Part III - Annual TRAC

Section A: Overview

Internal management

10. For internal management, institutions are to calculate costs of Teaching, Research and Other activities, by department and research sponsor type:

11. This information is to be generated for internal purposes, for quality assurance and to inform pricing. It is not to be reported annually, but there will be ad hoc requests for information from the public sector funding bodies. These requests are likely to focus on requirements to account effectively for the use of public funds. Public sector sponsors will also need to assess the extent that complementary funding streams are mutually re-enforcing.
12. Research sponsor type indicates a broad grouping of sponsors: Research Councils; institution-/own-funded; UK government; PGRs; charities; EU; industry. TRAC does not require the collection or production of information by an individual sponsor, nor does TRAC facilitate this. There is also no requirement to report information by external sponsor type externally – although there is a requirement to collect it. Institutions will have this information available as they build up to the five figures required for reporting, and it is at least possible that there will be a future requirement for external reporting of these to satisfy the legitimate needs of public sector bodies.
13. The term ‘department’ is used here to describe an academic unit in an institution. Departments are aggregated into three subject levels or discipline groups for TRAC. Costs are to be robust at the level of discipline group, but not at the level of an individual department. The subjects that are included in each discipline group are not defined in TRAC.
14. Costs do not have to be analysed between PF and NPF, or by research sponsor type, at the level of individual department.