The document provides information about the Research Support Group at the University and how they can help researchers with various aspects of managing research projects and grants. It discusses the five teams within Research Support - Research Facilitators, Research Finance, Research Contracts, Governance and Ethics, and Quality Management. It summarizes the services each team provides, such as project costings, contract negotiation, ethical approval processes, and financial administration. It emphasizes communicating needs to the Research Support Group early and providing required documentation to help the projects run smoothly.

1. How we can support your
research
David Law
Head of Research Support Group
Research Support
Group

2. Research Support Group
 Who we are
 What we do to help you
 How you can help us to help you

3. Who are we?
Research
Facilitators
Finance Office
Research and
Innovation Services
Contracts
Research Support
Group
5 teams
27 staff
Research
Support Office
Research
Finance
Strategic
Partnerships,
Specialist Support
(EU FP7),
Commercial
Development
7 Officers
3 Assistants
Research
Support Partner
Colleges
Governance and
Ethics
2 teams
7 staff
College / school
administration

4. Research
Facilitators
Finance Office
Research and
Innovation Services
Contracts
Research Support
Group
5 teams
27 staff
Research
Support Office
Research
Finance
Strategic
Partnerships,
Specialist Support
(EU FP7),
Commercial
Development
7 Officers
3 Assistants
Research
Support Partner
College / school
administration
Colleges
Governance and
Ethics
2 teams
7 staff
Costings, pre
and post award
administration
Separate EU team
(6 staff)
2 MDS teams
(11 staff)
Project cost
updates ,
purchase orders,
expenses,
payments etc
Research Finance

5. What we do
Project costings (fEC and other) 5,500 per year
RCUK and other major funder applications 750
New project accounts opened 1,350
Approval of research project staff appointments 4,250
Claims and invoicing 1,750
Account monitoring and administration 2,500 live accounts
Account closure and Final Expenditure Statements 1,000
Research Finance
Post
award

6. How the RF teams are structured
CLOSEApplication
Open
account
Approve
staff
FES, final
invoicing,
account
closure
Amendments
Account
administration
Collate
approvals
and open
Check,
submit
and record
Monitoring,
claims,
invoicing
AWARD
Costing
Approval
of staff at
the start of
a project
Approval of staff
changes, project
extensions, and
new funding
PROJECT
START
POST-AWARDPRE-AWARD

7. How the RF teams are structured
CLOSEApplication
Open
account
Approve
staff
FES, final
invoicing,
account
closure
Amendments
Account
administration
Collate
approvals
and open
Check,
submit
and record
Monitoring,
claims,
invoicing
AWARD
Costing
Approval
of staff at
the start of
a project
Approval of staff
changes, project
extensions, and
new funding
New Account Team
PROJECT
START
Everything financial that you need to START your research project;
urgent deadlines, avoiding costly delays
POST-AWARDPRE-AWARD

8. How the RF teams are structured
CLOSEApplication
Open
account
Approve
staff
FES, final
invoicing,
account
closure
Amendments
Account
administration
Collate
approvals
and open
Check,
submit
and record
Monitoring,
claims,
invoicing
Account Administration Team
AWARD
Helping you to maximise the income from your
research project
Costing
Approval
of staff at
the start of
a project
Approval of staff
changes, project
extensions, and
new funding
New Account Team
PROJECT
START
Everything financial that you need to START your research project;
urgent deadlines, avoiding costly delays
POST-AWARDPRE-AWARD

9. How can you help us?
 Supporting evidence required by funders
– Expense details and receipts
– EU and other timesheets
– Research deliverables as condition of invoicing
 Lead time
– Final expenditure statements
– Extensions
Research Finance: post award

10. Research
Facilitators
Finance Office
Research and
Innovation Services
Contracts
Research Support
Group
5 teams
27 staff
Research
Support Office
Research
Finance
Strategic
Partnerships,
Specialist Support
(EU FP7),
Commercial
Development
7 Officers
3 Assistants
Research
Support Partner
Colleges
Governance and
Ethics
2 teams
7 staff
Prepare, review,
negotiate and
authorise
research
contracts
Research Contracts
College / school
administration

11. What the contracts team does
 Negotiate 1,400 research contracts per year
– Financial and non-financial (eg Confidentiality
Agreements, Material Transfer Agreements)
– Mostly post-award
 Protect the University and its researchers
– eg your right to publish, intellectual property rights,
limiting our liabilities, safeguarding our charitable
status
– eg. financial terms (VAT, conditional milestones and
penalties)

12. How can you help us?
 Accurate and detailed information
– Contract request form needed
– The sooner we start, the sooner we are likely to finish
 Lead time
– Negotiating a contract can take several months - we
can only go as quickly as the other party does
 Please don’t sign contracts yourself
Research Contracts

13. Research
Facilitators
Finance Office
Research and
Innovation Services
Contracts
Research Support
Group
5 teams
27 staff
Research
Support Office
Research
Finance
Strategic
Partnerships,
Specialist Support
(EU FP7),
Commercial
Development
7 Officers
3 Assistants
Research
Support Partner
Colleges
Governance and
Ethics
2 teams
7 staff
Management of
sponsorship,
clinical trial
insurance and
ethical review
Quality Management
Team
Research Governance and Ethics
College / school
administration

14. What the Governance and Ethics team do
 Co-ordinate all ethical review processes*
– 1,500 Self Assessment Forms
– 400 internal ethical review committee referrals
– 250 external ethical review applications (NRES)
 Act as the sponsor representative
– Approve sponsorship
– Co-ordinate clinical trial insurance
– Monitor compliance with regulatory requirements
(collation of evidence NOT on-site auditing)
* Except animal research approvals – dealt with by BERSC

15. How can you help us?
 Please do the Self Assessment Form early
– You won’t be able to spend your money without it
– It acts as your sponsorship application
 Please make sure the sponsor’s
representative can comply with our regulatory
requirements
– The MHRA need us to have annual progress
reports, DSURs, SUSARs, ethical approval
applications and amendments
Research Governance and Ethics

16. Research Support Group
 We’re here to give you the best support
service we possibly can
– Maximising your income
– Protecting your interests
– Obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals
 Please help us to help you
 If we get it wrong, tell us and we’ll put it right

17. Where to find us
 We’re based in Aston Webb B Block
 Contact details, forms, guidance etc are on the
Intranet (under ‘Finance/Accounting’)
www.birmingham.ac.uk/researchsupportgroup
 Please contact us whenever you need to
Any questions?

18. Academic Perspective
Kate Fletcher, Primary Care Clinical Sciences

19. Start of the Study
 Contracts
 Sponsorship
 Finance
 HR
 Regulatory Approvals

20. Ongoing/Study Closedown
 Finance
 Ongoing Monitoring/Reporting
 Closedown Reports

21. Pitfalls and hints
 Remember it is your project!
 Ask lots of questions
 Follow up
 Plan budgets and monitor regularly
 Staff contracts

22. What is good project
management?
Sarah Knaggs

23. So you’ve been awarded a grant…
Grants
 Vary in size and complexity - from small projects for a student or
Research Fellow to large scale multidisciplinary and multi-
organisation activities
 Are awarded to perform a project / a programme of research,
within a fixed budget and duration
 Often involve balancing innovation with delivery
 Are awarded to the institution via a member of staff
 Come with regulations and constraints
 May be taken away again if the institution does not comply
 Are seen as a measure of your success
 Often don’t have dedicated project managers!

24. Do I need project management?
 Project management is the discipline of organizing
and managing resources (e.g. people) in such a way
that the project is completed within defined scope,
quality, time and cost constraints
 All research projects need careful management (wrt
resources, timelines, budgets, reporting, deliverables,
etc.) to ensure the integrity and quality of the
research, recording/storage of data and timely
delivery of outputs within the project budget

25. What project management isn’t
 A box ticking exercise
 About just managing a big plan
 A recipe for 100% success
 Rigid – it evolves and need to adapt style and
method according to the groups you are working with

27. Typical tasks or stages in projects
 Initiation – involves contracts team, Research
Finance, research governance/ethics, HR…
– define critical success factors/risks, project structure,
constraints, recruitment, legal agreements, setup budgets
 Planning – divide work into manageable
chunks/tasks that have defined timelines
 Executing – delivery by project team
 Controlling – monitoring and taking corrective action
where required
 Closing – lessons learnt, data archiving, final
reports, account closure

28. During the project lifetime…
• Financial management
– Purchasing
– Completing claims
– Monitoring expenditure, profiling spend and forecasting
• Communication
– Within and beyond the University
• Project reporting
– Delivery of required reports: progress reports and
expenditure statements

29. Compliance issues…
Ensure familiarity with:
 Funder T&Cs and policies: expenditure, reporting,
outputs, data, staffing
 Regulatory requirements affecting project: research
governance and ethics (MHRA, HTA, REC),
Health & Safety, Data Protection Act,
Copyright Law, UKBA
 University and local
College policies/CoP
Specific
award terms
University /
College
policies
Funder policies
Statutory Laws /
Government regulations

30. Elements of good project
management
 Be prepared
 Be organised
 Manage the resources – people, budget, etc
 Conduct your research ethically
 Provide leadership
 Create a supportive and enabling environment -
foster a productive research culture
 Establish effective communications
 Record, store and archive data/materials

32. Planning for success
 Identify the main tasks that will need to be performed, then split
the main tasks into their respective subtasks
 Consider how much time each task takes
 Determine which tasks run simultaneously
 Assess the consequences if a task takes more time to complete
 Determine what resources (people, space, equipment, etc.) are
required to undertake the tasks
 Allow for some slippage in your timelines and have contingency
plans (mitigate risk)
 Add in ‘checkpoints’ to evaluate progress in the project
 Consider data management up-front
 Ensure familiarity with funder T&C, UoB policies & regulatory
requirements affecting the project and who to seek help from

33. Defining roles… at proposal stage
Many research projects are a team effort, so at proposal
stage:
• Determine how much involvement the PI/Co-Is can really
give or have promised to give
• Are the tasks suitable for a project manager or
administration support?
• Are the tasks required across the full duration of the
project?
• Define how decisions will be made and by who
• Define stakeholders to determine the characteristics of a
project ‘lead’
• Ask ‘Am I happy to empower someone to facilitate the
project process?’

34. Where do I draw the boundary lines?
• Act as a figurehead for the project
• Define reporting structures
• Support recruitment process
• Ensure meetings/reviews/steering committees happen
• Ensure meetings documented and communicated
• Ensure budgets setup and managed
• Ensure contracts negotiated in a timely manner
• Ensure communication across project
• Project identity – website, template documents, logo, sample talks, PR
• Plan activity across parts of all of project in detail
• Manage the staff
• Monitor performance of partners and staff
• Reporting on progress to stakeholders
• Managing risk and dependencies
• Manage external communication for the project
• Manage requirements/needs/input to research
• Manage decision making processes for milestones
How much do you really
want to do ?
Should I employ someone
part-time/full-time?
Can I utilise an existing
member of staff with project
management experience?

35. Typical split on larger projects with a
project manager
Scientific lead
• Drive and direct the science
• Supervise/motivate staff and
students
• Drive future scientific direction
• Report scientifically
Operational lead
• Ensure projects are delivered
• Advise, support where
required
• Facilitate
• Ensure whole project
supported and conflicts
resolved
Administrative and
financial support
• Provide essential support
for the project, including
finance, travel, workshop
organisation

36. Role of the ‘Project Manager’ is to..
 Ensure deliver on proposed project
to budget and within time
 Manage and mitigate project risk
 Ensure communication to project
teams, and stakeholders as well as
the public where required
 Make decisions with the support of
a management team
 Address conflicts, fight fires,
manage relationships

37. So to help make your projects a
success…
 Consider how your project will be managed and who
will be involved in this
 Spend the time considering the initiation tasks early
to ensure that the project gets off to a flying start
 Take care to adhere to funder T&Cs, regulatory
requirements and UoB policies/CoPs
 Keep an eye on deadlines and deliverables
 Motivate the team – or will be like swimming in
treacle!

38. In Summary
 Grant/project management processes need to be
considered for every project
 Roles and responsibilities need to be established
early!
 Non compliance may result in withdrawn funding and
damaged reputation
 Seek help if you are not sure… speak to your School
Research Facilitator and/or College Strategic Project
Manager

39. Any Questions?