Notice of Nansha District Bureau of Education of Guangzhou Municipality on Issuing the Management Measures of Nansha District of Guangzhou Municipality for Educational Scientific Research Project Funds

Normative Document No 1 [2022] of Nansha District Bureau of Education of Guangzhou Municipality

Notice of Nansha District Bureau of Education of Guangzhou Municipality on Issuing the Management Measures of Nansha District of Guangzhou Municipality for Educational Scientific Research Project Funds 

Nansha District Education Development Center, education guidance centers in the three towns, primary and secondary schools, kindergartens, Lingdong Vocational Middle School, Qihui School, children's palaces and relevant organizations,

The Management Measures of Nansha District of Guangzhou Municipality for Educational and Scientific Research Project Funds are hereby issued to you for your compliance and implementation. Problems encountered in the implementation shall be directly reported to the Nansha district bureau of education of Guangzhou municipality.

Nansha District Bureau of Education of Guangzhou Municipality

April 25, 2022

Management Measures of Nansha district of Guangzhou Municipality for Educational Scientific Research Project Funds

Article 1 To standardize and strengthen the fund management of Nansha district's educational scientific research projects (hereinafter referred to as the "projects") and improve the efficiency of fund use, these measures are formulated in light of the situation of education and scientific research management in Nansha district. The measures are formulated according to the Several Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Reforming and Improving the Management of Scientific Research Funds of the Central Government (Normative Document No 32 [2021] of the General Office of the State Council), Notice of the General Office of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee and the General Office of the Guangdong Provincial People's Government on Issuing the Implementation Opinions on Further Improving the Fund Management and Other Policies of Provincial Financial Scientific Research projects (for Trial Implementation) (Normative Document No 13 [2017] of the General Office of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee), Notice on Issuing the Measures of Department of Finance of Guangdong Province and Guangdong Audit Office on Management and Supervision of Provincial Financial Scientific Research Project Funds (Normative Document No 5 [2019] of Department of Finance of Guangdong Province), Notice of the General Office of the CPC Guangzhou Municipal Committee and the General Office of the Guangzhou Municipal People's Government on Issuing the Implementation Opinions on Further Improving the Fund Management and Other Policies of Municipal Financial Scientific Research projects (Normative Document No 34 [2017] of Guangzhou Municipality), and Notice of Guangzhou Bureau of Education on Issuing the Management Measures of Guangzhou Municipality for Educational Scientific Research Project Funds (Normative Document No 5 [2019] of Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Education).

Article 2 The projects herein include educational scientific research projects and education and teaching outcome achievement projects approved by the national, provincial, municipal, and district education authorities. The funding of educational scientific research projects approved by the national, provincial, municipal, and district educational research management departments and digital education departments shall be arranged according to the budget of the district's education and scientific research management department.

Article 3 The project funds should be managed with the principle of "people-centered, law compliance, standardized management, and performance orientation". The use and management methods of such funds shall be reformed and innovated to better motivate scientific researchers.

Article 4 The performance goal of the project funds is to improve the quality of teaching and education, produce greater scientific research achievements, and enhance the ability to serve the economy and society through discipline development, talent training, scientific research, and management innovation. Specifically, performance can be manifested in such forms as research reports, educational and teaching plans, teaching cases and videos, paper and book publication, and patent rights of the invention.

Article 5 The district bureau of education is responsible for preparing the annual budget of project funds and proposing the overall fund arrangement plan based on the replies from relevant departments.

Article 6 The project undertaker should guide the project leader to prepare a reasonable project budget by these measures and the actual needs of the research. The subjects and calculation basis of the expensed items shall be explained in the budget plan. The scientific research and finance departments of the project undertaker shall review the budget.

Article 7 For projects subsidized by the district's project funds, the funding standards are as follows:

The funding standards for each research project (including projects being planned and projects of teaching outcomes) and philosophy and social science projects approved by the education authorities are as follows: 60,000 yuan ($8,886) for each national project, 30,000 yuan for each provincial project, 20,000 yuan for each municipal project, and 10,000 yuan for each district-level project.

The funding standards for each research project approved by the educational research management departments and digital education departments are as follows: 30,000 yuan for each national project, 15,000 yuan for each provincial project, 10,000 yuan for each municipal project, and 5,000 yuan for each district-level project.

Article 8 The project expenditure includes direct and indirect costs incurred during project implementation. Funds for the "three public spendings" (spending on official overseas visits, official vehicles, and official hospitality) and conference expenses shall be subject to the relevant governing provisions. Expenses of international cooperation and exchange expenses disbursed from the scientific research funds are not included in the "three public spendings" and are not subject to the "zero growth" requirement.

(I) Direct expenses refer to the expenses directly related to the research activities, including:

1. Document fees: the expenses for the purchase of books (including books in foreign languages) and documents for academic use; the expenses for document collection, sorting, translation, printing, copying, binding, and remake; the expenses for purchasing special software and literature retrieval, etc.

2. Data collection fees: the expenses for investigation, interview, data purchase, data analysis, and technical services purchase incurred during the research.

3. Conference expenses/travel expenses/international cooperation and exchange expenses: the conference organization, transportation, and accommodation expenses incurred by such activities as scientific experiments (tests), scientific investigation, surveys, academic discussion, consultation, exchange, investigation, and study; the expenses incurred by researchers' trips abroad and to Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, foreign experts' trips to China, and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan experts' trips to the Chinese Mainland during the research for academic cooperation and exchanges. Where these kinds of expenses cost no more than 10 percent of the direct expenses in the science and technology projects, and no more than 20 percent of the social science projects, there is no need to provide a calculation basis.

4. Equipment expenditure: the expenses for the purchase or trial production of special instruments and equipment, the upgrading and transformation of the existing instruments and equipment, and the lease of instruments and equipment from other organizations during the project. The project undertaker shall properly control the expenditure on equipment purchase and encourage sharing, leasing, and upgrading of existing equipment. The employer of the project leader shall manage the equipment based on its value and according to the State-owned assets management provisions. The funds shall not be used to purchase communication equipment, vehicles, office appliance, etc.

5. Publication/information communication/intellectual property service expenditure: the expenses for publication, design, specialized communication, and intellectual property affairs such as patent application, incurred during the project.

6. Expert consultation expenditure: the expense for consulting temporarily employed experts during the project. The budget for expert consultation expenses shall be prepared by the project leader according to the actual needs of the research, and the expenditure standard should be consistent with the relevant municipal provisions.

7. Labor cost: the compensation to the personnel (such as graduate students) who gain no wage income and are the temporary employees in the project team. The labor cost standard of this kind of personnel shall be in line with the average wage level in the scientific research and technical service industries of the Nansha district and shall be determined according to their tasks in the project; the social insurance subsidy shall be disbursed from the labor cost. The labor cost budget is subject to no proportion limits and shall be prepared by the project undertaker and researchers based on actual situations. Permanent staff on regular payroll in the Nansha district should not receive the remuneration.

8. For experimental projects, the expenditure also includes the following items in addition to those mentioned above:

(1) Material cost: the expenses for the purchase, transportation, loading/ unloading, and sorting of raw materials, auxiliary materials, and other low-value consumables during the project.

(2) Testing/chemical analysis/processing expenditure: the examination, testing, and processing expenses paid to external organizations (including independent economic accounting organizations within the project undertaker) during the project.

(3) Fuel and energy cost: the expenses of water, electricity, gas, and fuel that are consumed by large instruments and special scientific devices during the research and can be measured separately.

9. Other direct expenditures: the direct expenditures other than the above-mentioned expenditures incurred during the project. When preparing the budget, they shall be presented and approved separately.

(II) Indirect expenses refer to those incurred during the project implementation, which cannot be disbursed from the direct expenses. They mainly include:

1. Management cost: the expenses of using the existing instruments, equipment, and houses of the project undertaker; water, electricity, and gas consumption, and other management expenses during the research. It shall not exceed 5 percent of the project funding, and the cooperative organizations shall not draw it repetitively. The organization where the project operates shall draw the management fund based on the actually allocated fund of the year and the specified proportion, and should not draw in advance, draw repetitively, or lift the quota.

2. Performance expenditure: the expense by the project undertaker to improve research performance. The performance expenditure shall be in line with the actual contribution of the researchers, and the frontline ones shall be prioritized. The performance expenditure is subject to no proportion limits and shall be managed as an incentive. Such expenditure shall be included in the total performance-based salary for declaration but not included in the cardinal number for regulating the total performance-based salary of the organization.

Article 9 The cooperation funds of the projects shall be transferred by the project undertaker to the supporting organization, according to the contract signed between the two parties. The fund comes from the subsidy for the project undertaker.

Article 10 If the project undertaker is not a district-level or town-level budget maker (including Nansha Street sub-district), the project funds will be allocated by the district bureau of education to the project undertaker or the town it is located (including Nansha Street), on a one-off basis according to the time and amount agreed in the project assignment (or contract). Any funds appropriated to the town (including Nansha Street) should be transferred to the project undertaker in time. Where the project undertaker is a district-level school (or kindergarten) or district-level organization (or an organization under Longxue Street or Zhujiang Street sub-districts), the project undertaker shall include the project funds in the annual budget on a one-off basis according to the time and amount agreed in the project assignment (or contract). If the project funds are arranged on a yearly basis, the total funding for each project should not exceed the standard stated in Article 7 of these measures.

Article 11 The project leader shall based on the principle of utilizing a fixed sum for a fixed purpose and frugality, reasonably and effectively use the funds according to the research plans and financial management regulations. At the end of every year, expenditures of the year shall be reported in writing to the district's education and scientific research management department. Failure to submit the annual reports on its work and fund utilization as required will affect the final evaluation result of the project.

Article 12 If any of the following circumstances is found upon examination during the project, the district bureau of education will take necessary measures. In serious cases, the project will be terminated and part or all of the funding will be recovered as appropriate.

1. Changing the project leader or key members without the consent of the scientific research management department;

2. Modifying or making changes to the project assignment (contract) without the consent of the scientific research management departments;

3. Discontinuing the research or failing to complete the tasks without justifiable reasons;

4. Failing to conclude the project one year after the agreed deadline and no change has been made;

5. The utilization of subsidy funds does not comply with the relevant national, provincial, municipal, and district financial stipulations and these measures.

Article 13 For the terminated projects, if the funds have been allocated, the project undertaker shall return the unused fund and the funds used against regulations within three months after the project termination notice is delivered. The unallocated funds will not be allocated.

Article 14 The project undertaker shall strictly control its expenditure by the scope and standard of project funds stipulated herein. In case the total project budget remains unchanged, the right to adjust the direct expenses of all subjects can be delegated to the project leader, who shall submit an application to the project undertaker for approval. The indirect expense budget should not be adjusted.

Article 15 Using the scientific research funds to procure equipment should comply with the provisions and procedures of government procurement, and the procured assets thus will be state-owned assets; their rights of use and operation belong to the employer of the project leader, and the assets must be included in the fixed assets account of the said employer for accounting and management. Such state-owned assets should be disposed of by the relevant national, provincial, and municipal regulations to prevent any loss.

Article 16 The project undertaker should examine and assess the utilization of the project funds. The management and use of the funds shall be subject to examination and supervision of the superior financial and audit authorities. The project leader and project undertaker should actively cooperate and provide any required documents.

Article 17 When the project leader needs to move to another scientific research management department due to job changes or other reasons, the receiving and entrusted organizations should approve and the case should be reported to the district bureau of education for approval.

Article 18 The person in charge of the fund reimbursement shall be the project leader, and the approver shall be the fund approver of the project leader's employer.

Article 19 Project team members, collaborators, and the employer of the project leader shall strictly implement the national, provincial, municipal, and district financial stipulations and these measures. For violations against financial disciplines such as failing to use the funds on time, fraudulence, and intercepting and misappropriating the funds, the district bureau of education will be based on the severity of the case, take measures such as stopping the appropriation, revoking the subsidy, and rejecting to fund the concerned party again. Serious cases will be submitted to the competent authorities for investigation.

Article 20 Upon the completion of the project and before the application for final acceptance or achievement appraisal, the project leader shall cooperate with the financial department of the project undertaker to straighten out the accounts, verify the appropriations and expenditures, and prepare the settlement in time. With the approval of the project undertaker, these documents, together with the application documents for final acceptance or achievement appraisal, shall be submitted to the district Bureau of Education for filing. The settlement of each funded project must be stored in the project conclusion file for inspection. Before completing this procedure, the district bureau of education will not accept any new funding application from the project leader.

Article 21 These measures shall come into force from the date of promulgation and shall remain in force for five years. The Notice of Nansha District Bureau of Education of Guangzhou Municipality on Issuing Management Measures of Nansha district of Guangzhou Municipality for Educational and Scientific Research Project Funds (Normative Document No 2 [2022] of Nansha district Bureau of Education of Guangzhou Municipality) shall be terminated on the same date.

Form of Disclosure: Active Disclosure