Funding Review Assurance Questionnaire - Guidance

  • Published: 28 June 2021
  • Version: V2.0 - June 2023
  • 8 min read

Annual Funding Reviews

NIHR, on behalf of its funder the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), runs an annual programme of Funding Reviews to ensure that contracted organisations have appropriate controls and systems to manage, protect, and account for their NIHR / DHSC funding. These reviews are known as Annual Funding Reviews (AFRs). 

An AFR involves the following process:

  1. NIHR informs the organisation of its intention to undertake an AFR. Following an introductory meeting, a formal engagement letter is issued which will outline the information required to undertake the review, along with confirmation of timelines and scope of review. 
  2. The organisation submits all necessary documents, including a completed Funding Review Assurance Questionnaire (FRAQ) to NIHR.
  3. NIHR  reviews the submitted information and engages with the organisation where further information may be required. 
  4. Once all queries have been resolved the organisation will be provided with formal feedback based on the outcome of the review process.

The outcome of the funding review is to gauge the organisation’s capacity to provide effective stewardship of its NIHR / DHSC  funds. Where weaknesses or areas of non-compliance with contractual agreements are identified, NIHR will work with the organisation to address these issues.  

Completing the Funding Review Assurance Questionnaire

The FRAQ is used to capture information regarding the policies and practises the contracted organisation has in place in respect of the following areas:

  • Governance arrangements
  • Risk management
  • Financial management and systems
  • Downstream activity

Please download and complete the Funding Review Assurance Questionnaire. Guidance on completing this is below, and can also be found within the questionnaire.

You should populate your response to the listed questions, in the indicated columns. For each of the questions, please provide a copy of any relevant documents (policies, operating procedures, or templates) to support your responses. 

We recognise that there may be some overlap in your responses to other questions. Where this is the case, you do not need to repeat your response - rather, indicate the relevant question which we should refer to. 

Likewise, if our question is addressed in an existing policy/procedure document please just provide a reference to the relevant section of the document we should refer to.

Self-scoring system

We ask that you self-score the organisation’s performance against each of the questions, using the following system:

Score Meaning Description

0

No policy or practice exists

If the questions asked is not applicable to the organisation please indicate clearly so that '0' score is not awarded by error.

1

Not effective

This is where a policy (or practice) exists but for some reasons does not work in practice.

2

Sometimes effective

Effective less than 50% of the time.

3

Mostly effective

Effective between 50% and 80% of the time.

4

Very effective

Effective more than 80% of the time.

5

Always effective

Effective 100% of the time.

A column, titled ‘reason for self score’, has been provided where the organisation can provide a justification for the score (where appropriate). In the event of any mitigating reasons for a low self-score (for example, a policy is new and therefore has not been tested or applied),  please detail this in the column provided.

Governance arrangements

1. How is pre- and post-award administration of NIHR funds managed?

  • Briefly outline the key responsibilities of those involved in award administration at both the pre- and post-award stage and confirm who has overall responsibility for the management of NIHR awards. Please provide any relevant organisation charts that help to illustrate this. 
  • NB: where any activities are outsourced to external parties, please make this clear in your response.

2. Have there been any formal cases of fraud or suspected fraud reported involving Research Funding bodies in the last five years from the date of your response?

  • If yes, please provide details including how these were investigated; when and to whom they were reported and whether there was any financial loss (including how much).

3. Is your organisation subject to internal audit?

  • If yes:
    • Who provides these services (is it an in-house team or are these services outsourced)?
    • If available, please provide a copy of your most recent internal audit reports covering;
      • Research award (or grant) administration
      • Procurement

4. What policies and practices are in place to embed the principles of the Researcher Development Concordat (.PDF)?

5. How does the organisation ensure all relevant publications are compliant with NIHR’s Open Access Publication policy and guidance?

Risk management

6. How are organisational risks identified and managed?

7. How are project specific risks identified and managed?

Financial management and systems

8. What financial accounting system is used by the organisation? 

  • Are there any other systems that feed into (or link to) the finance system? If yes, what is the function of these related or linked systems. 
  • Have any recent changes to systems affected research award management?

9. Outline the process in place for costing applications, detailing the tools/systems that are relied upon, the guidance/training available to staff (if any), and the sign-off process for costings prior to submission of an application.

10. What is the process for setting up award budgets, and how are project costs accounted for once the project is live? 

  • NB: please confirm how expenditure is mapped across to NIHR cost categories. 

11. How does the organisation ensure no more than 100% of a researcher’s time is charged across all funded projects (at both the pre- and post-award stage)?

12. What controls are in place to prevent direct project costs being double funded?

13. How are virements between cost categories managed?

14. Are reconciliations of income against expenditure regularly undertaken on NIHR awards? 

  • If yes, please outline the following:
    • How often reconciliations are performed
    • Who is responsible for performing the reconciliations
    • How you define ‘material’ variances
    • When a ‘material’ variance is identified how it is addressed

15. Where a member of direct staff dedicates less than 100% of their time to an NIHR award (i.e. they are working across multiple activities) how does the organisation ensure staff costs relating to this individual reflect the actual cost incurred by the award?

16. NIHR awards will be required to submit a quarterly, annual or final expenditure statement (otherwise referred to as a ‘QSTOX’,  ‘ASTOX’ and ‘FSTOX’). How does your organisation ensure that the figures reported to NIHR are complete and accurate? What is the approval process for a QSTOX/ ASTOX/FSTOX submission? 

17. NIHR requires organisations to report their expenditure based on the actual expenditure incurred (on a fully accrued basis). How does the organisation ensure submissions are accounted for on an accruals basis? How often are accruals posted to project account codes?

18. What procedures are in place to prevent ineligible costs being charged to NIHR awards?

  • Please outline who is responsible for managing these processes and at what stage(s) of the award / how frequently the organisation checks for, and removes, ineligible expenditure. 
  • Please supply any process, guidance documents or flow charts that detail these processes.

Downstream activity

This section relates to NIHR awards, where elements are subsequently sub-contracted to a third party inside or outside of the UK. These third parties are referred to as “collaborators or sub-contractors” in the questions below. As per the definition provided in NIHR’s standard contract agreement, "collaborators" refers to a person or organisation who works with the organisation on the research being done under their contract.

In your responses, please make it clear if the processes/policies differ depending on whether the collaborator is based inside, or outside, the UK (where relevant).

19. What due diligence does the organisation perform on potential collaborators? Is this process documented anywhere?

  • How does the outcome of the organisation’s due diligence assessment inform the contract agreement with the collaborator/sub-contractor and how the collaborator’s payments are managed?

20. How does the organisation validate and approve costings provided by collaborators/sub-contractors to ensure they are reasonable and accurate?

21. Does the organisation make payments in advance of need to any collaborators/sub-contractors?  

  • If yes, please describe how this is managed. 

22. What controls are in place to ensure collaboration agreements are implemented in a timely manner?

  • NB: please provide a copy of the organisation’s collaboration agreement template (if available). 

23. How are collaborator/sub-contractor payments processed and charged to NIHR awards?

24. What controls does the organisation have in place to monitor expenditure incurred by collaborators/sub-contractors to ensure it complies with the award’s contract agreement?

25. When submitting a QSTOX/ASTOX/FSTOX,  how does the organisation ensure collaborator/sub-contractor costs are reported on an accruals basis?

Official Development Assistance (ODA) funding

This subsection only needs to be completed if the organisation is a recipient of NIHR ODA funds.

26. How do you ensure your ODA awards have appropriate governance and oversight structures in place to satisfy ODA requirements?

27. What controls are in place to maintain equitable partnerships with organisations in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC’s) in respect of publications,  Intellectual Property, and decision-making?

28. What risk management controls are in place to manage funds flowing to LMIC’s?

29. Are new or amended bank account details provided by downstream LMIC collaborators confirmed by senior officials and bank confirmation letters?

30. Is there an agreed process / contractual clause for financial clawback from LMIC partners in the event that ineligible costs are identified as having been included in a QSTOX/ASTOX/FSTOX?

31. How do you ensure your organisation (and any collaborators/sub-contractors) are complaint with the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) and how is this monitored?

32. How do you ensure any collaborator/sub-contractor has a commitment to comply with local anti-fraud and anti-bribery legislation?  Have you come across any cases of non-compliance with any of your overseas collaborators/sub-contractors? If yes, how was this managed?

Policies

Please complete the table and provide either hard copies or external links for the documents listed.

Document

Date of last review

How is this policy disseminated to staff?

Please indicate if any special provision is made for new employees and also how staff awareness is maintained.

External link (where applicable)

NB: Please ensure this link is accessible to parties outside of the organisation

Bullying and Harassment policy

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policy

Risk Management policy/strategy

Policy covering Anti-Fraud, Corruption and Bribery

Conflicts/Declaration of Interest policy

Whistleblowing policy

Procurement policy/relevant procedural documentation

Travel and Subsistence policy

Financial Regulations

Modern Slavery Statement

Only applicable if the organisation has a turnover of greater than £36m.

Disciplinary procedures

Research Ethics policy

Safeguarding policy

Annex 1: Research Capability Funding (RCF)

This section is only to be completed if the organisation is an NHS Trust.

  1. What is the process for allocating RCF? 
  2. What mechanisms are in place to ensure RCF is used in compliance with RCF rules?
  3. Are there processes for escalation of RCF allocation concerns?

Annex 2: Indirect and directly allocated costs

To be completed by organisations who submit applications costed on the basis of full economic costs (fEC). This includes, but is not limited to, High Education Providers and Small-Medium Sized Enterprises.

  1. How are Indirect and Directly Allocated costs charged to NIHR awards - are these costs charged to project account codes? If yes, how often and on what basis?
  2. What controls are in place to ensure any material variances in staffing levels are reflected in the amount of Directly Allocated and Indirect costs claimed on NIHR awards?

Contacts

NIHR Assurance Unit - assuranceunit@nihr.ac.uk