All proposals for external research funding must be costed using the Full Economic Cost (FEC) Methodology. The FEC represents the cost of all resources necessary to undertake that project.
General principles
- The price of a project represents what the Funder is willing to pay and what UCL is willing and able to accept.
- Pricing should take account of UCL’s strategic and financial objectives, in addition to the funder restrictions on Price.
- The price can be equal, lower or higher than the FEC.
- The pricing of a research project should be informed by an understanding of the FEC of that research project and the FEC must be recovered in the price charged wherever possible.
- For many of our major non-commercial funders (e.g. the Research Councils, Charities and the European Commission), pricing is prescribed to us.
- With the exception of those for which prescribed pricing policies apply, research projects which are funded at less than FEC cannot be entered into without appropriate justification and approval by your Faculty Dean.
Worktribe is configured with funder templates that reflect the funder’s typical funding model. Contact Award Services for assistance where the prescribed template does not match the scheme.
Proposals will escalate where the application finances fall short of the expected FEC recovery and contribution to overheads.
Worktribe submission reports
Worktribe allows you to export the project budget into a submission report so that the finances can be easily uploaded to the application. This can be found via the actions tab in the top right-hand corner of the Worktribe record.
Funder-specific Worktribe reports have been designed for Je-S, NIHR, and Horizon 2020. For all other funders, the generic submission report is the most user-friendly however in some cases you may find the Budget Breakdown and Staff Costs reports useful for intricate budget interrogation.
Worktribe submission reports should not be shared with commercial funders. Your Departmental Administrator, Research Facilitator, or Award Services will be able to assist with the production of a project budget in this instance.
Where UCL is participating in a project led by an external (non-commercial) organization, it is acceptable to share the submission report, but please ensure that you are providing an updated and final budget if there is a large time delay to the submission of the application especially if over the months of February and/or August.