Financial transactions across international research centres

As researchers, administrators of research funds, and funders of research projects, we all make assumptions about how research funds will be used, moved around and accounted for. Here are some assumptions I made when I initiated the DemiKnow project and what I subsequently learned:

Students played a central role in the design of this project for several reasons. The purpose of the project was to help prepare a new generation of migration researchers, especially for international work. My role at a Canadian university included hiring graduate students as research assistants, not only to help them learn about research processes and management, but also to provide them employment. I initially assumed my co-investigators had similar roles, resources, and administrative structures. Having served as an adjudicator for SSHRC, I also knew that using research fund to train and employ graduate students was an important criterion for approval of applications. However, I subsequently learned that hiring students as research assistants is not a universal practice. Some colleagues were either unable to hire students or did not want to do so for reasons I am unaware of. Instead they hired ‘staff’ to assist with their part of the project. I had sent the full proposal to all partners but perhaps I did not sufficiently emphasize this point; or perhaps they had not pay sufficient attention to it; or perhaps their administrative structures and cultures did not allow for this arrangement. A lesson I learned was to keep my mind open to other ways of seeking research assistance and categorizing those who provide it. However, I remain puzzled about why my colleagues did not say anything about this matter.

Funding for research from international sources is welcomed by almost all Canadian scholars and their universities. However, shortly after the project was approved for funding I learned that my university could not send funds to a research centre with which one of my co-investigators was affiliated because the centre was affiliated with several but not based in a single university. An alternate university, with which the centre was also affiliated, did not accept research funding from outside the country without a lengthy bureaucratic procedure involving formal approval from the state government. While the co-investigator was able to resolve the issue (which I hope they will also write about) another lesson I learned was that the processing of research funds across international borders has to be navigated through different rules and regulations.

In North America researchers usually take their research funds with them when they move to a different university. However, this is not always a straightforward process, especially in international partnerships. A co-investigator in another country moved from one university to another but according to our funding agency and institutional regulations the funds allocated for the sub-project could not simply follow the researcher. They had to be returned back to my university and transferred to the researcher’s new location after new institutional research contracts were drawn up and signed by various administrators at both universities. This matter is further complicated by the fact that graduate students or staff don’t necessarily move with the investigator. How they will continue to be paid for their work still has to be worked out, which means allocation of more time to this task.   

Research centres manage financial accounts in different ways. Not only are their formal procedures and forms different from each other, ways in which they interpret and apply the rules are also different. A standard form, required by our funding agency for all sub-projects, was sent to all partners for them to record and submit expenses incurred this year. Line items were interpreted differently by research account managers in different places. In some cases a great deal of detail was provided to explain the expenses, in others no details were supplied in the form or with the form. I struggled with the question of how much detail to ask for, and worried about how underspending or overspending will affect the project in the future; how a request for further details may be interpreted by the partners; and whether all centres will have accounts staff to compile the details.