Grant Regulations

When to Contact the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs

An investigator must contact the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs prior to submitting any application for external funding or contract in which any of the following items are true:
  1. the funds will be received and monitored through NEOUCOM; and/or
  2. any portion of the work will be performed at NEOUCOM; and/or
  3. any NEOUCOM personnel or students will be involved in the project.

NEOUCOM Proposal Routing Procedure

  1. Contact the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP) at NEOUCOM 330-325-6499 or das@neoucom.edu.  Provide the name of the funding agency and the submittal deadline.  Also please provide a copy of the RFA/RFP that you are responding to or the url for the appropriate website. 
  2. If you require assistance while preparing the budget for your proposal, contact the ORSP at NEOUCOM (330-325-6497 or ddubinski@neoucom.edu).  Please use current annual salaries which have been verified by human resources when calculating salaries on the budget.  An Excel spreadsheet has been developed to assist in creation of budgets.  This spread sheet is available on the FORMS page on the ORSP website. 
  3. A Grant Workflow Program has been developed by NEOUCOM's IT Department in order to route all grant proposals electronically.  You will need to complete the NEOUCOM Proposal Rounting Form (located on the FORMS page of the ORSP website) and send the original, signed form to the ORSP at NEOUCOM (Room G-235).  You will also need to send a copy of your proposal electronically in eith MS Word or PDF format to the ORSP to das@neoucom.edu.  The proposal will be sent out simultaneously to all parties that need to review and approve the proposal.  Once all approvals have been made, you will receive an e-mail advising you that the proposal has been routed and approved and that you may take the final proposal to the appropriate party (ies) for signature (s) if necessary.  After you have submitted your proposal to the funding agency, you will need to submit a copy of your final proposal to the ORSP for the grant files. 

 

GENERAL INFORMATION

FACILITIES AND ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS (F&A)

Formerly called indirect costs.
  • The date of the DHHS agreement for NEOUCOM's Facilities and Administrative costs is May 11, 2005.
  • The current F&A rate for all federally funded research grants is 54%.  The F&A rate for federally funded training grants is 8%.
Please use this worksheet to determine F&A costs:
 
For all for-profit funding sources, principal investigators are expected to charge the full amount of their percentage of time and effort on the project to salaries and wages on the grant application. Equipment amounts may be excluded when determining Total Direct Costs. Exceptions may be granted in rare/unusual circumstances with the joint approval of the Vice President for Administration and Finance and the Vice President for Research.
 

EMPLOYEE FRINGE BENEFIT RATES

For the purposes of calculating fringe benefits on salaries and wages for grant applications, apply the following percentages:
  • Full time faculty: 30%
  • Full time staff: 40%
  • Part time employees: 16%
Please use this worksheet to determine fringe benefit costs: Fringe Rate Worksheet (Microsoft Excel File)

 

NO AWARD

If an applicant receives notice from the funding source that the proposal will not be funded, the applicant should notify the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs and the Grant Accounting Office so that the file may be deactivated.
The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs will assist the investigator in planning and submitting a revision for a subsequent review cycle.
 

POST-AWARD

NEOUCOM's Business Office will receive the NIH Notice of Grant Award which will be photocopied and sent to the Principal Investigator and the Assist Dean for Research. On awards from all other sources, the investigator should send a copy of the award letter to the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs and the Grants Accounting Office.
Upon receipt of an award document, personnel in the Accounting Office will establish a separate account to accumulate and monitor related expenditures in compliance with the sponsoring agency's policies and restrictions. The Accounting Office fulfills the sponsor's invoicing, funds collection, financial reporting requirements and maintains the official grant file which is subject to audit by the College's auditors and the granting agency.
 
 

EXPENDITURE OF FUNDS

  • Personnel: It is the responsibility of the principal investigator/project director to initiate and terminate payroll appointment forms for all personnel to be paid from the grant/contract account. In accordance with College policy, the faculty member's salary budgeted within a grant/contract must be charged and an investigator award will result only after such charges are made to the grant/account.
  • Purchases/travel: Generally, all normal College policies and procedures regarding purchases of goods/services and travel apply to externally funded projects. Should a sponsoring agency's policies be more restrictive than the College's, the more restrictive policies apply.
  • Equipment: All equipment purchases from federal funds are subject to the screening procedures necessary to comply with the federal regulations. The screening process is performed by the property accounting personnel.
  • Cost Transfers: Cost transfers are retroactive accounting transfers of specific expenditures from one account to another. A memorandum from the Principal Investigator should be addressed to the Controller identifying the items charged in error, the correct account to be charged and justification or explanation as to how the error occurred. As cost transfers are typically scrutinized by external auditors, the transfers must be made within 120 days from the date of the original expenditure.
  • Budget Revisions: Requests must include a justification by the Principal Investigator. The completed form should be submitted to the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs for approval. In some cases, revisions may also require the approval of the sponsor.
  • Time Extensions/Continuations If additional time/funding is required for a project, it is necessary to submit a request to the sponsor well in advance of the expiration date. The Principal Investigator is responsible for contacting the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs to initiate the extension request.
  • Cost Sharing The recipient institution must support a specified percentage of the costs of a federally funded project in some cases. The principal investigator is responsible for identifying and documenting the costs being contributed or cost shared under each applicable grant.