Grants FAQ

The first step is to register your project with the R&D office by completing a research registration form. Please refer to R&D website for full information.

Yes. You should register as soon as possible and no later than 15 days before the funder deadline to ensure there is enough time for costings and internal approvals.

If the collaborator is also based at ICH/GOSH please indicate this on the R&D registration form and we will include it in the costings we provide for you.

If the collaborator is within a different UCL department then their department will have to provide the costings for that part of the project. They will need to tell us the pFACT number so that we can link the costings together.

If the collaborator is outside of UCL then their employer will have to provide the costings, and we will need a copy so that we can ensure the final figures on the application are correct.

If another institution is leading the application, you still need to register the project with R&D. We will need to send them a copy of the UCL ICH/GOSH costing once it is approved, and also request a final copy of the application once it is submitted.

Yes - we can accept applications for grants (commonly fellowships) from individuals who are not currently a staff member or honorary staff member at ICH.

However, there will need to be a nominated Principal Investigator (PI) who is a staff member or honorary staff member at the Institute who effectively sponsors the application. This nominated PI should be included in the application correspondence, and they are essentially confirming that the application is in the best interest of their research and the Institute.

Guidance can be found on the Research Services website here.

For investigator time, the UCL recommended level for a Principal Investigator (PI) is 12.5%. This is because for many projects, this is the expected academic input both from the University's point of view and also from the funder's perspective. It is important we recover this cost to contribute overall to salaries at the Institute.

If it is reasonable for a particular project that the Investigator time is less than the recommended levels then it can be adjusted if an email rationale is given, however the reason should be based on time limitations rather than on aiming to reduce costs.

Overheads are calculated centrally, and are externally audited to make sure that they truly reflect the running costs of the University. They take into account estates costs (rent, utilities and maintenance), IT infrastructure, laboratory costs and support staff costs (Programme Administrators, HR, Finance, Research Services etc.). It is important that Universities recover these costs and that a project reflects not just the direct costs associated with academic work.

As often only 80% of the FEC is funded, this means UCL has to use some of the overheads to subsidise the 20% of the direct costs not funded (research staff, consumables etc.), leaving a 'true overhead' which is lower than may appear from the costing.

UCL grades can be found on the HR website. You will need to tell us what grade you wish to employ any unnamed staff on.

Please note that Research Assistants are grade 6B (this covers points 24-26 of the grade 6 scale) and Research Associates are grade 7.

If you wish to appoint a Research Assistant and they gain a PhD during their employment on the grant then they will be regraded to a grade 7.  This will be backdated to the date they submitted their thesis.  The research assistant will also have the opportunity be regraded to a grade 7 if they have been at the top of grade 6B for 4 years. Please notify us if you believe either of these scenarios to be applicable. 

Research Councils request all costings to be provided without inflation and, if awarded, the research council then calculates inflation based on its own rates.  This rate is quite low and we have had cases in the past where there has been a shortfall in the salary budget.  Please feel free to come and discuss this with a member of our team if you have any concerns about this.

Please try and make any changes to the costing while it is in draft form before it is sent to UCL RFU for approval. These changes are not a problem and several changes can be made if needed by the ICH Grants Team.

If a change is needed to costing which has already been approved then it will require re-approval which can take up to 5 working days (even for minor changes) so this should be taken into account when working out timescales.

All applications require approval from the relevant Section Head and the UCL Research Finance Unit (RFU). Any application which includes resources at GOSH must also be signed by the relevant Clinical Divisional Director. If your application is submitted late, and there hasn't been time to get approval from UCL RFU, then a responsibility statement will need to be given by the relevant Head of Programme.

• Paper Applications - The PI must collect the signatures (except the finance signature) before the final application is submitted to the R&D Office.
• Electronic Applications - Authorisation from the Section Head/ Clinical Divisional Director and Finance will be organised by the R&D Office.

There is a budget available at Faculty level for matched funding of equipment where the funding body will only provide a percentage of the total cost.  For example, for equipment over £10,000 research councils expect the host institution to contribute 50% of the total equipment cost. To access this matched funding, you will firstly need to get support from your Head of Programme and the grants team will be able to advise what information you need to provide for them to consider this.  Once the Head of Programme has approved it, the request will be passed to the Faculty Manager. Final approval will be given by the Vice Dean of Research for funding requests under £25k, or to 2 Vice Deans for funding requests over £25k.  The Vice Deans will be looking at the application as a whole and will not approve it if they feel it has not been well put together or that there is not a strong argument for the requirement for the piece of equipment.  One of things the faculty are interested in is checking that the equipment is not already available elsewhere in UCL so it is important to check this on the UCL Research Equipment Catalogue.  The Faculty need 5 working days for a decision to be made and we cannot submit the final application to Research Services until funding has been approved so in these cases the applications will need to be ready at least 10 days before the final deadline.  If you are not successful in securing faculty matched funding, you can still cover it from a discretionary account if you wish.