School Manager's Report
Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue52 1–30 June 2024
April and May is HERDC (Education Research Data Collection) season, a time when we look back at the past year, to measure and report our research income.
Why do we collect HERDC Data? See my Lunations post from April 2023
How do we ensure our research income is captured and correctly reported? See my June 2023 post
For the HERDC table of results, please click here:
Our 2023 results show a strong recovery from the abnormally low 2022 figures. Much of the volatility from year to year is explained by the timing of payments. An average of 2023 and 2024 shows a more stable position, slightly below the long-term trend.
Category 1
In 2023, we expected to see a similar result to 2022, instead, we observed a drop in the reported figure, due to various adjustments and accounting anomalies, (350K of income was deferred to the 2024 reporting cycle). Taking this into account, 2023 is a reasonable outcome given the longer term trend of falling Cat 1 income observed at other ANU Schools and the sector at large.
With the wind-down of ASTRO 3D, we will likely see a drop into 2024.
Category 2 and 3
We see a strong rebound in funding from 2022 in 2023. About half of this increase is thanks to the commencement of a few flagship contracts such as Moon to Mars project and Subaru. The other half is attributed to general cash flow volatility, due to the timing of invoice payments, milestones and contractual requirements.
Looking forward, thanks to the work of AITC, we expect to see growth in Cat 2 and 3 income, although cash flows will still vary year to year.
Budget Challenges
As pointed out by our Director in recent emails, the ANU continues to face budget headwinds. Despite limited official communications from the center, it has been made clear that we must seek savings where possible, with externally funded contracts being largely exempted. We have been working with many people in the School to quantify immediate savings. We hope that the situation will become clearer in the coming months, allowing decisions to progress on certain projects and initiatives, but until then we must go slow.
As Stuart suggested, the aim is to minimise the impact on students and research projects. If you have any uncertainties about impacts on your projects or accounts, please come see me for an initial conversation.
S W and Q Accounts
Together with the College, we have commenced work to ensure externally funded projects are classified correctly. Going forward, these will be categorised as follows:
- S = contractual, with the explicit requirement to return unspent funds,
- W = contractual, all other
Q = will be used for managing internally generated funding, such as discretionary accounts, ANU grant schemes or start-up funds.
We will also be in discussion with the CFO about the optimal accounting ledger for the operations such as AITC, AAT etc.
Please reach out directly if you have any questions.
Mat Malzacher
