Submitting project account reports
Projects must submit project account reports when this is stipulated in the contract.
The Research Council uses the project account reports to monitor the use of the funding it allocates. Your contract will specify whether you are required to submit this report.
For projects that need to submit a project account report, the designated report form will be made available on My RCN web (see link on top of the page) once the contract has been finalised. You will be informed of the reporting deadline by email when it has been set. Deadlines will also be indicated on My RCN web.
The status 'Accepted' for project account reports does not imply approval of the financial figures
When the Research Council accepts the project account report, it is a result of our verification to ensure that the costs are recorded in accordance with the guidelines provided in the financial report for the project.
The Research Council does not have access to the project partners' accounting systems and therefore lacks the basis to approve submitted project account reports.
To streamline the process, the Research Council utilizes robotic prosess automation (RPA) to accept project account reports, provided that certain conditions, as outlined in the guidelines within the account report, are met.
We need to collect some personal data
Chapter 6.3.8.2 of the Regulations for Financial Management in the Government Administration requires the Research Council to control the information in the project account report (pdf). This means that we have to include personal data for all personnel who have worked on the project.
The provision in the regulations gives the Research Council a legal basis for processing personal data, and thus we do not need the active consent of the individuals involved.
The Research Council handles all personal data in keeping with its Privacy Statement and Information Security Guidelines.
Guidelines
See here for a sample project account report with guidelines and screen images (pdf).
Once you have been notified of the submission deadline for your project account report, guidelines relevant for your project will be made available on My RCN web.
The guidelines provide more details about the kind of information we need to include for individuals working on a project. Below are the guidelines for how to complete project account reports:
- Innovation Project for the Industrial Sector (pdf)
- Innovation Project for the Public Sector (pdf)
- Knowledge-building Projects for Industry (pdf)
- Collaborative and Knowledge-building Projects (pdf)
- Industrial PhD Projects (pdf)
- Commercialisation projects (pdf)
Example of calculations of hourly rate
This is a guide for how enterprises can determine the hourly rate for individual R&D employees. The guide is in the form of a calculation example. Please note that this is just an example. The enterprise itself must determine which types of costs and which amounts/cost levels apply to its activities and that can thereby form the basis for the calculation. When the enterprise reports project costs to the Research Council, it is responsible for ensuring that reported costs are genuine and are included in the enterprise’s accounts. This also applies to costs included in the calculation basis for hourly rates. For applications, the enterprise can budget for a standard rate of NOK 600 per hour.
| A. Direct payroll costs | Employee costs | Units | Comments/description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Nominal annual salary (11 months’ salary + holiday pay) | 800 000 | NOK | The nominal annual salary is the salary a (full-time) employee receives each year and that forms the basis for ordinary salary payments and tax deductions. The percentage of full-time is used to convert the actual salary to the nominal annual salary for employees who work part-time. |
| 2. Other payroll expenses and personnel-related costs | |||
| a. Pension contributions | 64 000 | NOK | Costs that are directly linked to the individual employee’s salary, depending on the company’s pension scheme. Calculated here as 8 % of the nominal annual salary. |
| b. Employer’s National Insurance contributions | 122 388 | NOK | Statutory contributions linked to the individual employee’s salary. The most common rate (14.1%) is used in the example. |
| c. Employee insurance | 4 000 | NOK | Occupational injury insurance and other relevant employee insurance. Here estimated at 0.5% of salary. |
| d. Welfare costs | 8 000 | NOK | Total costs divided between all employees. Here estimated at 1 % of the salary. |
| B. Indirect costs | These are actual costs that the enterprise spends on resources that are necessary to support the implementation of the project, but that are not specifically linked to project activities or project employees. To calculate indirect costs, start with the enterprise’s total costs for that cost category and the number of (full-time) employees these costs are divided between. In the event of an audit, the enterprise must be able to present documentation that total costs corresponding to (employee cost * number of employees) have been recognised under the cost category. If it is not natural to divide the cost category between all employees (or all employees in a more limited group, e.g. an R&D department), it must be considered whether this is a project cost at all, or whether the cost must be deemed to be a direct project cost and should therefore be reported under ‘Other operating expenses’. | ||
| f. Share of rent and electricity, offices/work premises | 60 000 | NOK | Estimate: The total cost for this cost category is normally divided equally per full-time equivalent, unless there are big differences between departments or groups of employees. |
| g. PCs, mobiles, data and office equipment | 30 000 | NOK | Estimate – can vary between groups of personnel based on different needs for work tools. |
| h. Administrative support functions: HR, HSE, accounts, auditing | 40 000 | NOK | Estimated here to be 5 % of salary |
| i. Special infrastructure costs | - | NOK | For example costs relating to labs etc., but not equipment, services etc. that are ‘ordered’ or directly triggered by the project. This cost category is only relevant in exceptional cases. Therefore, no amount is estimated here. |
| Total payroll costs, non-wage labour costs and indirect costs per full-time employee (with pertaining overhead rate) | 1 128 388 | NOK | |
| Number of hours of a (net) full-time equivalent for calculating the hourly rate | 1 695 | hours | The hourly rate is calculated by dividing the total costs by the number of hours worked by a typical full-time equivalent. For an employee who works 37.5 hours per week and has 5 weeks holiday a year, a net full-time equivalent will be around 1,695 hours. An upper limit of NOK 1,850 has been set for what an enterprise can enter as expenses for one and the same person in a project funded by the Research Council, i.e. around 10% more than a ‘normal’ full-time equivalent. |
| Hourly rate based on a full-time equivalent (1,695 hours) | 666 | NOK | The hourly rate can be used for all employees with a nominal annual salary as in the example, or, if relevant, for a group where the salary varies little from this amount (e.g. +/- 5%). The Research Council has set an upper limit on hourly rates (currently NOK 1,100). |
| Calculation factor = Hourly rate/salary (full-time equivalent = 1,695 hours) | 0,83 | ‰ | For project personnel with roughly the same salary (e.g. +/- 10%), the same calculation factor can be used provided that the calculation is carried out on the basis of the average salary of the group. |
| Alternative full-time equivalent as basis for calculation | 1 600 | hours | Sickness absence, contractual time set aside for self-development etc. can justify distributing the full-time equivalent costs between a somewhat lower number of hours than a full-time equivalent (1,695 hours). An alternative number of hours must be substantiated on the basis of relevant key figures, e.g. the scope of sickness absence, contractual further education activities etc. In the example, 1,600 hours is used as such an alternative number of hours. |
| Pertaining hourly rate when using alternative full-time equivalent | 705 | NOK | The same conditions as mentioned under Hourly rate above |
| Pertaining calculation factor = Hourly rate/salary | 0,88 | ‰ | The same conditions as mentioned under Calculation factor above |
Messages at time of print 20 April 2024, 14:51 CEST
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