New model for research project reporting
In future, the size of the research project will determine how often financial reports must be sent to the person responsible for an externally financed research project.
The faculty management team at Health has adopted a new model for the reporting of externally financed projects. The new model will ensure better utilisation of administrative resources and the creation of a better data basis for budgeting by the department heads. Health currently has more than 1,500 active externally financed projects. As a rule, each grant recipient has an assigned project finance administrator, and currently the grant recipient for each project receives financial reports after agreement with their project finance administrator. Some recipients have received monthly financial reports, others less frequently. This practice will now be altered. What does it mean for the grant recipients? For grants under DKK 200,000, the grant recipient will receive a financial report twice a year in the first and third quarter. For grants of DKK 200,000 or more, the grant recipient will receive a financial report every quarter. The content and scope of the financial reports will remain the same. If the grant recipients require more details or more frequent status reports, they have the possibility of downloading supplementary reports in AURAP. Grant recipients can also continue to contact their own project finance administrator if there is a particular need for an overview of the project finances, and the project finance administrator will always be available for a meeting.
The faculty management team at Health has adopted a new model for the reporting of externally financed projects. The new model will ensure better utilisation of administrative resources and the creation of a better data basis for budgeting by the department heads.
Health currently has more than 1,500 active externally financed projects. As a rule, each grant recipient has an assigned project finance administrator, and currently the grant recipient for each project receives financial reports after agreement with their project finance administrator. Some recipients have received monthly financial reports, others less frequently. This practice will now be altered.
What does it mean for the grant recipients?
For grants under DKK 200,000, the grant recipient will receive a financial report twice a year in the first and third quarter.
For grants of DKK 200,000 or more, the grant recipient will receive a financial report every quarter.
The content and scope of the financial reports will remain the same. If the grant recipients require more details or more frequent status reports, they have the possibility of downloading supplementary reports in AURAP. Grant recipients can also continue to contact their own project finance administrator if there is a particular need for an overview of the project finances, and the project finance administrator will always be available for a meeting.
Grant recipients with grants of DKK 200,000 or above will in future be asked to provide written approval of the financial reporting prior to the department heads' quarterly budgeting in the first quarter of the year. The same will apply for the third quarter in the case of grants of DKK two million or more. In this way, the department heads will have the best possible and most valid and qualified basis for decision-making.
Implementation of the new model is subject to audit approval.
Self-help in AURAP
AURAP gives grant recipients the opportunity of accessing financial data on their own projects. AURAP is Aarhus University's business intelligence portal. The system was taken into use at Health in 2013, and all grant recipients have access to it.
AURAP also contains standard reports intended for all employees at AU. Furthermore, the system contains an analysis tool that is targeted analysts within the relevant subject area.
The faculty's finance department and the departments will shortly determine any requirements for follow-up introductory courses for grant recipients.
Find out more about AURAP and log in via AU's staff page.
What is the background for the new practice?
· At Health, 49 per cent of projects have a grant of less than DKK 200,000. These projects represent two per cent of the faculty's total amount of grants.
· Projects with a grant of DKK two million and above comprise 15 per cent of the more than 1,500 projects at Health. They represent 77 per cent of the faculty's total amount of grants.
· Health's finance department would like to utilise its resources better and more efficiently by increasing focus on the grants which have the greatest financial influence on the faculty.
· The development and expansion of AURAP now makes it possible for grant recipients to access financial data about their projects by logging on to the system.
· Both large and small grants generate good research, but they have different requirements for financial monitoring and support.