Implement a costings approach and tool to model grants (D)

On January 18 the Research Costing Tool, also known as BlackDackel was formally launched to Research Academics and Project Mangers at The University of Manchester.

If you are a Research Academic or academic Project Manager and wish to have access to the costing tool, please contact the Research Costing Team at: researchcostingtool@manchester.ac.uk 

Research Support staff should direct academics to the support pages where they can access guidance and training material about the system.

We intend to:

• Improve the University’s ability to accurately and consistently cost all research activity, and monitor this throughout the duration of a project.

We plan to deliver:

• A new costing tool with staff training, and information and guidance for researchers
• Additional modelling capability and any additional finance process changes in addition to those delivered through the process redesign (above)

The benefits:

• Improved cost recovery and better management of grant funding, avoiding underspent grants and reducing reputational risk
• Researchers and support staff will have a dynamic view of costing throughout the lifecycle of a project, and greater involvement and ownership – allowing them to focus effort on managing research
• Better transparency and control of project budgets

Timeline:

• 2018 – 2020

Project manager: Malcolm Brown