PSP004: NIHR RDN Funding - Finance Tool Reporting Guidance

This document provides the twelve Regional Research Delivery Networks (RRDNs) with guidance on reporting how NIHR Research Delivery Network (RDN) Funding is spent, using  the quarterly financial returns that are available within the Finance Tool. 

RRDNs should use the Finance Tool to report how RDN Funding is spent only. Expenditure against any other income stream should not be reported in the quarterly financial returns. Note, there can be no overspend of the total RDN Funding allocation. 

RDN Funding is allocated to the twelve RRDNs annually, with each RRDN being informed of their allocation for the financial year in advance of the new financial year. 

Some parts of the annual allocation must be spent on specific items, for example Nationwide NHS Support Services (Top-Sliced) or Exceptional Items related to Transition. However the bulk of RDN Funding will be spent on delivering clinical research in both NHS and non-NHS settings, under the following headings: RRDN Staff; Host Services; Research Delivery Support to Sites; Strategic Development; and Excess Treatment Cost (ETC) Service Funding.  

The Finance Tool is a cloud-hosted IT system and is managed by the Finance Team with the RDN Coordinating Centre (RDNCC). It enables the collection of relevant financial data from RRDNs about how their annual funding allocations are spent and allows the RDNCC to analyse and report on RRDN financial performance. 

The RDNCC provides reports to a number of stakeholders including the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), the RDN Board, RRDNs and internal directorates within the RDNCC. 

Expenditure should be reported against the organisation in which it occurs, whether this is an NHS organisation or a non-NHS organisation. For those in the flexible workforce, this will be against the substantive employing organisation, but with the understanding the individual(s) will work across multiple organisations. RRDNs are able to choose whether expenditure is reported at a line level detail or in an aggregated way. For example, rather than detailing an expenditure item at an individual staff level, the financial return can group certain staff expenditure items together therefore reducing the number of rows of data. 

RRDNs are reminded that all recipients of RDN Funding should have a sub-contract in place with the RRDN Host Organisation. 

Use the following link for access to the Finance Tool. User accounts for the Finance Tool will be created by the RDNCC, solely at the request of the RRDN Management Team. 

Should you have any queries regarding completion or submission of the Annual Financial Plan (AFP) or quarterly financial returns, please contact the RDNCC Finance team via rdnfinance@nihr.ac.uk. 

Any technical problems with the Finance Tool should also be reported to the RDNCC Finance team via rdnfinance@nihr.ac.uk. The RDNCC will record the issue and escalate to the supplier for fixing if required. 

A new data structure has been prepared for the RRDN reporting within the Finance Tool. This is detailed below in section 8. A section has been added to the RRDN Commentary Document for submission with the Q3 and Q4 returns requesting feedback on the RRDN Data Structure which will be reviewed and amended accordingly for the 2025/26 period.  

Costs associated with the diagnostic, investigational and therapeutic support services are provided through pathology, pharmacy, radiology, radiotherapy, cardiology and respiratory and defined as a service support cost by Attributing the cost of health and social care research and development (AcoRD) can be grouped and reported on a single line as a staff cost and attributed to multiple posts with a nominal Whole Time Equivalent / Programmed Activity (WTE / PA) of 0.01. Please ensure that these block allocations are recorded as 0.01 WTE in the Finance Tool to ensure that these can be identified correctly. 

Consultant block allocations should be reported as 0.01 WTE (not PA), and as multiple bands. 

Alternatively, allied health professionals and social care professionals supporting research and regulated by professional bodies can be reported on individual lines as a staff cost. 

There are only two roles available to RRDNs and one role to Delivery Organisations (DOs): 

• RRDN Final Approver - this role is responsible for submitting the final RRDN AFP and quarterly financial returns to the RDNCC. A user with this level of permission is expected to be the RRDN Network Director, the RRDN Operations Director or the RRDN Strategic Development Director. 

• RRDN Finance Manager - this role is responsible for reviewing and amending the AFP and quarterly Delivery Organisation (DO) financial returns, prior to approval by RRDN Final Approver and submission to RDNCC. This role may incorporate the DO User role activities for all DOs within the RRDN, depending on the model under which the RRDN operates. 

• DO User - dependent on the model under which the RRDN operates, this role may be responsible for populating the AFP and quarterly financial returns for a single DO, and submitting them to the RRDN for approval. 

In the main, expenditure is reported against the organisation in receipt of the RDN Funding, in line with the payment schedules in the Category A, B and C DO sub-contracts. A separate financial return is required for each of these organisations, and can be completed and submitted by either the DO staff, or by the RRDN Management Team. 

There are some organisations which are ‘grouped’ together, typically where the amount of RDN Funding is small, and only require a single financial return. These are: 

• Care Homes

• Hospices

• Independent Sector Healthcare Providers, including Social Enterprises (ISHP)

• Local Authorities

• Primary Care

• Prisons

• Schools

RRDN Hosts are reminded to inform the RDNCC of the dissolution, merger or change to name of any DO in its region. Such changes will be made within the Finance Tool by the RDNCC at an appropriate time. 

RDN Funding is used to provide the NHS with an excellent clinical research infrastructure which supports delivery of the RDN Portfolio and facilitates participation of NHS patients, carers and others in these studies throughout England. 

This infrastructure includes a coordinated and efficient workforce of research management and support staff and facilities, funding to meet NHS Support Costs and other eligible costs as defined by DHSC in the document Attributing the costs of health and social care research and development (‘AcoRD’). 

All expenditure, whether forecast or actual, must be reported in accordance with accruals accounting principles. Expenditure should be reported in the period to which it relates, which in practical terms is when a product is delivered or a service is provided, regardless of when the cash transaction occurs. 

RDN Funding should be held in ring fenced accounts and reconcile to the Host and DO’s general ledger (as per BC2 and BC4 of the PSP007 RRDN Minimum Controls). 

Expenditure that relates to future financial years must not be recognised in the current year, even if a contractual commitment has been entered into. 

The value of expenditure reported by RRDNs must agree with the value of transactions that have been recorded in the Host and DOs’ accounts, and a clear audit trail should exist to support this.  

At year end the expenditure reported on the Finance Tool will be compared with figures reported in the NHS Agreement of Balances exercise and any discrepancies will be investigated.  

Following approval of Q4 returns at the end of the financial year, the RRDN Network or RRDN Operations Director and the Host Trust Finance Director will be required to sign and submit a declaration to confirm that reported expenditure reconciles to the underlying ledgers of the Host and DOs. 

The table below details the required reporting of actual versus forecast expenditure by the required quarterly financial returns for Q3 and Q4 of 2024/25.  

RRDNs should make every effort to identify potential underspends and inform the RDNCC of such as early as possible in the financial year. The RDNCC will discuss the potential underspend with the RRDN, and may seek to redistribute this funding across the network. 

Underspends reported at or near the financial year end cannot be managed easily and will reflect badly on the RDN if they are of material value. 

DHSC will not accept any deferred income balances at year end. Therefore any underspend at year end must be treated as such in DO accounts. In addition, any unspent funds must be available for recovery in the following year.  

Each quarter, the RRDN Host should complete and return a commentary relating to the expenditure. The template will be made available in the Support Documentation folder. 

Commentaries must be reviewed, signed and dated by the RRDN Network Director or RRDN Operations Director prior to being uploaded to the Finance Tool. The deadline for submission of the commentaries will be the same as that for the quarterly financial returns.  

In adherence with GDPR, no personal identifiable data (PID) should be included in the quarterly finance returns. 

The RRDNs must spend their funding within their "funding categories" as per section 4 (financial arrangement) in their contractual agreement. For clarity the "funding categories" are detailed in Appendix 1 and the total funding allocations were provided to the operational directors on 26 February 2025 and updated on the Finance Tool on 28 February 2025. However, should funding be required to be moved between funding categories then the following should be abided by:

a) Transactional moves totalling a maximum of 1% of the total 2025/26 funding envelope per RRDN, whose values are detailed in the 2025/26 Funding Allocations and Expenditure Principles (v2.0), as long as the funding is moved from any "funding category" and into "Research Delivery Support to Sites" only. A summary of the transactional moves must be provided to the RDNCC as part of their quarterly submission within the Finance Tool or,

b)  Alternatively, if the total transactional moves reaches the maximum total and is greater than 1% of the total 2025/26 funding envelope, then details of the funding transfer will be required to be sent to the RDNCC Finance Team at rdnfinance@nihr.ac.uk prior to making the movements and these will be reviewed and agreed if necessary. The RDNCC Finance Team will advise if there are issues with the new allocation of funding or will update the Finance Tool accordingly and respond to the original request or,

c)  Alternatively, the RRDNs can report an underspend within the Finance Tool, and this spend can be redistributed to other RRDNs that request the additional funding. 

d)  If additional funding exceeds the total funding envelope provided, the RRDNs are required to advise the RDNCC Finance Team at rdnfinance@nihr.ac.uk as soon as they are able to discuss options that are available to them. Please note the RDNCC do not hold any contingency funding, therefore any additional funding will be required to be requested from DHSC or from unallocated underspends declared from other RRDNs.

e)  If any funding is required to be moved to Strategic funding, then details of the funding transfer and the strategic funding details will be required to be sent to the RDNCC Finance Team at rdnfinance@nihr.ac.uk prior to making the movements and these will be reviewed and agreed if necessary. The RDNCC Finance Team will advise if there are issues with the new allocation of funding or will update the Finance Tool accordingly and respond to the original request.

Further details can be found in the 2025/26 Funding Allocations and Expenditure Principles (v2.0).

Attributing the costs of health and social care Research & Development (AcoRD)

The Finance Tool does not provide the option to select ‘staff’ or ‘non-staff’ when entering data. The system recognises which costs are staff and which are non-staff. When entering staff costs, users must select Band and either WTE or PA. 

This is a pre-populated field. The Item ID is allocated to a line on a financial return and will remain throughout that financial year. 

This is a pre-populated field. The RRDN comprises the Host organisation and all the DOs in the region. A DO is any organisation in receipt of RDN Funding. 

This is a pre-populated field. The organisation in receipt of RDN Funding, for which the item of expenditure is being reported. For staff costs, this will usually be the employing organisation, not the work location, unless a recharge of costs has taken place. 

Financial treatment: No financial treatment required. Where dissolutions, mergers or name changes occur in-year, please contact the RDNCC on rdnfinance@nihr.ac.uk to discuss any change to the funding allocations. 

This field will be displayed on screen and on reports, but will not appear on the spreadsheet downloads. See Table 8.4 below:

Select from the drop down list. An indicator of whether a post is vacant, filled or closed. 

Select from the drop down list. The salary band of the individual staff member being reported. For Independent Sector Healthcare Providers and non-NHS/non-HEI organisations that do not align with the bandings listed, please select 'Other'.   

Whole Time Equivalent. Whole Time Equivalent (sometimes referred to as FTE 'Full Time Equivalent') shows the proportion of a full working week that is worked by the staff member being reported, e.g. enter 0.5 to show the staff member works 2.5 days per week.  

The WTE is not affected by a staff member working part of the year, e.g. a full-time staff member who is only employed for three months should be reported as 1.0 WTE for the three months of work.  

Financial Treatment: Within each quarter’s financial return the WTE should reflect the proportion of time the individual worked on RDN Funded activities. 

There is no need to remove the WTE when the individual has either left the organisation or is not funded via the RDN. This is on the basis that the role has been categorised as 'closed' and the WTE will be removed from the analysis.   

Programmed Activity. A 'session' of work of four hours duration. This should only be used if ‘Consultant’ is selected in the Band field.   

This is a free text field for RRDNs to note information about the financial data. Due to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), no personal identifiable data (PID) should be included in this field.     

A number of data checks have been incorporated into the Finance Tool and are designed to alert RRDNs to potential data entry errors within returns. Some of the checks are held within the data fields structure itself, for example preventing WTE from being entered for a non-staff item, as noted in section 8. Other checks are carried out in the summary tab when a return is uploaded to the Finance Tool, as noted below. No validation steps are built into the spreadsheet template. The Finance Tool will alert users to any errors in the data by displaying a message on the screen.  

• The level of funding provided for Funding Category ‘Host Services’ equates to a maximum of 9% of staff costs. 

• Contingency should be less than 10% of total funding at AFP, 5% at Q1, 2% at Q2, 1% at Q3 and 0% at Q4. 

Below is a list of the Specialties effective from Quarter 3 2024/25, following changes to some of them. Please ensure that all submissions have the correct Specialty. 

RDNCC's RRDN Finance Team

Email: rdnfinance@nihr.ac.uk 

AcoRD: Attributing the cost of health and social care research and development

AFP: Annual Financial Plan

BAU: Business as Usual

CRN: Clinical Research Network

CRNCC: Clinical Research Network Coordinating Centre

DHSC: The Department of Health and Social Care

DO: Delivery Organisation

ENRICH: Enabling Research in Healthcare

ETC: Excess Treatment Costs

FTE: Full Time Equivalent

GDPR: General Data Protection Regulation

ISHP: Independent Sector Healthcare Provider

LCRN: Local Clinical Research Network

LPMS: Local Portfolio Management System

NHSE/I: NHS England and NHS Improvement

NIHR: National Institute for Health and Care Research

ODP: Open Data Platform

PA: Programmed Activity

PID: Personal Identifiable Data

PO: Partner Organisation

PPV: Per Participant Value (sometimes referred to as the Per Patient Value)

Q1/2/3/4: Quarter 1/2/3/4

RDN: Research Delivery Network

RDNCC: Research Delivery Network Coordinating Centre

RSSL: Regional Specialty and Setting Leads

SoECAT: Schedule of Events Cost Attribution Tool

SOP: Standard Operating Procedure

TUPE: Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)

WTE: Whole Time Equivalent (also known as FTE: Full Time Equivalent)

Version number:  4.1 

Effective from: June 2025 

Version number 4.1

• Finance Tool Reporting Guidance 2025/26 - Section 7 7.8 2025/26 Expenditure Principles added. Footnotes from section 7. Financial principles

Version number: 4.0

Effective from 1 October 2024

Version number:  3.0 

Effective from: 01/04/2024 

Change(s) from V2.0:

• Section 3 was updated to reflect changes in the data fields within the Finance Tool.

• Section 8.3 was amended to Q2 to reflect the end of the DHSC/LCRN Host contracts on 30 September 2024.

Version number:  2.0 

Effective from: 01/04/2023 

Change(s) from V1.3:

• Section 3 was updated to remove in year changes from 2022/23 in preparation to display any in year changes during 2023/24. A number of recent changes were kept in this section for information while most of the information about new sections introduced in 2022/23 has been moved into table 9.5. 

• A description of integrated care boards was add to table 9.4.

• Table 9.5 was updated to fully reflect new categories' added during 2022/23 alongside other amendments to ensure consistency in naming conventions between the CRN Finance Tool and the CSP. 

Version number: 1.3

Effective from: 20 December 2022

Change(s) from V1.2:

• Added the following text to Section 1.2: 'DHSC has confirmed additional CRN funding totalling c.£4.3m in relation to the 2022/23 Pay Award cost pressures. LCRNs should determine how to allocate this funding across their Partners. Reporting of this funding should be included in the 2022/23 Q3 financial returns and has been added to the CRN Finance Tool against the Core funding stream. If any of this funding has to be allocated against the Transforming Research funding category, please highlight it in your Commentary Document and in the Comments field on your finance return. The funding should not be used against Top-Sliced, ETC Service Funding or Public Health Prevention Funding, as these already include uplifts within the 2022/23 funding.'

•  Updated wording of Section 3.1

• Section 3.5 Host Expenditure replaced with Section 3.5 Central Network Costs

• Added Section 3.6 National Contract Value Review (NCVR)

• Added 9.5.2.7 National Contract Value Review (NCVR), 9.5.2.7.1 Capacity/Skill Level, 9.5.2.7.2 National Prioritisation and 9.5.2.7.3 Community of Practice to Section 9.

Version number: 1.2

Effective from: 12 October 2022

Change(s) from V1.1:

• Added the following text to Section 3.2.1: '...and have been advised of their individual funding allocations as recorded in the CRN Finance Tool'

• Added Section 3.5. Host Delivery Expenditure

• Section 3.4. updated with new wording

Version number: 1.1 

Effective from: 16 September 2022

Change(s) from V1.0:

• Document title changed from 'CSP004: NIHR CRN Funding Reporting' to 'CSP004: NIHR CRN Funding - Finance Tool Reporting Guidance'

• Telephone number added to Section 2. Contact and System Support.

• Removed Section 3.1. Cessation of Vaccine pump-prime funding 

• Added Section 3.3. Targeting Under-served Communities Funding

• Section 9. Data field definitions and financial treatments

  • Removed the following text: 'Data field definitions and financial treatments can be found in this document. headed 'Data field definitions and financial treatments' in pdf versions - please do not copy over content for the time being.'

  • Added the following text: 'The CRN Finance Tool no longer provides the option to select ‘staff’ or ‘non-staff’ when entering data. The system recognises which costs are staff and which are non-staff. When entering staff costs, users must select Band and either WTE or PA.

  • Added Sections 9.1 - 9.12 inclusive

• Section 10. Data Checks (Validation)

  • Removed the following text: 

The CRN Finance Tool has been amended to include additional categorisation to capture the Public Health Prevention Research Funded posts (Local Authority Support Role and the Consultant Role). In 2019/20 this expenditure was reported as an additional allocation to the ‘Core’ budget and categorisation sat within the ‘Core Funding’ category. This funding category will be used to determine underspends against this funding envelope, based on reported expenditure. For Q1 2021/22 the Public Health Prevention Research Funding is now a separate Funding Category and has the same hierarchy as follows:

• • • • • • Funding Category: Public Health Prevention Research Funding

          • Budget Category: LCRN Leadership and Core Business

          • Budget Sub-category: LCRN Leadership

          • Budget Sub-category details: Local Authority Support

The ‘Local Authority Support’ budget sub-category details should include the Local Authority Support Role and the Consultant sessions, reported as two separate lines. A number of data checks have been incorporated into the CRN Finance Tool and are designed to alert LCRNs to potential data entry errors within returns. Some of the checks are held within the data fields structure itself, for example preventing WTE from being entered for a non-staff item. Other checks are carried out in the summary tab when a return is uploaded to the CRN Finance Tool, as noted below. No validation steps are built into the spreadsheet template. The CRN Finance Tool will alert users to any errors in the data by displaying a message on the screen. 

• Host Corporate Support Costs is less than or equal to the lower of 2% or £400k of total funding (excluding top-sliced funding). 

• Overheads at each PO should not exceed 8% of staff costs less top-sliced, Host Corporate Support Costs and Unallocated Funds staff costs. 

• Contingency should be less than 10% of total funding at AFP, 5% at Q1, 2% at Q2 1% at Q3 and 0% at Q4. 

• Added the following text:

A number of data checks have been incorporated into the CRN Finance Tool and are designed to alert LCRNs to potential data entry errors within returns. 

Some of the checks are held within the data fields structure itself, for example preventing WTE from being entered for a non-staff item, as noted in section 8. 

Other checks are carried out in the summary tab when a return is uploaded to the CRN Finance Tool, as noted below. No validation steps are built into the spreadsheet template. The CRN Finance Tool will alert users to any errors in the data by displaying a message on the screen.

• Host Corporate Support Costs is less than or equal to the lower of 2% or £400k of total funding (excluding top-sliced funding).

• Overheads at each PO should not exceed 8% of staff costs less top-sliced, Host Corporate Support Costs and Unallocated Funds staff costs.

• Contingency should be less than 10% of total funding at AFP, 5% at Q1, 2% at Q2 1% at Q3 and 0% at Q4.

• Strategic Funding should include all ring-fenced Targeting Under-Served Communities Funding, and should therefore be at a minimum, 2% of Total Funding