JCPSG | TRAC Guidance

Part VI - Costing Other activities

Part V describes how the costs of a Research project are built up. This part of the Guidance focuses on how the cost of other projects or programmes can be established.

Section A Overview

  1. There is no mandatory guidance on costing activities other than Research.
  2. However, TRAC provides an approach that could be used to produce the costs of:
    • a taught student
    • a taught course or programme
    • a consultancy project
    • the training and supervision of a PGR student.

Section B: Minimum requirements

There are no minimum requirements in TRAC in this area.

Section C The training and supervision of post-graduate research (PGR) students

  1. This activity is described in Annex 6 (definitions – PGRs).
  2. Under annual TRAC the costs of supervising and training PGR students are identified as a separate research sponsor type under PF Research.
  3. When charge-out rates are calculated they take into account PGRs’ use of and need for these costs (through the inclusion of weighted FTEs in the denominator).
  4. It is not a requirement under TRAC fEC to cost PGR activity when preparing an application for funding a student as part of a research project. However, this is good practice. The various costs to be included when costing a PGR student are described in Part V (supervising PGRs). A project studentship has been costed in the examples of a project costing form shown in document link Annex 19.
  5. A report of a study of the costs of supervising and training PGR students is available from HEFCE (see document link Annex 1).