Contact your Grants Development Specialist in OSRP.

Yes. Your Grants Development Specialist in OSRP must review all proposal budgets before
applications are submitted to the appropriate agency, foundation or organization.

For up-to-date fringe benefit rates check the information provided on the OSRP webpage.

Tuition is based on the number of course credit hours a student is registered for
in a semester. A full-time graduate student must take a minimum of 9 hours of graduate
coursework. A chart is available with the current tuition and mandatory fee information.

Cost involved in conducting a sponsored project/research is categorized as direct
and indirect (currently known as Facilities and Administrative, F&A) costs. Direct
costs are defined as “those costs that can be identified specifically with a particular
sponsored project relatively easily with a high degree of accuracy.” F&A costs are
“those that are incurred for common or joint objectives” and are those costs that
would be too costly and burdensome to include as itemized budget categories on projects.
F&A costs are real expenses and should not be considered a tax or a windfall for the
university or college. “Facilities” is defined as depreciation and use allowances,
interest on debt associated with certain buildings, equipment and capital improvements,
operation and maintenance expenses, and library expenses. “Administrative” is defined
as general administration and general expenses (electricity and water), departmental
and college administration, sponsored administration, and all other types of expenditures
not listed specifically under one of the subcategories of Facilities. Therefore, F&A
cost are recovered as a percent of the direct costs of the project. The F&A cost rates
are determined through a long, detailed audit of space use in the University in conjunction
with auditors from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

If F&A costs are not recovered, then the project/research must either be reduced in
scope and size or paid for from another budget source; in other words, the project
must be subsidized. If the project is to be subsidized then another budget within
the University must be cut or revenue must be generated from some other sources. Think
of not recovering F&A cost in this way. If you submit a proposal without including
the portion of your salary necessary for you to conduct the project and the proposal
is funded, then your salary is not covered by the agency but is an expense to the
University. The funding agency or foundation gets the project subsidized by Southeastern
because Southeastern pays your salary while you conduct the sponsored project. The
same is true for F&A costs; when no F&A cost is recovered or when only a portion of
the F&A cost is recovered (referred to in this case as waived F&A), the University
has the choice to subsidize the project (cover the F&A cost). The funds to subsidize
the project, i.e., to cover cost incurred indirectly, have to come from some other
budget source.

In summary, F&A costs are real expenses. If they are not recovered from the sponsoring
agency, the scope of the project must be curtailed or funds must be supplied from
some other source to cover the F&A costs. For more information on direct and F&A (indirect)
costs see OMB Circular A-21.

The F&A rate at Southeastern is currently 38.6% of Modified Total Direct Costs.  The
Modified Total Direct Costs base excludes equipment, stipends, and contracts in excess
of $25,000.  For example, a $100,000 budget that includes $10,000 equipment and $15,000
student stipends would apply F&A to only $75,000 ($100,000 – $25,000).  Contact OSRP
for assistance in applying F&A.

Not all categories or items in a budget are eligible for F&A assessment. Some items
that are not F&A eligible costs include equipment and stipends/tuition. In the case
of subcontracts only the first $25,000 is subject to F&A costs. As noted in the above
question, Southeastern has approval to collect F&A on Modified Total Direct Costs.

Yes.  However, some agencies and foundations do not allow full F&A recovery and may
limit F&A recovery to a specific percentage of the allowable costs, or in some cases
they may not allow F&A recovery. Southeastern abides by the written policy of agencies
and foundations regarding F&A recovery.

Cost share refers to any budget item where 100% of the cost is not included in the
proposal application, e.g., personnel salaries, and some or all of the cost is shared
(supported) by the college or university. For example, if a PI indicates that 20%
of his/her time will be committed to a project but does not request salary support
from the sponsoring agency, then the college will provide (share) all 20% of the PI’s
salary for conducting the project. If a PI indicates that 20% of his/her time will
be committed to a project and requests 10% salary support from the sponsoring agency,
then the college will provide (share) the remaining 10% of the PI’s salary for conducting
the project. Cost share must be approved by the department head/supervisor, academic
dean/vice president, and the Provost. PI’s are urged to include salary for conducting
the project in proposals unless the agency, foundation, or company has a written policy
forbidding the inclusion of investigator salaries. 

Dollars supplied by the institution to match the dollars supplied by the sponsoring
agency are considered matching funds. Matching funds are required by some agencies
and foundations or for specific types of projects supported by an agency or foundation.
Each agency, foundation and program can have specific matching fund requirements.
For example, the matching fund requirement may be one institutional dollar for every
one agency dollar of support. In other cases there may be a requirement of one institutional
dollar for every two or three agency dollars of support. Matching dollars can be real
dollars that the institution has to provide or may be “in kind” dollars such as not
charging the agency for personnel salaries. Matching funds should not be included
in a proposal where the agency or foundation does not require a match commitment.

Generally speaking, contractual costs are for services rendered by a non-Southeastern
employee. For example, having samples analyzed at a laboratory external to Southeastern
would be a contractual cost. Other contractual costs would be repairs to equipment
or instruments, and purchasing software. Because contractual costs can be confusing,
it is best if PIs provide budgets and budget explanations to their Grants Development
Specialist well in advance of submission deadlines so the costs can be reviewed.

Contact your Grants Development Specialist in the OSRP.

Yes. This is critical to planning the workload and flow in the OSRP. The earlier a
PI notifies Sponsored Research that he/she will be submitting a proposal and the due
date, the better we can plan our efforts to assist the PI.

The PI is responsible for the body of the proposal application, i.e., proposed narrative
and other required components as determined by the soliciting agency. The OSRP will
complete all required form pages and boiler plate pages; however, the PI will be responsible
for supplying the information to complete these required pages. Budgets should be
proposed as early in the process as possible and submitted to OSRP for review.

The University does not have a grant writer. Periodically on-site training sessions
and workshops are planned for University faculty/staff to enhance proposal writing
skills.

OSRP always works to meet all deadlines even with late notification of a submission
or late receipt of the proposal to the OSRP office. It is imperative that the PI confirm
the deadline for submission is a “postmarked by date” or “received by date.” For submission
of hardcopy proposals (via USPS, UPS, or FedEx, not electronic submission), completed
proposal applications can be given proper care and attention if the proposal is in
the OSRP three working days prior to “postmarked by date” deadline and four working
days prior to “received by date” deadline. Proposals submitted to the OSRP with less
lead time than requested will be processed. However, there is less chance of detecting
and correcting errors when adequate time is not allowed. Refer to question below regarding
grants.gov submission to determine timeline for submission through OSRP.

Grants.gov is the worldwide website for submitting proposals in an electronic format to several
funding agencies. Southeastern OSRP requires that any proposal being submitted via
grants.gov be received by the OSRP a minimum of three working days prior to the agency submission
deadline.

Yes.  Although the University is registered, individual PIs must register in order
to have access to proposal submission through Workspace.

Yes. Please contact your Grants Development Specialist for agency specific guidance.

The Director of Sponsored Research and Programs is the authorized signatory for the
University.

All awards should be routed to the OSRP. The Director of OSRP reviews the contract
and will have University counsel review the contract for legal purposes, if necessary.
If changes are required, the PI will be contacted. Otherwise appropriate University
signatures will be obtained.

The University cannot assure confidentiality of an agreement between a faculty/staff
member and an agency, foundation, or business. Therefore, it is the responsibility
of the faculty/staff to sign a confidentiality agreement and the University to co-sign.
The Director of Sponsored Research and Programs signs the agreement on behalf of the
University. However, before signing a confidentiality agreement it is advisable to
allow the OSRP to review the agreement. Additionally, standard confidentiality agreements
are available online. A confidentiality agreement signed by appropriate parties must
be on file before work commences.

All proposal submissions must be processed through the OSRP. The PI may be allowed
to upload the application on the agency or foundation’s electronic site, but final
authorization of the submission occurs in the OSRP. Proposals to foundations that
are submitted directly to the foundation must be processed through OSRP, and it is
preferred that OSRP personnel also submit the proposal.

eRA commons is a program for tracking a proposal submitted to NIH and tracking any
action related to the proposal application package.

Agencies differ in how they inform a PI regarding the outcome of a proposal submission.
In some instances an “unofficial” phone call is made or an e-mail is received that
notifies the PI that an award is pending. In some of these cases additional paperwork
may be required before the project is officially awarded. In all cases, awards are
not official until the OSRP has received notification of award and funding.

Yes, the PI must complete the applicable paperwork for IACUC, IRB, hazardous materials,
and radioisotope usage (regulatory compliance issues) and have approval from applicable
committees before a proposal is officially awarded and work is allowed to commence.

The Workday department summary function at Southeastern allows PIs to track expenditures
and view budget item balances on a “real time” basis. For additional information,
contact your OSRP specialist.