date: Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:24:08 +0000
from: Clare Goodess <C.Goodess@uea.ac.uk>
subject: Fwd: RE: Financial arrangements in centres
to: P.Jones@uea.ac.uk,k.Briffa@uea.ac.uk,alan.ovenden@uea.ac.uk

   third paragraph relates to the library.
   Clare

     From: "Alastair Grant" <A.Grant@uea.ac.uk>
     To: "'Phil Jones'" <p.jones@uea.ac.uk>,
              "'Burgess Jacquelin Prof \(ENV\)'" <Jacquie.Burgess@uea.ac.uk>
     Cc: <c.goodess@uea.ac.uk>,
              <k.briffa@uea.ac.uk>,
              <t.osborn@uea.ac.uk>,
              <d.maraun@uea.ac.uk>,
              "'White Carrie Mrs \(ACAD\)'" <Carrie.White@uea.ac.uk>
     Subject: RE: Financial arrangements in centres
     Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:53:32 +0100
     X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook, Build 10.0.6838
     thread-index: AckBLWeYzbOBKa+pTQyECestcyoTWwAyYsrw
     Phil:

     Please be assured that we greatly value the excellent science that CRU has done over
     many years and we certainly do not wish to undermine one of ENV and UEAs jewels in the
     crown.    Personally, Im very excited by the potential that the appointment of William
     Cheung and Aldina Franco give for strengthening links between ecology and climate change
     and the work on the impacts of climate change on agricultural systems that is developing
     within ELSA and CRU will clearly be central to the Schools contribution to LWEC.

     These changes are about simplifying administrative systems to try to give you more time
     to do excellent science and to reduce administrative burdens on staff both within CRU
     and in the rest of the school.  There is a real danger that the hidden costs of staff
     time taken up making decisions about budgets are much greater than the relatively small
     sums of money involved.  When we take into account all running costs, the cost to the
     school of a professor is heading towards 100 an hour. So I want to reduce the time that
     the CRU Board needs to spend discussing small amounts of money to release time to
     discuss strategic science issues.

     The funding from the CRU library remains in place, but has transferred to the ENV
     publications budget Carrie will be able to give you the account number.  I think that I
     worked on the basis of the original budget but Im happy to work on the basis of 3300
     for the coming year.

     On many of the other issues that you identify, we are basically saying that the sums of
     money are too small to merit spending much time monitoring budgets.  To give a wider
     example of the philosophy, during the year we have stopped bothering to ask people to
     check their phone printouts for private calls, because the amounts recovered werent
     worth the effort that it took up.

     The examples of this here are that costs of office supplies, stationery, photocopying,
     telephones and post will be covered by the general school budgets for these. Reception
     will no longer need to track CRU post separately from the rest of ENV, and Sylvia will
     no longer need to worry about which stationery is paid for by ENV and which by CRU.
     Research that involves large mail shots or print jobs or extensive telephone calls etc,
     should cover these costs as in the past, but the school will pay for general use of all
     these things and CRU no longer needs to worry about them.

     On travel, non-reclaimable VAT on travel will be handled in the same way that we do for
     the rest of the School, so again the CRU board do not need to worry about this.  Weve
     allocated a travel budget of 250 each to the academic staff this money can simply be
     spent without prior authorisation. We will also pick up reasonable travel costs for
     visiting speakers there will, no doubt, need to be some discussion with Carrie about
     what reasonable means and there is an overall school limit on the visiting speaker
     budget. But together these will certainly total more than the 1200 budget for the non
     VAT element of ENV.37.3.16.  Under the system that you outline, research staff who
     wanted want funds for travel have had to apply to the CRU board for funding.  Under the
     new arrangements, they are able to request money from an ENV budget for travel related
     to proposal development, and straightforward requests usually get a response in a day or
     two.  So in total, I would expect CRU to receive significantly more money for travel
     than in the past.

     We probably do need a discussion about what you have used 37.4.21 (Computer and software
     maintenance) and 37.7.15 (computer equipment) to cover. We want to achieve consistency
     across the whole School, and under fEC, we need to try to charge these costs to research
     grants wherever possible. Without seeing the detail, these budgets look a bit more
     generous than those in the rest of the school, but any decreases here will be roughly
     balanced by increased resources for travel. Would it be possible for someone to give a
     brief summary of what these budgets have covered please?  We can then have a chat about
     these elements of the budget and any other issues that need resolving preferably after
     Im back from the Ireland fieldcourse which runs from 6^th to 19^th September.  What is
     your schedule like in the week beginning 22^nd September?

     I hope that this helps deal with your concerns.  There will, Im sure, be a bit of pain
     during the transition, but the net result will be a streamlined system that takes up
     less time for academic staff and researchers and gives a similar level of financial
     support to that in previous years.

     Yours,
     Alastair
     _______________________________________________
     Alastair Grant
     Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation (CEEC)
     Deputy Head of School,
     School of Environmental Sciences,
     University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
     Phone 01603 592 537  Fax 01603 591327
      Mobile/Voicemail 07941579036
     Home page:                   [1]http://www.uea.ac.uk/~e130
     CEEC web page:           [2]http://www.uea.ac.uk/ceec
     MSc programme in Applied Ecology and Conservation:
     [3]http://www1.uea.ac.uk/cm/home/schools/sci/bio/courses/postgraduates/Taught%2BCourses/
     aec

     -----Original Message-----
     From: Phil Jones [[4] mailto:p.jones@uea.ac.uk]
     Sent: 18 August 2008 13:25
     To: Alastair Grant; 'Burgess Jacquelin Prof (ENV)'
     Cc: c.goodess@uea.ac.uk; k.briffa@uea.ac.uk; t.osborn@uea.ac.uk; d.maraun@uea.ac.uk
     Subject: Re: Financial arrangements in centres

      Jacquie, Alastair,
         Attachment also pasted here.
      Cheers
      Phil
     Dear Alastair and Jacquie

     We were very surprised and disappointed to receive your email of 16 July informing us,
     with no prior consultation, of your decision to remove the CRU school grant.

     CRU is the longest-established centre within the school set up in 1972 (
     [5]http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/about/history/) and it is no historical accident that we
     have an internationally-renowned reputation and identity. As the introduction to UEAs
     Corporate Plan says We were the first university in the world to establish a Climatic
     Research Unit and have continued to be a global leader in the study of climate change
     and its mitigation. In June this year, the ENDS report said that CRU is widely
     recognised for navigating the study of climate change out of an academic backwater and
     has set the agenda for the major research effort in this area ever since" and we were
     specifically cited in their list of key bodies that have set the environmental agenda in
     the UK over the past 30 years. Jacquie had a good opportunity to see how far our
     reputation extends when she brought lay members of UEA Council to CRU for a visit in
     March. This reputation is backed up by a strong publishing record (according to a Web of
     Science search for 1998-2007, CRU has published 289 papers, with 8620 citations, an
     average of 30 citations per paper).

     We make these points to demonstrate that CRU is not just a loose association of people,
     but a long-established unit, with focussed aims and a management structure dedicated to
     achieving them. As well as our Director and Deputy Director, we have a 30% time Research
     and Administration Manager, Clare Goodess. Her responsibilities include management of
     the CRU School Grant. Her main contact with finance administrative staff is Christine
     Webster. Until very recently she has been dependent on Christine for providing
     statements of expenditure since she did not have access to view the account (something
     taken up with Carrie White and others some time ago). Now she is able to view the
     account through the Discovery Reporting system, which will considerably reduce the call
     on Christines time.

     CRU also has a Strategic Plan, introduced in early 2005, and currently under review by
     CRU Board and CRU Forum.

     As your email of 16 July indicates, one of the items in the CRU school grant is travel
     and subsistence. In 2007/08, our 2000 travel budget was divided fairly evenly between
     paying taxes which cannot be claimed on EC-funded travel, and travel for CRU staff and
     invited seminar speakers. Decisions on travel are taken by CRU Board with strategic
     considerations the foremost criterion. Thus we pay for staff to attend meetings
     associated with proposal development and invite seminar speakers that will enhance our
     strategic and academic links. Funding is provided not just to our faculty members, but
     also to our research staff.

     The CRU School Grant also covers office supplies and stationery, photocopying and
     printing, telephones and post. In addition, and very importantly, it also includes money
     for computer and software maintenance and consumables, computer equipment, and
     maintaining the CRU library (book purchase, periodicals and subscriptions and binding).
     The CRU Library is a major resource not only for CRU but for the School and the
     University. CRU has a part-time IT Manager, Mike Salmon, and he manages the computing
     budgets together with Clare Goodess, according to CRUs rolling five-year IT plan which
     is approved by CRU Board and CRU Forum.

     The CRU Library is managed by Alan Ovenden, 0.5 days per week. In 2007/08, the Library
     budget allocated was 2800, but we have had to vire money from other headings due to
     rising costs, and expenditure has been about 3300. As with computing costs, there is no
     indication in your email as to whether the CRU Library budget has been maintained. Our
     library is a major resource for staff and students in CRU and ENV, and attracts many
     international visitors. Just now, we are beginning to get requests for renewals of some
     of our journal subscriptions.

     In conclusion, we consider that the current arrangements for managing the CRU School
     Grant have worked well. They have given us some flexibility over expenditure, within
     constraints, and probably allow us to make quicker decisions when anything urgent
     arises. As a well-established Unit, we have a strategic overview and a strong management
     structure, that we believe warrants us retaining separate budgets.

     For 2007/08, the CRU School Grant totalled 13990. At the present time, we have no idea
     of the funding that is potentially available to us (presumably we would have to bid for
     many items under the new arrangements) in the coming year. Clearly this makes it very
     difficult to plan and manage effectively and efficiently. The removal of the CRU School
     Grant will likely add to administrative burden of CRU staff. It will further reduce the
     little flexibility we have, but perhaps more significantly, it will erode the sense of
     identity shared by CRU members suggesting a lack of appreciation on behalf of the School
     of CRUs efforts and achievements over past decades. Thus we urge you to reconsider the
     decision that the two of you have taken with respect to CRU.

     Phil Jones on behalf of the CRU Board

     At 12:34 16/07/2008, you wrote:
     Largely as a result of historical accident, some groups within ENV have had separate
     budgets while others have not.  For example, CEEC has had a budget, while LGMAC has
     not.

     Current arrangements for managing centre budgets have been creating un-necessary work
     for administrative staff.  We have also had a situation in which there has been a lack
     of equity between faculty members.  For example, some have had access to travel budgets
     while others have not.  To simplify financial management and to remove these anomalies,
     Jacquie and I have agreed that we should have a uniform set of financial procedures
     across the School, so that all faculty members are treated in the same way.  The only
     exception will be centres that are funded by a large core grant and have a centre
     administrator to manage a centre budget.

     The details are in the attached document.  Carrie will make arrangements with staff
     responsible for placing orders in most cases it will simply be a case of putting a
     different budget code on the order after 1^st August.


     Alastair
     _______________________________________________
     Alastair Grant
     Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation (CEEC)
     Deputy Head of School,
     School of Environmental Sciences,
     University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
     Phone 01603 592 537  Fax 01603 591327
      Mobile/Voicemail 07941579036
     Home page:                   [6]http://www.uea.ac.uk/~e130
     CEEC web page:           [7]http://www.uea.ac.uk/ceec
     MSc programme in Applied Ecology and Conservation:
     [8]http://www1.uea.ac.uk/cm/home/schools/sci/bio/courses/postgraduates/Taught%2BCourses/
     aec


     Prof. Phil Jones
     Climatic Research Unit        Telephone +44 (0) 1603 592090
     School of Environmental Sciences    Fax +44 (0) 1603 507784
     University of East Anglia
     Norwich                          Email    p.jones@uea.ac.uk
     NR4 7TJ
     UK
     ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


   Dr Clare Goodess
   Climatic Research Unit
   School of Environmental Sciences
   University of East Anglia
   Norwich
   NR4 7TJ
   UK
   Tel: +44 -1603 592875
   Fax: +44 -1603 507784
   Web: [9]http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/
            [10]http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/~clareg/clare.htm

