TRAC Practitioners Conference 2024
The TRAC Practitioners Conference will be taking place on-line this year from 1pm Tuesday 24th – 1pm Wednesday 25th September.
As usual, the conference will include a mixture of plenary and breakout sessions and give delegates a thorough overview on the work of the TDG, their activities and of course the latest guidance on TRAC. An outline agenda can be found below, along with details on the breakout sessions.
The conference has been CPD certified and will provide 6 hours of CPD.
Price: Tickets cost £75 (plus VAT).
For any initial queries, please contact Rachel.
This year we will be hosting a ‘TRAC for Beginners’ session on Wednesday 18th September 10am-12.30pm as part of the conference. This is an optional session and will be particularly valuable for those attending the TRAC Practitioners Conference for the first time. The session will cover off the key principles and ways of working with TRAC in Higher Education and will be interactive, allowing discussion with the facilitator and other attendees (more details below). If you attend this session, a separate MS Teams invite will be sent nearer to the time by Gill Birch. Please add a placeholder in your diary in the interim. To book your place on the TRAC for Beginners session, please tick the appropriate box once you have clicked on the Book Now button (THE SESSION HAS NOW TAKEN PLACE BUT PLEASE SELECT 'YES' IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO RECEIVE THE RECORDING.).
Synopsis of pre-conference session (Wednesday 18th September 10am-12.30pm via MS Teams)
TRAC for Beginners
Catherine Jones and Ella Pangbourne from the TRAC Support Unit will walk through the basics of TRAC. This session is aimed at those who are new to TRAC. The session will cover a quick look at the TRAC return, what needs to be considered when planning how to meet the deadline, understanding the different data sets required in the TRAC model, an overview of the governance process and a look at Research Facilities and Research Technicians.
This session will be held prior to the conference to allow individuals time to become familiar with the terminology used in TRAC, in order to get more value from eth conference. It will be held over Teams on Wednesday 18 September.
TRAC Practitioners Conference 2024 - Programme
Day 1 | |
13:00 onwards | On-line registration and networking opportunities |
13:15 | Welcome by Conference chair – Jackie Labbe |
13:25 | Welcome by Conference organiser – Rachel Ward |
13:30 | Keynote speaker – Robert Van de Noort, Vice Chancellor of the University of Reading |
14:00 | Keynote Q&A |
14:10 | Updates from the review of TAS and WLP and technical review of MSI – Andrew Bush and Catherine Jones |
14:45 | Question and Answers |
15:00 | Break |
15:10 | Networking opportunities |
15:30 | Breakout sessions (see below for more details) |
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16:45 | Feedback from Breakout leads |
16:50 | Close |
Day 2 | |
09:00 onwards | On-line registration and networking opportunities |
09:20 | Welcome by Conference chair – Jackie Labbe |
09:30 | Update on TRAC guidance – Andrew Bush / Catherine Jones |
10:10 | Question and Answers |
10:20 | Break |
10:30 | Breakout sessions (see below for more details) |
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11:40 | Break |
11:50 | Feedback from Breakout Leads |
12:00 | TDG / RFG panel |
12:45 | Close |
Breakout Sessions
Tuesday 24th September 2024 (afternoon)
Session |
Overview of TRAC (Catherine Jones and Ella Pangbourne) Catherine and Ella from the TRAC Support Unit will walk through the basics of TRAC. This session will include a brief overview of the TRAC return, data used within the return and the governance required for TRAC, as well as looking at how information from the audited financial statements are used in the TRAC return. |
Presenting to your TRAC Oversight Group (Chris Key, Dan Greenfield and Paul Sloan) The TRAC Oversight Group forms an important part of the governance process for TRAC. Chris Key from the University of Warwick is joined by Dan Greenfield from the University of Cambridge and Paul Sloan from Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) to discuss good practice around presenting to your various TRAC workings and outputs to the TRAC Oversight Group. The session will include: suggestions as to how to present large complex data sets for discussion in a time limited manner; a demonstration of how Tableau can be used to present information at meetings; and how Power BI can be used to disseminate information to colleagues. |
TRAC Compliance through the lens of UKRI (Andrew Dicken) Andrew Dicken, Deputy Head of Funding Assurance from UKRI will share with us common areas of non-compliance his team have found as part of their Financial Assurance Programme visits. He will also cover how to evidence compliance with the guidance and the consequences for non-compliance. |
Research Facilities (Andrew Bush) Andrew Bush from the TRAC Support Unit is keen to understand how the issues experienced by TRAC Practitioners in completing the costing information for Research Facilities. He is also keen to hear your suggestions as to how the process can be made simpler and easier to understand for all concerned. Please come along and explain your issues and how you think they can be resolved. |
Wednesday 25th September 2024 (morning)
Session |
How to use TRAC in your institution (George Opoku-Gyimah) George Opoku-Gyimah from Kings College London will share how his institution uses TRAC for a number of purposes beyond submission of the TRAC return. The session will focus on overhead recovery on non-core activities and using TRAC at faculty level to provide insights into the contribution from different activities.
TRAC Compliance through the lens of UKRI (Andrew Dicken) Andrew Dicken, Deputy Head of Funding Assurance from UKRI will share with us common areas of non-compliance his team have found as part of their Financial Assurance Programme visits. He will also cover how to evidence compliance with the guidance and the consequences for non-compliance. |
Sharing TRAC information with non-financial colleagues (Claire Angell, Graham Willard and Karl Dayson) Graham Willard from UCL and Claire Angell from Teesside University will discuss their experiences of sharing TRAC information with colleagues who don’t have a financial background. This will provide tips and advice to enable colleagues to better communicate certain complex issues relating to TRAC. |
Understanding and avoiding common pitfalls of TRAC (Catherine Jones) Using examples from the TRAC Helpdesk, Catherine Jones from the TRAC Support Unit will outline common mistakes made in compiling TRAC. The session aims to give delegates examples of where things might go wrong, to enable similar mistakes to be avoided. It will include issues relating to: collecting the data required for TRAC; compiling the TRAC return; and ensuring the all the relevant information is submitted. It will also outline issues discovered post submission. |
This event will be worth 6 CPD hours / points
Tagged : Management Accounting, TRAC, bufdghomeevent
Type : Conference
Please contact info@bufdg.ac.uk for more information
