Background Notes on CASE Awards
1.
The term “CASE” originally stood for Cooperative Award for Science and
Engineering, and originated in EPSRC. They provide studentships funded jointly by
a research council and an industrial partner. The scope of the schemes now
extends to all academic disciplines where collaboration with industry is fruitful, and
most research councils have their own variety.
2.
There are two distinct different sorts of EPSRC CASE awards:-
(i) The Industrial CASE scheme; and
(ii) CASE top-ups (i.e. conversions) built on the Doctoral Training Grant.
The Industrial CASE scheme
3.
The College receives an annual award under the Industrial CASE scheme –
see spreadsheet of grant numbers. This is a summation of numerous individual
allocations, but the common factor is that it is the Industry partner which initiates the
process. EPSRC puts out an annual invitation to companies for proposals
for collaborative studentships. Large businesses (eg Shell, GSK) are allocated a
quota based on an algorithm. Smaller business can bid either through knowledge
transfer network and regional development agencies, or through an
open competition. Under the scheme, EPSRC provide a standard studentship
(roughly £66,000 over 3.5 years) and the industry partner contributed a minimum of
£22,000. This is all explained under the Collaborative Training heading here:http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/SKILLS/STUDENTS/Pages/studentships.aspx
4.
The important thing for this purpose is that the call to industry for bids is
usually in January each year. When an industrial partner has been awarded a
studentship, they then make contact with a university (or they may simply firm up an
existing contact), identify a student and supervisor and put the contractual
arrangements in place.
5.
We have already had notice of quite a number of 2013 Industrial CASE
studentships pending, but the formal award - the successor to the one referred to
above - has not yet been made by EPSRC.
6.
The advantage of the Industrial CASE scheme over topping up standard DTG
awards (see below) is that it is all extra money so far as the College is concerned - it
doesn't eat into existing resources at all. However, it does rely upon the company
bidding successfully to EPSRC at the right time each year.
Doctoral Training Grant conversions (top-ups)
7.
The College also receives annually a Doctoral Training Grant allocation,
roughly equivalent to about 100 studentships. These are mostly allocated to
departments. It has always been open to departments to top these allocations up
from other resources - including industry. For the past two years, however, EPSRC
have put a specific target for conversion of 10% of standard DTGs to CASE
studentships. There is no formal process for this. Departments should make their
own arrangements with company contacts in order to turn existing DTG studentships
into CASE awards. The collaboration needs to be recorded on J-eS, and ESPRC
will ask for information about our success in this area when we come to submit the
Final Expenditure statement for the DTG award in question.
Contractual arrangements with the Industry partner.
8.
For most Industrial CASE awards, the Industry partner will submit a tri-partite
contract between the College, the student, and the partner, covering matters such as
industry supervision of the research, payment arrangements and intellectual property
rights.
Billing the industry partner
9.
It is the responsibility of the department in which the CASE award is held to
ensure that the industry contribution is billed. A sales invoice request form should
be submitted directly to Accounts receivable:http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/finance/sections/accountsreceivable
Accounting for CASE awards
10.
There are two different approaches, equally valid. EITHER:-
(i)
the entire award for a given student – including the industry portion – can be
administered via the designated G code, as shown in annex 1. The Research
Council component will be credited automatically by Credit Control, as it arrives in
quarterly instalments from the Research Council. The industry partner’s contribution
will be credited when billed (see paragraph 9), and should be credited to analysis
code 564605.
The entire student bursary, tuition fee and other costs can be
charged to the same activity code without distinction as to the source of funds; OR
(ii)
the industry portion can be held in a separate account code – for example an
F code, with the student’s bursary being split-coded between the appropriate G code
(for the Research Council portion) and the special code which has been set up for
the industry element. No grants relating to training of postgraduate students should
be accounted for as research activity.
Other Research Councils
11.
The arrangements described above relate to EPSRC. Other research
councils are slightly different. Principal Investigators should always check the grant
conditions carefully.
MAA
August 2013