Post-award administration covers a multitude of services which are undertaken by JRO Grants, working alongside academics and departmental staff, including:

  • Invoicing/claiming reimbursement/timesheets
  • Financial/general statements
  • Confirmation of research staff
  • Project closure

What we do

Initiate sub-agreements

Upon receipt of awards which hold budgets for subcontractors or partners the JRO Contracts teams must be informed immediately to negotiate and create the relevant agreement.

 

Activate funding

JRO Grants teams can activate funding for a project once notification of the award has been received, and associated research funding contracts have been signed. JRO Grants teams set up the new project on ICIS.

Administer account

JRO Grants handles the administration of the account during the life of the project.

Authorise staff appointments (and HR18s)

There are most commonly 4 types of HR forms which will be sent from the depts to the JRO for review and approved within the parameters of the award/project before being submitted by the Dept to HR for processing (excluding HR18 forms which are processed in the JRO via Labour Distribution - please see opposite in how to complete HR18s correctly)

Please click on ‌ to access and understand the different types.

To ensure ample time is given throughout the process by all parties involved, please follow the attached HR Forms Timetable PDF guidance.  Submission of HR Forms to the JRO by 15th of each month will help with this.

Please ensure all HR18s are completed properly for GL codes and POETA codes using the correct cells as indicated in the examples below:

HR18 Template - Example 1
HR18 Template - Example 2

Raise expenditure POs

Departmental administrators raise POs. 

Raising Purchase Orders for Subcontractors and Partners (including Trusts)

Raising Purchase Orders

Purchase Orders for research partner collaboration agreements and sub-contract agreements on P-codes, will be rasied by the JRO Grants Team.  These are agreements which have been negotiated and executed by the JRO Contracts team.

Raising Purchase Orders for Subcontracts and Partners (pdf) within the Faculty of Medicine.


Timesheets

In all instances, please follow the Timesheet Guidance on the Research Office webpage.

Each month Department Admin will receive a Timesheets Due Report, as part of the Post Award Management (PAM) reports, which lists all funders who require timesheets completed.

Timesheets should be collated and sent to the JRO on a monthly basis (or at least a quarterly basis as minimum), as indicated by the guidance in the attached Timesheets Due Report.

To ensure the timesheets are completed correctly first time, please use the Timesheets Checklist (pdf) to minimise errors.

Please also view the list of Timesheet Common Errors (pdf)‌‌ received in the JRO. 

Incorrect timesheets will be returned to the department to correct and resubmit.  Please be aware of funder reporting deadlines as timesheets not submitted in time will not have staff costs claimed, which will affect department, faculty and college cashflow.

Where to send your timesheets in Faculty of Medicine

Please send all timesheets for each funder who requires them to fomtimesheets@imperial.ac.uk

Funder requirements

Please be reminded it is the funders who have applied these rules for timesheets as an auditable trail, not the College or Research Offices. 

The timesheet methodology applied to these projects is the most sustainable and risk-averse way of recording time, which will correctly charge costs to each individual project.  Therefore, failure to complete timesheets may result in the department having to cover these costs if not submitted or disallowed by the funder.

 

Specific guidance

OID (Organisational Information Document)

All college sponsored studies funded by a non-commercial organisation with NHS Trust costs will require a SoECAT and Organisational Information Document (OID).

The exception when an OID is not required is when the study is for a clinical trial or investigation and when ICHT is the only site (Single Centre Study).  When both criteria is met then a Model Agreement for Non-Commercial Research (mNCA) will be required, and no OID. 

Please note: for multi-centre ICL sponsored studies for a clinical trial or investigation, ICHT JRO contracts team expects to receive the localised non-commercial OID (with Appendix 1 indicating OID NOT to be used as the formal Agreement between ICL and ICHT site) and with an accompanying localised mNCA and localised SoECAT.

Details of this can be found on the OID and mNCA Contracts Flowchart PDF 43KB.

N.B. Commercially sponsored trials will be run through the NHS Trust JRO team via Model Agreements not JRO Contracts.

The internal process for the OID and mNCA in the Faculty of Medicine can be found by clicking on the OID and mNCA Process Map (PDF)

Contract Agreement or Offer Letter

When the award is made to the college, the PI/Study Team will generate an Outline OID using the generic template for review by the Research Governance and Integrity Team (RGIT). as part of the original HRA/REC submission.

  •  The OID Word template; guidance for use with the OID can all be downloaded from the HRA link.

A ‘Local information pack’ is then prepared for each participating site and this will include the localised version of either the mNCA or OID. The site will then notify the PI/study team if they require changes to the document before this can be signed off. 

In Appendix 2 of the OID: Finance Provisions - The PI/Study team must complete this section with the following details:

  •  All invoices MUST quote a Purchase Order Number which will be sent to the Trust once the OID has been fully signed and executed.  This must include the cost centre and P-code of the research project for ease of reference. 
  • All invoice should be sent on a quarterly basis to:  Account Payable Invoices - apinvoices@imperial.ac.uk (preferred method)
  • Or by post, Accounts Payable Level 3 Sherfield Building Imperial College London Exhibition Road London SW7 2AZ
  • Payments to be made by cheque or BACS Transfer are not possible and this section should be removed.

Once a final draft of the Outline OID has been approved for sponsorship by the RGIT, the PI is to submit to the HRA, along with IRAS checklist for “Initial Assessment”.

The internal process for the OID can be found by clicking on the OID and mNCA Process Map (PDF).

  • Once the initial assessment has been received from the HRA, the PI/Study Team/Dept Admin must check with the JRO Grant team to confirm there is a budget per site, and review Appendix 2: Finance Provisions has been completed correctly to ensure payments to Trusts will be made.
  •  A Local Document Pack is submitted to sites. (Localised OID forms part of this pack)
  •  During the negotiation phase it will be required to reconfirm the budgets awarded for each site, in case of any budget adjustments for each site.
  •  Any queries to be discussed with the section/divisional manager in terms of budget adjustment.
  •  The PI and participating NHS site will need to authorise the OID before the NHS Trust site issue a Capacity and Capability Approval to the PI, and attach an authorized version of the OID.
  •  ICHT JRO will send a fully executed OID with P-code and PI name to the JRO Grant Manager to raise a PO and return the PO# with reference to the P-code.
  •  For other Trusts, a request from the PI/Study team to raise a PO to send to the other Trust.

IMPORTANT - For other Trust sites, the PI/Study Team MUST ENSURE a copy of the OID is sent to the RGIT and the JRO Grants team for audit and assurance purposes.  Failure to do so will be prone to investigation by the auditor.

Amendments to agreement

Any significant amendments to the OIDs which will have an impact on the budget and/or duration of the project will need to have funder and/or department & JRO approval

Examples being:

  •  A significant increase in participants which will require a budget amendment; and a top up of existing purchase orders.
  •  A significant decrease in participants which will require a budget amendment; and the cancellation/amendment of existing purchase orders (and possibly re-raise of new ones)
  •  Change in the research plan where an NHS investigative test may longer be required.  Hence a reduction in commitment to NHS cost
  • No cost (or cost) extension which falls outside the overall project period will require funder approval

BIEE Dashboard Reports

Dashboard reporting uses Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) also known as Imperial College Analytics (ICA).

They give detailed information on awards, projects and proposals per faculty. Amongst other things they provide an easy-to-use tool to monitor expenditure against budgets.

List of Projects tab - Transaction Lists can be downloaded from the “List of Projects” report by searching for the Project Number; click on the Project Number in the returned data below and select “Project Transaction Detail”.  In the next window, click on Project Number and select “Transaction detail – line by line”.  

Exception Reports tab - There are 6 exception reports in this area each monitoring spend for a particular category -

  • RCUK Starting Report
  • Equipment Budget with no equipment spend
  • Equipment Budget greater than £25k spend is less than £20k
  • Project >3 months old with staff and/or bursary budget but no spend
  • Project end date within 9 months
  • Projects not closed after actual end date

Balance Management Report tab - This report shows project budgets, expenditure, commitments and remaining balance in conjunction with the remaining number of months.

Other reports are available in the drop down selections such as “Project Summary”; “Potentially Ineligible Spend”; “%Credit Project” and “Commitment Detail”.

Commitments

Commitments at Final Claim (pdf) - The general rule of thumb is not to claim commitments, as claiming commitments which do not materialise is fraudulent, especially if income is received based on actual expenditure. Please view the process.

Clearing Commitments on the Legacy of Awards
Process
  1. JRO will download the project & award commitments and send a spreadsheet to section admin to ask them to CANCEL the PO and/or requisition, or move to a related research project or dept code.
  2. Section Admin to cancel the POs and/or requisitions which they can from this list – please refer to Purchase Order Maintenance (click “5 more child pages” for Cancelling a whole or lines of a purchase order).
  3. For the older commitments which are unable to be cancelled, Section Admin should forward to Systems Accounting explaining which cannot be cancelled, cc-ing respective JRO team member who sent the request and who will then take forward for resolution.
    * Alternatively reply to the JRO team member who will take forward with Systems Accounting.
  4. Systems Accounting will cancel POs and inform respective JRO administrator the PO has now been closed - the commitments will now show as zero on the award/project.
  5. JRO will balance and close account – as per closing account procedure in the Operations Manual.

N.B. Commitments on old D cost centres no longer need to be cleared.

Reconcile and balance

To close an award on ICIS, the Budget = Revenue = Expenditure = Income received. Also = GL List of Balances.

Before you start this process, the following must be adhered to:

  • The project has finished
  • All costs have been posted
  • The funder has been fully invoiced
  • All invoices have been paid before any closure can take place
  • Where the price is not fixed, a refund will be due to the funder. The JRO will check this before the transfer of any balance.
  • All main headings should balance.

Please view the 'Approach to Clearing Balances in the FoM Research Portfolio' for the faculty’s approach in reducing the overall portfolio of awards.

Close account

The JRO Grants teams will close the award/project in relation to their own internal procedures under the FEC & non-FEC guidance.

Managing Projects - Award Closure