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Research Operations Office

 

Published on 6 December 2019


Wellcome Trust Organisation Spend Report (OSR) – departmental expenditure checks

An Organisational Spend Report is submitted quarterly to the Wellcome Trust (WT) by the Research Operations Office (ROO) for the months of March, June, September and December. Before ROO submits the OSR, the WT have now asked that all expenditure is checked and verified by departments. Therefore every quarter we will remind you to do your own departmental checks prior to the submission.

The next submission will be early January 2020 which means that we will run our reports 2 days after the closure of the CUFS General Ledger. If you have any queries, please contact Sarah.Saemian@admin.cam.ac.uk

Re-budgeting of EC awards

The FOREX policy states that EC awards are activated using a lifetime exchange rate based on when the Grant Agreement is signed to allow PIs to plan their budgets. However, due to the movement of exchange rates over time, or in periods of high rate volatility this can result with the PI fully spending the Sterling budget but the Research Office not being able to claim the full amount of Euros.

The Research Office can re-budget the award 12 months before the end of the project to maximise the amount of Euros claimed and therefore increase the Sterling budget to the PI’s benefit. If a department wishes this to happen, they need to contact their Research Support Advisor in advance of the final 12 months so that the award can be re-budgeted for that period.

Industry Pricing Policy

A new Industry Pricing Policy has been approved by the Research Policy Committee and guidelines are currently being drafted for Departments. A summary of the policy is available on the Research Operations Office website.

Christmas and New Year Deadlines for Grant Applications

Due to the Christmas vacation the Research Operations Office (ROO) will close from 1pm on Tuesday 24th December 2019 and will re-open on Thursday 2nd January 2020. Therefore please be aware of the following deadlines

 

If you have a funder deadline between Monday 23rd Dec 2019 – Thursday 2nd Jan 2020, applications should reach the ROO for

 

7 Working days deadline

Thursday 12th December 2019

5 Working days deadline

Monday 16th December 2019

1 Working day deadline

Friday 20th December 2019

 

The Research Operations Office will be open for business as usual in the morning on Tuesday 24th December. If you have applications with a funder deadline in the first week of January, when counting back for 1, 5 and 7 working days, Monday 23rd December will be the last full working day before Christmas.

You can use the online calculator to show the number of working days prior to the funder deadline that your application needs to be with ROO for checking

For example,

Funder deadline

Tuesday 7th January 2020, 5pm

7 working days

Wednesday 18th December 2019, 5pm

5 working days

Friday 20th December 2019, 5pm

1 working day

Monday 6th January 2020, 5pm

Please ensure that your PIs are made aware of these arrangements.

 

Research Grants User Group Meeting

Thank you to those who attend the Research Grants User Group Meeting (RGUG) on Tuesday, the PPT slides are now available on the ROO website. The next meeting will be

Tuesday 25th February 2020

10am – 11:30am

Large Seminar Room, Institute of Public Health, Forvie Site, Cambridge, CB2 0SR

At Tuesday’s meeting there was a request to circulate a reminder of the following item about Innovate UK Grants which first appeared in the bulletin on 5th July 2019.

 

Audits of Innovate UK Grants

In response to an increasing number of findings on audits of Innovate UK grants, there are some areas of concern in relation to the following

  • eligibility of staff costs (DI And DA), including templates for timesheets and declarations

  • eligibility of costs that are incurred outside the project period

  • eligibility of indirects

We have updated the guidance on our website to help you understand the requirements when making claims on your grant. If you have any questions, please contact Sara.Hajnassiri@admin.cam.ac.uk for further information.