External Grants

Principles for the management of external grants
 

Notices

- see under Information 

Applications

Who authorizes an application to be sent?
All staff is to coordinate applications with their Head of Section. Firstly, the Section is required to cover any budget deficit and secondly, managers may decide that your application must be coordinated with other applications in the section.
 
In addition, the Head of Section needs to ensure that funding for overheads can be applied for, otherwise alternative grants must be sought to cover administrative staff (TAP) salaries and operational costs. It is not expedient for the Department to have too many grants which lack funding for overheads or grants for administrative staff (TAP) and operations.

• For general grants, operation costs and TAP salary equal to 20% are to be applied for.
• For postdoc applications, the Department will cover 10% while the applicant must secure the remaining 10% from either Section funds or from own project funds.
• For equipment applications or travel / conference grants, you may apply for funds which do not cover overheads, TAP salaries or operation costs.

If a Head of Section feels that an application should be sent, despite the fact that overheads, administrative staff (TAP) and operational costs are not covered, then this must be approved by the Head of Department.
 
Are there special procedures concerning approval of the budget?
No later than one week before the application deadline (two weeks for EU applications) a budget form or an email outlining the budget must be sent to the accounting staff, or in their absence the Department Administrator, who will review the budget and ensure that realistic wages incl. social contributions, holiday pay, etc. are budgeted for - both for those salaries for which funding is applied for, as well as for those which are to be covered by co-financing. It should be possible one week before deadline to specify what one wants to apply for. The procedure ensures that sufficient funds for the project are guaranteed at the time of application. The accounting staff also checks whether overheads and, if possible, administrative staff (TAP) are budgeted for. If it is not possible to seek funding for overheads, the budget must include administrative staff (TAP) and operational costs (se above).

Today at the Department all budgets are to be signed and stamped by the Department Administrator (and in her absence the Head of Department or Tanja Neergaard). Budgets will not be signed without appropriate calculations having being carried out.
 
EU budgets, as well as future Contract Preparation Forms etc. must be approved and signed at KU Central Management, therefore accounting staff must receive the budget 14 days before deadline.
 
If there is not sufficient coverage for expenses within a grant, because insufficient funding was applied for originally or because cost developments are different than expected, etc., the Section must cover any project deficit, while the Section also retains any surplus.
 
The completed application:
The Department Administrator must receive copies of all applications in order to facilitate filing/ updating of the database - a requirement from KU Management, and in order to be able to comply with the information requirements from the faculty/KU Management.

 

 
New grants

 

When you receive a new grant, you must give a copy of the grant letter to:

• Your Head of Section (so he/she is updated on Section projects) 
• Department Administrator – in order to update the database
• Accounting staff must be informed as soon as possible - i.e. when you receive the grant and not when you intend to use it. Accounting staff will register the information in CURIS.

For a project to be created in the accounting system you must:

• Specify if an authorization is to be compiled for the project with respect to electronic invoicing
• Deliver the grant letter (original) and other relevant documents, such as agreements / contracts
• The accounting staff will fill out a project creation form

The Department Administrator must sign all project establishment forms, and the accounting staff must ensure that the Department Administrator receives a copy of the establishment form in order to ensure updating of the database / filing.
 
As a grant holder you are expected to familiarize yourself with KU's instructions for the management of external grants, just as we expect you to be familiar with your grant, how funds may be used, any constraints etc
 
Especially for EU funding: KU has decided to introduce an awards scheme for EU projects in excess of one million kroner. The awards comprise a total of 500.000 DKK. The Management has decided to split the awards between the grant holder and Department operations by 80/20. 

 

 
Follow-up on projects

 

Monthly follow-up on projects
Each month new reports on project expenses will be uploaded to our shared drive (I-drive). Here you can follow project purchases during the current month.
Each quarter an updated overview of budgets for projects will also be presented, so you have something to compare your expenses against.
 
If there are things that seem strange or major changes are made to the project budget, please contact accounting staff as soon as possible to get the budget regulated / get monthly expenditures reviewed. It is the grant holder's responsibility to follow up on the project, but as grant holder, you can of course receive assistance from the accounting staff. This also means that it is the grant holder's responsibility to obtain accounts from external partners on time, for projects where this is necessary.
 
Quarterly follow-up on projects
Each quarter, the Department must account for the overall economy, as well as all deviations in excess of 3%, to the Faculty and KU Management. Each quarter (April, July, October, January) a meeting is held between the Head of Section, the accounting staff and the Department Administrator, where all projects are reviewed to ensure that there is a sensible economic momentum in the projects, as well as the probability of any bench fee-sharing. The meeting will also examine any follow-up on projects that cause problems - so it is important that you as grant holder are thorough with your monthly follow-up, and that projects to be closed in the next quarter can be examined.
 
Annual presentation of accounts and final project accounts
As a grant holder, it is your responsibility to remind the accounting staff when accounts are to be presented for the project. Contact accounting staff a month before the account's deadline and arrange a meeting when you can discuss what needs to be done etc. The advantage of booking a meeting is that the accounting staff also have the opportunity to prepare themselves - for example, to prepare an accounting / status draft for the project as well as to consider whether there are special considerations, questions, etc. to be taken into account.
 
With respect to EU projects it is important that you inform the accounting staff of the code for Sesam, as there are forms, etc. to be found here which the accounting staff will need to use.
 
With respect to EU projects where there are requirements for external audit, it is important that you contact the accounting staff two months before the deadline: A meeting with the auditor must be arranged, and a number of different documents must also be obtained, some of which must be obtained elsewhere. The external auditor mostly uses random samples, so it is impossible in advance or from one time to the next to know what material is required. The cost of an EU account revision is 1.200 Euro (as of June 2008) if all the documents etc. are in order. Missing documents or other problems lead to a new meeting and a new charge. It is therefore important that there is sufficient time to prepare.
 
Final accounts for projects follow the same procedures - both with respect to general projects, EU projects and EU projects with external audit requirements.

 

 
Closing of projects

Four times a year the central accounting office examines all projects at the Department. Projects which have been inactive for a long time must therefore be closed. It is not possible to set a time limit, but a prerequisite is of course that the activity is completed - i.e. that a final account has been presented to the funding provider. In addition, it is up to the Department Administrator's evaluation whether a project can be closed or not. Any over or under expenditure is to be transferred to the Section.