Post-Award Process

On notification of an external research funding award or contract, the first step is to contact the Research Support Administrator assigned to your Funding Agency. This person will co-ordinate the review/sign-off of all contract documentation and the setting up of your research account.

All contracts/letters of offer sent directly to you should be forwarded to your Research Support Administrator.

How Do I Get Ethical Approval?

Please refer to the Ethics page on the website

Please bear in mind that ethical approval can take up to 6 weeks to obtain so submit your application in plenty of time.

Who Signs Contracts?

Only the legally authorised representative of the University (or their nominee) can sign research contracts (from any Funding Agency or sponsor).  Researchers cannot sign and return any contract documentation. There may be a field for you to complete and sign, but the overall signing of contracts rests with the Research Support Services.

EU-H2020 / Horizon Europe Awards: Process

(i) UCC as a Partner:

The RSS team will receive notification of your success from the European Commission when you do. We will contact you to request you add David O Connell to the portal, using the email address uccresearch@ucc.ie  . We will have liaised with you on submission and will have your proposal and budgetary review on file. We will add the PLSignatory and the FLSignatory in the portal and look after getting the Declaration on Honour signed. We will also look after getting the Grant Agreement signed when the time comes. Your point of contact for any queries is niamh.mundow@ucc.ie

Once the Grant Agreement is fully signed, the appendix C can be signed off and submitted to Niamh and she will send all documentation to the Finance Office who will set up the Research Account. You can find the appendix C in the frequently used forms section of RSS.

Separately, for the Consortium Agreement, your point of contact will be f.oshea@ucc.ie . She will need you to submit a briefing note on contacting her.

In summary, to open a H2020 /Horizon Europe research account, the following documentation is required by the Finance Office:

1. Initial Proposal
2. Completed and signed Contract Assessment Form (Appendix C).
3. A copy of Grant Agreement (fully signed)
4. Email with budget approval by Finance Office (Kevin Goggin)
5. Consortium Agreement (this can be added to the file after R account set up)
6. All relevant annexes mentioned in any of the above documentation

(ii) UCC as a Coordinator

The process is essentially as above. The Research & Innovation Office will take care of all administrative aspects of the process and can liaise with the partners on your behalf.

The Contract/Agreement Sign Off Process Is As Follows:

A. All research contracts/agreements must be reviewed by the relevant university offices before they can be signed–off and a research account opened.

B. To allow review of the contract/agreement, the following documentation should be made available to your Research Support Administrator:

1. Initial Proposal (if not already furnished)
2. Completed and signed Proposal Review Form (Appendix A) (if not already furnished) via IRIS Proposals. The web-based form can be accessed by logging in to your IRIS Profile.  For further information on IRIS Proposals, please go to the IRIS Proposals FAQ section of the website
3. Completed Contract Assessment Form (Appendix C). This document must be signed you (and any co-PIs), your Head of Unit, and the relevant Head of College. Please refer to the frequently used forms section of the website
4. All contract documentation from the Funding Agency (with all Terms & Conditions) OR the original signed Letter of Offer (or Award Acceptance Certificates) from Funding Agency.

The Research Support Administrator will work with the following University Offices to coordinate the review of your contract/agreement:

• Finance Office: Financial review
• Office of Technology Transfer (TTO): Intellectual property review
• Office for Corporate and Legal Affairs (OCLA): Review of additional legal issues (if necessary). If a research collaboration agreement is required, the OCLA will assist in the drafting of this document.

After the contract/agreement has been approved by the Finance Office, TTO and OCLA, the document will be signed by the Research Office and will be returned to you and/or the relevant Funding Agency.

When the fully executed contract/agreement is returned to the Research & Innovation Office, it will be sent to the Finance Office who will arrange for the research account to be set up. The Finance Office will contact you with account code information [please refer to the Financial Procedures section of the website]

The original fully executed contract/agreement will be stored by the Finance Office and a copy will be sent to you for your records.