Preserve & Conclude
Once your research project is finished, a few things usually need to be done to fully conclude the work and meet the funder’s requirements, such as final reporting and perhaps a project audit. In particular, be mindful of the documentation that you need to store long term for legal reasons.
Archive and delete research and administrative records
Two types of records are associated with research projects: research records, including data, and administrative records. The length of time that records are retained varies according to a number of factors, such as the type of record, the type of research, and the requirements of the funder.
As the principal investigator, you are usually responsible for retaining research records and data. To ensure access to the records even in the event that you leave the university, the records should also be stored by your institute or faculty. The institute or faculty with which you are associated should, in any case, store the administrative records.
What to do?
- Do not discard or destroy any research or administrative records without identifying the appropriate retention period.
- Consult the applicable resources, including those both of the funder and of UniBE.
- Establish a record retention schedule for all records associated with a particular research project, and discard or destroy records at the time and by the method prescribed.
Services and advice
Your first point of contact for questions about the retention of research and administrative documents is your institute or faculty. If needed, the Data Protection Office can be consulted.
Considerations and regulations
UniBE has regulations on the retention of research and administrative documents (German only). Please also check whether your faculty has a specific policy. Often, the retention of records is regulated in your grant agreement. Where the funder's requirements and any other applicable requirements differ, the longest retention time applies.
In research involving humans, research subject identifiers are usually considered to be research data and therefore must be retained for the full retention period. Consent forms should not promise to destroy identifiers or links between identifiers and research data before the end of the retention period.
If you intend to submit a patent application, dated documentation such as lab notebooks might be needed to assess who is the inventor or the owner of intellectual property rights to avoid conflicts.
Conclude and follow up
At the end of your research project, you may still have a few things left to do. This depends, for example, on whether you received external funding and on the type of research you conducted.
If your research was financed through a grant, you may have to submit final project reports, including financial reports. Normally, funders have the right to perform project reviews and audits, including on financial issues, a given number of years after the end of the funding.
If your employment at the University of Bern ends with the end of the grant, you may be able to transfer equipment or a part of any remaining funds to your new institution, subject to the necessary approvals. If you are responsible for a third-party (Drittkredit) UniBE account that cannot yet be closed, you will need to transfer the responsibility to another senior person in the institute and inform them of any pending issues.
In any case, check whether any other tasks remain to finish your project, such as staff management, sending interview partners your publication, disposing of material, or returning equipment.
Services and advice
The Grants Office can advise you on your reporting obligations to the major public funding agencies.
If your funder requires an audit of your financial reports, the auditor for external grants of the University is T&R AG, Gümligen. Audits for US federal grants, for Horizon 2020 grants, and for Horizon Europe grants funded by the EU are organized centrally by the Grants Office.
If you are leaving the University of Bern, please check the Human Resources Office's pages (in German; Uni intern) for guidance on the steps to take.
For all other questions on finishing, your supervisor, your institute, or your faculty should be able to help you.
Problem solving
Während Ihres Projekts müssen Sie möglicherweise verschiedene Probleme lösen: in Bezug auf Ihr Budget, Ihr Team, vertragliche Fragen, Fragen der Einhaltung von Vorschriften usw. Bei drittmittelfinanzierten Projekten müssen einige Probleme möglicherweise direkt mit dem Drittmittelgeber geklärt werden. Wenn Sie sich unsicher sind, wenden Sie sich bitte an das Grants Office. Für alle anderen Projekte wenden Sie sich bitte an das Research Management Office.
