Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Polaris House, North Star Avenue, Swindon, Wiltshire, SN2 1ET Tel (01793) 444000

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/ e-mail: [email protected] (01793) 444100

Engineering and Physical SciencesResearch Council

John WandProgramme Operations

Tel: 01793 444457

e-mail: [email protected]

EPSRCPolaris House

North Star AvenueSwindon SN2 1ET

Who funds HE research?

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available - see SET Statistics

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Funding Councils

UK IndustryEUUK charities

Government

Other

HEI Research income

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Expenditure by FCs and other funders

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1988-89 1989-90 1990-91 1991-92 1992-93 1993-94 1994-95 1995-96 1996-97 1997-98 1998-99 1999-00

HEFCs Total project funders

The problem: trends

Increased pressure on all HEI staff to conduct and publish research

Poor understanding of cost base Neglect of long-run costs Low price culture

Stagnating QR alongside increased project funding

The problem: present position

Under-investment in university infrastructure highlighted in the Dearing Report in 1997

Transparency Review (2000) detailed Backlog Recurrent gap

Investing in Innovation (2002) confirmed a “persistent failure to invest in research infrastructure”

S&I Investment Framework (2004) affirmed need to address this

Investing in Innovation/S&I Investment Framework

Research in HEIs must be sustainable HEIs must understand and recover FEC overall Dual support system remains Government is contributing very significant amounts of

money for sustainability: SRIF increasing to a permanent stream of £500M per year Extra QR (£244M + SR2004) Extra money for Research Councils (£120M+£80M)

Better cost recovery from others eg Government Departments

Implementation Calculating full economic cost of individual

projects Terms of trade between HEIs and RCs

TRAC Methodology TRansparent Approach to Costing Activity Based Costing Introduced at high level Teaching (public & non publicly funded) Research (PF and NPF) Other Cost not Income Accepted by HMT

TRAC Methodology Extend to Project level Robust, consistent Balance accuracy and bureaucracy NO Timesheets Roll out by January 2005 (grant applications to RCs

from Sep ‘05, money paid out from April 2006) QA process Benchmarking exercise

Project Costing

Current fECDedicated staff X XAcademic staff -time X XAcademic staff - cost XEquipment X XOther costs, T&S X XIndirect costs – 46% XSpace charge – per FTE XIndirect cost – per FTE X

Terms of trade between HEIs and RCs

RCs pay a fixed % of full economic cost Moving to ‘close to’ 100% by 2010 Includes Fellowships (including RS, RAEng) Excludes PGR (for the present)

RC Funding; current positionFULL ECONOMIC COSTS

Direct costs 

Indirect costs

 eligible staff costs

(e.g. Research Assistants,support staff)

Research council contribution to indirect costs = 46% of eligible direct staff costs

The institution must find the rest from other sources.

 other eligible

costs (e.g. equipmentequipment) 

 ineligible costs

(e.g. salary of the Principal Investigator) 

Eligible – RC will pay these costsShaded area – what RC will fund

RC funding; proposed model

FULL ECONOMIC COSTS 

Direct costs 

Indirect costs

Research Council

    pays approx 70% of full costs    

The institution must 

  find the rest from other sources.  

Proposal Form

Directly Incurred Staff Equipment T&S Consumables

Directly Allocated Investigators Estates Other Directly Allocated (eg pool technicians)

Indirect Costs Exceptions

Issues for move to FEC What percentage of FEC? roughly 70% Same for all disciplines/RCs? (Yes) Paying for P.I. salary? (Yes) 37.5 hr working week for costing purposes Departments with no QR? (Yes) Timescale and transition (Sept 2005) Monitoring and adjustments

Issues for RCs for move to FEC Monitoring academic time on projects etc Application numbers Differences between indirect cost rates

‘legitimate’ or inefficient? Verification/audit Assessment – value for money? Mathematics Small Grants

Value for Money ‘Research grant applications will be externally

peer reviewed in the same way as they are at present. …. This will not require a fundamental change in the role of the Committees whose job has always been primarily to advise on the quality of science described in the applications.’

Issues for HoDs in move to FEC

Academic time – balance between T & R Budget

are costs being recovered?What does the department pay for?

Access to QR funds

Provisional Timescale

New data requirements and processes (Paper based) September 2004

Administrative Workshops Autumn 2004 Training of peer reviewers mid 2005 Electronic forms available mid 2005 Applications on new basis from Sept 2005

Culture Change Project costing methodology to be rolled out

further than TRAC in HEIs (will impact on P.I.s) HEIs know costs and set prices accordingly RCs operations will need to change (brief peer

reviewers) Non RC funders – expect to fund all or part of FEC