University Research Office
Drysdale Building, E214
Northampton Square
London EC1V 0HB
Tel: 020 7040 8069
fin-rc@city.ac.uk
Application for a Grant or Contract
This covering form (the ‘AGC’) is part of the internal approval procedure when making applications to external
funders. The AGC provides a checklist of questions that should be asked when submitting an application.
Scope of use:

All research grants and contracts

All services rendered contracts

Miscellaneous projects that are not research or services rendered but are run through the Research
Grants and Contracts Office. Please check with this office before undertaking a project to ascertain
whether it requires approval.
An explanatory note is needed when the answer given to a question is starred.
Completion Checklist:
Sections to be completed
Additional paper work to be submitted
Step 1: Completion
by academic
Principal Investigator
A, B, C, D, E plus Appendix
A where applicable
Print outs from Siriusweb & fEC
spreadsheet
Step 2: Approval by
School
School Approver
(Dean or delegated
authority)
F
Additional paperwork from Principal
Investigator to be forwarded
Step 3: Approval on
behalf of the
University
RGC (Research
Grants and Contracts)
team in the University
Research Office
G
This form, the fEC Costing
spreadsheet and the Siriusweb salary
costings to RGC
Please allow at least five days for RGC to check and approve the form.
____________________________________________________________________________
Section A: Brief Details of the Application
1
Name of the Principal Investigator
School/Department/Research Centre/Research
Unit
2
Name, plus address if not Research Council, telephone number and contact name of the Grant or
Contract awarding body and funder deadline if applicable.
3
Title of the project
4
FEC value of the grant,
contract or project
The University for business and the professions
Amount
applied for
AGCcurrent.doc Feb 2013
Section B: Further Details of the Application
5
Co-Investigators (if any)
Note: A Principal Investigator on a fixed term contract may have to ask another staff member on a
continuing contract to act as Co-Investigator if the funder so requires.
6
Is the sponsor:
Yes/No
Yes/No
Yes/No
an SME
other commercial organisation
a non-commercial organisation?
1.
2.
3.
An SME is defined as having fewer than 250 employees;
It also has either (a) an annual turnover not exceeding £24 million and/or (b) an annual
balance sheet total not exceeding approximately £16 million; and
25% or more of the capital or the voting rights are not owned by one enterprise, or jointly
by several enterprises falling outside this definition of an SME.
7
Closing date for the application/tender
8
New grant | new contract |
9
Period of project: from ………………………………... to ……………………………………
10
Is the work in this application (delete as applicable)
a) Research
above
b) Consultancy c) Provision of facilities/equipment-related service d) None of the
See website for the Frascati definition of research.
In case of Research please give details on how the proposed research will fulfill the following
guidelines:
The University is a charity and for research to be charitable it must conform to guidelines from the
Charity Commission:
Further exclusively charitable aims and be conducted for the public benefit
The research subject matter must be a useful subject for study
The knowledge acquired from the research must be made publicly available
Any private, non-charitable benefits must be incidental to achieving charitable purposes; they must be
reasonable, necessary and in the interests of the charity.
Comments:
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PI’s declaration, Section E
Section C: Contractual Arrangements
11
Will there be a formal contract between the University and the sponsor, or any sub-contracts
with other organisations working on the project?
If Yes, please provide a copy of any draft contract or provide further details.
Yes*/No
12
Will the University be acting as a co-ordinator for external partners on the project?
Yes*/No
13
Are Intellectual Property Rights likely to arise from this project?
If Yes, please provide details of who has the right to the IPR and what arrangements are
proposed for royalties.
Note: Intellectual Property includes all recorded information and knowledge and expertise
derived from the work conducted. IPR is the term for intellectual property that can receive legal
protection, specifically patents, copyright or design rights. See appendix detailing IPR.
Yes*/No
14
Do the terms of the grant or contract restrict the publication of the results?
Note: Wherever possible, the terms should allow the University full publishing rights.
The University will accept a stipulation that the sponsor must approve publication with
the permission to publish not unreasonably withheld, subject to a maximum stay of
publication of 12 months. No delay will be accepted upon the submission of a thesis
although procedures are available to delay publication of a thesis following the award
of the degree if appropriate.
Yes*/No
Section D: Requirements of the Project
Staff
15
Is the Principal Investigator (Project Leader) expected to be available to supervise the work
throughout this period?
Yes/No*
16
Is the full cost of the Principal Investigator's time and other staff working on the project
included in the costing?
Yes/No*
Is it intended that a payment will be made to the Principal Investigator?
Yes*/No
If Yes, amount to be paid ……………………….
17
Will the full cost of salaries, superannuation and National Insurance for the staff to be
employed be met from this grant or contract?
Yes/No*
Are any of these staff presently employed by City University?
If Yes, please state their contractual position.
Yes*/No
Are any of these research staff required to have a PhD or equivalent in order to fulfil the
Yes*/No
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PI’s declaration, Section E
requirements of the post? If Yes, post must be costed at Grade 6. If the proposal includes
more than one researcher post please specify number of appointments to fall in the above
category
18
Has provision been made in the application for normal increments and cost of living rises?
Yes/No*
19
Will there be any commitment to continue the employment of staff beyond the expiry date of
the project?
Yes*/No
Equipment
20
Does the figure applied for under equipment provide for capital cost plus VAT, cost of
installation or modification and provision of ancillary services, annual cost of maintenance
contracts and special running expenses?
Yes/No*
21
Will the equipment requested become the property of the University?
Yes/No*
22
Is an import licence required for any of the equipment?
Yes*/No
Space
23
Will acceptance of the grant entail any requirement for additional space, alterations to existing
buildings or extension of services? If yes, have you informed Property and Facilities? (Please
attach e-mail)
Yes*/No
Recurrent costs
24
Does the application include full provision for any recurrent costs (e.g. consumables, travel,
conference, energy, power, preparation of final reports)?
Note: Except for normal heating, lighting, etc. if experimental work requires significant energy
(electricity, gas, fuel, etc.) this must be costed into proposals.
Yes/No*
25
Are there any special resource requirements not covered above, e.g. computing facilities,
mailing or other central University services at a level or of a kind not normally provided?
Yes*/No
If Yes is the full cost of these covered in the application?
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PI’s declaration, Section E
Overheads and space costs
These costs must be actively sought from all sponsors. Full Economic Costing requires all applications to be
costed including indirect and estate costs. The applicable rates change annually. The fEC spreadsheet is
updated accordingly.
26DoeDoes the application include the University charge for indirect and estate costs?
Yes/No*
If No, please provide further details of the overhead charged to the sponsor:
Safety
Contact the University Safety Officer for advice on health and safety issues.
Third party claims arising from contracts signed by the University are covered by its Professional Indemnity and
Public & Products Insurances. These cover liability arising from breach of professional duty due to negligence,
error or omission and accidental loss, damage or injury. If a research project is outside the normal sphere of
activity or involves significant risks (e.g. clinical trials), please contact the University Research Office for advice
on the insurance cover available.
27
Will the work involve any equipment or substances that may be hazardous to health?
If Yes, please provide confirmation that the risk assessment has been approved by the
Department Safety Liaison Officer.
Yes*/No
28
Are any special facilities or resources needed to ensure that working conditions meet Health
and Safety requirements?
Yes*/No
Experiments on human or animal subjects
29
Yes*/No
Does the project involve human or animal participants?
If Yes, please confirm ONE of the following:
□ The approval of the Senate Research Ethics Committee will be sought
□ The approval of another appropriate ethics committee will be sought (name of committee:
_________________________)
(You should check whether a funder requires ethical approval before a funding application is
made.) Please see http://www.city.ac.uk/research/ethics/research_ethics.html for more
information.
Reference copy of application
30
If this application is granted, can it be included in the 'library' of successful applications
held by the Research Office for reference by other staff in the University?
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Yes/No
PI’s declaration, Section E
31
Yes*/No
If the application is successful, do you wish to delay acceptance until the outcome of
other applications is known?
Partners
32
Yes*/No
Are there any partners on this project who are funding part of the project
e.g. space, equipment use, providing staff?
If so:
Names
Amounts
Section E: Principal Investigator’s Declaration
I certify that to the best of my knowledge the information given above, together with
any accompanying information, is complete and correct, and that the resources
requested are adequate to undertake the research proposed.
........................................................................
Principal Investigator
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..................................….………
Date
PI’s declaration, Section E
Section F: School Approval
I certify that to the best of my knowledge the information given above, together with
any accompanying information, is complete and correct.
In particular, I have seen and I endorse:
The risk/safety assessment and confirm that the work can be carried out safely within
the facilities and resources specified.
That the Departmental resources (including space) are adequate to support the
project without further allocation by the University.
The costing is sufficient to carry out the research and falls within the guidelines of the
University.
yes/no*
If no please give reasons as to why you wish this application to be approved
The research is in line with the research strategy of the School and I wish to approve
the application for submission to the grant-awarding body.
........................................................................
Dean of School
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.....................................………..
Date
Approval, Section F and G
Section G: Approval by the University Administration
Comments
Signature
Date
In certain cases, the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) may be asked to countersign the AGC for
approval for submission to the grant-awarding body.
............................................................................................
.....................................
Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise)
Date
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Approval, Section F and G
APPENDIX A
Project costs
This budget form must be completed for each application.
Directly incurred costs
Personnel
– including basic pay, allowances, employer's superannuation contributions and National Insurance, recruitment
costs.
The University Research Office can provide salary scales and will calculate staff costs when required; please
attach a copy of detailed salary calculations. Salary increments and cost of living awards must always be
allowed for in the project costs. You can use the on-line costing package at
http://www.city.ac.uk/research/research-support-for-staff/research-funding/budgeting to help you to calculate the
salary costs. Further advice on how to use the package is available from this office.
Research Councils automatically increase the grant to cover cost of living rises after the contract has been
awarded, but many sponsors do not. If in doubt, please check with the Research Office.
Equipment
– including VAT, installation, maintenance, insurance costs.
Consumables
– including stationery, audio/video tapes, software licenses, equipment costing under £1000, safety costs (e.g.
special clothing).
Telephone, fax, postal charges
Please see rules for Research Council applications.
Consultancy fees/services, transcription services, project supervision
Travel & subsistence costs
Directly allocated costs
These are charged to projects on the basis of estimates rather than actual costs and do not represent actual
costs on a project-by-project basis. These are costs that include Principal Investigator’s time, the time of pooled
technicians, the costs of equipment that has already been bought but is being used for this project and a charge
for the use of space.
Time costs will be calculated using the basis stipulated by the Research Councils: a 37.5 hour week
for 44 working weeks (1,650 hours p.a. or 220 days).
A log must be kept to ensure that the PI and other staff who are costed under the “Directly Allocated” section of
the budget are able to prove their time should the project be audited.
Indirect costs
These are charges for space and the University’s overheads.
Estate costs
Estate costs will be charged as a rate per staff FTE, there will be one rate for lab-based work and one for officebased work.
Indirect costs
Indirect costs will also be charged per FTE. There is one rate.
VAT
VAT at the standard rate must be charged on all projects, except research projects which are sponsored by
a charitable organisation; a school, college or university; a public body or any other body which is precluded
from distributing and does not distribute any profit it makes.
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Appendix A
APPENDIX B
How to complete the costing spreadsheet
for Full Economic Costing
General
Throughout the spreadsheet, the cells in which you can enter data are shaded grey. Cells that have formulas
are protected against change.
You can move around the spreadsheet in the normal way (mouse, arrow keys, page up etc) or you can press
the TAB key to go to the next cell in which you can enter data (although this will include irrelevant cells e.g. the
funding % in the charity columns are not relevant for a Research Council application).
There are some cells that have "pick lists" where you need to select the correct value from the list provided (NB
if you want to remove data from one of these cells, use the delete key).
Budget form
This sheet provides the summary of all costs and funding, but is also where you enter the costs for non-staff
items e.g. travel, consumables.
There is a column in which the costs of the project are either directly entered or are picked up automatically
from the staff & indirect costs sheet.
When you enter the costs, they need to be the total cost for the whole of the project (i.e. not an annual amount,
although you can enter e.g. =2500*3 to multiply up the annual value).
There are other columns that calculate the funding available, based on the sponsor's rules.
The default setting is that the sponsor is a Research Council, and you will need to change this for other
sponsors (in the third row of the sheet)
At the bottom of the sheet are totals showing the full cost of the project and the income from the sponsor.
Staff & indirect costs
This sheet is where you enter details of the people working on the project, with the time they will spend on it and
the associated costs.
You will need to use the Sirius web costing tool to calculate the costs and then enter the results in this
spreadsheet.
http://www.siriusweb.leeds.ac.uk
If a person is already employed at City but will spend time on this project, their costs should be entered under
directly allocated costs (e.g. a lab technician). If you are appointing someone to work on the project, their costs
should be entered as directly incurred costs.
The estates and indirect costs are calculated based on the FTEs you enter.
Please note that, whilst the FTE for investigator time is calculated for you based on the hours you enter, you will
have to manually calculate the FTE for directly employed staff (researchers, technicians and clerical staff) and
enter the total FTE in the spreadsheet.
The defaults are set as "classroom based" for estates costs and "no inflation" for indirect costs - change these if
necessary.
Time estimate
This sheet lists some of the activities that you may undertake as part of the project as an aid to estimating the
time you will spend on it.
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Appendix B
APPENDIX C
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are the legal rights associated with ownership of intellectual property
(IP), including the right to use IP. City University London has responsibility for protecting and managing
intellectual property generated within the University. IP is an umbrella term that covers the results of all
intellectual activity, which may result in novel inventions.
UK Statute Law stipulates that an employer owns IP generated by its employees where it has originated
in the ‘normal course of duty’ (Patent Act of 1977). Therefore, City University London owns and is
responsible for the protection and exploitation all patents, copyright, trade marks and other IP
generated by any member of staff (‘inventors’). New technologies are assessed for commercial potential
and the most promising are patented at an ‘at risk’ basis.
In cases where members of the University are not employees i.e. research students; it is City University
London’s policy to ensure that IPR rights vest with the University before a student embarks on the research
programme. The policy for revenue sharing with research student inventors will be the same as that for
employees.
IPR owners (namely City University London) have the right to sell or licence the use of the IPR to third parties, in
return for remuneration. A summary of the main types of Intellectual Property Rights can be seen in the table
below:
IPR
Description
Registration
Required in
UK.
Length of
Monopoly
Strength of Monopoly and
Warnings
Patent
Associated with
inventions
YES
20 (to 25 years)
from the date of
first filing.
Good, providing it is not challenged
Trade Mark
Badge of origin
of goods e.g.
logo, smells,
jingle, shapes,
sounds.
YES
Perpetual
Monopoly
providing use of
Mark is
continuous
Good. Can be registered for various
global territories.
Copyright
Original text,
data, art, maps,
software, film,
sound
recordings etc.
NO, is an
automatic
right in the
UK
Lifetime of
author plus 5070years
Good but can be difficult to enforce in
practice, new legal precedence’s being
set with regards to internet piracy etc.
Confidential
‘know
how’/trade
secrets
Secret
techniques,
methods,
process, ideas
and expertise
NO
N/A
Not a monopoly, valuable only if kept
secret, used when other forms of
protection are not possible
Registered
Design
Form, function
and appearance
of an article
(lasts 25 years)
YES
Up to 25 years
from registration.
Good
Unregistered
Design
Internal or
external shape
or configuration
(lasts 10 years)
NO
10 years
Unique to the UK.
Protection afforded is weaker then
Registered Designs. Not a monopoly.
Patents
Patent rights (owned by the University) can potentially be used to generate income because they are tradeable
assets and, as such, can be bought, sold and licensed. Patentability is not judged on the basis of academic
merit but strictly on the following criteria. Patent protection is afforded to inventions that are:
• Novel There must be no disclosures ‘prior art’ about the invention (i.e. in the form of publications or talks,
secrecy is imperative.)
• Inventive and not be obvious to others that are ‘skilled in the art’ or have the same level of expertise in your
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Appendix C
field (i.e. there must have been some additional value added, not just a re-invention of the wheel).
• Industrial application be capable of being made into a product and/or used as a process by industry
• not Excluded This applies in particular to:
-aesthetic creations, mental schemes, methods of surgery, diagnosis and therapy directly practiced on the body,
plant and animal varieties, inventions which are offensive or immoral
Patent Author or Inventor?
To ensure patent protection, it is essential to name only the ‘actual inventors’ who made the intellectual
contribution for the inventive step(s) claimed. An inventor differs from an author on a research publication,
where all researchers technically involved in the work are acknowledged. It is imperative that only the correct
Inventors are named on a patent application otherwise it may be challenged and invalidated at a subsequent
stage.
You are NOT an inventor if:
• you undertook routine work which helped turn the idea into a working reality
• you contributed ideas which inspired or further enhanced the development stages of the invention but were not
documented in the patent application.
Copyright
In the UK copyright arises automatically as soon as a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work is put into a
tangible form. The owner of the rights may prevent others from copying the work without their permission.
Examples of copyright include computer software, drawings, formulae, designs, text, letters and, musical
notation. There is no requirement for registration (although registration can be useful in proving date of
authorship) and protection currently lasts for the lifetime of the author plus 70 years.
Trade marks
Trade marks are ‘signs’ (including words, images, logos, jingles, shapes, sounds and even smells) that can be
used to identify a particular product or service. Trade mark protection can be perpetual providing it is being used
for registered goods or services. ‘Lose it if you don’t use it’.
Trade marks can be either unregistered (indicated by a ™ symbol) or once registered (indicated by a ® symbol)
and ownership is largely determined on a first to register basis at the Trade Mark Registry.
Registered Designs
Design rights cover the appearance and form and function of articles. Upon applying for a registered design it is
possible to obtain monopoly protection for up to 25 years within that country.
Unregistered Design Rights
Are unique to the UK, they last for 10 years and there is no application procedure. However, as this is not a
monopoly right the corresponding protection afforded is lower.
Confidential Know-how/ Trade Secrets
This relates to expertise and information not in the public domain, including interpretations of information which
is in the public domain. Know-how can include techniques, experimental methods, technical information,
processes and protocols, computer software, formulae, discoveries, prototypes, materials, results, drawings,
models, data of all types and calculations.
Know-how is only of value as long as it remains secret or confidential and this must be incorporated in a
commercial strategy. Generally, keeping information confidential is used only where other forms of protection
are not possible and the information is judged to be of high commercial value.
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Appendix C