Costing a Proposal

The Funding Office is available to help you with all stages of costing your application from the initial ideas to the final approvals. Costs will usually change as a project develops, and it may therefore be necessary to produce several versions of the costing as time goes on but these are always best done alongside the development of the research plan in order to ensure that all the activities planned are affordable with the funding available.

Each funder and scheme will have slightly different rules regarding what they will fund and what they will not. It is important to pay close attention to the guidelines for each call and the Funding Office can also provide advice on what types of activity are eligible. It is also very important to ensure that you have costed all activities you have described in the project proposal as fully and accurately as possible as most funder's awards are cash limited, and if insufficient amounts are requested, you may find that you run out of funding before the end of the project.

The University has certain requirements regarding all submissions for funding that staff are involved in whether you are the lead applicant or just a participant on the bid. One of these requirements is that we complete a full costing on the University’s pFACT system (available via the Portal). If you are unfamiliar with this system the Funding Office can assist you in completing this. This costing must then be approved by your School and reviewed by Research Innovation Services before the bid is submitted.

In order for us to provide the best service possible, particularly at busy times of the year, we ask that as soon as you start putting an idea together that you contact us, ideally at least 6 weeks in advance of the deadline.