Revisions to TRAC guidance

The following changes to the Consolidated TRAC Guidance have been approved by the Financial Sustainability Strategy Group (FSSG) and/or the TRAC Development Group.

Updates to TRAC guidance – approved by the TRAC Development Group 26 April 2010:

• Update 4 – April 2010 – Academic time allocation - This update covers changes to the TRAC requirements on academic staff time allocation including the introduction of new definitions and methods in time allocation and a requirement for robustness at research sponsor-type level.
• Update 5 – April 2010 – Other updates - This update covers updates on understanding sustainability and the RFI adjustment; the reporting of block grant research income; reporting of PGR research sponsor-type and some other updates and reminders.

Updates to TRAC guidance – approved by the TRAC Development Group on 9 October 2009:

• Update 3 – October 2009 – updates fEC project costing - This update contains new requirements relating to quality assurance, time sheets for DI staff and indexation of charge-out rates. It also sets out methods institutions could use to comply with the TRAC requirement to compare academic staff time and costs that come into effect at the end of 2009.
• Update 2 – October 2009 – Key risk sign-off - This update contains a new (one-off) requirement applicable for annual TRAC reporting on 2008-09, to be returned by 29 January 2010.
• Update 1 – October 2009 – QAV report actions - This update provides a comprehensive list of technical issues that are being taken forward by the TRAC Development Group.

Updates to TRAC guidance – approved by the FSSG and/or TRAC Development Group:

• Update to TRAC guidance March 2009 - update on materiality, clarification and new guidance, other issues raised through the TRAC review.
• Update to TRAC guidance December 2008 - update on time allocation definitions and requirements for reasonableness checks - issued under covering 'letter from the Chair of the Financial Sustainability Strategy Group (FSSG)' dated 1 December 2008.
• Update to TRAC guidance (Annex 16) November 2009 - income allocation guidance revised, sample of annual TRAC reporting template for 2008-09, TRAC peer groups for benchmarking of 2008-09 data.

The following changes to the Consolidated TRAC Guidance have been approved by the BUFDG Costing and Pricing Group and the Funding Councils:

• Update to the guidance October 2007 - guidance update and FAQs on research facilities and laboratory technicians (MS Word 91K)
• Updates to the guidance August 2007 (MS Word 70K)
• TRAC Compliance requirements April 2007 (MS Word 42K)
• Worked examples for laboratory technicians and major research facilities (MRFs) (MS Excel 98K)

The following changes to the Consolidated TRAC Guidance were approved by the BUFDG Costing and Pricing Group on 16 June 2006, and by the Funding Councils. These changes should be followed by all institutions for reporting their costs and income for 2005-06 (by 31 January 2007) and in preparing their indirect cost rates and estates rates for research using that data (by 1 February 2007) and in subsequent years. Clarifications to methods for forecasting TRAC fEC project costs should be applied immediately.

The changes are set out in the following documents and spreadsheets:

• Updates to the guidance July 2006 (MS Word 106K)
• Updates to the guidance October 2005 (MS Word 66.5K)
• Revised guidance on cost adjustments (Annex 15) (MS Word 118K)
• Cost adjustments worked examples (Revised April 07) (MS Excel 35K)
• Update to the income allocation guidance - Schedule to Annex 16 (MS Excel 189K)
• Annual TRAC return for 2008-09 (Adobe PDF 43K)
• TRAC Key Dates (MS Word 52K)

Further information

• Summary of the other issues considered by the BUFDG Costing and Pricing Group
• Further information about the group's process for reviewing the guidance