Funding/ Budgets
The NI and RoI funding agencies have their own specific funding streams available for researchers in NI and RoI applying to the US-Ireland R&D Partnership programme.
HSC R&D
NI applicants can apply to HSC R&D for maximum costs of £150k per annum, calculated as 80% of the Full Economic Cost, for a maximum duration of 5 years.
DELNI/Invest NI
In respect of sensors or nanotechnology proposals relating to health, NI applicants can apply to DELNI/Invest NI for total costs of up to £320k, equating to an average of around £107k per annum, for a 3 year award.
DELNI/Invest NI eligible costs are: staff, equipment, materials and travel. Invest NI/DELNI will also consider other specified costs if demonstrated to be essential for the project to proceed. However, the programme will not meet costs related to new premises, refurbishment, or major items of equipment (costing more than £20,000). An overhead allowance can be included at a rate of up to 40% of the staff costs.
You should note that any staff costs to be included in the proposal must be additional. Proposals therefore usually include 1-2 PDRAs who will be recruited should your proposal be approved. There is also the possibility of allocating one or more PhD students to the project. This is quite normal practice, however the "student stipend" and "student fees" should be included as two separate lines under the "Other Costs" heading in the Budget Table and not as "Staff Costs" (as PhD costs cannot attract an overhead).
The Research Support Office will keep you right on this.
DEL will fund 100% of the eligible costs, including an overhead of up to 40% of the staff costs. In general terms, the eligible costs are covered by the headings in the Budget Template. However, look closely at the FAQs document on the web site which also contains important guidance on what are considered eligible costs (both available in the link above). Note that if the proposal is approved by the NSF (which can take at least 9-12 months), DEL will give you the opportunity to produce a final budget spreadsheet for inclusion in the formal DEL Letter of Offer based on Financial Years and reflecting the confirmed start date.
So at this stage, your budget is regarded by DEL as preliminary and subject to some movement between cost subheads which you may wish to make. The only aspect which is fixed is the total cost for the proposal i.e. DEL will not allow any increase on the total you submit now at the pre-approval stage.
