First, the difficulties of scientific research project budget preparation
(A) the professional limitations of staff
Although researchers are experts in the field of scientific research, they are often unable to cope with the financial problems that are inevitable in the management of scientific research projects, especially the management of hundreds of thousands and millions of large funds. Because the research field of each project is different, each project has its own research particularity. At present, there is no scientific and unified budget quota standard in the country in terms of expenditure subjects and budget quota, and it is often difficult for non-financial personnel in scientific research units to compile accurate and feasible project budgets. Although the department in charge of funds generally requires the project applicant to have financial personnel to participate in the project budget preparation, it is difficult to operate in practice. Insufficient understanding of the seriousness and importance of the project leader's budget, insufficient understanding of the financial personnel's professional knowledge in the field of scientific research, and incomplete first-hand information when preparing the budget will lead to the lack of scientific budgeting of the project.
(B) the particularity of scientific research activities
The budget of scientific research projects is very difficult, which is mainly caused by the particularity of scientific research activities. Scientific research and technological development are exploratory and uncertain, which determines that their workload and expenses are also uncertain and cannot be completely predicted. Therefore, it is difficult to accurately estimate or budget the funds for scientific research projects in advance. At the same time, due to the differences in the types of scientific and technological activities, the uncertainty and unpredictability of different types of scientific research projects are also different. General basic research and applied research are the most uncertain, while experimental development, R&; D the application of achievements is the second, and the uncertainty of the budget of scientific and technological service projects such as the promotion and demonstration of scientific and technological achievements is the smallest.
(c) Differences in the supply of funds for thematic applications
Because scientific research projects are based on different reporting units, under the current national conditions, there are differences in the funding supply policies of reporting units, including self-supporting units, fixed subsidy (differential subsidy) units and full funding units. The most direct influence of different financial supply policies is the difference in the supply level of financial service fees. The general fund supply of self-supporting and differential budget units is relatively tight, and the fund supply of full-funded budget units is generally abundant. The difference of financial supply level will inevitably lead to the imbalance of personnel expenditure, which will lead to the huge difference between the budget expenditure of scientific research personnel and the actual situation. Scientific and technological personnel in units with sufficient financial expenditure can not only greatly improve their salaries, but also use their main funds for scientific research to ensure the smooth completion of scientific research projects. Units with insufficient financial funds may use research funds to offset their wages, and even seriously affect the completion of scientific research projects. Moreover, even in different research groups in the same unit, there will be an imbalance in personnel funds, and there are many topics to strive for, especially for research groups with many large topics, and the surplus funds are usually abundant, which may greatly improve the treatment of scientific and technological personnel. However, those research groups that strive for fewer topics, especially big topics, usually lack surplus funds, making it difficult to improve the treatment of scientific and technological personnel. It can be seen that the difference of funding supply for project application increases the difficulty of project funding budget.
Second, the problems existing in the budget preparation of scientific research projects
(A) the budget structure is unreasonable
When preparing the budget, we would rather report more than seek cooperation. I don't know how to allocate and control the budget of each expenditure item in the budget reasonably, which will eventually lead to the surplus or shortage of funds in the process of project implementation, thus affecting the realization of the goals of scientific research projects. The unreasonable budget structure of project funds will lead to a decrease in the budget with a high proportion when the expert group reviews, while it is impossible to increase the budget with a low proportion when the expert group reviews. This is not conducive to the application of project funds, and will also affect the smooth progress of future budget implementation and subsequent project acceptance. For example, in the calculation of equipment cost budget, the purchase quantity of notebook computers, desktop computers and printers should not be too much. These equipments belong to general equipment and should be the basic conditions for the project applicants to carry out scientific research. The funds for scientific research projects should be arranged to purchase special equipment as far as possible, and it is difficult for general equipment to be fully supported by the funds for scientific research projects. Another example is the expenses that will definitely occur during the investigation, such as travel expenses and labor costs. The budget should be prepared realistically, and the proportion should not be too low.
(B) the calculation basis is too general
The preparation of the expenditure budget of scientific research projects should explain in detail the main purpose and calculation reasons of each expenditure. However, in the actual operation process, most researchers pay insufficient attention to the written description of calculation basis, and the description is too simple. Some even think that the vaguer the calculation basis is, the better, and the consequences caused by this psychology of fishing in troubled waters are often very serious, because the calculation basis is precisely the important basis for the expert group to focus on and determine the budget. Especially for those scientific research projects with uncertain financial support and sufficient reasons, whether the budget is scientific and the calculation basis is sufficient and detailed plays a vital role in how much financial support can be obtained in the end. In practical work, some researchers are puzzled why some researchers can give 1 10,000 when their own budget is 500,000. Maybe we can find the answer here.
(C) blind commitment to matching funds
For the scientific research funds applied by universities and scientific research institutions, in most cases, the project authorities do not force matching, and whether the application can be approved is not necessarily related to whether matching or matching funds are provided. However, due to financial resources, policy orientation and other factors, some scientific research projects require supporting units to provide matching funds, and some also require matching funds to reach a certain proportion, and the implementation of matching funds is the focus of financial acceptance of such scientific research projects. In order to win funds, some units blindly promised matching funds regardless of their own economic affordability. In fact, the unreasonable matching fund arrangement will not only help the application for funds, but also bring a series of troubles in operation and management. Beyond one's ability, blindly committing to support the project will not only affect the acceptance of the project, but also leave a bad record for the scientific integrity of the unit, which will affect the funding for other scientific research projects in the future.
Third, the budget countermeasures of scientific research projects
(1) Understand the expenditure scope of project funds and grasp the connotation of expenditure subjects.
Project funds refer to the direct related expenses used for project research and development activities in special scientific research funds and self-raised funds. The expenditure scope of project funds generally includes equipment fees, materials fees, testing and processing fees, fuel power fees, travel expenses, conference fees, international cooperation and exchange fees, publishing/literature/information dissemination/intellectual property affairs fees, labor fees, expert consultation fees, management fees, etc. 1 1. Specific to different account types, the expenditure range will be focused, but it can basically correspond to this 1 1 expenditure account. On this basis, we should further grasp the connotation of each expenditure subject. For example, publishing/literature/information dissemination/intellectual property affairs fees refer to intellectual property affairs fees such as publishing fees, data fees, special software purchase fees, literature retrieval fees, professional exchange fees, patent applications, etc., and various expenses such as printing, photocopying, color expansion, photography, printing, sketching, plate making, book purchase and literature retrieval can be charged in this budget item; Expert consultation fee refers to the fee paid to the temporarily hired consulting experts in the process of project research and development, and the expert consultation fee shall not be paid to the staff involved in the project and its project and project management; Management fee refers to the subsidy for the use of existing equipment and houses, daily consumption of water, electricity, gas and heating, and other related management fees in the process of project research and development. Management fees are generally controlled by the total amount and managed by the project undertaker.
(two) combined with the needs of scientific research, follow the principle of "three combinations".
In the process of compiling the project budget, the principle of target correlation should be followed, and the compiled project budget must be related to the tasks and objectives of the project research; Follow the principle of policy consistency, and prepare the project budget in accordance with relevant policies and regulations; Follow the principle of economic rationality, the project budget should be economical and reasonable, and improve the efficiency of fund use without affecting the project objectives and tasks. For example, the material cost budget should be closely related to the project objectives, and should not include a large number of copy paper, folders, toner cartridges, office supplies, etc. , and to conform to the basic work logic. The calculation of material cost should be as detailed as possible, and all quantitative indicators such as quantity, unit price and standard should be listed; The calculation of fuel power cost should pay attention to distinguish between project experiment and office water, electricity and heating. Project funds generally do not support daily operating expenses, and the amount consumed should be considered related to the research task of the project. The calculation of unit price should meet the basic standards. The calculation of travel expenses and international cooperation and exchange expenses should consider the relevance of travel content, location and tasks, as well as the rationality of travel time, number of people and accommodation standards, and need to list specific tasks and standards; When calculating the cost of publishing/literature/information dissemination/intellectual property affairs, the purchase of a large number of professional materials, software, patent applications, published papers and monographs should consider the relevance to the task, the number should be reasonable, and the reasons should be fully demonstrated; When preparing the budget of conference expenses, the scale, quantity and duration of the conference should not be too long. Travel expenses for attending domestic conferences should be included in travel expenses, and travel expenses for attending international conferences should be included in international cooperation and exchange expenses. The calculation of expert consultation fee should consider the correlation between consulting experts and research tasks, and the number and frequency of experts should not be too much and the time should not be too long.
(3) Strengthen information collection and scientifically determine the control proportion of various expenditure items.
The development and application of financial software management and control function make the goal of dynamic management of scientific research funds come true. In order to cooperate with the management of project system, many units have established project expenditure information feedback system and overspending early warning system in project fund accounting. Through the local area network query, researchers can grasp the dynamic information of each project fund in the project budget implementation in time. Although the project budget has the functions of planning, control and performance evaluation, it is a digital plan to predict and summarize various unknown situations in the future, which cannot be completely accurate. Whether the budget implementation is smooth or not is also a yardstick for the scientific budgeting to a great extent. Through the continuous summary, analysis and revision of these budget execution information, we can provide scientific reference for determining the control ratio of each expenditure item when compiling the project budget in the future.
In addition, although there is no scientific and unified budget quota standard in the country in terms of project expenditure subjects and budget quota, the budget control provisions of some expenditure subjects in the management measures of special funds for related national science and technology projects can also provide a good idea for us to determine the control ratio of each expenditure item. For example, the national support plan stipulates that the management fee shall be approved in the special fund budget of the project according to the ratio of excess accumulation and phased retirement. The project capital budget of 6,543,800 yuan and below is approved by 8%, the part exceeding 6,543,800 yuan is approved by 5%, and the part exceeding 5 million yuan to 6,543,800 yuan is approved by 2%. For another example, the National Natural Science Foundation of China stipulates that the international cooperation and exchange funds for general projects shall not exceed 15% of the funds funded by the Natural Science Foundation, and the international cooperation and exchange funds for key projects and major projects shall not exceed 10% of the funds funded by the Natural Science Foundation. At present, the management of these scientific and technological projects has been relatively mature and standardized. It should be a good choice to draw lessons from and refer to the relevant control standards of expenditure management of these projects to prepare the budgets of other scientific research projects.
refer to
1 Yu Jin. How to strengthen the financial management of scientific research project funds in scientific research institutes. China Management Informatization, 2007, (2)
2. Ministry of Science and Technology. Guide to the preparation of project budget and subject budget of national science and technology plan in 2007