Monitoring and Approval Process (R&KT)

Monitoring and Approval Process (R&KT)

If you are intending to make a bid you should, in the first instance, discuss the potential bid with your Head of Institute (or line manager if appropriate) to get initial approval as to whether the bid will be supported by your Institute. At this stage, the bid should not be formally signed off by the Institute since this is only an initial approval to be confirmed when the bid has been worked up and the resource implications fully established.

It is recognised that in some areas, particularly with the work of Research Centres and Groups, Heads of Institute/line managers may have agreed in principal and in advance to that Centre/Group undertaking a range of activities. If this initial approval is given, you should submit a completed ‘Research Funding/KT/Consultancy Bid Form’ to John-Paul Wilson in the Graduate Research School (GRS) by email. Since it is hoped that staff will contact the GRS early in the process of developing their bid, it may not be possible for you to fill out significant sections of the form at this stage. Don’t worry about this, just complete as much as you can.

The bid will be logged as ‘Being Prepared’ in the University’s Research Funding Database and allocated a reference number. The form will be returned to you by email with the reference number attached. If there are any subsequent changes to the information in the form these should be relayed to the GRS.

The preparation of a research funding bid can take months if you want to get it right. Ideally you should plan out a detailed timescale for your preparation that allows plenty of time for the costing process, for review by peers, for the completion of application forms and for the approval of the bid by Finance, the GRS, your Head of Institute/Line Manager and, if the Full Economic Cost of the bid is over £10,000, the Deputy Vice Chancellor. Bids that have not allowed sufficient time for costing, peer review or approval may not be approved and submitted.

Costing is normally undertaken by Finance. You can talk directly with Finance or alternatively John-Paul can act as go between. In both instances, the costings must be agreed and signed off by Finance on the ‘Research Funding/KT/Consultancy Bid Form’.

Research funding bids should normally be submitted for review by at least 2 internal reviewers. The reviewers will be experienced in bidding and/or in the area in which the bid is being made. Reviewers will be identified in consultation with the Institute and the GRS. Normally you should submit a draft of the proposal for review a minimum of 4 weeks in advance of the submission deadline - you need to remember this when planning your timescale for preparation. The aim of this review is to improve the quality of your bid. The reviewers are there to advise not to stop the bid going forward and it is perfectly reasonable not to agree with everything the reviewers might say. However, Bids which have not been reviewed may not be approved, although in exceptional circumstances this requirement may be waived.

The final version of the bid along with the costing form, any ethics documentation, risk assessments, insurance documents, etc should be submitted to John-Paul in electronic and hard copy a minimum of 1 week before the submission deadline accompanied by the ‘Research Funding/KT/Consultancy Bid Form’ signed off by Finance and by your Head of Institute or line manager (where this is deemed appropriate). Where the bid is over £10000 (FEC) it must be approved by the Deputy Vice Chancellor.

It is recognised that some research funding bids are made in response to a call and that timescales may be much shorter than those set out above (and that occasionally staff may only become aware of an opportunity with a deadline looming). In these cases, there is still a need to ensure the quality of the bid and the accuracy of the costings, as well as to get the necessary approvals. The system, however, is intended to be flexible and in such instances the GRS will work with the bidder to make sure a high quality application is submitted on time.
It is also recognised that for bids where you are a partner in an application being led by another HEI, it may not always be possible to provide a full version of the application for review and approval on the timescales set out above and that, on occasion, a final copy of the full bid may not be available at all. In these instances, it is still necessary to get approval for the UW costings and for your part in the bid. We may not be able to quality assure the bid as a whole but we still want to ensure that the costings and the section(s) of the bid for which UW is responsible are appropriate, accurate and well written.

When all paperwork has been received and all approvals made then you can submit the bid!