Lancaster University Consultancy Service

Lancaster University Consultancy Service

About Lancaster University Consultancy

Consultancy is important for developing relationships with industry and achieving early impact from research. It can also lead to opportunities for longer term research collaboration.

The University encourages and supports consultancy which contributes to its aims of fostering enterprise and innovation and increasing external engagement with business and the wider community.

To ensure practical support is available, Lancaster University Consultancy provides advice and guidance and supports pricing, negotiating, contracting and invoicing, enabling you to focus on the delivery of the work. Indemnity insurance is also provided, ensuring that both you and the University are protected.

Useful Documents

A list of documents which may be useful to you during the consultancy process may be found here.

LUCS is a not-for-profit wholly owned subsidiary of Lancaster University. LUCS was created in 2009 to protect all staff in the University when they undertake private consultancy and wish to benefit from insurance cover at the same level as the University provides to staff undertaking university duties.

LUCS provides a service to all members of staff at the University to assist them if they have chosen to channel any private consultancy (see definition immediately below) they propose to undertake through LUCS. The principal aim of LUCS’ assistance is to help staff at the University in facilitating private consultancy contracts in their area of expertise to clients across the globe. Such assistance will at all times be consistent with the University policy on outside professional activities (Ref PS/98/791) and its financial regulations (Nov 2009). The financial regulations are detailed further in the Appendices Document.

Most consultancy is recognised as ‘Individual Consultancy’, an opportunity initiated between a member of staff and an outside organisation that does not make a significant call on University resources. It is normally delivered outside of workload, so does not affect the delivery of teaching, research or other key role-related duties. In most cases the University provides the service without a charge for these opportunities. However, the cost of any University resources used must be recovered before final payments are made.

The University provides the service to encourage consultancy as one of the primary ways of engaging with external organisations, ensuring knowledge exchange and creating impact from research. There can be many indirect benefits as networks are extended and longer-term relationships formed, sometimes leading on to student placement opportunities, or collaborative research applications and more. The contemporary experience gained from consultancy can also feed into teaching, benefitting students and even inform new, relevant research ideas.

Consultancy requires the approval of a Head of Department, a Director or other authorised approver. This provides a check around any potential conflicts of interest, or over-commitment. A simple online ‘application and approval’ form is provided to capture all the details needed to set up and contract for the opportunity, and to gain consent of the relevant approver.

Staff may choose to deliver consultancy outside of the University and without support, however approval is still required under the HR policy ‘Rules Governing Outside Professional Activities’. A separate form for this can be found here. We aim to make the Consultancy Service as effective as possible, so if it does not currently meet your needs, please do get in touch and let us know why. We will endeavour to take all feedback into account as we develop the service further.

The process for setting up a consultancy project has been streamlined to enable a fast, efficient response that will meet business expectations in terms of turnaround. The basic steps are:

  • First contact consultancy@lancaster.ac.uk to discuss your opportunity and seek advice or clarify pricing
  • When ready to proceed complete the application and approval form which can be found here: Consultancy Application Form
  • An approval request is generated by submission of the form and sent to your approver, with a copy sent to the Consultancy Team
  • The Consultancy Team will then contact you to finalise details and propose an agreement with the client
  • Once an agreement is in place, the Consultancy Team will arrange for a project code to be set up against which any costs or travel can be booked
  • You are responsible for the delivery of the project for the client, and informing the Consultancy Team of any milestones, delays and completion
  • The Consultancy Team will then arrange for invoicing, followed by payment or transfer of the funds to you or the department as indicated in your application form

Payment for individual consultancy can be made to salary (subject to all tax and NI deductions), or to personal research accounts where these are available to you (spending from these is subject to normal University spending rules). You may even choose to arrange a voluntary additional pension contribution to coincide with your payment. This can be a very tax-efficient way to receive the income. Some staff also opt to make a percentage donation to their department. A preferred split between these choices can be indicated on the application form.

The Consultancy Service can also support ‘University Consultancy’: For a number of roles across the University, it is part of the core role description to deliver consultancy and related income-generating opportunities for the University. In such cases the work is considered to be part of normal workload, and the income is returned to the relevant department with estates and indirect costs accounted for in the appropriate way. If there is any doubt surrounding the status of a consultancy opportunity, it is the approver who confirms the designation. Please ensure all ‘University Consultancy’ is marked as such on the application form.

Business Development or Partnership Engagement Managers in your Faculty can also provide advice and guidance to support the development of consultancy opportunities. In many cases these colleagues can support opportunities up to agreement of contract and ensure the opportunity is registered with the Consultancy Service for set up and invoicing. Guidance for Business Development Managers can be found here.

Reasons for using LUCS

Below are some of the reasons you may wish to use LUCS when you carry out a private consultancy project:

  • Availability of the University’s liability and indemnity insurance
  • University assistance in costing and pricing a consultancy project
  • Provision of LUCS’ template consultancy contract
  • Use of university facilities and resources
  • LUCS will invoice the client
  • Payment to staff (on receipt of full funds from the client)

Should you choose not to use LUCS when you carry out a private consultancy project and proceed with a consultancy project, this will become a wholly private consultancy project and you will need to be aware of the following:

  • The University’s liability and indemnity insurance will not be available to you. You may need to purchase liability and indemnity insurance.
  • The University will not provide assistance when costing and pricing a wholly private consultancy project.
  • Use of university facilities and resources will not be permitted.
  • LUCS will not provide assistance with contract negotiation and invoicing the client.

Getting Started

If you have any questions or wish to discuss a potential project, drop us an email at: consultancy@lancaster.ac.uk

If you’re an academic, or member of Lancaster’s professional services staff, and are ready to proceed with a project, complete and submit a proposal form (requires a lancaster.ac.uk email address)

Consultancy Proposal Form