Definition
PI Time in this scenario = any time spent on a grant by staff not employed directly by the grant.
In the majority of cases this will be the PI but it could also be other staff involved on the project. Such staff are normally paid from Chest,
please see the below note if your staff are not Chest funded.
Background Information
If staff work on an EC FP7
Project and keep a record of their time (a full timesheet) the EC will
reimburse this time. For further information and a template timesheet please
see http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/research/ec/participate/postaward/timesheets.aspx.
The cost of the number of hours
worked each month needs to be charged to the research grant for recovery from
the EC. Only the actual costs as shown on the timesheet can be charged to the
EC, not estimated amounts, therefore manual journals are required.
When a journal is made transferring the relevant costs to the grant,
the full credit will initially go to the Department overheads account
and then the Research Operations Office will perform a journal to split this amount equally between the Chest and Department.
The actual salary will continue
to be charged to the departmental G/L.
Staff not paid from Chest
funding
It is not expected that staff who are directly incurred on other research
grants will be working on an EC grant and wish to charge their time to the EC
grant. This procedure therefore does not apply to such staff. However, please
contact the EC Awards Manager for advice if you have staff directly incurred on
other grants who you wish to work and be charged against an EC FP7 grant (NB as
the EC insist on no profit to us from their funding, the savings made could not
be credited to the Chest or Department but would need to be returned to the
original grant).
Tracking time
A PI’s time may already be paid
from directly allocated funding on
other research grants. The EC are clear that we are not able to make a profit
from their funding and have implemented the timesheet system to avoid
over-billing of an individual’s time. Therefore we must ensure that we are not
charging more than 100% of any individual’s salary across the different funding
sources (e.g. reimbursement via directly allocated task 100 and reimbursement
now by the EC).
Procedure
-
The
PI/other staff member records the number of hours worked for the month on their
timesheet (NB according to EC rules this must be all hours worked, not just
hours worked on the EC project)
-
Part
B of the template timesheet calculates the amounts to be charged to the grant
(hours worked * Annual gross cost / Annual standard productive hours). NB If
time has been spent on different EC Activities (e.g. Research and Management)
separate journals are required to correctly charge the time to the grant.
-
A
grants journal/journals are then posted by the department which will debit
the research grant using the expenditure type of Principal Investigator Stipend
(even if not a PI it is okay to use this code). The credit will be posted to the research cost centre, source of funds
EDAA and transaction code LZAC. The journal description should
note 'Salary costs for' and the name of the staff member and the month being
charged.
The journal will need to be
entered before the grants module closes to departments on the third working day
after month end. This will ensure that overheads due on the charge are posted
in the correct month.
Example
More information on grants
journals can be found at
http://ufs.admin.cam.ac.uk/researchgrants/docs_rsg/journals.pdf
-
Once the grants module has closed the Research Operations Office transfer the portion due to the
Chest (50%) from the departmental research cost centre to the Chest (AA.AABA.AFAA.LZAC)
before closure of the G/L.
