1. Difficulties in compiling the budget for scientific research projects
(1) Professional limitations of compilers
Although researchers are experts in their scientific research fields, they are often unable to cope with the financial problems that must be encountered in the management of research projects, especially the management of hundreds of thousands or millions of large funds. Because of the different fields studied by each project, 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, so it is often very difficult for non-financial personnel in scientific research units to prepare accurate and feasible project budget. Although the department in charge of funds generally requires the project reporting unit to have financial personnel to participate in the project budget preparation, it is difficult to operate in practice. The lack of understanding of the seriousness and importance of the project leader's budget, the lack of understanding of the financial personnel's professional knowledge in the scientific research field, and the incomplete first-hand information when preparing the budget will all lead to the lack of scientificity in the project budget preparation.
(2) 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 scientific and technological development are exploratory and uncertain, which determines that their workload and expenses are also uncertain and cannot be fully 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 types of scientific and technological activities, the uncertainty and unpredictability of funds for different types of scientific research topics are also different. General basic research and applied research have the greatest uncertainty, 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 least.
(III) Differences in funding supply of project applicants
Because scientific research projects are supported by different reporting units, under the current national conditions, there are differences in 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 funds supply of self-supporting and differential budget units is relatively tight, while the funds supply of fully 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 great difference between the budget expenditure of scientific research personnel and the actual situation. Scientific and technical personnel in units with sufficient financial expenses can not only greatly improve their treatment, but also use the main funds for scientific research to ensure the smooth completion of scientific research projects. Units with insufficient supply of financial expenses may use research funds to offset wages, which may 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 expenses, and there will be many topics to be won, especially for research groups with many large topics, and the surplus funds will usually be abundant, which may greatly improve the treatment of scientific and technological personnel. However, those research groups that strive for fewer topics, especially fewer big topics, usually lack surplus funds, and it is difficult to improve the treatment of scientific and technological personnel. It can be seen that the difference in the supply of funds for the subject application increases the difficulty of budgeting the subject funds.
second, the problems existing in the budget preparation of scientific research project funds
(1) the budget preparation structure is unreasonable
In the budget preparation, it is better to report more than enough, and it is better to buy everything by yourself than to seek cooperation. It is not clear how to allocate and control the budget of each expenditure subject in the budget reasonably, which eventually leads to the surplus or shortage of funds in the implementation of the project, thus affecting the realization of the goals of scientific research projects. The unreasonable budget structure of project funds will lead to the reduction of the budget with a high proportion when the expert group reviews, but 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, but also will 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 equipment belong to general equipment, which should be the basic condition for the project applicant to carry out scientific research. The research project funds should be arranged as much as possible to purchase special equipment, and it is difficult for general equipment to get full support from the research project funds. Another example is the expenses that will definitely occur in the research process, such as travel expenses and labor expenses. The budget should be prepared realistically, and the proportion should not be too low.
(II) The basis of calculation is too general
When compiling the expenditure budget of scientific research projects, the main purposes and calculation reasons of each expenditure should be explained in detail. However, in the actual operation process, most researchers pay insufficient attention to the written description of the calculation basis, and the description is too simple. Some even think that the vaguer the calculation basis, the better, and the consequences caused by this psychology of fish in troubled waters are often 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 whose funding support amount is uncertain and the reasons are sufficient and reasonable, whether the budget is scientific and the calculation basis is sufficient and detailed plays a vital role in the amount of funding support that can be obtained in the end. In practical work, some researchers wonder why some researchers can give 1 million for their budget of 1 million, and their own budget of 5 thousand has to be slashed. Perhaps the answer can be found here.
(3) Blind commitment of matching funds
For the 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 factors such as financial resources and policy orientation, 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 inspection and acceptance of such scientific research projects. Some units blindly promise matching funds in order to strive for funds, regardless of their own economic affordability. In fact, unreasonable arrangement of matching funds will not only help the application for funds, but also bring a series of operational and management troubles. Exceeding one's own ability and blindly committing to supporting the project will not only affect the inspection and acceptance of the project, but also leave a bad record for the scientific integrity of the unit and affect the fight for funds for other scientific research projects in the future.
3. Countermeasures for scientifically compiling the budget of scientific research project funds
(1) Understanding the expenditure scope of research project funds and grasping the connotation of expenditure subjects
Research project funds refer to the direct related expenses used for research and development activities in special research funds and self-raised funds. The expenditure scope of project funds generally includes 11 items, such as equipment expenses, materials expenses, testing and processing expenses, fuel and power expenses, travel expenses, conference expenses, international cooperation and exchange expenses, publishing/literature/information dissemination/intellectual property affairs expenses, labor expenses, expert consultation expenses and management fees. Specific to different subject types, the scope of expenditure will be focused, but it can basically correspond to these 11 expenditure subjects. On this basis, we should further grasp the connotation of each expenditure subject. For example, publication/literature/information dissemination/intellectual property affairs expenses refer to the expenses such as publication expenses, data expenses, special software purchase expenses, literature retrieval expenses, professional communication expenses, patent application and other intellectual property affairs that need to be paid during the research and development of the subject, 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 during the research and development of the project, 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 the existing equipment and houses, daily consumption of water, electricity, gas and heating, and other related management fees in the process of research and development of the project. The management fee is generally controlled by the total amount and managed and used by the project undertaker.
(2) According to the needs of scientific research, follow the principle of "three natures"
In the process of compiling the project budget, the principle of target relevance should be followed, and the prepared project budget must be related to the task objectives of the project research; Follow the principle of policy conformity, and the prepared project budget should comply with relevant policies and regulations; Following the principle of economic rationality, the budget of the project should be economical and reasonable, and the efficiency of the use of funds should be improved without affecting the objectives and tasks of the project. 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 should conform to the basic work logic. The calculation of material costs should be as detailed as possible, and the quantitative indicators such as quantity, unit price and standard should be listed in full; The calculation of fuel power cost should pay attention to the distinction between project experiment and office water, electricity and heating. The project funds generally do not support the daily operating expenses, and the quantity consumed should be considered to be 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 the content, place and task of the business trip, 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, the publication of papers and monographs should consider the relevance to the task, and the number should be reasonable and the reasons should be fully demonstrated; When preparing the budget for conference expenses, the scale, quantity and duration of the conference should not be too long. The travel expenses for attending domestic conferences should be included in the travel expenses, and the travel expenses for attending international conferences should be included in the 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 collation, and scientifically determine the control ratio of each expenditure item
The development and application of financial software management and control functions make it possible to realize the dynamic management goal of scientific research expenditure. In order to cooperate with the management of the project system, many units have established a project expenditure information feedback system and an overspending early warning system in the project fund accounting. Through local area network query, researchers can grasp the dynamic information of each subject 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 all kinds of unknown conditions in the future, which cannot be completely accurate. Whether the budget is implemented smoothly is also a yardstick for the scientific budgeting to a great extent. Through the continuous summary, analysis and revision of these budget execution information, it can provide a scientific reference for us to determine 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 control regulations on the budget of some expenditure subjects in the management methods of special funds for related national science and technology plans can also provide us with a good idea when determining the control ratio of each expenditure item. For example, the national support plan stipulates that the management fee shall be approved according to the proportion of excess and retrogression in the budget of special funds for the project. The part with the budget of 1 million yuan or less shall be approved by 8%, the part with the budget exceeding 1 million yuan to 5 million yuan shall be approved by 5%, the part with the budget exceeding 5 million yuan to 1 million yuan shall be approved by 2%, and the part with the budget exceeding 1 million yuan shall be approved by 1%. For another example, the National Natural Science Foundation stipulates that the funds for international cooperation and exchange of general projects shall not exceed 15% of the funds funded by the Natural Science Foundation, and the funds for international cooperation and exchange of key projects and major projects shall not exceed 1% of the funds funded by the Natural Science Foundation. At present, the management of these science and technology projects is 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 budget for other scientific research projects.
reference
1 in Tianjin. On how to strengthen the financial management of scientific research project funds in scientific research institutes. China Management Informatization, 27,(2)
2 Ministry of Science and Technology. Guide to the compilation of project budget and project budget of national science and technology plan, 27.