​Managing your funder's Terms & Conditions

Research Council projects

(AHRC, BBSRC, ESRC, EPSRC, MRC, NERC, STFC)

Monthly research summary report

  • A Research Summary Report showing the totals to date will be emailed to PIs each month for monitoring purposes
  • If you have any problems reading this report or understanding the figures please contact the research support member of staff listed at the bottom of your report
  • Whilst monitoring your budget, if you notice any anomalies please contact us

Equipment charges

  • Equipment purchases cannot be made in the last six months of a project if there is an equipment budget
  • Laptop computers can only be claimed if they have been justified in the project proposal

Travel charges

  • Please note that travel expenditure must be used for trips that incurred before the end date
  • It cannot be spent on trips that will not take place until after the project has finished. In this case an extension would need to be agreed

Keeping records

  • Please be aware that for all travel expenditures we have to give details of who travelled, where, when and purpose of visit in Final Expenditure Statement
  • We also need to provide equipment details such as date of order, purchase date and description

Near the end of the project

  • Your Research Support contact will email you towards the end of the project to ask if the project is due to end and check if any outstanding funds can be utilised before the end date

Need more time?

  • If your project is not running as expected or an unexpected delay has occurred, you can submit an extension request, before the end date, through the Je-S system
  • In most cases the extension will be agreed (if reasonable) then the new end date becomes the official project end

Final reporting

  • A Final Expenditure Statement (FES) must be submitted within three months of the end date to receive the final income or trigger a refund of unspent funds
  • A summary of expenditure is sent to PIs with a request for them to confirm details

Innovate - TSB projects

Monthly research summary report

  • A Research Summary Report showing the totals to date will be emailed to PIs each month for monitoring purposes
  • If you have any problems reading this report or understanding the figures please contact the research support member of staff listed at the base of your report
  • Whilst monitoring your budget, if you notice any anomalies please contact your Research Support contact

Reporting

  • The Research Support team will prepare claims using actual expenditure as soon as possible following the quarter end
  • It is emailed to the PI for approval or amendments
  • Once agreed, the PI should meet with partners to discuss and approve for submission to the Monitoring Officer
  • The Research Support team will submit the claim to the Monitoring Officer on the TSB Portal
  • The deadline is one month following the quarter end
  • If the Research Support team do not receive approval from the PI/ Monitoring Officer by the last working day of the deadline month, the Research Support team will still submit via the Portal otherwise the funds will be lost

For the last quarter we have a three month deadline to submit the final claim. (This is to allow for all expenditure to be processed through the University system) At which point an external audit will be required. We will need you to keep documents relating to any claimed expenditure particularly Credit Card payments.

Expenditure

  • Please note that an underspend on a category cannot be automatically used to offset overspends on another category
  • Conferences and trips charged to the project will only be allowable if they take place before the project ends

European Commission

Timesheets

  • Staff working on the project need to fill their time sheets in on a monthly basis. the Research Support team can provide you with a template
  • Indicate what work package they have been working on and get each months timesheets signed by a manager
  • If you are not working 100% on an EC project, your timesheet must be a joint record of where your other time was allocated

Expenditures

  • When any purchase orders are made please can the 'J' code be recorded on the paperwork as a reference so it appears on the customer invoice
  • Keep every receipt for any item purchased no matter how small and if possible attach a copy to the transaction input onto Agresso. If this can be done even for items purchased on a credit card this will save you a lot of time searching for receipts at the end of the claim period
  • Costs for pool vehicles, minor internal items for IT or stationery from internal sources cannot be claimed on these projects as they come under your overheads

Expense claims

  • All claim forms must clearly state the reason for the trip i.e. (travelled to Brussels to attend the kick off meeting) and what work package it refers to and who travelled
  • Do not bulk costs for different trips onto one claim form

General points

  • The VAT for Horizon 2020 projects should not be taken off or coded differently as they are now eligible costs
  • Please can you keep records of agendas, minutes of meeting, e-mails confirming attendance and all information on presentations made at conference or meetings for the audit