Liz Visher Belinda Graham Penny Bambrick Program Partnerships team Managing ARC Projects
Dec 21, 2015
Post-award contacts – all schemesDirector, Program Partnerships Liz Visher
Assistant Director, Post-award Belinda Graham
Senior Project Officer Elspeth Langford
Project Officer – LP Liz McCallum
Project Officer –FT, FL, ITRP Ema Falez
Project Officer – LE, IN, DE Joshua Hatch
Project Officer – DP Chloe Wei
Project Officer – Final Reports Claire Walters
All queries and VFA requests: [email protected]
EOY / Progress Report queries: (to be merged) [email protected]
Final Report queries: [email protected]
Web page for Post-award: http://www.arc.gov.au/applicants/reported_requirements.htm
Centre contactsDirector, Program Partnerships Liz Visher
Assistant Director, Centres and SRI Schemes Penny Bambrick
Senior Project Officer – SRI and Co-Funded Centres Millennia Pullen
Project Officer – SRI and Co-Funded Centres Jessica Fredin
Project Officer – SRI and Co-Funded Centres Lisa Webster
Project Officer – SRI and Co-Funded Centres Kristy Sullivan
Senior Project Officer – Centres of Excellence Christine Joannides
Project Officer – Centres of Excellence Vishal Pandey
Centres of Excellencehttp://www.arc.gov.au/ncgp/ce/ce_default.htm
Co-Funded Centreshttp://www.arc.gov.au/ncgp/centres/co-funded_centres.htm
Special Research Initiativeshttp://www.arc.gov.au/ncgp/sri/sri_default.htm
Managing ARC Projects• Policy overview
• Postaward – business streamlining
• Postaward – ICT developments
• Statistics and key project management issues for ROs
• Centres and ITRP– 2017 ARC Centres of Excellence round– 2011 Centres mid term reviews - observations– ITRP – some postaward matters
Policy overview• The Government innovation agenda…
• Less Red Tape
• Improving collaboration – industry and universities
• Grant issues and misconduct – a new policy soon
• The legislative framework for financial accountability
• Sharing lessons with other agencies
• Research Impact update
Management of Grants
PaymentsPayments
MonitoringMonitoringVariationsVariations
ReportingReporting
Reviews, Evaluation &
Audits
Reviews, Evaluation &
Audits
ContractsContracts
Postaward – business streamlining
• Combined Funding Agreements
• Update on combining End of Year Reporting/Progress Report by Exception
• Reducing paperwork with Variations to Funding Agreements
• Final Reporting – discussions about one form for all schemes
• Helping you – find solutions with difficult matters
Postaward – ICT developments
Statuses for projects – helping with questions from researchers on what ARC “active grants” mean for Discovery Projects for 2016
Status Description
Active Project has funding paid this year or has an approved carryover
Complete Project has no active funding, the Final Report is being prepared
Closed Project has no active funding, the Final Report has been approved or waived
Postaward – ICT developments
• End of Year Reporting in RMS with enhancements and includes dropdown list for progress report by exception
• What’s next for consideration?
– Payments * Dashboard of project info
– Electronic VFAs * Reporting for ROs & ARC
– Final Reporting * Re-using data & metrics
– Centres reporting
A word of thanks
The working group on postaward Daniel Owens, UNSW Dimity Phillips, ANU Alice Percy, UTAS Michelle Armstrong, Monash Uni Cameron van den Heuvel, UAdel Nadia Hamilton, Griffith Uni Robert Roche, UWA Hemali Seneviratne, CDU
More volunteers to help?
Statistics for thoughtIn 2013 we completed 1,444 Variation requests.
The most frequently requested VFA types were:
– Change of Personnel (i.e. add/remove) (283),
– Change of Organisation (i.e. add/remove) (229)
– Transfer (135) and
– Budget Variation (126).
In 2014 (YTD as of 28/11/14), we have completed 1,606 Variation requests.
The most frequently requested VFA types were:
– Change of Personnel (i.e. add/remove) (319),
– Transfer (212),
– Change of Organisation (i.e. add/remove) (205) and
– Budget Variation (119).
Key project management issues for ROs
• Partnerships with industry and other organisations and managing expectations before/during and after funding
• Teamwork issues between researchers
• A mobile workforce – competition is fierce
• Fellowship suspensions and employed staff
• Code of conduct matters and ethics
Key project management issues for ROs
• Appropriateness of requests and better timing
• Contacting the Postaward team to discuss more difficult issues – we try to find solutions with you
• Sharing business knowledge and benefits of streamlining
• Thanks for complying with the financial reporting of cash fully in End of Year’s
Key tips on money
$ A word on Revoke Recoveries
$ Bringing funding forward from outyears
$ Varying grant budget and duration…
$ Financial compliance - non-allowable items
$ Special conditions
$ Submitting a final report then declaring left over funding…
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: [email protected]
The ARC’s Institutional Review Program
Objectives:
The objective of the reviews is to assess the effectiveness of the management of research projects with the aims being to determine whether:
•the research projects are operating in accordance with the terms of the Funding Agreement and Funding Rules
•appropriate reporting, budgeting and project management systems are in place; and
•activities correlate to those in the research proposal.
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: [email protected]
Actions following an Institutional Review
• Institutions are notified of the results of each review
• Findings deemed to be high or extreme should be corrected within 1 to 3 months and the ARC will monitor the implementation of corrective action until such actions have been completed
• The ARC will follow-up on the actions taken by institutions to address the findings of the review
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: [email protected]
Institutions are reminded that ARC funding agreements contain provision for termination if:
o the Administering Organisation commits a breach of the agreement which the Commonwealth considers is not capable of remedy
o in the opinion of the ARC, progress on the project is not satisfactory
o the ARC reasonably considers that it has received inaccurate, incomplete or misleading information in relation to the project, including in the proposal or in any report provided under the agreement, or provided to the ARC as part of the Institutional Review.
Centres and ITRP
• Matters for consultation for 2017 round
• 2011 mid-term reviews – a summary of our observations
• A word on research leadership
• ITRP – training centres and hubs – key postaward matters.
CE17 - consultation
• Objectives
• Assessment and selection criteria
• Marriages
• FTE for investigators
• Feedback on proposals
• Funding
• Institutional contributions
2011 Centres – Mid term reviews
Forward thinking – new strategic plans for second half of research program
A culture of organisational excellence
Increasing collaboration as an entity, not just researcher based
Multi-disciplinary research environment
Research training – professional development Gender equity programs
Succession planning – a leadership team focus Research leadership and mentoring, joint supervision
Integration of the nodes Financial expenditure and leveraging
Integration of the research projects Keeping the governance committees focused on the future
Appearing as a unique national entity Outward focused culture – translating the research
Research Leadership
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Someone+Leading+a+Group&FORM=RESTAB#view=detail&id=E870376B099353C2C4C359215DD0E5A1FBB27B9C&selectedIndex=12
Leading a team, versus a leading team
Industrial Transformation Research ProgramShould appear as unique entities within universities Challenges with student placements with industry –
placement plan, interstate costs, and truck drivers….
Allowing Directors discretion with recruitment, budget and resourcing and directions
Leveraging new funds and collaborations.
Working hard with organisational collaborations – managing expectations
Postaward – delays in recruitment and conversion of funding
Setting up leadership networks A word on international students
Commercial activities and IP Securing industry agreements – 3 years or more