Research Facilities on RCUK grant applications
Each year, the University performs a calculation of full economic cost (fEC) charge-out rates.
These charge-out rates provide a basis whereby the University can recover support costs
attributable to Research projects. The charge-out rates (for indirect costs, estates costs,
laboratory technician support and facility access) are used in the Full Economic Costing of
projects funded by RCUK, Innovate UK or other UK Government Departments who pay on
the basis of fEC (referred to below as RCUK).
A number of items of equipment and research facilities have been designated as research
facilities. This means that the costs associated with these research equipment and research
facilities are charged separately from the estates costs:

The costs of operating the equipment or facility are estimated and deducted from the
estates cost totals.

The estimated annual operating costs are then divided by the estimated efficient
annual usage for all activities to calculate a charge-out rate (per hour or per day) for
that equipment or facility.

This charge out rate is then used to charge usage of the equipment or facility to
projects.
The University’s Full Economic Cost Working Group (FECWG) has reviewed the recorded
costs and recovery of costs via equipment and facility charges and technician charges and
has identified that, in 2013/14 there is some £1.1 million of costs that are being deducted
from the estates costs that are not being recovered via equipment and facility charges and
technician charges. This is having the effect of reducing the estates charge out rates across
all University projects to the detriment of overall University income.
FECWG has approved that for a number of facilities (detailed in Appendix 1), where the level
of recovery is significantly less than the costs of the facility, the facility and equipment costs
should cease to be charged separately to RCUK fEC-costed projects and these facilities will
be removed from the pFACT list of facilities eligible to be charged to RCUK from 1 February
2015.
The full cost of these facilities would instead be included in the calculation of the estates
rate. This will have the impact of increasing the estates recovery rate on all laboratory
based projects funded on a fEC basis from £12,876 to £13,710 per FTE from 1 February
2015, which would be beneficial to the University in overall terms.
Investigators will no longer be able to include separate charges for use of those facilities in
fEC costings of projects funded by RCUK, as their costs would already be included in the
estates rate. Instead, for such projects, the Faculties will arrange to meet the costs of
utilising the facilities that would otherwise have been recovered directly via a facility or
technician charge from the estates and indirect recoveries on RCUK grants.
This Faculty funding would be available to fund the use of these former facilities by research
projects led by Strathclyde academic staff who have been awarded funding from RCUK. In
order to benefit from this funding, it will be necessary for managers of these facilities to
continue to:

calculate the annual charge out rate for the facility in the same way as at present

liaise with academics on a per project basis at application stage to identify intended
usage

maintain a log of actual access used by each individual project and calculate the
charges that would have applied
Details of the process for charging usage (by projects funded by RCUK, Innovate UK or
other UK Government Departments who pay on the basis of fEC) will be circulated to Facility
Managers shortly.
Facility Managers should continue to use their current process and pricing policies for
charging access direct to external business customers and/or via industrial/commercial
Research/KE contracts lead by Strathclyde academic staff.
The list of facilities will continue to be reviewed, and in the event that usage of a facility
increases and the level of cost recovery improves, FECWG will consider reinstating
individual facilities on the list of facilities eligible to be charged in the Facilities/Equipment
section of pFACT.
Appendix 1
Faculty
Department
Facility/Equipment
Removed February 2015
Science
P & A Chemistry
Mass Spectrometry Facility
Science
P & A Chemistry
X-Ray Crystallography
Science
Science
P & A Chemistry
P & A Chemistry
NMR Facility
Glovebox Facility
Science
Physics
Electron Microprobe Facility
Engineering
Engineering
Engineering
Engineering
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
AFRC
AFRC
AFRC
AMRL
Screw Press
SEM
Hydraulic Press
Removed February 2014
Science
P & A Chemistry
Science
Science
Science
Science
Science
Engineering
Engineering
SIPBS
SIPBS
SIPBS
SIPBS
Faculty
Bioengineering
Chemical and Process Engineering
Surface Enhanced resonance Raman
Spectroscopy
NMR facility
SIPBS Mass Spectrometer
Upright Epifluorescence Microscope
Inverted Epifluorescence Microscope
Science Mechanical Workshop
Gait lab
Archie West