Research

Contact your department head and/or your Grants Development Specialist in the OSRP.

Yes. Your Grants Development Specialist in OSRP must review all research 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 web page.

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 costs. To ensure that ample tuition funds are available from a grant or contract from year to year, a 5% increase is added to the tuition category of the budget to cover potential tuition increases of multi-year grant or contract applications.

Cost involved in conducting 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 research projects. F&A costs are real expenses and should not be considered a tax on research 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 research. 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 research must either be reduced in scope and size or paid for from another budget source, in other words, the research must be subsidized. If research is to be subsidized then another budget within the college or unit 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 research and the proposal is funded, then your salary is not covered by the award but is an expense to the state. The funding agency or foundation gets the grant subsidized by Southeastern because Southeastern pays your salary while you conduct the research. 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 or college has the choice to subsidize the research (cover the F&A cost). The funds to subsidize the research, i.e., to cover cost incurred indirectly, had 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 research 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 44% of salaries and wages. For example, a research project that has $100,000 of F&A eligible cost would generate F&A in the amount of $44,000. The total direct cost of the salaries and wages in the proposal would be $100,000. The total cost of the project would be salary and wages ($100,000) plus any other budgeted costs plus the F&A ($44,000).

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

Yes. However, some agencies and foundations do not allow for full F&A recovery and may limit F&A recovery to a specific percentage of the allowable research costs or in some cases the foundation will allow no F&A recovery. Southeastern abides by the written policy of agencies and foundations regarding F&A recovery. In cases where the agency or foundation does not have a policy regarding F&A costs but does not agree to allow for full F&A recovery, the Dean for Research and Graduate Studies should negotiate, on behalf of Southeastern, with a representative of the agency or foundation what the particular F&A rate (recovery) will be.

The University has a policy of distributing F&A in the following manner: one-third to the President’s Office, one-third to the academic dean of the college of the faculty PI, and one-third is split with the Provost Office and the Office of Research. It is up to the academic dean to determine how F&A recovered by the college will be distributed.

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 research. 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 research. Cost share must be approved by an academic dean and the department head. PI’s are urged to include salary for conducting research 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 will 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 may have to place in a research account for support of the research 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. Depending on the nature of the matching funds, an academic dean and/or the appropriate department head may be involved. In some cases cost-sharing may be considered matching funds.

Generally speaking, contractual costs are for services rendered. 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. Although per diem charges for animal housing and care are for services rendered, these charges are considered as a commodity and notcontractual cost. 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 staff in Sponsored Research that he/she will be submitting a proposal and the due date, the better we can plan our efforts for the PI. Priority is given to proposals where the PI has alerted the OSRP staff in advance of the submission; other proposals will be worked in as possible.

The PI is responsible for the body of the proposal application, i.e., proposed research 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.If necessary the OSRP will have the proposal reviewed externally prior to submission to a sponsoring agency.

Periodically on-site training sessions and workshops are planned for University faculty to enhance proposal writing skills. In addition, funding is available to send faculty to off-campus grant writing workshops.

OSRP always works to meet all deadlines even when we get late notification of a submission or late submission of the proposal to the office. It is imperative that the PI make sure if 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 NIH. This is a relative new system. 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.

No, the University is registered. Individual PIs do not have to register.

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

A Routing Approval Sheet is the Southeastern form for proposal submissions that is routed with the proposal to OSRP. The RAS includes specifics regarding the proposal, e.g., title, agency, investigators, due date, total direct, and total budget amounts, and should be completed by the investigator. In addition, the RAS contains the signature of investigators, department heads/directors, and deans/associate deans and special instructions such as distribution of F&A.

All proposals are official when an RAS has been signed by the Director of Sponsored Research and Programs. The proposal application is now ready for submission.

Contractual agreements for research (except those included in typical competitive grants) must be signed by a university level authority, i.e., Director of Sponsored Research and Programs.

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 member and an agency, foundation, or business. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the faculty member 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 foundations electronic site and click on a submit button (in the case of NSF or NIH) 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. In all cases a RAS must accompany all proposal submissions.

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

If you plan on submitting a proposal to NIH you must register in the eRA commons. To register, contact OSRP by e-mail and provide your full name, social security number, birth date, e-mail address, and prior NIH support with account number (if you’ve had NIH support). Once OSRP has sent your information to NIH, you will be prompted to complete the registration process through e-mail instructions.

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. Additionally, in any event the PI should inform the OSRP as to the outcome of the submitted proposal.

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 PeopleSoft Financials module at Southeastern allows PIs to track expenditures and view budget item balances on a “real time” basis. All PIs are required to complete the mandatory PeopleSoft Financial training and assessment to receive access to this information.