Grant claims are uploaded at the end of each quarter following a meeting between the awardees and the Innovate Monitoring Officer (MO). Each monitoring officer has slightly different preferences, but you’ll need to put together the following at least and you’ll be provided with templates for the official Innovate documents.
The project report is a high-level summary of the project on the Innovate template.
For the presentation it’s usually easiest to have one that’s co-ordinated by the project leader with input from the rest of the consortium and covers the entire project. Make sure the presentation includes financials, variance and updated forecast.
There may not be anything to add here, particularly during the early stages, but always state this in the covering email to the Monitoring Officer.
Some of this overlaps with the project report but its more focussed on the deliverables and variations to the original project plan. Update the Gannt chart with any new deliverables and include the updated financial forecast.
Once the meeting is complete you can upload you claims and submit to the Monitoring Officer for approval. This will feed up the chain to finance (the claim will be rejected if there are any queries but these are usually easily addressed) and you will receive an email confirming payment. From this email, payment is about 10 days.
R&D projects change all the time so there’s a fair chance you’ll want to submit a virement or other project change requests (PCR’s) during the project. Any PCR’s are likely to be virements or add a subcontractor. If you want to do something more complicated like remove a collaborator or change the project scope then consult with your Monitoring Officer on how to approach this. Remember that Innovate recognise that projects can change and will treat all requests fairly.
Depending on the length of the project, you’ll be required to submit Independent Accountants Reports (IAR's) to Innovate. These are typically at the end of Q1, end of Q4 and end of the project.
You need to engage an external accountant to produce these reports – make sure they are familiar with the process prior to engagement.
As well as the usual paperwork and an IAR the final project meeting will also require you to complete the Project Completion Form (PCF). The is an online form which you should also download and send to your monitoring officer. It’s fairly straightforward, asking you to describe the main achievements, how you are taking the project forward and things like that.
As the Innovation Lead will be coming to the meeting make sure the final report covers the whole project, financials and how you are taking the technology forward.