Managing Your Grant

Grants Management Office

Your obligations:

As your Administering Organisation, UNSW enters into an agreement with the relevant funding body to administer your research grant and comply with the conditions of the agreement. As the first named Investigator, you are responsible for complying with the University’s administrative processes which have been set up to ensure the obligations of the funding agreement are met.

Please see the Policies, Procedures and Forms for Researchers and Research Support Staff page to download all current forms referred to below.

The conduct and timing of the research project

Your project must be carried out as described in your research grant proposal and in accordance with the funding agreements or conditions of the award. You must observe the conditions set out in these documents at all times during the life of your grant. Any significant changes to the project scope, timing, personnel or budget expenditure must be notified to the GMO as soon as practicable. The GMO will review the matter and determine if a variation should be submitted for approval by the Funding Body.

All correspondence to the funding body relating to your grant should be forwarded via the Grants Management Office.

Personnel

Commencing employment: All funding recipients must be employees of UNSW for the duration of the funding. Research fellows must be placed on a UNSW contract of employment for the funding period.  All individuals on UNSW contracts of employment are covered by the relevant Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (or AWA, if applicable, for employees who commenced employment prior to 28 March 2008).

Your Faculty HR Representative [http://www.hr.unsw.edu.au/services/personnel/hrcs.html] will prepare letters of offer of employment and set in place any other arrangements relating to appointments.

 In submitting HR10 forms to Human Resources it is usual to request appointment for the full length of time for which funds have been provided. Please contact your School Administrator for assistance in completing HR10 forms. A link to HR forms is provided at http://www.hr.unsw.edu.au/hrforms.html

Termination of employment: In most cases grant funding cannot be used for severance payments. Severance pay entitlements for fixed-term employees may be available in accordance with Section 15.2.3 of the UNSW (Academic Staff) Enterprise Agreement 2006.  Externally funded fixed term professional staff may be entitled to severance pay in accordance with Section 19.3 and 19.4 of the University of New South Wales (Professional Staff) Enterprise Agreement 2010.  Severance payments are provided via central funding and not through individual schools or centres.

Ethics and Biosafety Clearances

Ethics: You must have ethics clearance for all projects using human subjects in any form and for research involving animal subjects. Throughout the duration of your research this clearance must be current and you are responsible for renewing ethics approval over the course of the project.

If you require and have not yet obtained your clearance(s), please contact the Ethics Secretariat on 9385 4234 for human and animal clearances.

Biosafety: All UNSW research and teaching involving biological hazards must comply with the UNSW Biological Safety Procedure. Biosafety approvals must be gained prior to project commencement through the UNSW Institutional Biosafety Committee. Contact the Risk Management Unit on 9385 2916 for OGTR & Biosafety clearances. For more information see UNSW Research Safety.

Record Keeping

It is important you keep project records to ensure accountability and transparency. Critical documents pertaining to your management of the project should be kept and be easily accessible. Record keeping makes good business sense to ensure the sustainability of your project should key personnel need to change with little notice. Internal audits may be undertaken randomly on research projects to ensure funding body and University requirements are being met. External auditing may be undertaken by funding bodies.

The InfoEd Grants Management System provides you with access to all data recorded about an application or grant. You can access all records on which you are a named investigator. Documentation kept on InfoEd includes:

  • Project status - received, submitted to sponsor, awarded, funds released, etc
  • All project correspondence and documentation, including contracts and reports
  • Up-to-date financial reports via a direct link to the NSS project record
  • Deadlines for and details of milestone reports and deliverables

Working with other Australian Universities

In instances where you are collaborating with another Australian University you need to complete the Multi-Institutional Agreement (shared agreement) form and submit to the Grants Management Office.

Please see the Policies, Procedures and Forms for Researchers and Research Support Staff page to download the MIA form appropriate for your grant.

Expenditure and Finance

In order to release your funds you must submit the appropriate forms at the time of submission (see Applying for Funds) and once awarded funding, a Grant Acceptance Form to the UNSW Grants Management Office. These forms confirm that your research will be conducted in accordance with all necessary regulatory and risk requirements and that any over-expenditures occurring within the project will be met from other funds.

Your Faculty Accountant and School/Centre finance staff will assist you with expenditure management throughout the life of the grant, raising purchase orders on your behalf and reimbursing you for costs claimed.

Use the Request for Invoice-Research form to raise an invoice on an existing contract or share grant agreement.

Research Finance Services work in partnership with the Grants Management Office to provide financial and administrative support of your research funding.

Financial Reporting: The NHMRC requires submission of an annual NHMRC Financial Statement and a Financial Acquittal for each individually funded grant. For more information see http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/grants/admin/finreport.htm