Research Projects

Last changed: 03 July 2023

A large part of the department's activities consists of externally funded research projects. In addition to the research itself, there is a lot of formal management in and around the projects that need to be handled.

Here we gather information, tips and some pointers to make it easier for you as a researcher to meet the different requirements of our research. As far as possible, references are made to the respective specialist function within SLU, but in some parts we choose to make additions or clarify the handling on specific issues.

Planning and research application

Discuss your project ideas with potential partners and colleagues to improve your application. Align with the subject manager and prefect the project applications you are planning. The application with budget must always be submitted to the administration for filing and registration.

Full cost calculation

For all applications, a full cost estimate must be made, ie a budget for all costs in the project. This includes planned staffing as well as experimental costs, analyzes, travel, publication and other direct operating costs as well as indirect costs for overhead and premises.

Granted funding for research

In case of a positive decision and research funding received, all decision documents must be submitted to the department's administration. Before starting a project, the budget often needs to be updated and reconciled with other activities involved such as laboratories, FTL, Lövsta, technichians, etc.

Plan for your data management and create a data management plan (DMP).

Plan for data protection, GDPR, and how any processing of personal data should take place, handling consent for processing and other information about this.

Implementation

The project manager is responsible for planning the research project, any agreements with other parties, ethical applications and planning together with the others involved. Project managers are also responsible for staffing, but keep in mind that any employment within the project must always be approved by the prefect. The project manager is responsible for the project according to the financial framework provided by the application and / or grant decision, this it includes controlling payroll accounting in the project.

Reporting

The project manager is responsible for making partial reports and final reports according to the ten points specified by the agreement. The administration is helpful with supporting documents and explanations for financial reporting.

Publication

In addition to the external publication made in accordance with the terms of the financier, often Open Access, the project must be presented internally at the institution. Conveniently, a presentation is held at the latest in connection with the project start, one or more presentations during the implementation and a presentation of the results of the completed project.
 

Archiving

Applications, decisions, reporting and research data must always be submitted for diary entry at the department. There is often additional documentation that may need to be filed and filed.
For archiving research data, a project is under way at SLU to create a long-term solution for archiving and publishing.

Research Applications

Introduction

For all research applications, the project budget must be drawn up in SLU Project calculator. When staff from other departments at SLU are to be co-applicants, they are also included in the same calculation.

The ones responsible for the subject and the head of department must be kept informed of intended applications and the head of department must approve applications before they go to the financiers. Project calculation should always be reviewed by a project economist or the head of administration.
 
Submitted applications together with SLU´s Project calculation and any other supporting documents must be entered in the diary. This is handled by sending the material on file to HUV.administration@slu.se. This applies both when HUV is the main applicant and when we are included as co-applicants.
 
In 2021, a new calculation tool will be introduced in the PLUS system. Calculation in PLUS will provide an opportunity to compile the department's or the respective subject's applications. If funds are granted, the budget can be used for follow-up in the system.

Prepare well in advance

Read the terms of the financier.
Contact research coordinator to plan and generate animal / experimental costs.

If necessary, contact the laboratory manager for reconciliation of appropriate analyzes and cost levels.

If you have a co-applicant: Inform about what information you, as the main applicant, need to get from the co-applicant, for example the scope of work effort, operating costs and any co-financing / in kind.

If you are a co-applicant: Find out what information you need to submit to the main applicant
In some cases, an Invitation Letter may be required, find out if you need it, for example Formas Young researchers.

Notify the project economist about 2 weeks before the application deadline for discussions about, and planning of, the budget for the application.

SLU Project calculation

For each application, you will need to download a new spreadsheet on SLU's internal web site to be sure to have the most current spreadsheet version. A link can be found below as well as links on Arbetsplatsen.

More detailed information on the full cost calculation can be found in the PDF Routine for the grant application HUV (in swedish now- to be translated soon). We have prepared a fullcost calculation-template for applications at the department.

Prisma

Check summaries

Check that the amount applied for is in accordance with SLU Project Calculation.

Register on time

Preferably, register the application well in advance so that you will be able to detect and rectify any formal errors in the application. You can unregister, change and re-register until the deadline.

Formas

We shall use the doctoral student salary agreement when budgeting salaries for doctoral students in Forams annual open call.

Indirect costs are entered directly in the table Total amount applied.

The total amount applied for indicates costs that are financed in other ways, such as contributing researchers to the part that is not included in the applied costs or other type of co-financing. These costs are reported in the Other costs column.

Submitted application

Submitted applications, project calculations and any other relevant documentation must be sent to hood.administration@slu.se for registration in the diary. The case number that the application may receive usually follows the project throughout its implementation, reporting and completion.

Granted project

All notices of the financier's decision, whether they approve or reject the application, should be sent to huv.administration@slu.se for registration in the registry.

For approved projects, a review should be made to facilitate for project managers, others involved and the administration. This applies, for example, to questions about data management, data storage, data sharing, any GDPR issues, presentation of the project internally and on the web, and possible need for updating of budget, transfer plans and partner-agreements, etc.
 
Before the project starts, a project start meeting must be conducted to review basic project administrative issues.

Research documents

Research documents

  • Research material is documents that arise in connection with research and are subject to the Rules of the Freedom of the Press Regulation on public access to documents.
  •  This applies regardless of whether the research is funded as a grant or assignment. 
  • Research material is public documents from the date of emergence and can therefore be requested, even if it concerns ongoing project.

For research documents, a manual is available on the Staff web.

The department handles registration, the documents must be sent to huv.administration@slu.se.

Examples of documents to be registered and archived are:

  • Research application, with budget
  • Notification of the application, i.e. the application. also rejection
  • Application for extensionInterim and final reports including financial compilation
  • Data management plan (DMP)
  • Research data, such as raw data and final processed data including metadata. For research data, there is normally handled by making a reference to where data are stored or deposited.

Follow up of project

Follow-up

On the Inside there is a link to Project list (Project plan HUV). It is a list of all ongoing projects with project number, name, project manager, diary number, financier and end date, broken down by topics.
It is desirable that you learn what your own projects are called in numerical form in UBW so that there will be no ambiguities, today the same project can have many aliases which can cause misunderstandings.

Economy Reports

In the Organization and Operations> Finance folder at Arbetsplatsen there are folders with Reports [YEAR], under which there are financial reports per month. The reports are broken down by month and topic with information on contract claims and unused funds, income for the year, expenses for the year broken down on salaries, purchased services, oh etc. and finally what is available.

Each project has its own tab with results for the year, previous years and the ambition is that the project budget should also be included.

If you look at the list and think it looks weird, e.g. that there have been costs where, although it should not or vice versa, contact the project economist, or administrative manager, to look at the details.

More info on the project

Do you want to look at agreements, accounts etc. all current projects are scanned / saved on the HUV_COMMON, folder Forskningsprojekt folder Pågående projekt. You should add HUV_COMMON to your desktop or explorer. There is also a direct link on the Inside .


A lot of this material should also be in the registry Public 360. For entry into the registry, all applications, budgets, calculations and, at the next stage, subsequent decisions, data management plan, raw data (in practice reference to where it is stored), and partial and final reports must be submitted to the administration via HUV.Administration@slu.se.

Research Data and Data Management Plan (DMP)

Data Management Plan

Good data management is a key component in access to research data. With the help of a data management plan, researchers can describe how data that is collected and / or created will be handled during the course of the research and how it will be taken care of afterwards.

This is especially important for open data publishing.

  • Many and more of our financiers are demanding that there be a Data Management Plan for the project
  • The requirement is usually that we are able to present a DMP, on request for the projects that have been granted, ie it does not have to be created already upon application
  • The plan is a support for documenting what data is to be handled and how it should be handled and stored
  • The plan facilitates long-term work on research data 
  • It is possible to get support from the Data Management Support (DMS) at SLU. SLU has gathered expertise from libraries, archives and IT to support the research in its data managemen.
  • You create and update your DMP on DMPOnline, more info and link you can find at the library's web. 

Research Data

    • All public documents must be registered on SLU.
      • Registry-number from the application normally applies to all documents in the project
    • Raw data is a general act - right when data arises
      • Metadata important!
      • The registry records where the data is stored (not necessarily the data itself)
    • Final processed data is public documents
      • Other research papers should also be recorded.
    • Publication of research data
      • Different requirements for publication or presentation of research data at publication.

Public documents

  • SLU is a government agency that produces lots of public documents, including research papers.
  • A person requesting the document has the right to be anonymous and does not need to state the purpose of the request.

Read more in guidance on Arbetsplatsen (in Swedish).

Data protection, GDPR

 

SLU's activities are subject to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Data protection is a combination of law, information security, IT security and organizational work.

The purpose is to protect the person whose data we process.

According to GDPR, we have requirements for our processing of personal data in order to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation.

This includes:

  • Consent/consent required
  • Information about: Who, what, why, how and where
  • Right to know what information we process, correct to have information corrected, correct to have information deleted, right to be forgotten
  • Requirement that we have records on our records, ie. what data we process and how.

Up-to-date information about data protection and personal data can be found on the Staff web.

A list for registering the departments's processing of personal data can be found under Research at the Workplace.

Patents, trademark protection

The research sometimes leads to discoveries or developments where it may be relevant to seek patents or trademark protection. It is then important to contact experts at this early stage.

Within SLU, we have access to SLU's legal unit, as well as SLU Holding, who can help with advice and any future business development.
Shortcuts to much of what a researcher will need to understand are found on the staff web. Read more on the research page on the staff web.

Contact

Johan Karlsson, Controller
Department of Animal Nutrition and Management, SLU
johan.s.karlsson@slu.se, +46 18 671690