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All externally funded research applications must be costed to the principles of full economic costing (FEC) using the UCL research costing tool – Worktribe. This is to ensure that all costs and risks are taken into account at the submission stage to ensure a successful bid, which supports all required activity within the project for its duration.
FEC and Worktribe guidance can be found here.
Accessing and Using Worktribe
Worktribe is designed to support the whole project life cycle from proposal development to post-award management. Implementation will initially focus on proposal development functionalities such as costing, pricing, proposal risk assessment, and approval.
You can log in via the UCL Finance page
Costing Approval
Standard Approval Process
Every costing requires approval at three defined levels within the Worktribe costing system. This process takes a minimum of 10 working days; 5 days for Departmental and Directorate approval, to review costs in line with department expectations. Then a further 5 days for Research Services Pre-Award to review any UCL requirements and funder guidelines. Submissions outside of this time frame will not get the appropriate approval and may not be able to be submitted to the funder.
It is important to seek ICTM Finance assistance as early in the costing process, so advice can be given and actions taken to meet required timelines.
Faculty Escalation Approval Process
A research costing that does not meet the standard funder FEC Recovery (as proportion of requested costs) and/or Contribution to Overheads (as proportion of all Direct Costs) will require approval by the Faculty. There needs to be justification given for why these standard targets have not be met, if the justification is not strong enough the costing may be rejected and this will have to be reviewed to improve financial performance.
The Faculty escalation criteria
| Escalation Logic by funder type | FEC Recovery (as proportion of requested costs) | Contribution to Overheads (as proportion of all Direct Costs) |
| HESA 1 Research Councils | If < 70% | If < 30% |
| HESA 2 UK Based Charities – Open competitive process | No escalation | Not applicable |
| HESA 3 UK Based Charities – Other | Always | Not applicable |
| HESA 4 UK Central Govt bodies/local authorities / health & hospital authorities | If < 70% | If < 30% |
| HESA 5 UK Industry, Commerce & Public Corporations | If < 100% | If <30% |
| HESA 6 EU Govt Bodies | No escalation | If <15% |
| HESA 7 EU Based Charities Open Competitive process | No escalation | Not applicable |
| HESA 8 EU Industry, Commerce & Public Corporations | If < 100% | If <30% |
| HESA 9 EU Other | No escalation | If <15% |
| HESA 10 Non EU Based Charities Open Competitive process | No escalation | Not applicable |
| HESA 11 Non EU Industry, Commerce & Public Corporations | If < 100% | If <30% |
| HESA 12 Non EU Other | If < 100% | If <15% |
| HESA 13 Other Sources | If < 100% | If <15% |
Note: Proposal Value escalation logic is set at £3m (default) but configurable for individual Faculties
Worktribe Risk Assessment
This is a mandatory questionnaire held within Worktribe which consists of 12 ‘yes’ / ‘no’ questions designed to flag risk and capture key information to help support and inform Departmental and Divisional approval.
Key points:
- The assessment covers: Infrastructure Needs; Institutional Commitment; Research Computing and Data Storage; Conflict of Interest; Risk to Environment or Reputation; Overseas Research; Human Participants, Tissue or Data; Translational Research; Material Transfer; Internal Peer Review; Other (download further details and form).
- Positive responses will reveal a series of associated supporting questions
- One assessment must be completed before the project can be submitted to Departmental / Divisional approval.
- More than one assessment can be completed if considered appropriate by collaborating Departments / Divisions.
- Positive response to certain questions will flag a warning (red or amber) on the project summary page to alert Departmental / Divisional approvers, and subsequently Research Services.