School of Business, Management and Economics

Guidance on Research Spending

Personal Research Accounts

SMThas agreed to allocate £2,000 to each new member of faculty as a personal research account. These accounts can be topped up by 10% of overheads from any grants awarded, except in the case of SPRU where these will be held at a departmental level. In addition for one year only a £1,000 top-up will be added to existing accounts (new members of faculty will be eligible for the initial £2,000 only) and will be reviewed at the end of the year, to see whether future allocations will be possible.

The following claims can be made from the Personal Research

Heads of Department (HoD) or Subject Group Leads (SGLs) will be able to approve spending from the accounts for:-

  1. Conferences – attendance at prestigious conferences may be supported by central departmental budgets at the discretion of the Head of Department (faculty would need to present either a paper or a poster to be considered for this support). Other conference attendance can be funded via personal research accounts.
  2. Journal submission fees – submissions fees for REF-able journals will be covered by central department budgets (with the support of the Head of Department). Other submission fees should be funded via personal research accounts.
  3. Copy editing – this should be funded via personal research accounts, with the prior approval of the Head of Department/SGL for any amount exceeding £250.
  4. Meetings with co-authors – expenses relating to such meetings should be covered from personal research accounts, with the prior approval of the Head of Department /SGLfor any amount exceeding £250.
  5. IT equipment required for research – (this would be for any IT equipment required over and above the standard allocation or that could not be covered by any research grant funding) - this should be funded via personal research accounts with the prior approval of the Head of Department/SGL for any amount exceeding £250.
  6. Any other expenses relating to research activity should be funded from personal research accounts, with the prior approval of the Head of Department/SGL for any amount exceeding £250.

Spending on Research Projects/Grants

For each research project group, there will be an agreed administrative Research Project group (which will include the PI, key researchers, REC) the members of which will be able to spend up to a value of £1k (on equipment and/or services that fit with the agreed project objectives and budget) from research project funds without authorisation from the PI.

The PI will be able to authorise spends up to £10k.