demystifying the research finance cycle -...

DEMYSTIFYING THE RESEARCH FINANCE CYCLE

Corporate Finance (Research)

Danny Sun – Senior Accountant

AGENDA

› HOUSEKEEPING

› WHO ARE WE

› WHAT WE DO

› SURVEY RESULTS

› HERDC STATISTICS

› BLOCK GRANTS OVERVIEW

› CFR INITIATIVES

› END-TO-END PROCESS

› CFR WEBSITE

› Q&A

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TODAY‟S SESSION

WHO ARE WE

› TABITHA DAINES

› DEVA JAYARETNAM

› LENNY LI

› CARL NYGRYN

› MERON WOLDE

› KATRINA MAXIMOVA

› DANNY SUN

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CORPORATE FINANCE RESEARCH TEAM

WHAT WE DO

› Provide Financial services to the DVC Research Portfolio

› Manage DVC Research Strategic Fund

› Provide Research Grant Management advices to research community,

including researchers and general staff, i.e. finance and research admin

staff

› Generate research related reports at the university level for external

reporting purposes

› Coordinate HERDC Financial Return (with Faculties, External Auditor,

Commonwealth)

› Coordinate ARC & NHMRC Income & acquittals (~1300 active accounts)

› Prepare Financial Acquittals (Agriculture & Science only, ~250 p.a. )

› Manage Research Account chart fields (~1000 @ maintenance & new yearly)

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OUR TEAM:

SURVEY RESULTS

› Survey to Finance staff

- “CFR provided sufficient tools and instructions that allowed you to clearly

understand the acquittal process and requirements”

- 18% Strongly agreed

- 73% Agreed

- “CFR responded in an effective and supportive way to queries you had regarding

the acquittal statements”


- 82% Agreed

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ARC & NHMRC ACQUITTAL

SURVEY RESULTS (CONT‟)

› Survey to Finance staff

- “I found the new Hyperion report: „ARC/NHMRC Excess Balance‟ that is based

on the SUGLQ105 query useful in satisfying the acquittal requirements for

projects with an excess carry forward ”


- 73% Agreed

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› Survey to Academic staff

- “Overall the acquittal process has improved compared to last year”


- 65% Agreed

- “CFR provided sufficient tools and instructions that were helpful in allowing you

to acquit your research project”


- 64% Agreed

- “The financial statement of your research project was presented clearly and

professionally”


- 67% Agreed

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› Survey to Academic staff

- Additional comments:

- “I have agreed with all the statements because it cost me no pain at all, our

finance officer was able to deal with the whole process with little or no input

from me”

- “There are just too many mistakes made in the accounting, it’s impossible to

know if the account is correct or not without working it out yourself”

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SURVEY RESULT (CONT‟)

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HERDC SURVEY


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HERDC SURVEY


Attributes to the success

- Individual sessions

- Online access to report

- Soft copy submissions

Plan For 2011

- Full review – with the survey results and key players to design a strategy for

next year

- E – Filing supporting docs – next step from the Soft copy submissions

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HERDC SURVEY

HERDC RESULT

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SYDNEY RESULTS 2000 – 2009

HERDC RESULT(CONT‟)

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SYDNEY RESULTS 2008 VS 2009

2009 HERDC Income Return

Category 2008 2009

Income (‘000) Income (‘000) Variance (‘000)

GL

Category 1 - National Competitive Grants 143,648 156,617 12,969

Category 2 - Other Public Sector Funding 40,872 44,855 3,983

Category 3 - Industry and Other Funding 87,833 72,854 -14,979

Category 4 - Cooperative Research Funding 6,016 4,628 -1,390

GL Grand Total 278,370 278,955 585

JV

Category 1 - National Competitive Grants 3,604 0 -3,604

Category 2 - Other Public Sector Funding 18,886 0 -18,886

Category 3 - Industry and Other Funding 52,663 0 -52,663

Grand Total 353,524 278,955 -74,568

HERDC RESULT(CONT‟)

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GO8 RESULTS 2005 – 2009

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

Adelaide ANU Melbourne Monash Sydney UNSW UQ UWA

Millio

ns

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

BLOCK FUNDING

- OVERVIEW

- The Research Training Scheme (RTS) supports research training for domestic

students undertaking Doctorate and Masters degrees by research

- Enhance the quality of research training provision in Australia

- Improve the responsiveness of HEP's to the needs of their research students

- Encourage HEPs to develop their own research training profiles

- Ensure the relevance of research degree programmes to labour market

requirements

- Improve the efficiency and effectiveness of research training

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Research Training Scheme (RTS)

BLOCK FUNDING (CONT‟)

- FORMULA – 2010 ALLOCATION

- PERFORMANCE INDEX

- CAT 1 – 4 RESEARCH INCOME (40%), COMPLETIONS (50%),

PUBLICATIONS (10%)

- AVERAGE OVER THE MOST CURRENT TWO YEARS DATA, i.e. 2007 & 08

- THIS FORMS 25% OF CURRENT YEAR INCOME

- 75% CURRENT YEAR INCOME IS BASED ON:

• LAST THREE YEARS INCOME AMOUNT, i.e. 2006, 2007, 2008

• INDEXED TO 2009 PRICES

- HEPs ARE GUARANTEED TO RECEIVE 95% OF 2009 FUNDING AMOUNT

TO MINIMISE FLUCTUATIONS

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Research Training Scheme (RTS)


- OVERVIEW

- From 2010, the JRE replaced the Institutional Grant Scheme (IGS).

- JRE encouraging and supporting collaborative research activities between

universities, industry and end-users, beyond those specifically supported by

competitive grants

- Continue to support soft infrastructure as well as the maintenance of capital

items (not capital purchases)

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JOINT RESEARCH ENGAGEMENT (JRE)


- FORMULA – FOR 2010 ALLOCATION

- PERFORMANCE INDEX

- CAT 2 – 4 RESEARCH INCOME (60%), STUDENT LOADS (40%),

PUBLICATIONS (10%)

- MOST CURRENT YEAR DATA ONLY, i.e. 2008

Total JRE funds available x HEP‟s specific performance index

=

2010 ALLOCATION

- HEPs ARE GUARANTEED TO RECEIVE 95% OF 2009 FUNDING AMOUNT

TO MINIMISE FLUCTUATIONS

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JOINT RESEARCH ENGAGEMENT (JRE)


- OVERVIEW

- Maintain and strengthen Australia‟s knowledge base and research capabilities by developing an effective research and research training system

- Remedy deficiencies in current research infrastructure

- Enhance support for areas of research strength

- Initiate high quality research activity, have access to the support necessary for development

- FORMULA – FOR 2010 ALLOCATION

- PERFORMANCE INDEX

• CAT 1 INCOME (100%)

- AVERAGE OF THE MOST CURRENT TWO YEAR DATA, i.e. 2007 & 08

Total RIBG funds available x HEP‟s specific performance index

=

2010 ALLOCATION

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RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE BLOCK GRANT(RIBG)


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2010 RTS VS JRE VS RIBG – GO8 ONLY


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2010 RTS/JRE/RIBG GO8 vs OTHERS (33) TOTAL POOL $1.15 BILLION


- OVERVIEW

- New Scheme in 2010

- Ensure that these institutions are better placed to meet the indirect cost of

research activities that are not entirely met by the various competitive grant

programs.

- Address an identified shortfall in the funding available to meet the indirect

costs associated with Australian competitive grant research

- Support universities to build and maintain research excellence through the

implementation of best practice financial management, performance and

reporting framework

- 2010 Funding Pool - $85M

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SUSTAINABLE RESEARCH EXCELLENCE (SRE)


- FORMULA

- Based on Cat 1 income only (average of the most recent two years)

- Three Components (2010 Funding Pool amount):

• SRE Base ($13M)

• SRE Threshold 1 ($8.45M)

• SRE Threshold 2 ($43.55M))

• Implementation – 2010 only ($20M)

- SRE Base - 20% (all HEPs)

- SRE Threshold 1 - 13% (only HEPs participate in Transparent Costing)

- SRE Threshold 2 – 67% (only HEPs participate in Transparent Costing &

Excellence in Research for Australia)

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- Base (20%)

- Amount is determined based on Performance Index against funding available

- Performance Index = Category 1 income in each HEPs against all eligible

HEPs (as a percentage)

- Category 1 income is the Average of two most recent years, i.e. 2007 & 2008

for 2010 allocation

- Same as RIBG

- Threshold 1 (13%)

- Performance Index as above, however,

- Capped at $2.5M

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- Threshold 2 Formula (67%)

- Initial Threshold 2 amount x Threshold 2 Moderator

- Initial Threshold 2 amount is:

• Performance Index, however, amount in excess of $2.5M

- Threshold 2 Moderator is:

• (1 + Mean of All HEPs‟ Threshold 2 Ratio – HEP‟s Threshold 2 Ratio)

- HEP‟s Threshold 2 ratio is:

• Research Active Staff FTE / Weight Publications

- In essence, the moderator is a factor which awards research productivity based

on Cat 1 income relative to other providers.

- The larger the ratio, the less Research Productive

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SHAREPOINT PROJECT

› SharePoint platform – a new automated request portal

- Creating new accounts

- Amending existing accounts

- Inactivating existing research/non-research accounts

› CHARTFIELD MAINTENANCE

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SHAREPOINT PROJECT (CONT‟)

› CFR are working with ICT to design and implement a new

accounts request SharePoint system

› WHY?

- Separate account request procedures

- Requests come in many forms

- Simplify the process

- Clear on what Supporting documentation is required


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› Quantitative Benefits

- Reduce time to process requests (8 hrs per week by OCA/CFR)

- Reduce costs for OCA and CFR

› Qualitative Benefits

- Improve efficiency (mandatory fields credibility data)

- Secure online process (log in to check an online status)


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350 Non RIMS and 681 RIMS accounts were created in 2009

› CHARTFIELD MAINTENANCE – 2009 STATISTICS

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› INTERFACE

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› INTERFACE

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› INTERFACE

› You can check the status of the grant online

› Confirmation will be sent automatically from CFR generic email

address when project is set up in PeopleSoft

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HERDC REPORT

› HERDC HYPERION REPORT

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HERDC REPORT (CONT‟)

› NEW FUNCTION – EXPECTED INCOME IN FUTURE YEAR

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HERDC REPORT (CONT‟)

› IMPROVEMENT FOR HERDC REPORT

› We are exploring possibilities to improve the report. Areas identified

are:

- Separate Reports for Research Income & Possible Research Income

- Drill Down Function (Link to Q104)

- Negative Income Report

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PROCESS REVIEW

Promulgate research funding

Facilitate research funding

Support research

compliance

Support research

translation

Report research

performance

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END-TO-END PROCESS REVIEW – DVCR INITIATIVE

› The project team has developed a set of high-level Research Management processes

› It has also reviewed the processes for „Directing Research‟, including the university‟s policies

› It has worked with stakeholders across the University to identify high-level process maps of each of these processes

PROCESS REVIEW (CONT‟)

Promulgate research funding

Facilitate research funding

Support research

compliance

Support research

translation

Report research

performance

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END-TO-END PROCESS REVIEW – DVCR INITIATIVE

› CFR has provided a

perspective and input on the

process

› We also involve in:

› Research Policy

› Other directing processes

LAST BUT NOT LEAST

› http://www.finance.usyd.edu.au/about/research.shtml

› Information you can find:

- DVC Research Internal Schemes

- NHMRC, ARC, HERDC templates

- Research Account information

- Block Grant Guidelines

- Presentations (PowerPoint Slides)

- Contacts

- [email protected]

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CFR WEBSITE

http://www.finance.usyd.edu.au/about/research.shtml

mailto:[email protected]

LAST BUT NOT LEAST

THANK YOU!

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