Award set up

At the point at which a new EC project is awarded, various steps must be undertaken to set-up all the necessary project components.

KRISTAL approval

All EU awards are set up and managed through the University’s grant management system KRISTAL.

Faculty Research and Innovation Offices (FRIOs) are responsible for setting up new awards on KRISTAL and ensuring the budget on KRISTAL matches exactly the budget awarded by the EC. Please refer to the Grant Agreement for the awarded budget.

A Risk Review Dashboard or Declaration should also be completed and uploaded to Documentum for all new awards.

The EU pre award team will contact the FRIO when the research grant can progress to the award acceptance phase on KRISTAL; this will be upon signature of the grant agreement. Until this point please do not send new awards through for set up as they cannot be approved.

The EU Manager or the Senior EU Post Award Administrator must centrally approve all EU awards. The central EU team in RIS then sets up a project file and will manage the project in close collaboration with the Principal Investigator (PI) and the FRIO.

Guidance is available on how to use KRISTAL. Any specific KRISTAL issues should be directed to the RIS-Operations team.

Project kick-off meetings

Once an EU project has been made ‘Live’ in KRISTAL the EU Team will arrange a project kick-off meeting with the PI.

The PI, a member of the EU post award team, a member of the FRIO and a HR contact (if applicable) attend these essential meetings which cover:

introduction to the team who will provide support
how the particular funding scheme is managed at Leeds (for example Marie Curie allowances)
main rules and regulations of the EC award
internal processes and procedures
budgeting – GBP vs Euro and how this is monitored
any potential issues/problems which may occur throughout the duration
how project reporting is compiled and submitted, and the financial and scientific systems used
who does what, their responsibilities and who to contact

If you have not yet had a meeting for your new EU project please contact Keri Dunning to arrange.

Please find below an example of the kick-off meeting templates used for each project type:

Consortium kick-off meetings

For projects where Leeds is the project coordinator a wider consortium kick-off meeting, hosted by the University, will take place shortly after the start of the project.

The EU post award team can be requested to attend these meetings to provide a presentation on financial management. This will be of particular use to new partners who have not previously been involved in EU funding or do not have the necessary support within their own institutions.

The EU team also has example presentations on project finances available on request. Please contact Keri Dunning for more information.