Projects and economy at EPT - Kunnskapsbasen
Projects and economy at EPT
On this page you will find local guidelines on projects and economy for employees at the Department of Energy and Process Engineering (EPT).
Main page: Bookmarks for EPT| Norsk versjon: Prosjektøkonomi ved EPT
Project Management
Project definition
NTNU uses the term project for several kinds of activities and across various founders. A project can be defined as a one-time assignment or an activity with a defined duration and is expected to lead to an agreed upon result. The project or activity is normally described in an agreement that also indicates the resources required for carrying out the project. A project description defines the activities and tasks to be performed and is not linked to specific personnel (e.g. in an application for funding it is the planned work/activities that will be considered most relevant, not who will be working on the project).
Project process
Project managers at EPT must make themselves familiar with The project process at EPT which describes tasks and roles during the different steps of the process:
EPT's process is an addition to NTNU's guidelines on Research Project Management.
Funding
Apply for external funding (BOA)
At NTNU, the term for external funded projects is often shortened to BOA (No.: Bidrags- og oppdragsfinansierte prosjekter). Projects where NTNU gets funding from other sources than the grant from the Ministry of Education and Research will normally be defined as either sponsored activities (bidrag in Norwegian) or commission-based activities (oppdrag in norwegian).
Read more: Funding your research at NTNU and EU research support office at the IV faculty
Sponsored activities: definition
Projects where NTNU gets funding from national or international sources, where there is no claim for deliveries (risk transfer). Sponsored activities can be partly financed by own funding from NTNU, but such own funding shall be included in the budget. Sponsored activities shall never generate profits/surplus.
Commission-based activities: definition
Projects that NTNU undertake against payment from external funders, where there is a claim for counter-performance/risk transfer at the contract signing. The commissioning party must cover all NTNUs direct and indirect costs plus a profit at market level. NTNU needs to be able to prove that all costs have been considered in calculation of the agreed commission.
Internal grants
In addition to external funded projects, there are several types of internal funded projects which are funded either by the Rectors office (RSO-projects), by the IV-faculty or by EPT.
RSO projects
These projects are grants from the Rector's office or the IV-faculty, and are allocated to strategic important scientific areas at NTNU:
- Recruitment positions (PhD and Postdoctor)
- Star programme
- Gender equality funds
- Scientific equipment
Incentives arrangements at EPT
"Driftskonto"
All permanent scientific staff can have their own internal project for activity / expenses which is not directly connected to external funded projects. The funds in the so-called "driftskonto" / "69-konto" are transferred from EPT to the "driftskonto" according to the amount of hours logged on external funded projects according to the frames laid by EPT.
EPT's guidelines for "69-projects" (PDF)
Budget planning
You should always contact a Financial Officer at the Department, for both preparation of the budget and for budget revisions. Before the financial officer can start to develop a budget draft the initiation of the proposal at the department must have been approved. However, here are the issues to consider:
- Start and end date of the project
- Who is the coordinator, who are the project participants
- Is there other departments at NTNU involved
- Is there a budget frame: Budget calculation tool (requires password, contact your financial officer)
- Positions (PhD, Postdocs, Research Assistants, Prof II)
- Hours: EPT's guidelines for management hours and supervision (PDF in Norwegian)
- Travels, workshops, seminars and conferences
- Infrastructure cost (use of EPT's infrastructure, including laboratories and computer labs)
- Infrastructure Laboratories (use of labs and investments)
- Digital lab (Computing lab in the IndEcol Research Group)
- Computer lab (Computing costs related to Sigma, Idun etc. at EPT)
- Laboratoray costs (technician hours, equipment and materials) in projects where Infrastructure costs does not apply.
Any adjustments that affects the time schedule, budget and the estimated costs in the project requires a budget revision which must be reported to the funding source.
Contact
As project manager you have your designated financial officer.
See also: Who does what in EPT admin