Case for Support and Attachments

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How to write a good Justification of Resources (JoR)

For council specific guidance please see the links below:

The specific requirements for each Council can be found by clicking on the appropriate left hand link.

You can upload attachments files that are related to a document, such as the Case for Support or cover letter, in the following formats:

PDF versions 1.3, 1.4, 1.5 and 1.6 (*.pdf)
Postscript level 2 (*.ps)
Microsoft Word ('97 and later including Word 2007)

All attachments will be stored in Je-S as PDF.

Individual attachments are restricted to 10MB for Case for support and 5MB for other types of attachment. More information on how to upload an Attachment can be found here

Councils operate a 'page' restriction policy on attachment length. To ensure no one is disadvantaged by this restriction, the margin size of submitted document attachments should not be reduced from a standard margin (i.e. top/bottom and left/right - 2cm). Also, please note that on submission to council ALL non PDF documents are converted to PDF, the use of non-standard fonts may result in errors or font conversion, which could affect the overall length of the document.

In addition, where non standard fonts are present, and even though the converted PDF document may look unaffected in the Je-S System, when it is imported into the Research Councils Grants System some information may be removed. We therefore recommend that where a document contains any non standard fonts (scientific notation, diagrams etc), the document is converted to PDF prior to attaching it to the proposal.

Unless specified otherwise in Council-specific guidance, a standard 'Arial' or 'other San Serif' font is used, restricted to size 11 or higher.

You do not need to number the pages of the attachments as this will be done when the documents are submitted to the Research Council.

Deleting uploaded Attachments

To delete an attachment that has been uploaded into the Je-S proforma, select the 'Delete' option, which will be to the right of the individual form in the Attachments section.

To delete an uploaded Project Partner Letter of Support, you need to delete the LoS directly from the Project Partner section of the Je-S proforma.

How to write a good Justification of Resources (JoR)

The role of the JoR is to aid reviewers when assessing proposals so that they can make an informed judgement on whether the resources requested are appropriate for the research posed.

The JoR should be no more than 2 sides of A4. The JoR should explain why the resources requested are appropriate for the research proposed taking into account the nature and complexity of the research proposal. It should not be simply a list of the resources required as this is already given in the Je-S form. Whether the grant is a large programme grant or a small travel grant, all items requested in the JeS form must be justified in the JoR. Costings should be justified on the basis of full economic costs (fEC) of the project, not on the costs expected from the Research Councils.

So that you don’t miss any costings from the JeS form or any justifications for the items requested, we recommend that you match the costs to the proposal headings below (where appropriate).

Cost to the proposal	Justification needed	Questions to consider and answer in the justification
Staff – Directly Incurred Posts
Researcher/Technician	- need to justify why a researcher is needed for the proposed work and why the proposed time input is appropriate.	Is the work of appropriate scientific content or technical difficulty to warrant employing a Research Assistant (RA)? Why has the level requested for the RA been asked for?
Staff – Directly Allocated Posts
Principal Investigator (PI) Co-Investigator (Co-I) and Researcher Co-Investigator time	- The time that the PI and Co-I spend on the grant has to be justified. - A PI or Co-I can not request time for supervising postgraduate research students, writing publications after the end of the project, writing grant applications or peer review.	How much time do you intend to dedicate to the project? Will you be doing all the research yourself? What work packages are the PI and Co-Is involved with and why? Have you factored in enough time to work with project partners, visiting researchers and other collaborators? Are you only managing the staff on the project?
Travel and Subsistence	- need to give a full break down of the costs in the JeS form for example how many people are travelling and where are they going and why?	If you are planning to visit people to discuss your research, you should explain why those are the right people to talk to and how they can contribute to you meeting your objectives. If you plan to attend conferences, you should comment on the advantages of conference attendance and give an indication of the number you want to attend during the grant, who will attend these and the type you want to go to – national/ international/ general/subject specific etc. Travel costs incurred when using facilities should be included where necessary.
Other Directly Incurred Costs	- need to give a description of what has been requested and why? - every item requested must be justified	You must justify the need for any equipment requested You need to explain what the computers will be needed for and also justify the cost. If you are asking for a desktop and a laptop, then justify why both are needed. It is expected that the University will provide computers and laptops for the PIs and Co-Is and other research staff on continuing contracts. You must provide a breakdown of any costs which are included for bulk items
Impact	- need to justify any resources requested to support impact activities. For example: including staff time, travel and subsistence, consultancy fees, publication costs, and public communication training.	Full justification (what it is and why you need it) of each item requested. Please note: Patent costs and other IP costs are NOT eligible; Universities already receive funding for these from HEIF. Also estates and indirect costs should NOT be requested for Technology Transfer Officers (TTOs). These are project specific resources.
Other Directly Allocated Costs	In some cases, such as use of internal facilities and shared staff costs, the basis of the costing doesn’t need to be justified, but the need for the resources does. Animal costs	You need to explain what these are and why you need to use them. Have the appropriate permits and approvals been obtained if animals are to be used?

Estates and indirect costs	- do not need to be justified
Research Facilities (at Research organisations)	- only time needs to be justified	You need to explain what you are using the facility for and why you need to use this particular facility.
Pooled Technicians	- for example workshop or laboratory technicians based at the University. Usually not named	You need to explain why you are using a pooled technician and justify the amount of resource requested.
Infrastructure Technicians	- for example Health and Safety Officer at University. Cost should be displayed separately to Estate and Indirect costs in the other Directly Allocated costs box. This cost does not need to be justified.
Exceptions
PhD student	- need to justify why a PhD student is needed for the proposed work	Will a student be skilled enough to tackle the research problems, and will they in all likelihood get a thesis out of it?
Equipment	please see the latest guidance on equipment by selecting the link.	Why do you need this equipment for this proposed research? What will it be used for and who will be using it? For large Surveys to be treated on the same basis as Equipment, the applicant will need to confirm that the Survey outputs will provide an ongoing resource for use by the research community and therefore contribute to the national science base. Applicant should also note for Surveys that 100% funding only applies when survey work is sub-contracted to a third party following competitive purchasing processes and in compliance with EU tendering rules.

The main reasons for returning JoRs to PIs for amendments or for not funding proposals are:

costs stated in the JeS form are not fully justified in the JoR e.g. the investigator time that has been asked for has not been justified (please note: the investigator salary cost does not need to be justified, only the time asked for).
costs / descriptions stated in the JeS form do not match those in the JoR.
costs in the JoR which are not in the JeS form and vice versa.
justifications of why an item is needed are not clear or are poor e.g. listing the items on the JeS form without any description of why it is needed.

if the PI time includes supervision of PhD students - this is not allowed see: Estimating Investigators Time