Research Services Division
Research
Please be aware that tenders submitted in direct competition with outside businesses are subject to the National Competition legislation which came into effect from July 1996.
This legislation requires us to include full cost recovery when pricing submissions. The university may be subject to heavy fines if a competitor were able to claim successfully that the terms of the legislation had not been complied with. A copy of the "Competition Code Compliance Manual" is available from the University Solicitor (extn 78535) to whom questions concerning the application and interpretation of the legislation should be addressed. Documentation is also available from The Guide. Bids for Research Tenders should be fully costed using the Proforma for costing and approval of tenders form.
The legislation is most likely to affect research submissions with respect to the pricing of the infrastructure component of the budget. It is generally accepted that business investors require on average, at the time of preparing this page, an 11% return on money invested in assets, and university staff must assume that a similar return is expected on the use of university equipment and facilities. The figure of 11% (or whatever is current) does not hold for all situations and those constructing bids are advised to benchmark against against the rate prevailing in the appropriate corporate sector. Graeme Lay, Business Services Manager (extn 46014) is currently working to produce a simple method of allocating costs within the university situation for research bids - a prototype already exists for non-research bids. In the interim, you are advised to apply the AVCC guidance on pricing research. Carefully document how your costings have been arrived at and seek the agreement of departmental heads concerning these. The Research Services Division has made available a template for estimating full costs based on the AVCC approach. Financial and Business Services - contact Graeme Lay - runs a clearing house for providing advice - please allow 48 hours for this - on costs for submissions and it is hoped that this service can be expanded to fully embrace research costings.
All tenders must be fully costed and allowance made for reimbursing the university for the true indirect (infrastructure) costs associated with your project. The full costing must be made available with the tender document when it is submitted for approval - in the first instance to the Dean of Faculty and then to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research). A business case may be constructed for arriving at a bid price which is below the full cost. For this to be accepted, the principles of the NCP legislation must be observed and you are advised to take advice from Business Services or the University Solicitor on this prior to approval being sought at Faculty level. A discussion of the difference in costing applied to tenders and applications for sponsored research can be found on the Grants Frequently Asked Questions web page.
GST is almost certainly going to be a factor in any tender where the project will deliver after the 1 July 2000. You are advised to include 10% on top of the bid price to allow for this - no competitor could afford to ignore this and the tax is likely to be refunded to the funding agency as part of the input tax credit system.
