Finance Business Systems

Research Support - Costing and Pricing

Directly Incurred (DI) and Directly Allocated Staff (DA)

The sections below provide help distinguishing between directly incurred (DI) and directly allocated staff (DA).

1. Contractual status in terms of Permanent or Fixed term does NOT determine whether a member of staff should be treated as DI or DA.
   
    
2. Distinction between DI and DA:-
   
   DI – 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 through payroll, or actual salaries are attributed to several projects on the basis of project-level timesheets from a central holding account.
   
   DA – costs are charged on the basis of standard charge-out rates (Pay banding) and estimated time (no timesheets required) agreed at application/contract stage. Journals raised monthly by Management Accounting in line with contract.
   
   (Note most fEC-based funders will only change their price where there is a substantial change to the programme of work (e.g. departure of a key member of staff early in the project; serious curtailment of the work; or significant change to the type of work being undertaken). Except in these instances, there is no requirement under TRAC to change DA or indirect cost estimates during the project life.)
   
    
3. Salary Costs:-
   
   Researcher salary costs (academic and research staff) can be DI or DA.
    
   1. Academic staff – Professors, Principal and Senior Lecturers that work on several projects and activities are generally DA and are charged using pay bandings. No timesheets required for UK Govt, Research Councils or Charities, but, may be required by other sponsors e.g. EU plus actual salary costs for claim purposes.
       
   2. Research staff – the cost of Research Associates and Research Fellows dedicated to a single project are DI and do not need to complete time sheets are those where:-
       
      1. All their salary costs as incurred are being charged against that project
          
      2. Who are considered by a funder of a research project to be wholly working on research i.e. all their time can be charged against research including any time spent on support or teaching
         
         ‘Research staff may undertake teaching and demonstration work for up to 6 hours a week, pro rata for part time staff, during normal working hours provided that this work is related to the research project to which they were appointed’.
          
   3. Where research staff are working on more than one project and meet the criteria of ii.b. above, then all their time would be defined as DI research effort charged to those projects on the basis of project-level timesheets from a central holding account.
       
   4. Other Research Assistants and Research Fellows who do not meet a. and b. as above and who work on a number of projects alongside a Principal Investigator, and also carryout a range of other activities (Teaching and Support) can be classified as DA rather than DI.
       

   Technical and Other non-academic Staff:-

   1. Technical and Other non-academic staff in both Laboratory and Non Laboratory departments who are dedicated to a research project should be treated as a DI cost.
       
   2. Pool Technicians in Non Laboratory departments are included within the Estates charge and should not therefore be identified and charged individually to projects.
       
   3. Pool Technicians in Laboratory departments (APS and BRIT) are treated as a DA cost. Two DA charges are made, the first relates to general infrastructure which is charged to all research projects based upon academic and research staff ftes, and the second based upon an estimate of direct time spent supporting that project which is charged on a day rate (pay banding) basis.
      
       
4. Discrete Research Units:-

   Academic staff costs can be treated as DI where:-

   1. discrete management unit has been established
       
   2. all academic staff in that unit complete project-life timesheets
       
   3. the timesheets cover all activities ie.teaching, research and other, and all hours worked in a year; and use 1650 hours to calculate salary and indirect costs.