Published on 21 June 2022
UKRI Grants – Final Expenditure Statements
From 1st July 2022, UKRI Final Expenditure Statements (FES) will need additional reporting due to the University receiving "limited assurance" on its recent audit. The additional reporting will include providing full transaction listings, staff listings and all timesheets for relevant staff. In order to manage the extra requirements to UKRI, Departments will need to be aware that when you receive the FES email from ROO you should
- ensure that your expenditure checks are correct because this is what will be claimed from the funder. Any missing or incomplete costs e.g. timesheets - cannot be claimed and instead will be charged to Departmental budgets.
- the turnaround time for getting the information to ROO will change from 2 months to 6 weeks to enable us to undertake the additional requirements that have been placed on us from UKRI. There will be no extensions to this timeframe.
We will soon be implementing a new SharePoint repository where you will be able to save your timesheets for part-funded DI staff who are charged against UKRI grants. In the meantime, continue to store your timesheets in the usual way and we will provide guidance about the new repository when it is available for you to access.
We would also like to remind you that from July onwards, all part-funded DI staff will be charged to a new task on the grants module and that HR will be doing a bulk update for the July payroll. Please refrain from moving any staff onto task 89 before the HR bulk upload. More information will follow about the new process.
If you have any queries, please contact your Research Support Manger or Assistant Director at the Research Operations Office.
Horizon Europe/UKRI Underwrite
ERC and MSCA Fellows
Following on from previous bulletin updates, EC Grant Agreement Preparations for the awarded MSCA projects in 2021 have now been terminated. We are anticipating similar steps to be taken for ERC grants from 29th June 2022 and we will contact grant holders in due course. This is an expected step as the UK’s current lack of association to the Horizon Europe programme means that we are unable to sign the EC Grant Agreements for these projects. The Research Operations Office (ROO) is in touch with those who have been awarded Horizon Europe projects and we are in the process of transferring these to UKRI funding.
The lack of association is only impacting those new awards under the Horizon Europe framework and ongoing H2020 grants are currently not affected and can continue as normal.
Collaborative Projects
ROO is currently working with around 30 Horizon Europe (HE) collaborative projects (outside of the ERC/MSCA PF schemes) awarded under 2021 calls to access the UKRI underwrite funds. We have circulated guidance on this process to our award holders once we are aware of successful awards. If you have been included on a successful HE collaborative award and have not received any guidance on the next steps from ROO, please do get in touch with your Departmental research grants administration team who can liaise with us.
There is currently no cut-off date/deadline for the submissions to the UKRI underwrite funds, as these can only be made once the overarching Grant Agreements have been signed between the lead institution and the EC. Therefore the timing of the submission to UKRI will depend on the conclusion of that process.
If you or your project consortium lead needs any information or support on accessing the underwrite funds, please don’t hesitate to contact the EU and International team at ROO.
Apply for Horizon Europe Funding
We would like to remind you that UK institutions are still eligible to apply for Horizon Europe Funding. The current situation does not affect your ability to apply and has no bearing on the evaluation of applications. Please make sure that in the submission stage of your proposal you are included as co-ordinator or partner (beneficiary) to the project, not an Associated Partner and contact the Research Development Team for further information.
Horizon Europe – Cluster 3: Civil Security for Society Info Day – 28th June 2022
Cluster 3 forms part of Pillar 2 within Horizon Europe and focuses on security issues including -
- Strengthened Security Research and Innovation
- Disaster-Resilient Society for Europe
- Increased Cybersecurity
- Resilient Infrastructure
- Effective management of EU external borders
- Better protect the EU and its citizens against Crime and Terrorism
Info Days are a unique opportunity for potential applications to get ready to apply for EU funding. Further details can be found on the EC website events page.
European Research and Innovation Days – 28th & 29th September 2022
European Research and Innovation Days is the European Commission’s annual flagship Research and Innovation event, bringing together policymakers, researchers, entrepreneurs and the public to debate and shape the future of research and innovation in Europe and beyond.
The event will take place online on 28th & 29th September 2022. Registration is now open and further details can be found on the EC website events page.
Wellcome Trust Organisation Spend Report – Departmental Expenditure Checks
An Organisational Spend Report (OSR) 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 next OSR, please could Departments check and verify all their WT expenditure on CUFS and make any amendments before the June 2022 General Ledger period closes. If you have any queries, please contact Sarah.Saemian@admin.cam.ac.uk.
Update to UKRI Start Date Policy for Responsive Mode Grants
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) are making a permanent change regarding flexible start dates for responsive mode grants. This allows a period of up to six months from the announced start date to commence grant activity on responsive mode grants. Further details are available from UKRI’s website.