The University has designed its Staff Time Use survey based on its consultation with DIISR and the Guidelines it has published.
Survey 2 will run from 15 to 28 June 2010 inclusive and participation is required for all staff who undertake research.
All survey participants will be required to complete a time sheet exercise. You will be asked to record how much time (in hours) you have spent on a set of defined activities over the survey period. Completing the survey should take no more than about 10 minutes per week.
To help determine whether you meet DIISR's definition of ‘undertaking research’, you will be asked to consider a set of clear examples at the start of the survey*. You will then be asked to state whether or not any of these examples applies to your role.
(*If you participated in Survey 1 and indicated that you undertake research, you will not need to consider these examples again and you will be taken straight to the timesheet exercise. If you believe your role has changed such that you no longer undertake research, click 'Back to start' to revisit the examples.)If you undertake research as an employee of the University of Adelaide you are required to complete the survey.
Your participation is essential in order for the University to access new funds to support the indirect costs of research—this funding will help us provide ongoing research infrastructure and provide critical funding for new research initiatives.
DIISR requires the University to achieve at least a 67% response rate for the Staff Time Use surveys.
Under-participation will directly jeopardise the University’s chance of achieving a strong funding allocation.
For the purposes of the survey, DIISR has provided universities with a restricted definition of what is meant by ‘undertaking research’. Based on its consultation with DIISR, the University has produced a set of clear examples to help you decide whether this definition applies to you.
Please take the time to read the examples and contact us at sre@adelaide.edu.au with any questions, or call the SRE Helpline on 8313 1110.
Australian Competitive Grant (ACG) research is research funded by a scheme listed on the Australian Competitive Grants Register. If you’re unsure whether you are undertaking ACG research, check the Register, contact us at sre@adelaide.edu.au or call the SRE Helpline on 8313 1110.
It is important to be as accurate as you can. It may be easiest to complete the time sheet every day, either online or using the time sheet print out.
If you record your hours on the print out, you will need to log-in at the end of the survey period and submit your results online.
You should record your results in hours to the nearest 15 minutes. Note that 3 hours and 15 minutes = 3.25.
Only record hours related to your employment with the University of Adelaide.
The SRE Survey 2 starts on Tuesday 15 June to avoid the Monday public holiday. For this reason, the last day of the survey period is Monday 28 June (not Sunday 27 June).
Some staff will on occassion work on the weekend and it is important that we capture this effort in the staff time use survey.
If you do not undertake any work on the weekends that fall within the survey period, please enter '0' in every activity category for these days.
This survey is being undertaken by the University of Adelaide as part of the Sustainable Research Excellence (SRE) initiative. The Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (DIISR) requires participating universities to undertake two staff time use surveys (one in March, one in June/July) to help measure the indirect costs of research.
Data will be collected and its use restricted
to the purposes of the survey in accordance with the provisions of the
Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
This data will not be available to the
University of Adelaide except in aggregated form. Individual data will
be provided to DIISR as de-identified data only.
Your personal identifiers will be retained temporarily by the survey manager to allow the survey team to:
Survey response data with retained personal identifiers will only be available to the survey team.
The
survey team will liaise with Faculty contacts to seek responses from
any staff that have not completed the survey by the end of the survey
period. Faculty contacts will be given a list of staff who have yet to
complete the survey, but will not have access to individual survey
responses with personal identifiers.
If you nominate a
delegate to complete the survey on your behalf, you consent to that
delegate knowing the details of your survey response.
You may be asked to provide feedback on the survey process. DIISR will only publish data in aggregated form.
This survey is about measuring the indirect costs of ACG research at the University of Adelaide as accurately as possible. The first principle when completing the time sheets is therefore to ensure all activities related to existing ACG research are allocated to the ACG Research category.
This includes all administrative activities that can be directly linked to existing ACG research, and work with your HDR or Honours students that is directly linked to a specific ACG research project.
If you indicate that you are ‘undertaking research’, it is extremely important that you assign all appropriate activities that are directly linked to ACG research to the ACG Research category.
If at any time you are in doubt about how to assign activities, contact us at sre@adelaide.edu.au or call the SRE Helpline on 8313 1110.
Record the time spent actually attending a conference related to your existing research in the appropriate research category.The same applies to visits paid to colleagues where existing research is discussed.
Time spent travelling to a conference should be recorded in the 'Other' category unless you were actually engaged in research activities while travelling (eg writing a paper on the plane), in which case you should record this in the appropriate research category.
It is extremely important that your time attending a conference/visiting colleagues is captured accurately in your survey return. This time should not be recorded as time on leave.
Special Studies Leave or Conference Leave
If you are on Special Studies Leave or Conference Leave, treat this as regular ‘work time’ and record your activities in the appropriate category (eg attendance at a conference in order to present a research paper should be recorded in either the ACG or Non-ACG Research categories).
Any other type of paid leave for part of the survey period
If you are on any other type of paid leave (eg Sick Leave or Annual Leave) for part of the survey period, you must complete the survey. Record how many hours of leave you took in the Leave category. If you also undertook work whilst on paid leave, please record this in the appropriate category.
Note that you must record your hours in multiples of 15 minutes. If you were on leave for an entire day, please enter '7.25' in the Leave category (this is the University's standard 7.35 hrs work day rounded down).
Any other type of leave for the whole survey period
If you are on any type of paid or unpaid leave (excluding Special Studies or Conference Leave - see above) for the whole survey period, you are not required to do the survey.
If you are on leave for the whole period but have received an email asking you to participate, please disregard this email. We will adjust the list of survey participants at the end of the survey period to take into account any leave forms that were processed late.
Administrative tasks should be counted against the category that they relate to, eg time spent on administrative tasks for existing ACG research should be recorded in the ACG Research category.
Similarly, time spent on teaching-related administrative tasks should be recorded in the Teaching category.
The 'Other' category is not a catch-all for administrative tasks: any activity directly related to an existing research project should be recorded in the appropriate research category.
Hours spent directly working on or discussing research with HDR and Honours students should be recorded in either the ACG Research or Non-ACG Research category.
If you worked with your students on existing ACG Research, record this in the ACG Research category. Only administrative or supervisory tasks (eg. completing annual reviews, performing administrative tasks related to supervision, attending supervisor training) should be recorded in the HDR & Honours Training category.
If you are an HDR or Honours student, you cannot record any time spent on your studies in this survey. Only work undertaken as an employee of the University can be counted.
If the article is being developed out of your existing research, record this time against the appropriate research category, eg if it relates to existing ACG research, record it in the ACG Research category.
If you undertake clinical duties as part of your employment with the University of Adelaide, these should be recorded in the survey timeseet.
Time spent on clinical duties related to your research, should be recorded in the appropriate research category. Time spent on clinical duties not related to research should be recorded in the Other category.
If you undertake clinical practice as part of your employment with another body (eg the State health system), this time cannot be recorded in the survey timesheet as it was not carried out as part of your employment with the Univeristy of Adelaide.
Record your hours spent preparing any grant applications (ie applications to either an ACG or non-ACG funding source) in the Other category. Only activity related to your existing research should be included in the ACG Research or Non-ACG Research categories.
Similarly, many staff will work less some weeks, but more during others. Your timesheet should accurately reflect what you did for period in question.
The data you provide will not be used for any purpose other than that described here.
If you work part-time, record the hours actually worked as well. If you work on one of your normal 'non-work days', you should still record your hours against this day.
If at any time you are in doubt about how to assign activities, contact us at sre@adelaide.edu.au or call the SRE Helpline on 8313 1110.
If you undertake research as an employee of the University of Adelaide you are required to complete the survey.
Your participation is essential in order for the University to access new funds to support the indirect costs of research—this funding will help us provide ongoing research infrastructure and provide critical funding for new research initiatives.
DIISR requires the University to achieve at least a 67% response rate for the Staff Time Use surveys.
Under-participation will directly jeopardise the University’s chance of achieving a strong funding allocation.
No, unless they are also paid employees of the University of Adelaide.
If you are a titleholder and not a paid employee of the University, DIISR has instructed us that you are not eligible to complete the survey. If you are a paid employee of the University, please complete the survey based on the details of the work you do as part of your paid employment.
No. This survey is about measuring the indirect costs of research at the University of Adelaide. The vast bulk of casual staff at the University are on teaching-only contracts and are therefore outside the eligible pool defined by DIISR.
In the lead-up to Survey 1, we contacted Heads of Schools to ascertain whether there were any casual staff members in their areas who were nevertheless undertaking research and therefore needed to complete the survey.
For Survey 2, DIISR has instructed us not to survey casual staff. If you are a casual staff member who completed Survey 1, thank you very much for your participation in the SRE program: your de-identified responses have now been provided to DIISR. Your participation in Survey 2 is not required.
No. Only employees of the University of Adelaide are eligible to complete the survey. You will only be required to complete the survey as an HDR or Honours student if you are also a paid staff member who undertakes research as part of a continuing or fixed-term contract. If you are an HDR or Honours student who is on a casual employment contract with the University, please also read Q21 (above).
If you are in receipt of a scholarship, you are not considered to be an employee of the University.
If you are a paid staff member as well as a student, you must exclude any hours spent undertaking activities related to your study when completing the time sheet.
No. Only employees of the University of Adelaide are eligible to complete the survey. If you are on a Summer Research Scholarship, you will only be required to complete the survey if you are also a paid staff member of the University who undertakes research as part of your employment.
Summer Research Scholarships do not constitute an employment relationship with the University.
During Survey 1, the University of Adelaide collected data from staff who 'support research' (according to DIISR's restricted definition) in order to help it complete the financial data component of Transparent Costing.
Under this component, the University must provide DIISR with a summary of its indirect costs of research. The salary costs of staff who 'support research' can be included in this summary.
The time use data collected from these staff during Survey 1 will enable the University to quantify these costs more accurately than it would otherwise have been able to do.
There is no requirement for the University to collect this information twice, which is why staff who indicated they were 'supporting research' are not required to participate in Survey 2.
However, DIISR have specified that univeristies must run two time use surveys for staff who undertake research so that as representative a picture as possible is obtained from this group.
Full participation in Survey 2 from staff who undertake research is therefore critical to the University's final funding allocation.