Application for a Grant Or Contract

Application for a Grant or Contract

This covering form (the ‘AGC’) is part of the internal approval procedure when making applications to external funders. The AGC provides a checklist of questions that should be asked when submitting an application.

Scope of use:

• All research grants and contracts
• All services rendered contracts
• Miscellaneous projects that are not research or services rendered but are run through the Research Grants and Contracts Office. Please check with this office before undertaking a project to ascertain whether it requires approval.

An explanatory note is needed when the answer given to a question is starred.

Completion Checklist:

Sections to be completed / Additional paper work to be submitted
Step 1: Completion by academic / Principal Investigator / A, B, C, D, E plus Appendix A where applicable / Print outs from Siriusweb & fEC spreadsheet
Step 2: Approval by School / School Approver
(Dean or delegated authority) / F / Additional paperwork from Principal Investigator to be forwarded
Step 3: Approval on behalf of the University / RGC (Research Grants and Contracts) team in the University Research Office / G / This form, the fEC Costing spreadsheet and the Siriusweb salary costings to RGC

Please allow at least five days for RGC to check and approve the form.

______

Section A: Brief Details of the Application

1 / Name of the Principal Investigator
School/Department/Research Centre/Research Unit
2 / Name, plus address if not Research Council, telephone number and contact name of the Grant or Contract awarding bodyand funder deadline if applicable.
3 / Title of the project
4 / FEC value of the grant, contract or project / Amount applied for

[filename]1RGC form Sections A and B

Section B: Further Details of the Application

5 / Co-Investigators (if any)
Note: A Principal Investigator on a fixed term contract may have to ask another staff member on a continuing contract to act as Co-Investigator if the funder so requires.
6 / Is the sponsor:
an SME
other commercial organisation
a non-commercial organisation?

1. An SME is defined as having fewer than 250 employees;
2. It also has either (a) an annual turnover not exceeding £24 million and/or (b) an annual balance sheet total not exceeding approximately £16 million; and
3. 25% or more of the capital or the voting rights are not owned by one enterprise, or jointly by several enterprises falling outside this definition of an SME.

/ Yes/No
Yes/No
Yes/No
7 / Closing date for the application/tender
8 / New grant | new contract |
9 / Period of project: from ………………………………... to ……………………………………
10 / Is the work in this application (delete as applicable)
a) Research b) Consultancy c) Provision of facilities/equipment-related service d) None of the above
See website for the Frascati definition of research.
In case of Research please give details on how the proposed research will fulfill the following guidelines:
The University is a charity and for research to be charitable it must conform to guidelines from the Charity Commission:
Further exclusively charitable aims and be conducted for the public benefit
The research subject matter must be a useful subject for study
The knowledge acquired from the research must be made publicly available
Any private, non-charitable benefits must be incidental to achieving charitable purposes; they must be reasonable, necessary and in the interests of the charity.
Comments:

Section C: Contractual Arrangements

11 / Will there be a formal contract between the University and the sponsor, or any subcontracts with other organisations working on the project?
If Yes, please provide a copy of any draft contract or provide further details. / Yes*/No
12 / Will the University be acting as a co-ordinator for external partners on the project? / Yes*/No
13 / Are Intellectual Property Rights likely to arise from this project?
If Yes, please provide details of who has the right to the IPR and what arrangements are proposed for royalties.
Note: Intellectual Property includes all recorded information and knowledge and expertise derived from the work conducted. IPR is the term for intellectual property that can receive legal protection, specifically patents, copyright or design rights. See appendix detailing IPR. / Yes*/No
14 /

Do the terms of the grant or contract restrict the publication of the results?Note: Wherever possible, the terms should allow the University full publishing rights. The University will accept a stipulation that the sponsor must approve publication with the permission to publish not unreasonably withheld, subject to a maximum stay of publication of 12 months. No delay will be accepted upon the submission of a thesis although procedures are available to delay publication of a thesis following the award of the degree if appropriate.

/ Yes*/No

Section D: Requirements of the Project

Staff

15 / Is the Principal Investigator (Project Leader) expected to be available to supervise the work throughout this period? / Yes/No*
16 / Is the full cost of the Principal Investigator's time and other staff working on the project included in the costing? / Yes/No*
Is it intended that a payment will be made to the Principal Investigator?
If Yes, amount to be paid ………………………. / Yes*/No
17 / Will the full cost of salaries, superannuation and National Insurance for the staff to be employed be met from this grant or contract? / Yes/No*
Are any of these staff presently employed by CityUniversity?
If Yes, please state their contractual position. / Yes*/No
Are any of these research staff required to have a PhD or equivalent in order to fulfil the requirements of the post? If Yes, post must be costed at Grade 6. If the proposal includes more than one researcher post please specify number of appointments to fall in the above category / Yes*/No
18 / Has provision been made in the application for normal increments and cost of living rises? / Yes/No*
19 / Will there be any commitment to continue the employment of staff beyond the expiry date of the project? / Yes*/No

Equipment

20 / Does the figure applied for under equipment provide for capital cost plus VAT, cost of installation or modification and provision of ancillary services, annual cost of maintenance contracts and special running expenses?
/ Yes/No*
21 / Will the equipment requested become the property of the University? / Yes/No*
22 / Is an import licence required for any of the equipment? / Yes*/No

Space

23 / Will acceptance of the grant entail any requirement for additional space, alterations to existing buildings or extension of services? If yes, have you informed Property and Facilities? (Please attach e-mail) / Yes*/No

Recurrent costs

24 / Does the application include full provision for any recurrent costs (e.g. consumables, travel, conference, energy, power, preparation of final reports)?
Note: Except for normal heating, lighting, etc. if experimental work requires significant energy (electricity, gas, fuel, etc.) this must be costed into proposals. / Yes/No*
25 / Are there any special resource requirements not covered above, e.g. computing facilities, mailing or other central University services at a level or of a kind not normally provided? / Yes*/No
If Yes is the full cost of these covered in the application?

Overheads and space costs

These costs must be actively sought from all sponsors. Full Economic Costing requires all applications to be costed including indirect and estate costs. The applicable rates change annually. The fEC spreadsheet is updated accordingly.

26 / DoeDoes the application include the University charge for indirect and estate costs?
If No, please provide further details of the overhead charged to the sponsor: / Yes/No*

Safety

Contact the University Safety Officer for advice on health and safety issues.

Third party claims arising from contracts signed by the University are covered by its Professional Indemnity and Public & Products Insurances. These cover liability arising from breach of professional duty due to negligence, error or omission and accidental loss, damage or injury. If a research project is outside the normal sphere of activity or involves significant risks (e.g. clinical trials), please contact the University Research Office for advice on the insurance cover available.

27 / Will the work involve any equipment or substances that may be hazardous to health?
If Yes, please provide confirmation that the risk assessment has been approved by the Department Safety Liaison Officer. / Yes*/No
28 / Are any special facilities or resources needed to ensure that working conditions meet Health and Safety requirements? / Yes*/No

Experiments on human or animal subjects

29 / Does the project involve human or animal participants?
If Yes, please confirm ONE of the following:
□The approval of the Senate Research Ethics Committee will be sought
□The approval of another appropriate ethics committee will be sought (name of committee: ______)
(You should check whether a funder requires ethical approval before a funding application is made.) Please see for more information. / Yes*/No

Reference copy of application

30 / If this application is granted, can it be included in the 'library' of successful applications
held by the Research Office for reference by other staff in the University? / Yes/No
31 / If the application is successful, do you wish to delay acceptance until the outcome of
other applications is known? / Yes*/No

Partners

32 / Are there any partners on this project who are funding part of the project
e.g. space, equipment use, providing staff?
If so:
Names Amounts / Yes*/No

Section E: Principal Investigator’s Declaration

I certify that to the best of my knowledge the information given above, together with any accompanying information, is complete and correct, and that the resources requested are adequate to undertake the research proposed.
...... ….………
Principal InvestigatorDate

AGCcurrent.doc Feb 20131PI’s declaration, Section E

Section F: School Approval

I certify that to the best of my knowledge the information given above, together with any accompanying information, is complete and correct.
In particular, I have seen and I endorse:
The risk/safety assessment and confirm that the work can be carried out safely within the facilities and resources specified.
That the Departmental resources (including space) are adequate to support the project without further allocation by the University.
The costing is sufficient to carry out the research and falls within the guidelines of the University.
yes/no*
If no please give reasons as to why you wish this application to be approved
The research is in line with the research strategy of the School and I wish to approve the application for submission to the grant-awarding body.
...... ………..
Dean of SchoolDate

Section G: Approval by the University Administration

Comments / Signature / Date

In certain cases, the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) may be asked to countersign the AGC for approval for submission to the grant-awarding body.

......

Pro Vice-Chancellor (ResearchandEnterprise)Date

AGCcurrent.doc Feb 20131Approval, Section F and G

APPENDIX A

Project costs

This budget form must be completed for each application.

Directly incurred costs

Personnel

– including basic pay, allowances, employer's superannuation contributions and National Insurance, recruitment costs.

The University Research Office can provide salary scales and will calculate staff costs when required; please attach a copy of detailed salary calculations. Salary increments and cost of living awards must always be allowed for in the project costs. You can use the on-line costing package at to help you to calculate the salary costs. Further advice on how to use the package is available from this office.

Research Councils automatically increase the grant to cover cost of living rises after the contract has been awarded, but many sponsors do not. If in doubt, please check with the Research Office.

Equipment

–including VAT, installation, maintenance, insurance costs.

Consumables

– including stationery, audio/video tapes, software licenses, equipment costing under £1000, safety costs (e.g. special clothing).

Telephone, fax, postal charges

Please see rules for Research Council applications.

Consultancy fees/services, transcription services, project supervision

Travel & subsistence costs

Directly allocated costs

These are charged to projects on the basis of estimates rather than actual costs and do not represent actual costs on a project-by-project basis. These are costs that include Principal Investigator’s time, the time of pooled technicians, the costs of equipment that has already been bought but is being used for this project and a charge for the use of space.

Time costs will be calculated using the basis stipulated by the Research Councils: a 37.5 hour week for 44 working weeks (1,650 hours p.a. or 220 days).

A log must be kept to ensure that the PI and other staff who are costed under the “Directly Allocated” section of the budget are able to prove their time should the project be audited.

Indirect costs

These are charges for space and the University’s overheads.

Estate costs

Estate costs will be charged as a rate per staff FTE, there will be one rate for lab-based work and one for office-based work.

Indirect costs

Indirect costs will also be charged per FTE. There is one rate.

VAT

VAT at the standard rate must be charged on all projects, except research projects which are sponsored by
a charitable organisation; a school, college or university; a public body or any other body which is precluded from distributing and does not distribute any profit it makes.

AGCcurrent.doc Feb 20131Appendix A

APPENDIX B

How to complete the costing spreadsheet

for Full Economic Costing

General

Throughout the spreadsheet, the cells in which you can enter data are shaded grey. Cells that have formulas are protected against change.

You can move around the spreadsheet in the normal way (mouse, arrow keys, page up etc) or you can press the TAB key to go to the next cell in which you can enter data (although this will include irrelevant cells e.g. the funding % in the charity columns are not relevant for a Research Council application).

There are some cells that have "pick lists" where you need to select the correct value from the list provided (NB if you want to remove data from one of these cells, use the delete key).

Budget form

This sheet provides the summary of all costs and funding, but is also where you enter the costs for non-staff items e.g. travel, consumables.

There is a column in which the costs of the project are either directly entered or are picked up automatically from the staff & indirect costs sheet.

When you enter the costs, they need to be the total cost for the whole of the project (i.e. not an annual amount, although you can enter e.g. =2500*3 to multiply up the annual value).

There are other columns that calculate the funding available, based on the sponsor's rules.

The default setting is that the sponsor is a Research Council, and you will need to change this for other sponsors (in the third row of the sheet)

At the bottom of the sheet are totals showing the full cost of the project and the income from the sponsor.

Staff & indirect costs

This sheet is where you enter details of the people working on the project, with the time they will spend on it and the associated costs.

You will need to use the Sirius web costing tool to calculate the costs and then enter the results in this spreadsheet.

If a person is already employed at City but will spend time on this project, their costs should be entered under directly allocated costs (e.g. a lab technician). If you are appointing someone to work on the project, their costs should be entered as directly incurred costs.

The estates and indirect costs are calculated based on the FTEs you enter.

Please note that, whilst the FTE for investigator time is calculated for you based on the hours you enter, you will have to manually calculate the FTE for directly employed staff (researchers, technicians and clerical staff) and enter the total FTE in the spreadsheet.

The defaults are set as "classroom based" for estates costs and "no inflation" for indirect costs - change these if necessary.

Time estimate

This sheet lists some of the activities that you may undertake as part of the project as an aid to estimating the time you will spend on it.

AGCcurrent.doc Feb 20131Appendix B

APPENDIX C

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are the legal rights associated with ownership of intellectual property (IP), including the right to use IP. City University London has responsibility for protecting and managing intellectual property generated within the University. IP is an umbrella term that covers the results of all intellectual activity, which may result in novel inventions.
UK Statute Law stipulates that an employer owns IP generated by its employees where it has originated in the ‘normal course of duty’ (Patent Act of 1977). Therefore, City University London owns and is responsible for the protection and exploitation all patents, copyright, trade marks and other IP generated by any member of staff (‘inventors’). New technologies are assessed for commercial potential and the most promising are patented at an ‘at risk’ basis.