Visiting Fellowships - costing a proposal

To reduce the overheads for people writing proposals for visiting fellowships, the following standard rates should be used in proposal costing. You should, of course, claim the actual costs incurred if these are lower than the estimated costs. If the actual costs are higher, then it is up to the university being visited or the visitor to make up the difference. Normally, we expect a significant contribution from the institution that is hosting the visitor.

Please note that visits for a single week will only be supported if there is a tangible cash contribution of at least 30% of the cost from the institution being visited.

Travel costs

1. Visitors from the UK: £160 for a return journey (cost of standard off-peak rail return from London-Edinburgh)
2. Visitors from Europe: £300 for a return journey (cost of flight from Munich-Edinburgh)
3. Visitors from North America: £600 for a return journey (cost of flight from Chicago to Edinburgh booked in advance is about £500)
4. Visitors from Asia, Australasia, South America, etc.: £1000 for a return journey (cost of flight from Sydney to Edinburgh, booked in advance is about £1000)

Accommodation

SICSA will contribute £700 a week towards accommodation/subsistence costs for the first 2 weeks of a visit and £500 a week for subsequent weeks. We plan to award a number of both short (up to one month) and long distinguished visiting fellowships (up to 3 months) per annum.

These are real money contributions - if you have a visitor from the Netherlands (say) for 2 weeks, then SICSA will cover £1700 of their expenses.

Reimbursement

Reimbursement to the visitor will usually be through the university being visited who will have to ensure that costs are accounted for (receipts etc.). If the visitor is hosted by Edinburgh, Glasgow, or St Andrews, then these costs should be charged to the local SICSA SGA account. Nothing more is required.

If the visitor is hosted by a university apart from Edinburgh, Glasgow or St Andrews, the host university should then reclaim the money from SICSA at Edinburgh by means of an invoice. This invoice should be sent to the Graduate Academy Administrator at the University of Edinburgh. The host university must cover claims which are not in line with the original award or which take the total beyond the limit of the award.

Matching contribution

There is considerable confusion about the SFC's notion of 'matching contribution'. We are choosing to interpret this to mean that, over the lifetime of SICSA, the total contribution from each university to SICSA will, at least, match the SFC contribution.

From a SICSA perspective, therefore, we do not require details of a 'matching contribution' for each visiting fellow - this is a matter for each University. However, we will not normally cover salary costs (if any), office, computer or networking costs as we believe that these should be contributed by the University that is hosting the visitor. Of course, any actual costs over and above the standard costs above may also be considered as a contribution.