (RIBG) 220 M
• - share of most recent two years Category 1
  Income
• Research Training Scheme (RTS) 615 M
• - share of HDR student completions (50),
  share of Category 1,2,3,4 income (40), and
  share A1,B1,C1 and E1 publications (10)
• Institutional Grants Scheme (IGS) 325 M
• - share of Category 1,2,3,4 income (60),
  share of HDR student load (30), and share
  A1,B1,C1 and E1 publications (10)

28
DIISR block funding flows 2010

• Research Infrastructure Block Grant (RIBG) 220 M
• Research Training Scheme (RTS) 615 M
• Joint Research Engagement (JRE) 325 M
• share of Category 2,3,4 income
• Sustainable Research Excellence (SRE) 300 M
• share of Category 1 income moderated by quality
  and indirect cost drivers
• Collaborative Research Networks (CRN) 50 M

29
Overview

• Context
• Competitive Grant Funding
• - Constructing a research budget
• - Infrastructure and full costing
• - Cost versus price
• Block Grant funding
• - SRE, ERA and transparent costing
• Roles and responsibilities

30
Sustainable Research Excellence (SRE)

• 2009/10 budget reform to boost Australias
  competitiveness by
• - Increasing the number of research groups
  performing at world-class levels
• - Addressing the shortfall in funding of
  indirect costs of Australian Competitive
  Grants (ACGs)
• - Return of 50 cents in the dollar of ACG
  income

31
SRE block funding

• 20 baseline on share of ACG income
• 13 for universities who sign up for Excellence
  in Research for Australia (ERA) and transparent
  costing (TC) based on share of first 2.5M
  ACG (threshold 1)
• 67 for universities signed up for ERA and TC
  based on share of ACG above 2.5M moderated by
  quality (ERA) and costs (TC) (threshold 2)

32
SRE moderated by quality

• Excellence in Research Australia (ERA) initiative
• Publications over a 6 year window by FOR
• Discipline specific outputs peer reviewed
• Esteem factors
• Results published at FOR level (1,2,3,4, or 5)
• UWA had 91 of assessable two-digit FORs rated at
  world class or above (3,4,5)
• Ei moderator

33
SRE moderated by costs

• Transparent costing (TC) based on reported
  indirect costs and the effort of staff directed
  towards ACG research (staff survey)
• UWA reported 50 of time spent on research and
  26 of time spent on ACG research activity
• Total indirect costs at UWA 276.8M ACG
  indirect costs 26 of 276.8M 72.0M ACG
  indirect costs/ACG income 72.0M/84.1M 85.6
  cents in the dollar
• TC moderator

34
SRE threshold 2 funding

• Two pools
• Share of ACG income x TC moderator Share of
  TC pool
• Share of ACG income x Ei moderators Share
  of Ei pool
• One pool
• Share of ACG income x TC moderator x Ei
  moderator Share of total pool
• Ei could be share of research outputs in FORs
  rated 3,4 or 5 as a proportion of total research
  outputs

35
Overview

• Context
• Competitive Grant Funding
• - Constructing a research budget
• - Infrastructure and full costing
• - Cost versus price
• Block Grant funding
• - SRE, ERA and transparent costing
• Roles and responsibilities

36
Roles and responsibilities

• Research Grants Office
• - Opening PGs to accept funds
• - Preparing financial schedules as per
  contracts
• - Notifying CIs/school managers/finance
  officers
• - Invoicing funds as per contract
• - Preparing financial statements
• - Audits as required

37
Roles and responsibilities

• Business Unit
• - Day to day management of the research PG
• - Ensuring expenditure according to terms
  conditions (NHMRC has issued an eligible
  direct costs schedule)
• - Providing regular updates to CIs on
  expenditure balances
• - Ensuring other income is not invoiced to
  research PG
• - Notifying RGO when milestones are complete to
  initiate invoices
• - Notifying RGO of any changes, variations or
  extensions

38
Further information

• Internal guidelines
• (http//www.research.uwa.edu.au/staff/applying-fo
  r-funding)
• Contacts
• (http//www.research.uwa.edu.au/staff/contact)
• QUESTIONS ?