Consultancy, secondary employment and internal work

There are comprehensive resources to assist staff in navigating the Consultancy, Secondary Employment and Internal Work Policy and procedures and the Research and Consultancy Costing and Pricing Procedure.

Policy and procedures

• Consultancy, Secondary Employment and Internal Work Policy
• Consultancy Procedure
• Secondary Employment and Internal Work Procedure
• Research and Consultancy Costing and Pricing Procedure
• Administration of Research Funding

Register

• Secondary Employment Register

UQ Costing and Pricing Tool

• UQ Costing and Pricing Tool

Standard Operating Procedures

Further resources for HR, finance, academic and research support staff include the following Standard Operating Procedures:

HR

• HR Standard Operating Procedure

Finance

• Finance Standard Operating Procedure

Academic and Research Support

• Consultancy, Secondary Employment and Internal Work Overview of Changes
• Type 2 Consultancy Standard Operating Procedure
• Type 3 Consultancy Standard Operating Procedure
• Teaching and Academic Consultancy Standard Operating Procedure
• Personal Payments Standard Operating Procedure
• Research and Consultancy Costing and Pricing Standard Operating Procedure
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Definitions

Academic Consultancy and Award (ACA) Account

Academic Consultancy and Award (ACA) is a UQ owned account in the UniFi finance system that contains funds that an academic may use to carry out University work.

Academic salary

Salary of the lead investigator (including on-costs & market loading).

Affiliates

Academic title-holders, visiting academics, affiliate title-holders, emeritus professors, adjunct and honorary title-holders, industry fellows, and conjoint appointments.

Collaborator

A collaborator is a person or group who works on a project to generate new knowledge and achieve mutually beneficial research outcomes such as the generation of Intellectual Property, publications and HERDC benefits. The scope of the project would generally be designed collaboratively.

Collaborative Research

Internal services provided by a University staff member into another staff member’s research project. Unless specifically budgeted for and contractually approved, staff are not permitted to charge their services to a research project as a consultancy fee. Services provided for a research project are deemed research services. These costs are managed in accordance with the Contract Research and Grants Financial Management Procedures. Transfers of UQ research funds into individuals’ consultancy accounts are therefore not generally permitted.

Commercial Entity

Any corporation, partnership, limited partnership, proprietorship, sole proprietorship, firm, enterprise, franchise, or association that undertakes a commercial activity.

Consultancy includes any work or services provided by UQ to an external party (e.g. industry, government or other organisations) in return for payment. Consultancy can be generally defined as the provision of professional services based on existing knowledge and does not fall under the HERDC definition of Research.

Consultancy Performance Payment (CPP)

Consultancy Performance Payment is made to the bank account of the staff member and is processed through the University payroll system. A personal payment is subject to satisfactory performance for the specific project and funds availability.

Contract price

The total amount charged to industry partners or customers for undertaking contract research or consultancy activities.

Contract research

Contract Research, or Commissioned Research, is research where the scope and outcomes are negotiated directly with the Funder and does not involve competitive peer review or assessment by a panel. The researcher constructs the project by direct negotiation with the partner, rather than a competitive application like grants.

Direct costs

Direct costs are either directly incurred costs or directly allocated costs specific to the project work and must be directly related to achieving the objectives and outcomes of the project.

External Party

A company, joint venture, association, partnership, person, government or other organisation, other than UQ and UQ controlled entities.

Funding provider

A party providing research funding, including but not limited to government, commercial, or other external entities.

Indirect costs

Costs incurred by the University in supporting a project, but which cannot be directly attributed to individual projects. Provision and maintenance of services, facilities and infrastructure are substantial costs to the University and should be recovered through the project pricing.

In-kind costs

Non-cash costs (direct and indirect) contributed by UQ (often the Chief Investigator salary costs and related indirect costs), and not included in the customer price.

Internal work

Internal work includes the provision of work or service to or for a UQ organisational unit other than the unit to which the staff member reports, where no external client exists. This work forms part of the staff member's duties of employment to UQ and is understood as a component of an approved workload with standard employment obligations and expectations.

Margin

The amount above direct costs and indirect costs that a commercial contract may be able to attract based on market forces.

Market price

The commercial contract price that a consultancy or contract research project is able to command. The appropriate market price is influenced by many factors such as competition, the provision of intellectual property, risk, and the uniqueness of the expertise, infrastructure or personnel.

Market Price = Direct Costs + Indirect Costs + Margin.

OU

Operational Unit - Faculty/Institute/School/Centre.

OU margin recovery

Standard rate of 15% of the contract price or nil. The decision to recover margin made by the OU on an individual contract basis (type 2 only).

Personal payment

Includes Consultancy Performance Payment (CPP) and Teaching Consultancy Payment (TCP) and academic consultancy payments and will be made to the bank account of the staff member and is processed through the University payroll system. A personal payment is subject to satisfactory performance for the specific project and funds availability. To access a personal payment the approvals in accordance with these procedures must be met.

Projects

Collective term for research grants, contract research and consultancy.

Organisational unit

A school, faculty, institute, centre or division, or part thereof.

Research

The concept of research is broad and includes the creation of new knowledge and/or the use of existing knowledge in a new and creative way to generate new concepts, methodologies, inventions and understandings. This could include synthesis and analysis of previous research to the extent that it is new and creative. See the full definition at the UQ Research & Innovation (UQ R&I) website.

Research grants

Research activity(s) that is funded in response to an application into a competitive process that includes established rules and governance for the funding scheme. The funding provider of a research grant would not normally be a direct beneficiary of the research.

The costing and pricing of research grants should be calculated, wherever possible, using the UQ Costing and Pricing Tool.

Secondary employment

Includes any work that is undertaken outside or separate to a staff member’s UQ employment contract (including, without limitation, self-employment, independent contracting, Directorships, consultancy or employment by a family company or other entity), including during absences on approved leave.

Staff

Continuing, fixed-term and research (contingent funded) and casual staff members.

Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)

SOPs are not formal policy and procedure. SOPs provide practical “how to” information to assist staff in the implementation of policies and procedures, and can be updated as required.  It is the policy owners’ expectations for the Consultancy, Secondary Employment, and Internal Work policy suite that the SOPs are followed by staff in a standardised manner.

Surplus

The excess of the total revenue over total expenses of a consultancy, determined at the end of a contract.

Teaching Consultancy Payment (TCP)

Teaching Consultancy Type A is eligible for Teaching Consultancy Payments (TCP). This will be paid at the satisfactory completion of each individual teaching consultancy activity.

Tender

An invitation to bid for a project and is often used by governments and financial institutions to invite bids for large projects that must be submitted within a finite deadline.

University commercialisation company

JKTech Pty Ltd or UniQuest Pty Ltd.

University resources

Any resource of UQ including staff and students’ time, property, rooms, equipment, consumables, the Library, other books and manuals, research materials, intellectual property, energy supply, University name or brand, letterhead, address and contact details, web address, or any other information or resource that might associate UQ with the service being performed.

UQ Costing and Pricing Tool

This tool calculates direct costs, indirect costs and margin in line with this procedure, and personnel on-costs, salary indexation, and inflation for multi-year projects. Any in-kind or cash commitments must be included in the UQ Costing and Pricing Tool. The tool also allows market rates to be entered directly.

The costing and pricing of research grants and consultancy must be done using the UQ Costing and Pricing Tool

Work

Any activity where staff use the specialised skills that UQ has employed them for in a payment-for service engagement with an external party, or UQ organisational unit other than the one(s) to which they report. Work includes the payment of stipends or allowances.