Provision of the Dean D 117
regulating the system of reimbursements from projects of 9th February 2023

OVERHEADS OF FSci USB PROJECTS

The system of project reimbursements is intended to create equal and transparent conditions for project developers, to provide incentive to project proposers to submit further projects (regarding all grant calls), and to allow them partial financial freedom. From the returned funds, individual principal investigators may pay for things that would otherwise not be declarable costs within their projects (e.g. participation in a conference of interest to them, travel to a foreign HEI, a DPP (contract of services) for a skilled PhD student, or the purchase of a printer for the department...).

Overheads are used to cover the administrative and operational costs of the Faculty during  projects, and at the same time to create a fund for faculty development and the renewal of instrumentation. Part of these funds are returned to the investigators in the form of reimbursements.

OBJECTIVES:

• financial incentive for principal investigators to submit projects (through a system of reimbursement of a part of overheads)
• equal conditions for principal investigators when submitting projects
• incentive to submit more applications to international calls

CURRENT STATUS: 

Currently, part of the funding is returned to the principal investigator conducting GAČR, TAČR, and MŠMT Inter Excellence projects, to the amount of 50% of the total amount of overheads. In addition, it is an unwritten rule that for some Interreg projects 10% of total overheads is reimbursed.

PROPOSED SOLUTION: 

On the basis of a meeting between the Dean, the Vice Dean for Development and Foreign Affairs, the Vice Dean for Science, and the Secretary and Head of the Project Department on 1 December 2021, a proposal on the means of providing reimbursements was made:

1. Projects supported by reimbursement: Research projects – applied and basic research (e.g. GAČR, TAČR, )
2. Large projects of the OP VVV, ERC, EMBO, RAGO, Horizon 2020 type, etc. are to be dealt with individually. (decided upon by the management of FSci)
3. Projects not supported by reimbursement: Mobility projects, cross-border cooperation projects (Interreg, etc.)

To determine the specific amount of the project reimbursement, the following procedure is to be followed:

Rule for calculating the amount of reimbursement:

Reimbursements to projects are (always to amount to actual activated overheads to projects - actual co-financed project costs) * 50%.

The amount of reimbursement may vary depending on the Faculty's budget in a given year.

* Projects with co-financing obligations must be approved by the AS of FSci USB before submission. The basic rule is that the Faculty should not incur multiple costs associated with the given project. In justified cases (Faculty interest in the project) and for large prestigious projects the management of the Faculty may grant an exception to this rule.

Exceptions/Options for the Senate approval of projects that have mandatory CO-FINANCING:

• Co-financing of the project is handled via regular faculty commitments
• Co-financing of the project is handled via regular faculty commitments, but is insufficient - the department is to commit to co-financing
• Co-financing of the project is handled through regular faculty commitments, but is insufficient – the department is unable to commit to co-financing. Other means are to be sought:
• Demonstrate that regular commitments to the project cannot be increased because they are already spread across other projects (i.e. would savings have to be made elsewhere?)
• Supplement with an explanation from the Dean, Head of Department, that the project is so significant that the Faculty will commit to co-financing, i.e. lose some of the project overheads

České Budějovice, 9^th February 2023

prof. Ing. Hana Šantrůčková, CSc.
Dean of FSci USB