Expenditure and Budget Monitoring
Expenditure monitoring can be undertaken by the PI at any time by using the of Agresso transactions. (for 6000 codes please use this ). This should be done on a regular basis to ensure that expenditure on the grant is correct and in line with the budget.
Post Award conducts a short review of expenditure against budget each time funds for new or amended staff contracts are approved and during invoice or claim preparations.
It should be noted that most funders are not supportive of large amounts of expenditure at the end of a grant, where this is not indicated in the proposal. This is particularly true for equipment, which should be purchased prior to the final 6 months of the grant, or a justification should be agreed with the funder where this is not possible.
Amending Budgets
It may be necessary to update the grant budget during its lifetime to reallocate under/overspends across budget headings within the overall budget; the movement between budget headings is called a virement.
Changes may be suggested by the PI, Post Award or a Project Administrator; however all parties must be involved in approval of such a change. It is the responsibility of Post Award (or the Project Administrator) to check that virements are allowed within the grant agreement and that the suggested change does not involve any ring-fenced funding. It is the responsibility of the PI to approve all budget changes in line with this advice.
Income - Invoicing and Funder Claims
Post Award is responsible for initiating all invoicing and claims by the due date in accordance with the funder’s terms and conditions. This is done in liaison with the PI to ensure eligibility of expenditure and full use of the available funds.
If the project has an administrator, it is their responsibility to assemble claims to funders; these must sent to Post Award for checking before submission.
European Commission (EU) funded projects Post Award will be the Financial Signatory on the EC Portal.
Where Lancaster is the lead UKRI grants do not need regular invoicing or funder claims; income is prorated by the funders and paid quarterly to the university. Post Award assign these payments to the correct grant code and also prepares the Final Expenditure Statement (FES) at the end of the grant in liaison with the PI.
Travel and Expenses
PIs are responsible for arranging their own travel and accommodation and submitting their own expenses. Booking guidance and support is available via .
For Expenses, please contact Staff Expenses . Online portals are available for .
RSO work closely with our colleagues in Finance to ensure that the relevant policies are being adhered to for Research Grants, all of the audits we are subjected to audit us to LU policy, if policy is not adhered it is likely that expenditure will be deemed ineligible and will have to be removed from the grant. Different funders expect different levels of evidence at audit, we would always refer you back to the Lancaster University policies, however if you have a specific query please get in touch.
RSO are not responsible for the individual policies held in other departments, and cannot offer assistance on the processes. However, we can offer assistance on eligibility and terms and conditions for individual grants.
Procurement (Purchasing) including Equipments
Purchasing equipment and consumables, or organising events, conferences and complicated trips as part of your research grant is the responsibility of the PI but can be delegated to a member of your research team or a Project Administrator. Procurement will offer guidance and has an online portal for purchases.
In most cases, your funder will expect grant expenditure to have been procured following the university's procurement regulations. Failure to do so may result in your expenditure becoming ineligible, in which case your department will have to cover the total cost. If you have any queries about how to comply with the procurement process, please contact the procurement team.
If you are organising a conference at LU then you can now speak to the conference team (Conferences).
High-value equipment items
This should be identified on your project proposal. Post Award will inform Procurement on all research projects with equipment items over £25,000* as these items require a formal tender as part of the procurement process.
*this limit refers to the total price of all related purchases that render the equipment useable, for example all parts and installation costs (but not on-going maintenance).
These equipment costs will be automatically depreciated using the university’s standard 5-year policy; if it becomes obsolete before 5 years (e.g. high-spec computer) please inform Post Award on purchase.
Equipment purchase orders
PIs and departments are required to ensure that the purchase order for these high value items includes a reference that it should be charged within the grant project code to account code 4038 (either within the description or in the ‘account’ box on advanced requests).
University match funding
If there is university match funding for the equipment costs, on grant set-up an additional code (LEA1***) will be created for the university’s portion. Post-Award will inform the PI of this code and it should be included (with the amount of funding to be charged to each code) on the purchase order. There is a facility to do this on an advanced request or you can write this in the description in the procurement portal. Where the equipment costs less than the proposal, the full amount of the grant funding should be utilised and the amount of university funding should be reduced, unless a percentage split was agreed with the funder.
It should be noted that most funders are not supportive of large amounts of expenditure at the end of a grant, where this is not indicated in the proposal. This is particularly true for equipment, which should be purchased prior to the final 6 months of the grant, or a justification should be agreed with the funder where this is not possible.
UKRI decided to remove the link to OJEU Thresholds for Equipment as of 12th March 2018, with any future changes in threshold limits being decided by UKRI. This means that the fEC Grants full Terms & Conditions RGC 9.3 “Equipment Data” will be as follows:
all new equipment purchased over £138,000 (£115,000 ex VAT) using public funding sources should be registered on the national database to be discoverable and enable greater sharing.
There is no change to the application process via Je-S etc.
There is also a list that is maintained by Faculties that shows all the equipment the university has purchased.
Maintaining Accuracy
It is important that financial management of research grants be completed with the highest levels of accuracy. In order to ensure this the RSO PA team have a series of internal checks by peers, Team Leaders and Managers depending on the action and value of expenditure. Post Award review claims made by Project Administrators prior to submission; these must be forwarded for checks using the agreed templates and in advance of the deadline.
The PI will be asked to confirm accuracy of any major financial aspects of the grant, such as adjusting budgets or submitting financial reports.
Expenditure Evidence
In order to comply with funder regulations and to pass an audit 抖阴APP导航 must provide the relevant evidence against all research project expenditure. Failure to provide evidence can put the funding for individual items of expenditure or whole projects at risk. In these cases, the department will be responsible for funding any ineligible expenditure.
It is important that PIs send all receipts that evidence staff expenses and university credit card expenditure to finance so that these can be kept. Copies of many different types of expenditure are held electronically on Agresso, where this is not possible RSO has an archive containing paper copies.
Recently funders have required more evidence of expenditure and we are now asking PI’s to keep travel and internal journal evidence. If there is any internal catering we need to know about the split of attendee’s so it conforms with University regulations and therefore HMRC rules – to ensure it is not a taxable benefit.
In most cases payments in lieu of notice, holiday pay and redundancy aren’t eligible.
Closing Projects
Once all claims are made and final payments have been received, Post-Award closes the grant. If a grant is overspent the cost will be passed to a department and we would require the PI to have a discussion with the department regarding any overspends.
Student Data
PIs holding Research Council grants with students attached must ensure all student details entered on Je-S by their department.
Liaison with Funders
PIs may have contacts with their research project funder and may liaise directly with them over matters concerning their project. If any aspects of your project change as a result of these communications PIs should inform RSO PA as soon as possible to ensure that all resulting actions are followed up.
RSO PA or your Project Administrator will liaise directly with the funder if required by the PI. Similar to above PIs will be kept informed of any communications/changes relating to their grant and asked to approve where necessary.
Grant Information Update
During your grant a number of details can change such as PI or Co-I names or you may need to extend the project dates to allow for full budget expenditure or to complete the research objectives. Requests for any changes should be sent to RSO PA in plenty of time so that changes can be requested and approved by funders.
UKRI-funded grants maintenance takes place via the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) online portal. RSO PA will submit any extension requests or change of details through Je-S on behalf of the PI.
When requesting extensions or changes to Research Council grants, requests should be submitted in a timely manner, i.e. as soon as you know a staff member is leaving, or there has been a technical problem.
They should contain actual dates and be as detailed as possible. Multiple requests for the same grant can be submitted in certain circumstances.
Please do not hesitate to contact Post Award if you require assistance writing an extension request.
Contract Re-negotiation
During a grant, changes may need to be made to a collaboration agreement or other research contracts. Requests for change (including as many details as possible) should be submitted via RSO PA who gather any additional information and forward to the (who may forward to a delegated departmental contact) for review and negotiation. Please allow sufficient time for all aspects of this process when requesting changes, negotiating with partners is often not a quick job.
Patient and Public Involvement (PPI)
It is important to determine in advance whether a public contributor participating in research activities is engaging as a volunteer, employee or as a casual worker. This distinction is important as it affects the tax obligations of both the individual and the University and is also critical in ensuring the appropriate internal payment procedures are followed. More guidance can be found The payment of public contributors
Parental Leave
Research awards can sometimes accommodate parental leave, however this does need to be checked. Confirmation should be sought by the Principal Investigator when they contact the Post Award Team rso_postaward@lancaster.ac.uk, who can review the terms and conditions of award, and liaise with the funder if necessary.
This does not affect the contracted entitlements of any staff employed on a research award, and any queries related to an employees contract rights should be checked with People and Organisational Effectiveness hr@lancaster.ac.uk. If unsure, please contact Post Award to clarify.