Financial Rules Governing Competitive Research Grants –Revised Policy 2021

1. HEC allow the grantees to budget for four categories of expenses in competitive
research grants (i.e., NRPU, GCF, LCF, TTSF, ICRG and RRII), namely personnel costs (internal
as well as external), travel costs, costs of equipment, consumables, and services, and
overhead costs. The following financial provisions set out the detailed rules regarding the
limits on the nature and amount of expenses that can be claimed under each of the four
specified budgetary heads.

I. Personnel Costs

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2. General Conditions: The following general conditions apply to the provision of personnel
costs: K PU 11
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a. The role of each person in the project must be stated clearly and justified. The
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justification should include the time commitment (as per cent of full time).
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b. For faculty members, the budget request should include their name, designation,
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department/institute, and university. Future changes would be subject to approval of
the HEC.
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c. The university should affirm in writing that the time commitment of the university
personnel engaged in a project (to the extent of their time committed) does not
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conflict with the time commitment for other projects and teaching/academic duties.
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d. Only the remuneration of technical staff can be billed under the project.
Administrative or secretarial staff, including the project coordinator, should be
covered under the university overheads.
e. Any false statement in these matters will result in automatic cancellation of the
project, recovery of advance payments, and black listing of the faculty member as well
as the institution for 2 years.
Nature of Unit Costs/ Expenditures Allowed
Personnel
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1.Faculty
Faculty members (PIs and Co-PIs) will commit their time to the research project as
Members H
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percent of full time. One honorarium per year is admissible to the PI as per following

ID Rs. R
limits;
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 Assistant Professor N 2
150,000/-
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 AssociateH A -II Rs. 175,000/-
Professor 2 0
K AD Rs.7200,000/-
 Professor ,
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On project completionrone honorarium is admissible to the Co-PI on same rates as
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admissible to the PI. e
Honorarium toc tPIso and CoPIs is allowed in only one research project at a time.
2. Students UniversityO
students may be engaged as Research Assistants as per following limits:
 PhD students: @Rs. 80,000 per month
 MS/ MPhil Students: @Rs. 40,000 per month
 Undergraduate students @ Rs. 20,000 per month
Subject to approval of their supervisors, and based on their course load, students at
the thesis stage will be allowed to allocate their time to research projects; Only the
university's own students can be included under this heading.

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 3. Other Stipends for the project staff is allowed as per following limits:
Project  Research Assistants : Rs. 100,000/- per month
Personnel (BS/ MS/MPhil) equivalent to lecturer
 Research Associate : Rs. 130,000/- per month
(Fresh PhD), equivalent to Asstt. Prof
 Research Fellow : As per Last pay drawn by the fellow
(PhD with 9 years' experience) equivalent to Assoc. Prof.
 Senior Fellow : As per Last pay drawn by the fellow
(PhD with 15 years' experience) equivalent to Professor.

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Each person appointed to project should receive a formal contract, specifying all the
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terms of employment, including salary, benefits, and the duration of engagement.

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The experience against the positions of Research Associate, Research Fellow and
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Senior Fellow will be treated as postdoc fellowship. Postdoc fellows on study leave
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with pay from his/her parent organization/ university is not entitled to draw salary
under the project.
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Project employment should not create an entitlement or expectation of regular
employment. b e
4. Short-term
c to nationals (including those of Pakistani origin, dual nationals,
These may be foreign
Consultants Onationals).
or Pakistani
The respective remuneration rates would be based on market conditions, typically
be on a per day basis.
Total remuneration for all short-term consultants should not exceed 10% of the total
direct HR cost of the project.
5. Short-term Projects may engage staff on daily wages (e.g. enumerators, data collectors, etc.) at
Project a maximum rate of Rs. 25,000 per month.
Personnel Project employment should not create an entitlement or expectation of regular
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employment.
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II. Equipment,AConsumables, 0
H I
- , 2 Service Costs

3. General Conditions: The K following

A D 7 conditions apply to the provision of
general
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r be itemized separately. However, the total cost
equipment, consumables and services costs:
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b than 70 per cent of the direct cost of the project
a. Equipment and Consumables should
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under these heads may not be ogreater
c and each item under Consumables, provide the
b. For each item under Equipment,
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name, description of equipment, specifications, unit cost, quantity, and purpose.
c. For Equipment, Consumables and Services, the university needs to certify in writing
that it does not have access to the said equipment, consumables and service
otherwise.
d. 10% additional amount against approved equipment budget for imported items may
be admissible to account for any currency rate fluctuation, subject to provision of
justification, and the approval of HEC.

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 e. LC opening for purchase of permanent equipment is allowed
# Item Details
1. Equipment A few examples are provided here. These, and similar items could be billed
to the project if otherwise justified:
 Scientific lab Equipment: tools and equipment used in laboratories for
research work relevant to the project. Some examples are DNA
sequencers, electrometers, or spectrometers.
 IT equipment: some examples are servers, network equipment,
routers, or communication equipment.
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 Office Equipment: some examples are laptops, desktops, scanners,
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 Specialized K PU 11
Software/ IT Applications: e.g., LabView,
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AutoCAD, MATLAB.
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2. Consumables
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A few examples are provided here. These, and similar items could be billed
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to the project if otherwise justified:
 Lab Chemicals: e.g., chlorates, persulfates, peroxides, oxidizing acids,
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methanol, ethanol, or reagents.
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 Glassware: e.g., beakers, flasks, or test tubes.
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 Plastic wares: e.g., pipettes.
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 Expendable supplies: e.g., preserving and cleaning material, fuel,
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medicines, personal protective equipment, i.e., gloves, masks, or
surgical caps.
 Accessories: small tools and accessories used routinely in labs, e.g.,
kits, PCR plates, ladders, sealers, magnetic stands.
3. Services  Access to scientific equipment: cost of access to sophisticated lab or
research equipment not available in host institution.
 Service contract for repair/ maintenance of purchased scientific
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equipment: The service cost should not exceed 25% of the cost of
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current price of the same/similar model
 Subscription to open access journals or publications: provided these
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are not already covered under HEC's agreement with the HEI.
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 Management Cost for organizing national level conferences,
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workshops, or seminars: in cases, where such dissemination of
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research results are outsourced to external professional bodies.
 Limited commercialization and development costs: these will be
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allowed only for research grants (e.g., TTSF and RTTG) that explicitly
be
include product development and commercialization goals. The
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admissible expenses are:
Oo Patent filing Fee
o Consultancy Services for product development (limited 10% of
the direct cost of the project)
o Legal and Financial Services: related to intellectual property
rights, research commercialization, or licensing agreements.
o Marketing Services: for marketing of prototype or proposed
product to appropriate investors or stakeholders

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 III. Travel Costs

4. General Conditions: Travel Cost covers expenses of project team (faculty and students
and other project personnel (Research Assistants, Research Associate, Research Fellow)
related to research/ field work, participation in project meetings, attending national or
international conferences or workshops to present research results from the project.

a. Travel budget must be justified by providing purpose of visit, the city, the country, the
number of travelers, and estimated costs per visit.
b. Budget limit for Local travel is Maximum Rs. 150,000/- per year as per actual.
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c. Prior approval of HEC must be obtained for each project-related international travel
with proper justification. H
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d. The international travel expenses are allowed as per following details:

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A LimitsN 0
Project Personnel
Type
Purpose of
Expenses H D- , 2 I I Allowed Expenses

Faculty, students, Costs of K A r 1for7a Travel

Max one visit expenses of foreign round trip and Daily
other project participation in per year Allowance including accommodation as per
foreign country for visite
personnel
(maximum one fieldwork, research to
b duration of Government rules
not more than
visit per year) work or meetings c 30 days
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under the project
Cost of participation Max 1 visit per Registration fee as per actual, TA, DA including
in international year for a visit accommodation as per HEC Travel Grant Policy
Conferences, duration of not and Government rules.
Seminar, more than 6
Workshops, days
Symposium to
present research
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results under the
project H
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IV. University
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N Overheads
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5. General Conditions: ThereKHareAthree
D - purposes
,
7for expenses needed to provide research
to sponsoring HEIs: first, to compensate HEIs 1
r or administrative services, tuition waivers
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support in the form of campus facilities, secretarial
b expenses; second, to enable HEIs to build up
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to research assistants, or project development
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a professional research support system in order to enable their faculty members to attract
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research funding from other sources
third, to ensure that universities exercise proper quality control over research products.
6. The overhead amount should go directly into the research management budget of
universities, which may allocate it for various purposes according to the needs of each project
as well as the overall demands of professional research management. In case of multi-
institutional projects, the overhead costs are expected to be shared on the basis of the
percentage of funds allocated for each institution.

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7. HEC allows three tiers of University overheads or institutional costs, as a percent of
the total direct cost of the project: 5%, 10%, and 15%.
a. Basic (5% Overheads): this covers projects that do not require allocation of dedicated
office space or dedicated secretarial or support staff. It covers the basic research
support services, i.e., accounts management, project reporting, auditing, office
supplies (e.g., pens, staplers, or stationery), and monitoring and evaluation.
Researchers are expected to use their own offices and regular university facilities.
b. Extra (10% Overheads): In addition to the services listed in paragraph (a) above, the
HEI also provide the following additional facilities: support staff (daily wage clerical or
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manual labor, secretariat staff), campus expenses (e.g., use of dedicated office, unit,
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or building), utility costs, cost of access to digital resources (e.g., Digital Library, PERN),
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maintenance of scientific equipment, and/or access to laboratories.
c. Performance (15% Overheads): In addition to the services listed in paragraph (b), the
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HEI may demonstrate superior performance on behalf of the ORICs or other research
management institutions. A I N 0
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8.
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The provision of overheads means that HEIs will not be allowed to include normal
administrative expenses (e.g., administrative salaries, TA/DA. honorariums, bonuses, or
stipends). r 1
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