Transparency review

Transparent approach to costing (TRAC)

The University is required to collect data about the costs of 4 activities: Teaching (T), Research (R), Other activities (O) and Support (S). The costs of T and R are each to be split between publicly-funded (PF) and non publicly-funded (NPF) leading to five figures to be reported (PF T, NPF T, PF R, NPF R, O). An additional split of R between research sponsor categories is also required. Institutions report in January each year, based on the accounts for the previous financial year. Guidance notes to these classifications can be found under Detailed Definitions.

From January 2006, the Funding Councils require that the annual reporting at an institutional level will include income as well as costs. Institutions will, in effect, report their surplus and deficit position on each of the five activities listed in the previous paragraph.

The annual TRAC process can also be used to provide management information for internal use. It also provides the data (financial and non financial) used to calculate the indirect cost rate, the estates charges and charge-out rates for other directly allocated costs such as research facilities and technicians.

From 2005 all institutions are calculating the full economic costs of each research project, on a reliable and comprehensive basis. This is then used to set the price for grants made by Government (the Research Councils and Other Government Departments) and informs the price on projects for other sponsors. The full economic cost of a project is made up of directly incurred costs, directly allocated costs, and indirect costs. The latter two types of cost use the rates generated from the annual Transparency Review process).