New project fee and securing external funds

As mentioned in the news here on SDUnet a few weeks ago, the project fee will be increased from 10 % to 20 % from 1 January 2026 for external research projects.

At first glance, this seems like a big change, but calculations of the new budget model for project fees show that things are not quite so bad.

This is due to several reasons, including the fact that the fee is calculated based on the actual spend on the project, minus income from overheads and project fees.

Unlike before, overheads and project fees go directly to the department.

At the same time, the budget model will be changed so that surpluses in SDU's reserve will be returned to the faculties via the research incentive key. This will strengthen local research efforts and ensure that the funds benefit research.

Better than expected

Calculations have now been made for this change in the budget model, and for NAT it will have very little impact, which means that NAT will maintain the original budgets when it comes to external revenue.

So it looks better than expected. However, there is no doubt that it is difficult to predict future budgets accurately. There are some uncertainties associated with the transition to project grants for the six largest foundations, as many parameters change at the same time.

Grants will depend more on the number of PhDs and postdocs, and there will be items that cannot be applied for, such as administrative support. These costs must be covered by the project allowance.

You can still apply for project managers, and this encouragement has been passed on especially to large projects, where it is a great help in connection with the practical implementation of the projects.

Jakob Møller-Jensen has made a number of calculations on BMB's current project portfolio and it seems that projects from NNF and the Carlsberg Foundation are financially sound due to the project allowance, while projects without overheads can quickly become financially challenging.

We have, therefore, agreed in management that everyone should try to cover the project fee of 20 % for new applications. As before, there may be cases where this is not possible, and in these cases, each application will be considered individually in agreement with the head of department.

Funds for infrastructure

This is especially true for infrastructure applications without overheads, where it has become even more difficult to make them work together. Therefore, we have decided to allocate funds in the faculty's conversion pool to cover the project fee for these applications by request from the head of department.

We find it very important that NAT can continue to submit applications for new infrastructure and thus remain competitive nationally and internationally.

Existing grants for which the grant letter has been signed by 31 December 2025 will continue unchanged with a project fee of 10 %. This also means that it will take some time, probably 3 to 4 years, before the new model has a full impact on the departments' budgets.

Financial Services is now working on the technical implementation, which will be rolled out to our skilled project finance officers. They will keep researchers informed of developments. The project finance officers are already encouraging everyone to read the guidelines from the foundations carefully and make sure to specify costs to ensure that they are covered when the grant is secured.

We know from experience that unspecified operating costs are removed from the application budget and the grant is reduced accordingly, but there are no challenges in covering operating costs that are unspecified in the application budget.

We hope that the transition to the new project fee will be as seamless as possible and encourage everyone to continue the good work of bringing exciting projects to NAT. The management, the External Relations Team and project finance officers are happy to answer questions, as there may be aspects that require more explanation.