Published on 5 November 2021
EC Reporting Deadlines
Over the coming months, there will be a high volume of financial reports that are due to the European Commission. In order for us to meet the deadlines set out by the EC, we would like to remind Departments of the need to ensure all eligible costs are posted to the grant by the GL closure date and to provide ROO with all necessary documentation.
The importance of posting to a grant in a timely manner is because of complexity in EC funding requirements which includes
• A shorter reporting period following closure (60 days as opposed to 90)
• A requirement for additional and more complex supporting documentation (e.g. time sheets)
• The potential for a greater number of audits
If costs are posted after the GL closure date, these will have to be claimed in the subsequent reporting period.
Where timesheets are required, these must be in writing, approved by the persons working on the action and their supervisors, completed at least monthly and retained for a minimum of 6 years. Timesheets need to be submitted to the ROO within one week of the GL closing date.
The schedule outlined here is to ensure that claims can be processed in accordance with EC requirements, as failure to meet the deadlines can result in the EC issuing sanctions against the University.
Further information can be found on the Managing EC Funding pages on the ROO website.
End of Grant Financial Reporting and Final Invoicing - Reminder
Our Post Award teams remain with not extending a CUFS grant close date once it has expired, this is to ensure that ROO are able to make any adjustments needed during the one-month period available for reporting and prior to the reporting submission deadline. The Research Office will continue to remind departments when their grant has come to an end and that the final invoice and reporting is due.
Please also remember that due to UFS downtime, UFS will be read only from 5pm on 12th November until 22nd November.
Christmas and New Year Deadlines for Applications and Expenditure Statements
Due to the Christmas vacation the Research Operations Office (ROO) will close from 1pm on Friday 24th December 2021 and will re-open on Tuesday 4th January 2022. Therefore please be aware of the following deadlines and ensure that your researchers are made aware of these arrangements.
- Final Expenditure Statements due over the Christmas closure period must be confirmed to ROO by Friday 26th November 2021. This is to allow statements to be submitted to the funder, prior to the Christmas closure.
- If you have a funder deadline application between Thursday 23rd December 2021 – Tuesday 4th January 2022, applications should reach the ROO by
| 2 working days deadline | Tuesday 21st December 2021 |
| 7 Working days deadline | Tuesday 14th December 2021 |
- If you have applications with a funder deadline in the first week of January, when counting back for 2 or 7 working days, Thursday 23rd December will be the last full working day before Christmas. For example
| Funder deadline | Friday 7th January 2022, 5pm |
| 2 working days | Wednesday 5th January 2022, 5pm |
| 7 working days | Monday 20th December 2021, 5pm |
As a reminder, the ROO asks for a minimum of four weeks’ notice of the intention to submit to a particular scheme. Some funders have very short turnaround times which means that it's not always possible to give the ROO four weeks' notice of intention to submit. In these circumstances, please continue to contact the ROO at the earliest opportunity so that we can assess the resource requirements to support the application. Full details of the deadline policy currently in place can be found on the ROO website.
Departmental Representatives for Worktribe Implementation Project Board
The Cambbridge Research Office and UIS are looking for people from Departments to join the newly created Worktribe Implementation Project board, we are looking for two representatives. Worktribe is the new costing and pricing software that the University will be implementing to replace the current X5 tool, we are also reviewing other products from Worktribe. Your participation will be invaluable in helping to engage the user community and shape the future direction of the Worktribe implementation at the University.
Meetings will be held every month and your commitment to the project board will be on average 2 hours per month. If you are interested, and you have support from your line manager, please contact Dawn.Edwards@admin.cam.ac.uk or lb694@cam.ac.uk.
Researchfish
The annual submission period for UKRI, NIHR, BHF and other funders is Monday 7th February to 4pm, Thursday 17th March 2022 during which time PIs need to use their Researchfish account to submit a return on their research outputs.
We are starting to prepare for next year’s submission and will be contacting Node Administrators who will be involved with the data checking task during early December. Please make a note of these dates and we will provide further details at RGUG on 30th November.
Open Research at Cambridge 2021
The Open Research at Cambridge conference will run online from 22 - 26 November 2021. Research takes place in collaborative networks, tied together by publications, conferences, informal discussions and often data sharing. Approaching all stages of research more openly will facilitate collaboration and the incremental growth of ideas.
Further details about the event are available on the OSC website.