Published on 3 November 2023
Horizon Europe information sessions in December
The Research Office invites academic and administrative staff across the University to attend two information sessions in December following the long-awaited UK association to Horizon Europe. The dedicated European Advisor for Cambridge University and the UK MSCA National Contact Point (UKRO) will present the latest updates at the sessions.
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Horizon Europe Programme, Legal and Financial Matters (including Horizon 2020) - Wednesday 6 December 2023 – for administrative staff. Visit the event page for more information on the agenda and how to book your place.
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Horizon Europe Funding Opportunities for Researchers – Thursday 7 December 2023 - for academic and administrative staff. Please do circulate this event with academic staff in your institution. Visit the event page for more information on the agenda and how to book your place.
Please get in touch with horizongrants@admin.cam.ac.uk if you have any questions.
Applications open for the Research Grants Administration Programme 2024
The Research Operations Office (ROO) is about to embark on the next Research Grants Administration Programme 2024 (previously known as ROOTS) and we are pleased to invite Expressions of Interest from all departmental professional support staff at the University who play an active role in the grants lifecycle, whether that be pre award, post award or contracts.
The training programme will take place over 5 half days between February and May 2024 and offers a range of benefits to participants including greater understanding of how the parts of the grants lifecycle fit together, tips for providing advice to academics and an extended network of contacts.
Applications to be on the programme need to be submitted by Monday 11 December 2023 and there are 15 places available. Further details and the Expression of Interest form are available on the Research Grants Administration Programme - '24 (sharepoint.com). If you have any queries, please contact Debbie.West-Lewis@admin.cam.ac.uk.
Christmas and New Year deadlines for applications and expenditure statements
Due to the Christmas vacation the Research Operations Office (ROO) will close from 5pm on Friday 22 December 2023 and will re-open on Tuesday 2 January 2024. Therefore please be aware of the following deadlines and ensure that your researchers are made aware of these arrangements.
If you have a funder deadline application between Friday 22 December 2023 – Tuesday 2 January 2024, applications should reach the ROO by:
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2 working days deadline |
Wednesday 20 December 2023 |
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5 working days deadline |
Friday 15 December 2023 |
If you have applications with a funder deadline in the first week of January, when counting back for 2 or 5 working days, Friday 22 December will be the last full working day before Christmas. For example:
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Funder deadline |
Thursday 4 January 2024, 5pm |
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2 working days |
Tuesday 2 January 2024, 5pm |
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5 working days |
Wednesday 20 December 2023, 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 and the application deadline calculator can be found on the ROO website. The application deadline calculator will be updated shortly to reflect the deadlines above.
Confirmation of Final Expenditure for statements due over the Christmas closure period must be confirmed to ROO before Friday 24 November 2023. This is to enable due statements to be submitted to the funder, prior to the Christmas closure period.
Timesheet sessions and support
All UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) grants with part funded Directly Incurred (DI) staff need to have timesheets for the entire lifetime of the grant. Timesheet records have always been a requirement of the Terms and Conditions. As of 1 July 2022, all monthly timesheets for part funded DI staff need to be saved in to your Department’s Final SharePoint Library prior to the Final Expenditure Statement (FES).
It is also necessary to complete the UKRI Hours Tracker for all part funded DI staff for the lifetime of the grant and submit this at FES stage. A new version of the tracker has been released recently which includes:
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a summary of current claim status next to the employee details at the top
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a section to record and account for journal transfers for balancing accounts
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the possibility to enter variable percentage FTE and percentage hours charged in each month
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a calculation for Cumulative Timesheet Hours Recorded as a cross check that enough hours have been recorded on the project
The tracker template and more information about the changes can be found on the Research Grants Timesheets Sharepoint site.
We will be running a timesheet process demonstration and a Q&A session in the coming weeks to give an overview of the whole timesheet process including how to complete the tracker. Details and meeting links are below:
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Timesheet demonstration |
Monday 13th November 1pm |
Click here to join the meeting
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Q&A session |
Thursday 16th November 12pm |
All timesheet administrators will receive an invitation to the sessions, but all interested staff are welcome to join, and a recording of the sessions will be shared after the event on the Sharepoint.
Exchange rate update in UKRI Horizon Europe Guarantee Guidance for 2024
The exchange rate to convert the EUR grant value to GBP has been updated by UKRI. For grant agreements signed by the Commission from the 1 January 2024 until 31 December 2024 a maximum exchange rate of £1: €1.148787 will be accepted. Read more in the technical questions and answers section of the Horizon Europe guarantee guidance - see questions 13, 14 and 15.
School of Technology will be the first school to adopt Worktribe
The School of Technology will be the first school to adopt Worktribe from 2024 onwards as part of the phased rollout. The exact timings are to be confirmed.
Shui Lam, Secretary of the School of Technology and Chair of the Grant Management Consultation Group which ensures voices from across the research community at Cambridge are heard, comments:
“I am pleased that our School will be the first to experience Worktribe – a market leading system in grants management that is used by many other UK universities. Worktribe will provide a range of benefits for staff including greater visibility of grant applications and the opportunity to feel part of one collaborative research community. Our learnings will help other schools join us on this journey.”
Read the full interview with Shui.
Find out more about Worktribe
You can watch a short video series about the benefits of Worktribe and hear from a keen advocate Dr Matt Davies, Acting Director at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research who used the system in his previous role at UCL.
You can also read all about how over 60 staff from across the University recently had a go at using an early version of the system and how their feedback is being addressed to help get Worktribe ready for Cambridge.
UKRI updates corporate plan priorities for 2023-2024
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), one of the University’s key partners and funders, publishes an updated corporate plan each year setting out how it plans to achieve its strategic objectives through near term deliverables for the current financial year.
Read the 2023 to 2024 update on the UKRI website. It builds on the ambitions set out in its corporate plan 2022 to 2025 and the strategic delivery plans of its nine councils.