Full Economic Costing (fEC)Estimating Principal & Co-Investigator Timebet

Draft Guidance For Principal Investigators

Introduction

Under Full Economic Costing (fEC), the salary costs of the time spent by principal investigators (PIs) and co-investigators (CIs) working on the project should be included in the fEC cost calculation.

This note provides guidance for PIs in estimating these costs. It deals with both the principles involved, drawing on government guidance on the implementation of fEC, and their practical application using the p-FACT project costing software. Note that support will also be provided from Research and Consultancy Services staff where required. However, given the wide range of funding strategies of individual funders it is important that academics also understand the terms of the research funding schemes to which they apply (as is currently the case).

What time is included?

Time for all academic staff engaged on a project should be included in the project costing, irrespective of how they are funded (SHEFC, endowments, trust funds etc). The time of individuals who are not paid through the institution (for example, visiting professors from industry) should also be included - although there should be no cost applied to this time (the time can be counted towards FTE calculations for the Estates and Indirect Charge). Note an exception to this should be made for Research Council, Other Government Department (OGD) or charity applications for Fellows and Research Assistants whose time or salary has already been wholly (100%) included (though not necessarily funded) in a previous single separate fellowship or project grant provided by a Research Council, OGD, or charity - see Annex A below.

All hours should be included, irrespective of when the work will be done, either within or outwith "normal" working hours (up to a maximum of 1650 hours per annum).

PI and CI time should include all the direct time required to manage the project, to undertake the work and to supervise the project staff. However, it should not include the time spent in training or supervising of research students. The costs of project studentships and any other students who are recognised as a member of the project team by the sponsor, should be included on a basis other than fEC (for example, stipends and fees). The direct and FTE related costs of supervising a studentship are deemed to be covered within the relevant tuition fee).

Any time which could be categorised by TRAC as Support should not be included (for example, Drafting and re-drafting proposals for new work and supporting bids to external bodies, Institute and department committee work supporting research - see TAS Guidance Notes and FAQ's on fEC website for further examples www.strath.ac.uk/fec/tas.html). Note that some support activities may be allowable by certain funders - clarification should be sought from Research and Consultancy Services staff if necessary.

Writing up time should be included where appropriate but this may depend on the sponsor (Note that for RC projects the time spent writing up the RC final report should be included in the PI time estimates - even if it takes place after the research grant has been completed).

What units are used for estimating time?

Two different approaches can be used to estimate time, namely

  1. actual time (the preferred method per the fEC Guidance) or a
  2. percentage of time

Note that when entering time on p-FACT, any mixture of units can be used on a single project, however, it is good practice to estimate time in terms of actual hours. The examples below illustrate the two techniques and demonstrate the potential definitional problems with the % of time method.

Actual time

This is the preferred method; it is simpler, it assists with comparisons between projects, and it helps avoid any understatement of time (or costs).

The preferred unit of time to use is hours, but note that p-FACT allows time to be entered as total hours, days, or months for the selected work period. Hours per week for a selected work period may also be used. P-FACT automatically makes conversions between units using:

  • 1 day = 7.5 hours / 1 year = 220 days
  • 1 week = 37.5 hours / 1 year = 44 weeks
  • 1 year = 1650 hours

These conversions are based on the mandatory fEC Guidance on the standard working year (1,650 hours). The Guidance states that whilst based on 37.5 hours a week (an underestimate of actual working hours), it is also based on 44 weeks a year (an overestimate of the actual weeks and days available). Overall, 1,650 is therefore fair and reasonable for both institution and sponsor to use, and this should prevent any over- or under-recovery of academic costs.

As a % of time

This is also an acceptable method, but as this is likely to be a less accurate method, it should be used with care. p-FACT allows for the use of FTE per annum.

How is time estimated?

Although estimating time on long-running projects cannot be done with precision, it is possible to provide a reasonable estimate by adopting a consistent approach.

Firstly, PIs will recognise that a range of factors could determine whether a project is more or less time consuming, for example :

  • Whether the academic is PI or CI
  • The number of CIs
  • The experience of the RAs
  • The academic's experience with this type of project
  • The number of partners
  • The sponsors' administrative requirements
  • The number of papers that may be written etc

Of course, during the project the work could develop in a variety of ways, not known at the outset, leading to actual time varying considerably form the original estimates.

Despite these issues, academics are usually able to make a reasonable estimate, using experience to even take into account potential changes unknown at the project start. The key factors, PIs will take into account are :

  • The need to take into account existing commitments, including teaching and administration as well as other research commitments. Note that time committed to all activities should not exceed 100% of your available time.
  • The need to weight time committed to research projects to take account of complex or time consuming projects, or supervision of less experienced staff.

Two distinct methods can be used to estimate time :

  1. Bottom-up estimate (actual hours)
    • The hours required to carry out the work is built up, based on a detailed programme of work, and experience of the specific type of project. This is good practice, per the fEC Guidelines and should be used if possible.
  2. Top-down or overview estimate (% time)
    • Research time can be considered to be the time available after teaching, administrative duties and PGR supervision not associated with specific research projects. Allocate this research time to specific projects, including the new project being costed. An alternative method appropriate to this approach would be to allocate a specific number of hours per week for supervision of RAs and use this as the basis of estimating time spent on the projects on which each RA is working. For this top-down method, it is important to weight the estimates to reflect complex or time-consuming projects.

An estimate of the time required on average across the whole project may be used for each year's estimate, and annual fluctuations in workload ignored.

Time spent training and supervising postgraduate researchers (PGR)

There is currently no mandatory requirement to cost PGR students on a fEC basis.

For the time being, project studentships, and other PGR students funded by the Research Councils and other sponsors, will continue to be funded on tuition fees and stipends (or a doctoral training account and stipends).

Time associated with preparation and delivery of courses for postgraduate students should not be charged to the project. For the Time Allocation Exercise (TAS), this time should be allocated to Teaching.

Verification of time actually spent

Few projects will run exactly as estimated. Sometimes PIs will put in less time, sometimes more (for example, when a research assistant leaves early for another post). Most of these variances will be small, and they will tend to average out when aggregated across all projects at the level of an institution or a research council. Research councils are concerned about PIs "double-booking" themselves and putting in less time than planned, or charging more than a full working week. They will require some assurance (as now) that budgeted costs have actually been incurred. However, expensive cost-tracking systems are not required for this.

Instead, PIs will be required to take a more explicit responsibility for building up the project budget (with help as appropriate); for keeping an overall assessment of effort put in and outcomes; and, at the end of the project, for verifying that academic time input has been as planned (within a reasonable tolerance limit - perhaps 20%).

This will require PIs to keep some simple records (for example, in a desk diary or project log book) of the main events, visits, meetings etc. in the course of a project. It will not require them to complete time sheets, or (for example) to allocate small fractions of time such as telephone calls between different projects.

As now, the institution could be asked to report on progress of live projects, and it would also certify that the total staff time being charged to the research councils in a year is actually being committed (taken in aggregate across the institution). This will be done through the existing TRAC time allocation mechanism.

(Research councils are also likely to introduce (joint) systems that will allow them to identify any individuals who are working more than a standard working year on research councils' projects. However, research councils also realise that, to some extent, institutions will need to over-commit academics at the proposal submission stage in recognition that success rates for proposals are not 100%.)

Summary

In estimating PI and CI time on projects :

  • Include all PIs and CIs, whether paid by the University or not (with the exception of wholly funded Fellows and Research Assistants - see Annex A)
  • Include all the direct time required to manage the project, to undertake the work and to supervise the project staff
  • Do not include PGR supervision
  • Calculate time on an actual hours or % time basis, actual hours being preferred.
  • Note that time committed to all activities should not exceed 100% of your available time.
  • Note that a maximum of 1650 hours per annum for one individual on one project can be included for Research Council projects
  • Note that PIs will be required to verify that academic time input has been as planned

Annex A

Fellows and Research Assistants 100% included in previous application

Where Fellows and Research Assistants whose time or salary has already been wholly (100%) included in a previous single separate fellowship or project grant provided by a Research Council, Other Government Department (OGD), or charity are working on a project :

  • the time or salaries of these Fellows or RAs should not then be included in the fEC of a subsequent research project. This is irrespective of the amount actually funded on that initial fellowship or project grant. They should, however, still be named on any research project on which they subsequently work;
  • however, if their original grant will have expired by the time the new project commences, then their time and salaries should be included in the new project costs;

If the new project and original project overlap, the time or salaries can be included for the period not previously funded.

The Teaching and Support duties of a Research Fellow and Research Assistant are usually within the scope of their research projects. The time that they expect to spend on these should remain part of the fEC for those research projects.