Workplace Policy
Pure Business Project
Project Overview - Understanding the Issues
Appendix 2 - Funding Approval for Budget
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Extract from accepted application to the Ministry for Science, Research, and Technology
The budget sought is $650,000 total over 3 years. Approximate costs are:
Phase One: developmental phase
$30,000 - Literature searches and meta-analysis of literature for development of methodology (not undertaken by agencies alone). Spent over first 6 months of the project.
$60,000 - Development of methodology - 2 one day workshops, contractor/academic time and input to workshops, transport, accommodation etc. These are "all up" meetings, more in the nature of seminars. One to develop commitment, understanding of the project and allocation of responsibility for methodology development, establish a working and steering group. The second to follow up on development and confirm direction following work by the working and steering groups. These meetings would be between 4 and 6 months apart.
$30,000 - Formation of research team(s), involving government agencies and contractors and academics. 5 one day meetings over three months. Discussion of literature reviews for development of methodology (quantitative and qualitative techniques for measuring change in SMEs and amongst regulators), identifying the regulatory issues that are likely to be at issue, and preliminary frameworks for analysis. These would involve the researchers that would be undertaking the research, on occasion steering group advisers and contractor/academic input. The number of researchers will ultimately depend on agencies involved and the contractors/academics used. Agencies will be asked to provide a policy analyst/researcher and an operational staff member involved in regulation to undertake research activities - between 8 and 12 researchers from agencies. Numbers of Contractors/academics will vary over the course of the project, but at this time most would be involved and would likely number 5 (case-study methods, SME research, business performance analysis, economic and social measures of outcomes in compliance). Accommodation, travel, etc.
$3,000 - Workshop to establish criteria for selection of cases and establishing means of identifying cases. This would involve the full research team for ½ to 1 day. Accommodation, travel etc.
$4,000 - Establishment of 3 or 4 pilot studies. This process will involve selection of pilot cases (diversity of location, industry, size etc), agreement of the pilots to be involved, accessing administrative data for the pilots, final development of methods (interview sheets, observation sheets, statistical measures). It will involve the researchers involved in the pilots and others from time to time. Accommodation, travel etc.
The elements of this phase will, apart from 4. and 5., be conducted over the same period, with a completion date of 9-12 months from the inception of the project.
Total Phase One $127,000
Phase Two: Implementation of research
There are two parts to this, firstly the conduct of the pilots, and then rolling out the methodology to the other cases. It will take place over two or three periods, with the first period establishing "baseline" observations of the SMEs and agency's behaviour and performance and the next one or two periods assessing changes to both groups following adjustments to the application of regulation to the SMEs.
$60,000 - Conducting pilots will require two researchers per case, and additional contractor/academic support across cases. They will be located in different regions and would require, probably, a week of observation and data analysis per case, with a workshop of 2 days with all researchers and contractors/academics to establish whether the methodology is effective and make necessary adjustments. Accommodation, transport, payments for lost time or other costs imposed on SMEs (hourly rate). Note - the pilot phase will need to repeated for the second part of this phase, where changes to regulatory practice will be assessed, as the methodology may need to be adjusted. The pilots will take 3 months to complete, with the workshop and preliminary analysis of data.
$343,000 - Conducting full field research. The number of cases would likely be between 15 and 25. The number will depend on the resources available, the intensity of the method required (not able to be determined at this time), the criteria for selection (to ensure representative diversity) and the time available. 2 or 3 2-day long workshops to analysis data will be required, one following each of the parts of these phase. Each case will require the same types of input as the pilots, though refinements from the pilots will mean they are less intensive. This part of the research will require between 12 and 18 months to complete.
Total Phase Two $403,000
Phase Three: analytical and dissemination phase
$30,000 - On completion of the field work there will need to be a comprehensive 2 or 3 day seminar to consider the full range of data that has been assembled, the understandings that have been developed and test this with a range of stakeholders. The likely groups are -employer representatives, union representatives from the industries examined, academics with a particular interest, policy managers and operational managers involved at the margins of the project. Travel, accommodation etc.
$70,000 - Following this workshop the final analysis and report writing will occur. Built into this process will be joint and separate consideration by agencies of the applications of this work to their operational and policy activities. There may be particular guides, computer programmes or other products that will be generated that will need to be co-ordinated across the project. Printing costs or other production costs will be a part of this process. There may be meeting costs, depending on the nature of the report and product teams. This phase will take the remainder of the project; 6-12 months.
$20,000 - Peer review and consultation with experts over life of project (who are not directly involved in the research).
Total Phase Three $120,000