Research Division

Budget Preparation

Application process, budget preparation, Library services, Definition of Research, Codes and Classifications.

Preparing your Budget

When preparing the budget for research grant applications or negotiating a budget for contract research, it is important to consider both the direct costs and indirect costs (overheads) associated with the proposed program of research.

Direct costs are directly attributable to a research project. These costs usually include salaries (and salary oncosts), the cost of laboratory consumables, travel, purchase of equipment and maintenance.

Indirect costs are the real costs incurred by the University to support the research project, through the provision of services and facilities. These could include, but are not limited to: the provision and maintenance of laboratory space and the associated utilities (water, electricity, gas etc), administrative support, and access to library facilities. Where these indirect costs or overheads are not able to be recovered through the funding provided by the grantor, the program of research is then being subsidised by the University.

Research budgets should be calculated following a comprehensive assessment of the direct and indirect costs associated with the program of research undertaken at the University, relevant University Policy and the conditions of funding likely to be applied by the agency or sponsor providing the funds.

For further details and overview, please see Budget Preparation.

Start Planning Your Budget Early

Budgets for research projects should be calculated at the grant application stage, or for contract research, during the early discussions with the sponsor.

It is important to note that if budgets are not calculated correctly prior to submission of grant applications or contract negotiations, and the indirect costs have not been included appropriately, the University will need to consider the viability of the research project. In some circumstances, the University may not be willing to subsidise the research project and funds may need to be relinquished.

Research categories

External research funding is provided through a number of categories as defined by the Commonwealth Department of Education in order to allocate Research Block Grants to institutions.

Grant - Category 1	The Australian Government no longer maintains a register of Category 1 grants. All competitive Australian research funding schemes need to be assessed and categorised by the Research Administration Officers (RAO) from the relevant Research Hub in collaboration with the Research Performance and Analysis unit. Please contact your relevant Research Hub/RAO to determine the relevant Category of your funding application: College of Sciences and Engineering: Research.CoSE@utas.edu.au; College of Arts, Law and Education and College of Business and Economics: Research.ABLE@utas.edu.au; College of Health and Medicine: Research.CHM@utas.edu.au The majority of Australian Research Council (ARC) and National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grants are Category 1. Any non-ARC or NHMRC grants will need to be assessed by a Research Administration Officer in your relevant hub. They must meet the following criteria to be considered a Category 1 Funds are/will be provided on a nationally competitive basis. Funds are clearly for research. The funding scheme is/will be nationally advertised and available to universities throughout Australia. The funding scheme has a well-defined and publicly available mechanism for competition and selection by a well-qualified panel (including provisions to manage conflicts of interest). Funds are/will be provided through direct transfer from the funding agency to the higher education institution (not to an individual).
Grant - Category 2 & 3	Funding is awarded: on a nationally competitive basis and clearly be for research only to universities throughout Australia through a competitive peer reviewed selection process through a general or open funding call The University would generally expect to have an ongoing right to own or use project intellectual property, for further research and/or publication purposes; The funding body is expected to fund direct and indirect costs of research.
Contract Research - Category 2 & 3	Funding is awarded: Through a direct offer of funding The University would generally expect to have an ongoing right to own or use project intellectual property, for further research and/or publication purposes; The funding body is expected to fund direct and indirect costs of research.
Consultancy	Involves buying the skills and expertise (pre-existing know how) of University staff and equipment to work on a specified project; Funding is awarded: Through a direct offer of funding The funding body is expected to fund ALL direct and indirect costs of the project (includes fee-for-service and extension activities); The funding body may expect to own all of the Intellectual Property (advice and information) arising from the paid consultancy ; The University would NOT generally expect to have an ongoing right to own or use project intellectual property, for further research and/or publication purposes;

ORS supports both research and consultancy projects, with the exclusion of research projects or consultancies that consist solely of work carried out by an honours student for the purpose of their honours degree.

Budgeting – what to consider

If there is no set format for the application, consider grouping your costs under 3 headings:

Direct Labour costs
- These are personnel costs (including relief from teaching) which include salary on-costs (salary on-costs covers superannuation, payroll tax, workers compensation, etc.)
Direct Operating costs (i.e. non-labour project costs), such as:
- Travel
- Consumables
- Equipment hire (including Central Science Laboratory costings)
- Other
Indirect costs
- For Category 1 Australian Competitive Grants (ACG) there are no charges for Indirect costs. For grants that do not appear on the ACG Register, Indirect Costs are applicable. Please refer to the Indirect Cost policy.
- Please refer to the Australian Competitive Grant Register (ACGR) to confirm if the Funding Body is exempt from Indirect Cost charges

For further assistance in developing a project budget please contact your Research Hub.

Budgeting for Direct Costs

Personnel

When planning your research project, consider the research academic and research support staff you may need for the project, and the skills/qualifications they will require to undertake the research activities. Research academic staff may include postdoctoral fellows (from Level A upwards on the Research Academic scale) whilst research support staff may include General Assistants, Research Technicians and/or Research Managers. At UTAS, these staff are usually appointed as professional staff (on the HEO scale Levels 1-9) or as Research Assistants (RA scale RA.1 –RA.3).

We encourage investigators to discuss the appropriate level of appointment for research academic and research support staff with their local HR Business Partners to ensure that salary funding requests are correctly calculated.

Salary On-Costs

When costing research budgets, applicants will need to ensure salary on-costs are included for any salary items listed in the budget. The ARC requires an on-cost rate of 30% to be used for all salaries when calculating budgets.

Travel and Subsistence Allowances

Travel and subsistence allowances for research projects should be calculated in accordance with UTAS policy and procedures, as outlined on the Finance Division website. If travel or subsistence allowances are requested as part of a research budget, the proposal should provide specific details regarding the proposed origin and destination of the travel, and indicate how accommodation and subsistence allowances have been calculated. In some cases, quotes for the proposed travel costs may be required by the grantor.

Budgeting for Indirect Costs

Under some circumstances, the University recognises that full recovery of indirect costs may not be possible due to limitations applied by the granting body/sponsor. For this reason, there are some routine exceptions to the standard indirect cost recovery rates, as outlined in the table below. In addition, where a routine exception does not apply, but the research team feels that a waiver/reduction in indirect cost recovery would be appropriate, a waiver may be sought from the Head of School.

This table is a summary of how to calculate indirect costs.

UTAS title	Category (DIISR)	Description	UTAS - indirect costs
Grant	Category 1	Funding scheme is listed on the ACGR	n/a
Grant	Category 2 & 3 (Competitive Grant)	Funds must be awarded: on a nationally competitive basis and clearly be for research only to universities throughout Australia through a competitive peer reviewed selection process through a general or open funding call	35%
Contract Research	Category 2 & 3 (Direct Offer)	Direct offer of research funding	35%
CRC	Category 4	Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) Program	n/a
Consultancy	Do NOT report	Direct offer of consultancy funding	55%
Clinical Trial	Category 2 & 3	Please refer to the Clinical Trial Governance page for further information.	25%

Budget Preparation Costing Tool

In order to support your budget preparations, the following tools have been developed to support your applications. When submitting your application to the Office of Research Services, Funding Officers will require completion of the budget costing form, in addition to the Funding Clearance Form. For assistance with completing the Costing Tool, please contact your Research Hub.

UTAS Research and Consultancy Costing Tool

UTAS Research Costing Tool (Excel 1.2MB)