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Research and knowledge exchange

Consultancy

Consultancy activity

Consultancy activity is covered by the Consultancy Procedure. See our Consultancy Procedure [PDF 228.68KB] to find out more.

Opportunities to provide expert services to businesses and other non-academic organisations arise continually. It is important to check that the external opportunity for income generation is not better suited to one of the other KE categories before pursing it as personal consultancy, to ensure that you get the right level of support for your project. Consultancy may be undertaken by academics and professional service staff.

Key points governing personal consultancy arrangements

1. Permission is required in advance from senior management in your School or Division, and from the Research and Innovation Division for all consultancy projects.

2. Personal consultancy is usually done on top of workload and therefore the majority of the fee is devolved to the project leader. Standard arrangement for personal consultancy fees:

  • 85% to the Project Leader (either in Salary (subject to NI and Tax) and/or to a devolved budget code). Note: if the fee (or part of fee) is allocated to a university devolved budget code, it is subject to spending as per our financial regulations
  • 10% to the School / Division.
  • 5% to the University to contribute to central administrative costs and insurances

3. When conducting personal consultancy you are doing so as a representative of the University. Therefore only the official signatories for the University in the Research & Innovation Division can sign contracts - not individual consultants or Heads of School.

4. The fee for consultancy should be costed at 120-130% Full Economic Cost (FEC) to comply with the University’s obligations concerning commercial activities. Please contact consultancy@sussex.ac.uk for recommended day rates.

5. Consultancy work is covered by standard University Terms and Conditions. Where work must be undertaken on a client’s terms, contracts must first be reviewed by the University Research Contracts team to ensure that the University can comply with the terms, and that individuals are appropriately protected. Please allow a minimum of 15-20 days for these mandatory checks to take place.

Next steps for personal consultancy projects

Please add brief project details to Worktribe, then email consultancy@sussex.ac.uk with the Worktribe number, so that Research and Innovation staff can cost the project and do any checks before this goes through approval.

Feel free to contact consultancy@sussex.ac.uk if you have any questions before you get started.