Innovate UK timesheet requirements
What Innovate UK's grant terms ask a time record to show, how it feeds the quarterly claim and how long to keep it, taken from Innovate UK's own terms and written for research offices with staff on Innovate UK projects.
Checked against Innovate UK's grant terms (October 2025) and its costs guidance (updated May and August 2026) ยท October 2026
The short answer
Every labour cost claimed on an Innovate UK grant must be backed by a time record that shows, for each day, the date and hours worked, a brief description of the work and its work packages, who did it and their actual rate of labour. The records must be kept up as the work happens, held for 10 years after you receive the grant, and produced within 20 days if Innovate UK asks.
That is stricter than a UKRI research council grant, which asks for monthly totals, and it applies to everyone whose time is claimed, not only staff split across activities.
What the grant terms say
Clause 9.6: "You are required to have a time recording arrangement which allows you to accurately record time charged to Innovate UK projects which can be submitted with the claims in line with the project costs guidance. All labour claims must be supported by a time recording arrangement which includes:"
- The date and number of hours worked per day (9.6.1)
- A brief description of the work completed and associated work packages (9.6.2)
- The name of the staff member completing the task (9.6.3)
- Actual rate of labour (9.6.4)
Clause 9.7 adds that the system "should clearly show when, who and what has been carried out by employees", enough to support timely and accurate claims and to show the costs comply with the Subsidy Control Act 2022. Clause 9.15 makes you responsible for "contemporaneous and detailed records", naming timesheets, invoices and pay records.
Universities as partners
Innovate UK funds an academic partner at 80% of its full economic cost, worked out with TRAC as the research councils define it. The costing differs from a business partner's, but the grant terms apply to every organisation Innovate UK funds, singly or in a collaboration (clauses 1.4 and 1.5), and the time recording clause makes no exception for academic partners.
Your grant offer letter can add specific conditions to the terms (clause 1.6). Read it for anything about time recording, and agree with your research office how the daily records will be kept before the project starts.
Compared with UKRI research council grants
| UKRI research councils (RGC 4.6) | Innovate UK (clause 9) | |
|---|---|---|
| Who needs a record | Directly incurred and exceptions staff who work across more than one activity | Everyone whose labour is claimed |
| How detailed | All hours, totalled at least monthly | Date and hours worked for each day |
| Description of the work | Not listed | A brief description, with its work packages |
| Rate of pay | Not listed | The actual rate of labour |
| Sign-off | Completed and approved within two months of the period's end | Kept contemporaneously; the costs guidance asks for authorisation by the project manager |
| How long to keep | The current financial year plus six years after the final expenditure statement | 10 years after you receive the grant |
"Not listed" means the rule doesn't ask for it. Someone working on both kinds of grant needs records that meet both, so for that person the daily Innovate UK detail becomes the baseline.
Claims run on a quarter
Innovate UK pays in arrears, usually quarterly, on a claim for costs incurred and paid in the quarter (clause 9.3). The claim must be submitted, or completed as a draft, within 30 days of the quarter's end, and Innovate UK doesn't have to pay one that arrives later (clause 9.11). The time records for the quarter therefore need to be complete and authorised within a few weeks of its end, not two months.
The costs guidance says labour claims must be for actual costs, supported by "timesheets, project records or both" for each person who worked on the project, and "authorised by the project manager".
Audits and requests for evidence
- Records must be supplied within 20 days of a request for evidence of compliance (clause 9.8)
- An auditor appointed by Innovate UK must have access to your project records within 2 weeks' notice (clause 9.17)
- Innovate UK can ask for any further information it needs for assurance and due diligence, to be provided within 20 working days (clause 20.1)
- UKRI may visit without notice during an investigation, and may ask for physical and original documents (clauses 15.3.1 to 15.3.4)
Innovate UK won't pay for costs already funded by Innovate UK or anyone else (clause 9.18), so time records for a person on several grants must not claim the same hours twice.
How long to keep them
Clause 9.8: the records "must be kept for 10 years following your receipt of the grant". The period counts from when the grant money arrives, so the first records of a project are kept for longer than 10 years after the work. If a timesheet also covers a UKRI or Horizon Europe grant, keep it until the longest of their periods has run out.
A checklist for research offices
- List everyone whose time will be claimed on each Innovate UK project, not only those split across activities
- Have them record the date and hours for each day they work on the project, with a brief description and the work package
- Record the actual rate of labour for each person alongside their time
- Keep records as the work happens, not reconstructed at claim time
- Have the project manager authorise them in time for the claim, within 30 days of the quarter's end
- Check no hours are claimed on two grants
- Read the grant offer letter for any specific conditions on time recording
- Keep the records for 10 years after receipt of the grant, and be able to produce them within 20 days
How UniTimesheet fits
Honestly, only in part. UniTimesheet is built for monthly research council and Horizon Europe timesheets, and it doesn't produce the daily records Innovate UK's terms ask for:
- It records hours per project by week, not by day, so it doesn't meet clause 9.6.1
- It takes one description per project per month, without work packages
- It doesn't record a rate of labour, so that comes from your payroll records
What it does cover for the same staff: their monthly timesheets for UKRI and Horizon Europe grants, signed and dated by the person and the principal investigator, and approved PDFs kept for a retention period you set, counted from the timesheet's month and up to 30 years: set it to the project's length plus Innovate UK's 10 years. If your Innovate UK projects need their own timesheet layout, tell us what your research office uses and we'll say plainly whether UniTimesheet can produce it.
Sources
This guide summarises Innovate UK's published terms and guidance. It is not legal or audit advice: your grant offer letter and your research office have the final word.
- Terms and Conditions of an Innovate UK Grant Award, October 2025: clauses 1.4 to 1.6 (page 1), 9.3 (page 6), 9.6 (pages 6 and 7), 9.7, 9.8 and 9.11 (page 7), 9.15, 9.17 and 9.18 (page 8), 15.3 (pages 12 and 13), 20.1 (page 13)
- Innovate UK costs guidance for academics, updated 13 May 2026
- Innovate UK costs guidance for non-academic organisations: labour costs, updated 28 August 2026
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