Manage your funding

Authority to Accept External Funding

Researchers are not permitted to sign grant acceptances on behalf of the University, only the Pro Vice Chancellor Research and approved delegates have the authority to accept research grants or fellowships and to accept conditions of award on behalf of the University.

Contracts & Agreements

Written and signed arrangements and understandings are common in research projects which involve a research team, an external collaboration and/or a funding organisation. Although a funding offer will normally refer to a chief investigator and a specific project, research funds are legally awarded to the University. The University’s Legal Counsel advises on what may be required.

Templates for different types of Research Agreements are available. More information is available in Notre Dame’s policy on Staff Research Grants and Contracts Application and Management and from the Research Office.

Institutional Compliance

Notre Dame is required to comply with the requirement by the Defence Trade Controls Act 2012 to seek permission for the transfer or supply of controlled goods and technologies to others overseas. More information is provided on the Notre Dame Research website under Research integrity. Compliance with the Defence Trade Controls Act 2012 is a condition for receipt of research funding by the Australian Research Council (ARC).

Financial Management

After the funding agreement is finalised and signed by all the participating parties, the Research Office will send the executed agreement to the Finance Office who will request to create the unique Project Code. The Chief Investigator (CI) will need to provide the contact details of the funder to the Finance Office to raise the invoice to the funder. The unique Project Code will only be sent to the CI once the funds have been received by Notre Dame.

During the funding period the Finance Office will provide the CI a monthly Research Statement for their Project/s which shows details such as the Project Code, Department Code, Invoices raised (and to be raised) and all the expenses to date. It is crucial for the CI to be familiar with their Research Statements to ensure their grant aligns with their funding agreement.

The spending of funds requires the CI to liaise with his/her School Administrators with access to create a requisition of purchase in PeopleSoft. The request of purchase can then be reviewed by the Finance Office, who will provide a purchase order upon approval. It is important to use the unique Project Code for all transactions relating to the research project to ensure the funds are drawn from the correct source.

Receipts of payments can be generated in PeopleSoft when needed.
To understand this stepwise process, an informative training session for researchers and admin staff on the management of research funds can be found on Blackboard under ‘Finance’. Following the recommended process will prevent any unnecessary delays.

Currently, relevant forms are available for researchers to request reimbursement of payments made, travel expenses, other expenditure and authorisation-related documents. These forms will soon be replaced by intrinsic PeopleSoft processes covering all sorts of research-related cost requests. When available, training sessions will again be made available on Blackboard.

Reporting of Research Funding

Notre Dame is required to comply with governmental reporting policies to document research funding and research output generated with this funding.

The outcome of all submitted research grant applications must be reported to the Research Office and updated on IRMA, regardless of whether the grant applications were successful or not. IRMA is the University’s research information management system. IRMA enables staff to submit funding applications and track the progress of grants and contracts. IRMA also provides a reporting facility and can be accessed with a University ID and password.

The Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC) for research reporting is jointly produced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and Statistics New Zealand (Statistics NZ). ANZSRC is the collective name for a set of related classifications developed for use in the measurement and analysis of research and experimental development (R&D) undertaken in Australia and New Zealand. The classifications included Fields of Research (FoR) and Socio-economic Objective (SEO).

Reporting on Australian external research funding categories for Higher Education Research Data Collection (HERDC) cover annual research income data of the University. This is important for the determination of the magnitude of financial support by the Australian Government for support of research and research training. The latest information on HERDC Specifications to guide the collection of last year’s research income data is available.

Project Closure

A project is closed when all milestones are complete, final reports submitted and accepted if applicable, and all funds expended or returned to funder according to contract. Once Research Office confirms Project Closure, Finance Office closes the Project Code. Project status in IRMA is shown as closed.