Asking for Everything You Can

1
Asking for Everything You Can

• Dr Dawn Rippiner
• d.rippiner_at_abdn.ac.uk
• Ext 2120 (Room 48, University Office)

2
Costing method

• Grants currently costed using TRAC (Transparent
  Apparent to Costing) methodology
• Full Economic Costing (fEC) introduced from 2005
• Aim to help Research Institutions manage all
  activities sustainably
• Research Council Grants
• Other Government Department Grants (Commissioned
  Work)

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Cost Recovery on Research Projects
PI time
RAS other staff equipment consumables
Department costs Services (Infrastructure
charge) University central costs Investment/infras
tructure etc.
Direct costs
Indirect costs
FEC
46
R Councils
Charities
QR
Depends on RAE rating, staff
numbers contract income
4
Public funding of Research Grants

• How will funding change for University of
  Aberdeen?
• Additional 972K for existing research council
  grants
• Research Councils - 80 of FEC from Sept 2005
• Other Government Departments 100 of FEC
  (commissioned work)
• Charities to fund as currently
• Significant increase in funding for the same
  volume of work

5
How can we maximise funding?

• Identify all costs of research
• Negotiation with other funders

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Calculating the fEC (Research Council projects)

• Directly incurred costs (dedicated RAs, travel
  and subsistence, consumables, new equipment)
• B. Directly allocated costs (Academic staff
  costs, lab technicians (pooled), major facilities
  and equipment, space)
• Indirect costs (academic support time, central
  service dept. costs)
• Exceptional items (e.g. large capital,
  studentships)

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Directly Incurred Costs

• Dedicated RAs, travel subsistence, consumables,
  new equipment
• Conference costs
• Journal Fees
• Lab coats
• Stationery
• Communications (e.g. telephone calls)
• Advertising Recruitment
• Re-location costs
• Work permits
• Retuning musical instruments
• Need to think laterally!

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Directly Allocated Costs

• Investigator time Academic staff time paid
  under fEC
• Up to 37.5 hours 3-month write-up (PIs)
• No need to understate academic time to reduce
  costs
• Peer Review project judged on DI and DA costs
  only
• Academic time realistic, not artificial
• Academic staff time (FTEs) drives Estates costs
  Indirect costs
• Estates costs - two charges initially to be used
• Laboratory/clinical rate per FTE
• Generic (Office) per FTE
• Set rates means cost recovered driven by FTE

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Indirect costs

• One institutional rate for the University per FTE
• Driven by academic staff time
• Indirect costs make up significant percentage of
  full economic cost (35 in example)
• NB. At peer review, project will only be judged
  on
• Directly Incurred
• Directly Allocated Costs (excluding Estates
  Costs)

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Negotiation with other funders

• Maximising price can help compensate for research
  which is funded at less than fEC e.g Research
  Councils, EU, Charities
• Some opportunities for negotiation
• Industry
• Open-tender projects for Government
• Questions
• What is value of project to customer?
• Is it time-critical to customer ie can command a
  premium?
• Is expertise required unique to this University?
• What is the market price for work in this area?

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Concluding Thoughts

• Every Institution will be asking for everything
  they can
• Research funders will have to change processes
• Peer Review modified
• fEC will have huge effect on costing pricing of
  grants
• Different mindset for academics accountants
  low cost is good no longer applies!
• Additional funds requires academic input -
  identifying all costs and being open to negotiate
• Academics Research Institution will benefit

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Asking for Everything you Can

• Dr Dawn Rippiner
• d.rippiner_at_abdn.ac.uk
• Ext 2120 (Room 48, University Office)