Study Costs. All questions and answers are relevant to all programmes managed by NETSCC unless it states otherwise.

Transcription

1 Study Costs All questions and answers are relevant to all programmes managed by NETSCC unless it states otherwise. DIRECT COSTS What are the Direct Costs? These are costs that are that are specific to the research, which will be charged as the amount actually spent and can be supported by an audit record. Direct costs may include the following: salaries travel, subsistence & conference fees equipment consumables patient and public involvement other costs (such as consultancy, project specific training, computer licensing, open access publishing, etc.) How accurate do you expect my costs to be? Applicants should note that it is in their interests to undertake a thorough, realistic and accurate costing of their proposal. NETSCC Programmes expect that the costs identified should not differ between outline and full proposal stage. Any differences must be clearly explained and fully justified. The awarding body will pay close scrutiny to any increases. Staff Costs Can I include all applicants costs'? Yes, NETS Programmes fully support the principle of full economic costing, and award research funds on this basis (up to a maximum 80% of FEC) to research based in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Under the terms of this, all HEI applicants are allowed to charge for the proportion of their time that will be spent working on any funded proposal. However applicants should be aware that although NETSCC Programmes fund on the basis of the scientific merit of the research, they will be competing for limited funds. The total cost of any proposal should therefore be carefully considered. I am one of the applicants on a proposal and am employed full time by a University/NHS Trust. Can my salary be included in the costings? Yes, we will reimburse your employer for the proportion of your salary relating to the time you will spend working on the NIHR Programme project. Can a PhD student be included as part of the costings? NIHR does not fund PhD studentships through its research grants (NIHR's main training opportunities can be accessed here: ) It is possible, however, for a researcher employed on an NIHR grant to register for a PhD based on the funded project, though NIHR will not reimburse fees. How is yearly salary calculated?

2 The amount per year is calculated by multiplying the gross annual salary by the % of time spent on the project per year. This needs to be done by your finance department (as it is not an automatic calculation) for each year that the person is working on the project. If the person is spending different % of time on the project in each year, then list this person with the relevant percentages on separate lines and explain this in the justification of costs section. Can we include local or national discretionary payments that proposed co applicants or collaborators are in receipt of (e.g. Silver/Gold/Platinum merit awards for applicants with NHS contracts, 'market force' supplements over and above standard spine scales for University employees) etc. in salary costings? If the co applicants or collaborators are already in receipt of these awards/supplements then yes they can be included in the costings. If they are only anticipated then they should not be included. Please note however that only those payments which the employing institution itself is required to fund should be included, not any for which separate national funding is made available. We are an HEI but will be funding clinical time/research nurses. How will this time be funded? If the clinical time/research nurses are employed by the NHS and are not subject to indirect costs then we will pay 100% of costs. The type of cost box will need to be checked. Travel Costs What sort of travel costs can I include as part of research costs? Where applicable you will need to include the travel and subsistence of your Project Advisory Group, Steering Committee, Data Monitoring & Ethics Committee; researchers travel and patients travel. Travel and Subsistence for dissemination can also be included as part of research costs. Travel and subsistence that relate to the delivery of treatment should be classified as a NHS Treatment Cost. Do you fund travel by first class? We do not usually fund first class travel. The most economic method of transport should be used when calculating travel costs. Should we include costs for an HTA / PHR / HS&DR Monitoring welcome meetings? The HTA programme only invites Primary Research projects to attend a welcome meeting at NETSCC, HTA in Southampton (but not if the staff have been to a previous welcome meeting or it is a feasibility study). There are no welcome meetings for HTA Secondary Research projects. Most PHR and HS&DR / SDO/ HSR projects are invited to attend welcome meetings, regardless whether they are primary or secondary research projects. Travel expenses for attendance of these meetings should be included in the application as part of research costs. Equipment What costs can we include for computers, IT support and software?

3 Costs for computers/laptops up to 650 excluding VAT can be costed in the proposal. Printers and specialist software should be shown separately. For HEIs common office software and standard IT support and training should be covered by indirect costs. However, software and IT support and training that is specific to the trial can be costed for separately in the application form. Should I account for VAT on equipment? Equipment must exclude VAT but if your organisation cannot recover VAT on a piece of equipment then the VAT cannot be reclaimed box should be ticked. Consumables Can consumables be included as part of research cost? Only research specific items, and not general office costs, can be claimed for HEIs. General consumables should be covered by an institution s indirect costs. Can I include stationery and phone costs in the proposal costs? We will cover the estimated cost of phone calls to participants if significant (e.g. for telephone surveys), and paper and printing of questionnaires and trial publicity material or information for participants, but for HEIs not general office costs which should come out of indirect costs. Other Costs Can we include training costs? Whilst training which is specific to the trial should be costed in, for HEIs more general training such as use of common IT packages should be funded through the indirect costs element of the grant so should not be included in the costing. Please note that if the training is in connection with delivering the trial intervention then it may be a treatment cost or NHS support cost, please see: Attributing revenue costs of externally funded non-commercial research in the NHS (ARCO) Can we include staff recruitment costs? For HEI projects recruitment of staff should be covered by indirect costs so not costed in separately. For non HEI projects recruitment costs can be included. Can we include costs for NHS consultants? The allocation of NHS consultants time and costs can be quite complicated. The first step is to identify whether it is an NHS support cost, a treatment costs or a Research cost. If their role is to do with patient care it may be an NHS support or treatment cost. The DH paper on how costs can be attributed is key. Here is the link: Attributing revenue costs of externally funded noncommercial research in the NHS (ARCO) NHS support and treatment costs need to be entered in the appropriate pages in the form. Research costs will need to be entered into the main staff pages and the type of cost box should be checked. Can we include payments to TSC and DMEC members? We would usually pay reasonable travel costs; however, we do not pay consultancy costs or reimburse their time unless they are a Service User member. Will you pay Access fees for open access journals? Yes, we want to encourage dissemination and therefore we will cover reasonable costs.

4 Will you pay a host or management fee to a Trust? No we do not pay this cost. However, if specific costs of hosting the research can be identified then we will consider them along with all the other research costs. Will you pay a sponsorship fee to a Trust? We will pay MHRA and Trial registration fees as research costs. We will not fund other types of sponsorship fees. However, if specific costs of sponsoring this specific piece of research can be identified then we will consider them along with all the other research costs. INDIRECT COST AND ESTATE CHARGES The host institution is an NHS Trust but we have some HEI staff on the team. Can we include indirect costs for these people? Yes, indirect costs can be paid for these people, at their institution s rate but we will only fund their direct and indirect costs at 80% Can overheads or indirect costs be included for NHS centres? We do not fund NHS overheads. If there are specific extra costs which will arise as a result of your NHS organisation hosting this research then please include details of these and we will consider them. Please note that if your institution is in receipt of Research Capability Funding this is intended to cover overhead type items. What do indirect costs cover? Broadly speaking the costs of running the university and employing staff. This includes all centrally provided university services such as payroll, finance, security, IT support etc. as well as normal office costs such as widely used office software (although not trial specific software), consumables, stationery and phone calls (although not those items directly arising from the project such as patient information literature and telephone surveys), general IT training (not training specifically related to the trial intervention), staff recruitment costs, parental leave and sick leave costs. This is not an exhaustive list and we are happy to answer queries on specific items. GENERAL QUESTIONS What is the difference between HEI and Non HEI costs? HEI costs are Higher Education Institution costs those costs which arise at and are paid by the University. FEC will be applied to these costs and we only fund 80%. Non HEI costs are those from a non HEI partner in the research. We pay 100% of these costs but do not pay indirect costs or overheads on them. One of our co applicants is based at a foreign University should we claim 100% or 80% of their costs? If there are Indirect costs associated with this person we would only pay 80%, however, if there are no associated indirect costs we would pay 100% I work at an HEI but have consultancy charges from a charity. Are these non HEI? Yes, because they do not originate at the university.

5 We are including a private clinic in our research how do we include the costs for this? Please include the costs the clinic has quoted under Other Direct Costs and supply any documentary evidence of this. Some of the research is going to be completed abroad how should we include these costs? Please include the costs under the relevant headings in at the current exchange rate and include a note against each that this is what you have done, stating what rate you have used and where (e.g. Reuters mid rate) and on what date you obtained it. How should we budget for centres in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales? These should be included in the same way as for English centres