Research grants

This page is about the financial management of research projects. See research management for the full research grant life cycle, from finding and applying for funding to reporting on outcomes.

Negotiating financial clauses

If you’re negotiating financial clauses for a contract or grant agreement, follow the guidelines for help negotiating realistic and achievable terms for financial reporting, invoicing of funders, and bank accounts.

Guidelines for negotiating financial clauses (staff login required)

Recording a research project in UniFi

Research grants need to be recorded in UniFi so we can track income and expenditure correctly.

Contract and Grants Accounting will set up a new research project in UniFi after the Research office issues a grant record letter (GRL) for the project.

If the grant record letter is delayed, you may be able to request a 'pending-GRL project'. Talk to your Finance Professional Services team about whether this is appropriate for your project.

If there are changes to any:

• Appointment of a proxy budget holder for your project, please refer to the proxy budget holder guideline (PDF, 85.9 KB) and contact your Finance Professional Services team
• other financial details of your project, contact your Finance Professional Services team
• non-financial details, you may need to organise a project variation.

UQ Research office will issue an updated grant record letter, and Contract and Grants Accounting will make any necessary changes in UniFi.

When a project ends, it's closed in UniFi so no more transactions can be recorded against it.

See the Contract Research and Grants Financial Management Procedures for more detailed procedures.

Scholarship funding

If the grant includes funding for scholarships, follow the Financial Management of Scholarships Guidelines.

Postgraduate research scholarship income from external grantors is included in our Higher Education Research Data Collection (HERDC) return.

Financial management of research projects

Your organisational unit manages project expenditure. You must make sure:

• funds are spent in line with approved budgets and grant conditions
• adjustments are signed off by the chief investigator
• expenditure is accurate and up-to-date at the end of each reporting period.

Contract & Grants Accounting are responsible for:

• invoicing
• debt management and collection
• indirect costs (overheads) allocation
• return of unspent funds
• reporting, financial statements and audit certification requirements.

See the Contract Research and Grants Financial Management Procedures for more information.

Managing your project funds through MyBalance

You can use MyBalance to:

• view your grant balance at any time
• track which expenditure categories are allowed for each grant
• sort through financial information down to transaction level. 

Find out more about using MyBalance to manage project funds.

Tracking the financial status of your project

You can use the UQ Reportal to see project financial information, including invoicing, debts, transfers and financial statements.

To access the report:

1. Log in to the UQ Reportal.
2. Go to Standard Reports > Finance > Projects > Project Details.
3. Select one of the sub-reports:
   • Summary – a snapshot of the project status
   • Project Listing – a list of projects showing fundamental information, including fund code, granting body, chief investigator, and applicability of refund, overheads and margin
   • Invoices and RCTI – past and future billing information
   • Transfers – future income to be transferred between split projects, UQ Advancement and other non-research projects (negative amounts indicate income is to be transferred)
   • Financial Statements – outstanding and upcoming financial statements with reporting requirements, including basis of preparation, special template and comments from Contract and Grants Accounting on the progress of the statement
   • Research Debts – unpaid research invoices with priority, and progress of debt collection and outstanding days

Generating invoices before a grant record letter is issued

To generate an invoice before a grant record letter (GRL) is issued, you’ll need to contact Contract and Grants Accounting and supply:

• Research Master number (Office of Sponsored Research system reference)
• email or letter from the grantor, or the contract if it’s available
• name and address of grantor
• ABN (Australian Business Number) of the company if known
• amount to be invoiced
• GST treatment if known
• project description and chief investigator name
• operational unit to be credited.

If the grantor doesn’t already have a customer account in our system, it will take at least 3 working days to create the bill.

Revenue from invoices generated before the GRL is issued will be transferred to the project when the GRL is received.

Training

• Project Funding - Accounting for Grants: Course for UniFi users who deal with research grants, scholarship grants, donations, consultancy fees, bequests, and other external funding sources.
• Research Contracts and Grants Financial Management - Overview: Learn about the process for the financial management of research contracts and grants at UQ including the different stages of the process as it applies to all staff involved in research contracts and grants.

Finance staff