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Research overheads |
Understanding how research overheads are postedFull Economic Cost (fEC) awardsAll research awards applied for after September 2005, were costed under the fEC costing model. Overhead postings on these awards will be made against the following general ledger (GL) codes and they will generally be grouped together under the budget (sponsored class) fEC overheads; indirect costs, directly allocated (DA) investigators, DA estates, DA pool technicians B, DA other and fEC surplus/deficit. DA major facilities and DA animal costs are not classified as overheads for the purposes of the Resource Allocation process. The overheads were calculated at the award’s application stage based upon academic staff FTE’s and they will not change during the course of the award, even if staffing budgets change. Overhead budgets can only be changed under exceptional circumstances with the approval of the PVC for Research and the Director of Finance. fEC overhead postings commence in the month when staff are first charged to the award, or in the case of non staff awards when the first item of expenditure is incurred. Overheads are then posted evenly over the life of the award. Some sponsors, particularly charities, do not pay the University any overheads. However postings will still occur on the above GL codes but will overall total to zero. Overheads costs will show on your budget report under sponsored class fEC Overheads. A contra income posting will be made against the core profit centre of your department and it is this posting that is used in assessing income under the Resource Allocation process. Where there are co-investigators named on the award from other departments, overhead income may be posted to more than one department. How overhead income is split is determined at the start of the award. Pre fec awards Awards applied for before September 2005 are known as pre-fEC awards because they were costed before the full economic costing framework came into existence. Overheads were awarded on and will be posted on a variety of different methods for example as a percentage of staff and or direct costs. They are posted to GL code Non fEC research contribution. |
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