Award acceptance and set-up

Research funding is managed within the Oracle Grants module (part of the College’s finance system, ICIS) and when setting up the award details the correct  Funder Group must be assigned. Entering the correct Funder Group is essential because it directly affects the proportion of Quality-related Research (QR) funding received by the College from Research England.  Further information on Funder Group categories and criteria is available in the Funder Groups Guidance [pdf].

Within the Oracle Grants module, research projects are administered using an accounting code structure called POETA which includes a:

• Project Number (P)
• Cost Centre (O)
• Analysis Code (E)
• Task (T)
• Award Number (A)

 The Award Number

The Award Number will be allocated by the Faculty Research Services team and is a combination of the Cost Centre and the Project Number eg ABCDE_P12345:

• The Cost Centre indicates the academic department or faculty  e.g. ABCDE
• The Project Number is generated from the Proposal Number originally created by the Pre-Award system e.g. P12345

Research income received from the funder will be credited against the Award.

Subproject Numbers

Where the budget for a collaborative award is divided between different departments or faculties, a subproject will be set up for each department. Several subprojects can be linked to an overall Award Number, but the Subproject Number will always be prefixed by PS e.g. PS1234

Research expenditure will  be charged against Project Numbers and Subproject Numbers in line with the  Award Budget

Once the Project Number is set up, the Faculty Research Services team will then assign a budget as laid out in the Award Letter from the funder.  Depending on the individual award, budget values will be allocated against Directly Incurred, Directly Allocated and Indirect Cost codes at project and (where required) at subproject level.

Initial GBP budgets will be set up using the same rate as the original application. Where an advance payment is received, income received will be budgeted at the income rate (i.e. the actual conversion rate at time of receipt), whereas the outstanding income will be budgeted using the Exchange Rate Table.

For US Federal awards, e.g. National Institutes of Health, where budgets are awarded annually, each annual budget can be calculated using the current one-year rate from the Exchange Rate Table.

When a project is undertaken by a number of institutions and College acts as the lead, the other institutions are defined as research partners. In other cases the College may contract out elements of a project to third party subcontractors.

As part of the award set up process, Faculty Research Services teams are responsible for liaising with research partners and those in receipt of professional fees on any administrative arrangements relating to the financial and contractual relationship including:

• Budget details
• Invoicing
• Obligations to the main funder
• Financial reporting
• Contractual terms (if applicable)

Please see the Research Partner and Professional Fees Guidance for further information.

The Faculty Research Services team will send the Principal Investigator (PI) and the Department a notification that outlines the following project information:

• Award letter/funder’s terms and conditions or contract
• Budget breakdown sheet
• Award allocation letter
• Project Number
• Award Number
• Any funder specific requirements/obligations e.g. timesheets

Receipt of this notification means the set-up process is complete, the award and project numbers are activated in the general ledger and the PI can spend against the project number.