Part V - TRAC fEC

Section C: Estimating researcher costs

DI or DA

4. Researcher salary costs can be directly incurred, ordirectly allocated:
   • the costs of research staff dedicated to a project are directly incurred;
   • the costs of academics that work on several projects and activities are generally directly allocated.
5. The key distinction between these is that:
   • directly incurred costs are charged on the basis of actual salaries and actual time   either the full cost of a salary is charged to a single project, or actual salaries are attributed to several projects on the basis of project-level timesheets; whilst
   • directly allocated costs are charged on the basis of standard charge-out rates and estimated time (no timesheets are required).
6. Research Assistants and Research Fellows who can be classified as directly incurred and who do not have to complete project-level timesheets are those:
   1. who are considered by a funder of a research project to be wholly working on research. All of their time can be charged against that project (including any time spent, with the funder’s agreement, on Support or Teaching activities); and
   2. all of their actual salary costs, as incurred, are being charged against that project.

   (They may be working on more than one project, and in this case, all of their time would be defined as direct research effort, charged to those projects.)

7. Other Research Assistants or Research Fellows may work on a number of projects, often alongside a Principal Investigator, and also carry out a range of other activities (Teaching and Support). Unless they meet the two criteria above, or complete project-level timesheets, below, then they would normally be classified as a directly allocated cost rather than a directly incurred cost.
8. Academics in some departments do already complete project-level timesheets, because of EU or other requirements (not TRAC related). Timesheets are not a requirement of TRAC. However, if these staff wish their costs to be treated as directly incurred, then:
   1. the department should be a discrete management unit;
   2. all academic staff in that unit should complete monthly project-life timesheets over the whole life of the project; and
   3. the timesheets should comply with TRAC (they cover all activities, and all hours worked in a year; and use 1650 hours to calculate salary and indirect costs).
9. Costs charged as directly incurred on a Research Council project can be vired between other directly incurred cost items on that project. However, preparing timesheets does involve a considerable amount of work and will not be acceptable to most academics. It is not required by TRAC.
10. This chapter mainly focuses on the methods to be used for academic or research staff that work on several activities, not just on research. Their costs are normally classified as directly allocated.