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THE RESEARCH SUPPORT OFFICE

Grants Administration

There is a considerable amount of paperwork involved in the administration of the substantial sums of money that flow into the university for the purposes of conducting research. Hopefully the following resources will help to explain some of the more confusing aspects of grant administration. Otherwise, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact your Grant Contract Officer.

Submitting a Research Proposal - via login to IRMA
Steps Once Successful
Start and Run the Project
End of Project
General Information
ANZSRC - FoR & SEO Codes
Broad Research Types

Submitting a Research Proposal

Complete Coversheet – submit via IRMA
Researcher(s) must complete a coversheet briefly describing the research proposal that will be submitted. This will then be checked by the Research Support Office for funding eligibility and by the Research Institute Director (RID) or School Dean responsible for this area of research, assessing feasibility or resources and infrastructure, strategic alignment and identifying proposals that will be receive grants writing assistance and /or peer review. Any areas that need to be addressed will be communicated back to the researcher(s) involved who can choose to meet these requirements or stop pursuing the identified opportunity.

Internal Process for Submitting a Proposal

Once the on-line coversheet is complete, an automatic notification (email) will be sent to the Research Support Office. The Grants Contract Officer will notify the Faculty Manager and School Dean.
The Research Office will check the eligibility against the funding guidelines and the Research Institute Director or School Dean will check that the proposal is feasible and strategically aligned with the University’s research goals.
The RID will email Research Support ensuring the proposal is feasible and strategically aligned with the University's research goals.
The RID will identify those proposals that require grant writing assistance and/or peer review. This will be communicated to the researcher and organised by the Research Support Office.
Faculty Office staff will contact the researcher to assist with the proposal budget.
The researcher(s) will finalise proposal utilising the advice provided by Research Support and Faculty Office. The researcher(s) will provide a final version of the proposal to Research Support and upload onto IRMA with any accompanying documentation. A final Quality Assurance check will be carried out at this point and issues that arise from this check will be communicated back to the researcher(s).
School Deans will be notified that the final proposal has been uploaded into IRMA for their final review and endorsement before submission to the funding body.

Submitting Proposal to Funding Body
Once the School Dean has approved the final proposal the Research Support Office will submit the proposal to the funding body on behalf of the researcher.
The Research Office will organise all signatures, photocopying, courier etc for the researcher and a retain the final version on IRMA.

Steps Once Successful

Offer of Award
The Research Support Office is informed of the outcome of an application in one of the following ways:

The funding body contacts the Research Support Office. This completes the paperwork and we can move immediately to seek approvals and clearances and set up accounts.
The funding body contacts you directly in writing. Send a copy to your Research Support Officer so they can move immediately to seek approvals and clearances and set up accounts
Verbal approval by the funding body. Verbal approval is undesirable. Try to get the sponsor to commit something in writing. Then we can proceed as above.

If you were unsuccessful, you may wish to consider an appeal. We can advise you whether we believe you have grounds for an appeal and how to frame it.

Approvals and Clearances
Once all paperwork has been received the Research Support Office will coordinate seeking the required Commercial Services, Ethics and Legal approvals and clearances. These offices will contact you if more information is required to provide the appropriate approval and clearances. When all approvals and clearances have been obtained, the researcher(s) will be notified by email.

Most contracts / agreements are straight forward, but must still be sent to us before it is returned to the sponsor. In many cases a signature may be required from the Deputy Vice Chanceller (Research) or a staff member from the Industry Liaison Office. It is IMPORTANT that Intellectual Property (IP) issues are dealt with properly.

Establishing the Research Account
When all approvals and clearances have been finalised and a fully executed agreement with the funding body agency has been recieved by Legal Services, the Grants Contract Officer will be notified. Only then will they request a research account be set up for that project.

Please note the account allocated for that particular research project must ONLY be used for that research grant.

To discuss any issues relating your account please contact the Business Support Officer in your area.

Start and Run the Project

Invoices
In most cases you will need to invoice the funding body for payment of the agreed amount. All information relating to agreed contributions details can be determined from the contract/agreement, which is accessible through IRMA. Invoices will be entered into IRMA as milestones and monitored by the Business Support Team to ensure that the invoice requirements are met.

When invoices are due, the researcher(s) and appropriate Business Support Team will be notified by the Research Support Office via email.

Some agencies operate on a Recipient Created Tax Invoice basis which require no tax invoices to be raised. If this is the case, it will be highlighted in the agreement.

Details of GST and tax invoicing can be found in the Finance Policies and Procedures Manual. Please contact the Business Support Team in your area to discuss this process.

Variations to the Project
Advise your Grants Contract Officer of any change to project personnel, collaborating partners, partner organisations, project timelines etc that will require approval from your funding institution.

All variation approvals must also be sent through to legal to ensure that any changes comply with Murdoch policies.

Reporting Requirements
Reporting requirements are set by funding bodies and are important elements in ensuring accountability and good management of public funding for research. Reports also assist in drawing our attention and the attention of the Research Support Office staff to concerns and problems that researchers face.

Subject to the Funding Contract/Agreement for specific schemes, the funding body reserves the right to withhold payment of further instalments of any funded project until the appropriate reports have been received and assessed as satisfactory.
These deadlines will be highlighted in the project agreement (accessible through IRMA) and recorded in IRMA as milestones. When these are due, the researcher(s) and appropriate Business Support Team will be notified by email.

Once these reports have been written, they should be submitted to the Research Support Office in time to forward them to the external agency by the deadline.

Monitoring of Milestones
The Faculty offices will monitor milestones and ensure that acquittal, invoice and reporting requirements are met.

All invoicing and milestones will be entered into IRMA and setup to remind the researcher when these need to be done. The Business Support Team will also be notified that these are due.

Please contact the Business Support Team in your area to discuss this process.

End of Project

Wrapping up the Project

Submit Final Report via Research Support Office as required in agreement
Contact your Business Support Team to organise a financial acquittal statement if required
Liaise with your Business Support Team on what to do about any unspent funds.
Close the cost centre(s) for the project via Business Support Team.
Ensure any scholarly publications resulting from the project are recorded on the Publications module of the IRMA

General Information

Helpful Hints when considering a proposal submission
Once you have found a funding opportunity, take some time to consider each of the following:

Check the eligibility criteria - if you are not eligible you will be wasting your time;
Check the guidelines to make sure the funds can provide what you need.
Check how the application must be lodged - via email or post. If it is via post, and especially to the East Coast of Australia, allow time for the mail to follow its route.
Check that you have the time to produce an application of superior quality by the deadline;
Make sure the application is lodged ON TIME. Take note of your Research Office internal deadlines

Salary Rates
All information relating to salary rates, fellowships and travel allowances is available through this link: http://www.research.murdoch.edu.au/grants/salaries.html

Overheads
Overheads are essentially a University tax of 15% levied against all research income in order to cover the administrative costs associated with managing that income. The 15% university overhead MUST be applied to your budget unless:

The funding body is on the Australian Competitive Grant Register maintained by DIISR.
Or, you have received approval to waive the overheads by your Faculty Dean
All scholarships are overhead-exempt.

Check with the Research Support Office if you are unsure if your application should have 15% added to the budget or not.

GST added to Grant Applications
GST should be added to the total amount requested (including the 15% overheads) unless otherwise specified by the funding body. Please contact your Business Support Team for discussions about your budget and GST.

As an example:

Camera
$1,000

(exclusive of GST)

Salary

$4,000

(inclusive of on-costs, etc)

Sub total

$5,000

University Infrastructure

$750

(15% of Sub total

Total

$5,750

(exclusive of GST)

GST

$575

(10% of $5,750)

GRAND TOTAL

$6,325

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC) - FoR & SEO Codes

ANZSRC replaces the Australian Standard Research Classification (ASRC 1998) and introduces a new framework for measuring research and development activity in New Zealand.

The Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC) has been developed for use in the collection, analysis and dissemination of research and experimental development (R&D) statistics in Australia and New Zealand

Classifications are a tool used by the ABS, as well as others in government, academia and the private sector, to ensure that data on particular topics are consistently described. This improves both data reporting and resource allocation.These codes are used by the Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs(DETYA) and the Australian Bureau of Statistics for analysing research funding in Australia. They were revised recently, so please use the new codes from now on.

Field of Research Codes (FoRs) (replaces RFCD codes) ( HTML)
Socio-Economic Codes (SEOs) ( HTML)

The Field of Research Codes (FoR) replace the Research Field, Discipline and Subject Codes (RFCD). A conversion table is available through this link

Please also remember that only the lowest level subject codes are to be used. Do not use a broad code under any circumstances. If none of the specific codes match, then use the "not elsewhere classified" within the discipline.

Broad Research Types

Pure Basic Research
Experimental or theoretical work which is undertaken primarily to acquire knowledge without a specific application in view, and is carried out without looking at the long term economic or social benefits other than the advancement of knowledge. It includes most Humanities research.

Strategic Basic Research
Experimental or theoretical work which is undertaken primarily to acquire new knowledge without a specific application in view and is directed into specific broad areas in the expectation of useful discoveries. It provides the broad base of knowledge necessary for the solution of recognised practical problems.

Applied Research
Original work which is undertaken to acquire new knowledge with a specific application in view. Applied research is undertaken to determine possible uses for the findings of basic research or to determine new methods or ways of achieving some predetermined objectives.

Experimental Development
Systematic work, using existing knowledge gained from research and/or practical experience, for the purpose of creating new or improved materials, products, devices, processes or services. In the Social Sciences, experimental development may be defined as the process of transferring knowledge gained through research into operational programmes.