​Managing your project finances

Just prior to the project start date, a Research Award Management Plan will be created for your project and will outline formal sponsor reporting deadlines; internal checkpoints to ensure that expenditure is on track; and other project-specific information that you will need to be aware of throughout the duration of your project. You will be asked to confirm that you have read and agree to the document. In the event of changes to the research project downstream which affect reporting timescales or financial requirements, this document will be updated by your Research Support contact and re-issued for your agreement.

You will receive monthly financial reports for all J codes you are responsible for. Your monthly report will contain separate tabs for each of your active projects and within each project report is the name and contact details of the member of staff responsible for supporting you with the financial management of each award. If you are not receiving the report and believe you should be, please email research@lboro.ac.uk. It is your responsibility to ensure that transactions being processed through your project are correctly allocated according to your funder’s terms and conditions.

You can also access live budget data directly via Agresso. See guidance on how to access and interpret your budget reports via Agresso.

Day to day project management of budgets and deliverables are the responsibility of the PI. This includes the management of the project within the terms and conditions of funding, adherence to reporting requirements and timely communication of significant project changes. Expenditure should be charged directly to the project for which purchase is intended and must be in line with the awarded budget, must be in accordance with the funder’s terms and conditions and should only be incurred between the actual start and end date of the project. The Research Support team are available for advising on allowable expenditure.

Typically, all expense claims should have information about where you have been, what the expenditure is for, why it was spent and when the event/ spend happened. (ie. Who, what, why, where and when?) If there are discrepancies, the funder may refuse to reimburse costs. Ineligible expenditure charged to the research project, which is not paid by the funder, will have to be borne by the PI and the School.

If you identify transactions that should not have been charged to your budget, contact your Research Support contact.Costs can only be transferred once the correct budget for the cost has been identified/agreed.

We try to refrain from spending before the start date but expenditure is required to evidence the start of a project for some funding types and a starting certificate is required. The Research Support team can give guidance on these funding types.

A staff budget is based on the initial proposal and award given to the university. When a project is due to start a staff check is performed to confirm his/ her staff budget availability against the project. This check is performed by the Research Support team. Additional staff checks on existing projects will be required for new posts and staff extensions.

Timesheets are required for all staff on EU projects. These must be signed and provided to the Research Support team in accordance with submission of the claims. In addition to EU projects, timesheets may be required for other projects. If timesheets are required the Research Support team will advise.

Travel insurance and booking

The University travel insurance and booking policy and process is outlined in the Insurance website.

Out of pocket expenses*

The University out of pocket expenses policy and process is outlined in the Finance website.

The terms for transferring grants depends on the funder of the project. Approval to accept or release an award is required by the HoD and at the earliest opportunity. The time taken to transfer the award depends on the funder and the complexity of the transfer. As a general guide, the funder must be notified if the PI intends to transfer to another University. Written agreement is required from both the relinquishing and receiving University. The Research Finance team will liaise with the funder/University on the PI's behalf as we must have written agreement from the funder.

Relinquishing of projects – this is dealt with by the Research Support team and the PI. A Research Council project requires grant maintenance (process on the Je-S system) to be submitted for the removal of the project. The receiving University will have to accept it via the grant maintenance. This is the same as receiving a project from another University. A final expenditure statement will be required for the movement of this project and this too is compiled by the Research Support team, along with any contractual changes/alterations that need to be arranged.

Receiving projects – such projects need to go through the Research Office in order that they can set up budgets and agree contracts and any collaboration.

When a project is undertaken by a number of universities and Loughborough University acts as the lead, the other universities are defined as research partners. In addition, the university may subcontract out elements of a project to a third party. Administrative arrangements relating to the financial relationship with research partners and sub-contractors is the responsibility of the Research Support team who will liaise with them on matters including budget details, invoicing and financial reporting. Where Loughborough University is the lead, the School is responsible for raising the purchase orders for each of the research partners. Contractual terms are dealt with within the Research Office.

Some funders will have specified in your initial terms and conditions that audits will be required on a periodic basis, other funders will perform them on an ad-hoc basis to ensure the financial probity of the university and its processes are adequate. If your project has been selected for an audit, please contact your Research Support contact, who will guide you through the audit process appropriate for your funder.

Your audit may cover more than just the financial transactions against the project. Your auditor may want to perform stock/equipment check or have tours of labs and facilities etc. You will need to ensure you are available for these if requested.

Not all audits will incur a cost to the university. Many are performed as part of your funders due diligence process, to ensure we have financial probity and adequate operational processes in place. If there is a cost incurred for audits relating to your project, where the funder terms allow, your Research Support contact will attempt to recover the audit costs through the project. If it is not possible to claim your audit costs, these costs will need to be recovered from another budget. The Research Support team will contact your Operations Manager and Dean to advise them that these costs will be recovered from the project overheads.

During the audit, transactions may be identified as contravening the terms and conditions of the funder. If this occurs, these costs will need to be recovered from another budget. You will need to advise your Research Support contact of the appropriate project where these costs can be recovered. If they cannot be appropriately allocated to another project, then you will need to discuss this with your Dean to agree the transfer of these costs against the Schools overhead recovery.

Depending on the nature of changes required and your funder’s terms and conditions, you may require permission from your funder to make changes to the project, a re-costing or re-purposing of your project budget and/or re-negotiation of contracts and collaboration agreements. Please contact the member of Research Support staff allocated to your project outlining the circumstances and required changes to your project and they will advise you on the right course of action. Some examples of changes are given below:

I need more time (but no additional funding) to complete my Research Council project

Please do not assume that because you are not seeking additional funds there will be no implications on the budget management for your project. Overheads may need to be recalculated across the longer period, affecting how much can be claimed periodically and the support staff allocated to your award must be informed of such changes. For Research Council funded projects, you will be asked to apply for an extension via the Grant Maintenance section of the Je-S system (Research Council Portal), giving your reason for the request. For industry and charity funded projects, you will be asked to request your funder’s agreement in writing for an extension of time and then forward evidence of approval by email to research@lboro.ac.uk so that budgets can be amended and contracts/collaboration agreements re-negotiated as appropriate.

I need more money to complete my project

Support staff will work with you to understand whether there is any opportunity within the contract to request additional funds and if so, to generate new costings or pricings for your project. Additional funding will require approval by your School before the revised costs can be applied for.

There are changes to my project or investigators

For Research Council projects, changes to staffing must be notified to the funder through the grant maintenance section of the Je-S system (Research Council Portal). Please notify support staff of agreed changes by emailing research@lboro.ac.uk so that budgets and expenditure reports can be updated accordingly. If your project is funded by another funder support staff will work with you to understand whether your proposals are permitted within your contract.

Staff working on my project are going on parental leave (maternity/paternity/adoption).

Please email research@lboro.ac.uk and they will work with you to understand whether these costs are recoverable under the terms and conditions of your funder.

Staff working on the project have been made redundant; can these redundancy costs be claimed against the project?

These costs are covered by the University, not your funder. If you are impacted by this, please speak to your School Operations Manager as this will need to be accounted for within the University's annual budget.

Staff working on the project are going on an unpaid leave of absence and it will impact on the project deliverables

Please see the terms and conditions of your funder as you may be able to request a project extension.

Staff working on the project are on sick leave, are these costs covered on the project?

Sick pay is payable by the Research Council only for directly incurred staff that are funded for 100% of their contracted time on the grant. Please consider whether the leave of absence has a consequence on completing the project within the designated time frames. For all other funders please check the terms and condition or executed agreement.

All claims, statements and invoices will be prepared by the Research Support team and will be submitted and reconciled in accordance with the terms and conditions of the funder. For more complex projects the Research Support team will need to work with the PI.

Some research funders, e.g. Research Councils, will require you to submit an academic report within a specified period, as a condition of payment. Schools are responsible for ensuring that deadlines for the academic reports are met so that the University’s expenditure can be promptly recovered. Where final reports are submitted late, the sponsor may disallow claims and issue a financial sanction to the University. The University has no central funds to meet disallowed claims and therefore these costs will be incurred by your School. Please check your executed contract or your funder's terms and conditions to see if this applies to your project.

This refers to the transfer of funds between budget headings. Support staff will work with you to understand whether this is permitted under the terms and conditions of your funder and to revise your budget or expenditure reports as appropriate.

These are submitted and signed off by the Research Support team. They are sent to PIs for review prior to submission to the funder. Prompt replies are required to ensure timely submission of the invoices. Late submission is not an option and will result in a financial penalty and therefore a reduction of the award value.

As soon as a PI suspects that a research agreement is at risk of early termination, it is important the PI contacts the Research Support team. If there is a reduction in funding, a budget adjustment will be required against the project.

Under some circumstances and dependent on the funder, extensions may cover breaks or delays in the appointment of staff, periods of parental leave, or sick paid leave. PIs must contact the Research Support team for guidance on funders and extensions.

Before the team can initiate project closure, they will confirm with the PI that the PI has submitted the final report/outputs. The final payment is usually subject to receipt of the scientific report.

Most research agreements are reimbursed on the basis of actual expenditure incurred. If spend has not reached the budget value at the end date of the project, the project is underspent and the funder will not reimburse the full budget. Funders that commonly fall into this category are charities, UK Research Councils, EU Commission and all awards from government departments.

Once a research project reaches the end date set out in the contract with the funding body, any funds unspent, which do not need to be returned to the funder, will be released to the School business plan as overheads. Access to these funds once released is dependent on the overall ability of the School to meet its annual overhead target. Providing the School is on target, access to funds is at the discretion of the Dean. If you are not clear on the process within your School please contact your Finance Business Partner.

It is important that you fully understand your funder’s rules regarding expenditure and evidencing your expenditure and that you monitor and manage this accordingly, in order that the University can claim the full funding awarded. If you have overspent, or the University cannot claim the full award because you have not provided sufficient evidence to justify claiming the expenditure, the cost of the overspend will be incurred by your School. Project spend must occur within the time frame of the project otherwise this will be a disallowable cost. If you think you may overspend, please contact your Research Support contact as soon as possible. Overspends on a project must be met by the PI or School.

See the Enterprise Office intranet (login with your University username and password) for a step-by-step guide on protecting and exploiting the commercial value of your work.