Gift or Sponsored Project?

The ORSP website now has updated characteristics and a table to help determine whether funds provided by a corporate or foundation sponsor should be processed through Development’s Gifts and Records Administration (GRA) or ORSP. See the Gift vs Sponsored Project website updates.

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Roles and Responsibilities Matrix

The RAAC Process Committee has finished its first phase of creating a Roles & Responsibilities Matrix to help those involved in the identification, assembly, and submission of proposals related to sponsored projects. The first phase addresses "Proposal Development" and "Proposal Review, Approval, and Processing." ORSP will post these on our website under Tools & Resources and, where pertinent, under the appropriate section of the website (Develop Proposal, Route & Submit Proposal). As further areas are addressed, the document will be expanded. The matrix identifies:

• R - Responsible for doing the work to achieve the task
• A - Accountable for completion, typically delegating to those responsible
• S - Support for those who are responsible or accountable
• C - Consulted as needed in order to complete the task
•  I - Informed that task is underway/completed (one-way communication)

If you are unfamiliar with the RASCI system, you may view a brief, online tutorial: (Responsible, Accountable, Consult, Inform) 

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Requirements for New PAF when Processing Additional Funds

When a sponsor provides additional funding for a currently active project, a new Proposal Approval Form (PAF) may be required. A new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) 500.04 formalizes the current practice of requiring a new PAF in order to accept additional funding for an active award. 

When to Route a new PAF for Additional Funding?
Whenever the amount of additional funding causes the total award amount to exceed the cumulative amount requested on all approved PAFs related to the project. 

Waivers are possible, and described in SOP 500.04. Additionally, recharge centers and Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) agreements from the Veteran’s Affairs Healthcare System in Ann Arbor have separate rules for when a new PAF is required and are exempt from this policy.
 

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Direct Charging of Space / Full Recovery of Indirect Costs 

It is the goal of the University of Michigan to recover full costs of each sponsored project where permitted by the sponsor's policies. In that light, space may be allowable as a direct cost for non-federal sponsors, depending on the sponsor requirements. Charging rents (or space or square footage) on federal budgets is not allowed. ORSP and Sponsored Programs recently updated the guidance on the ORSP website. This can be found in the Develop Proposal section under Budget and Cost Resources > Indirect Cost Rates > Full Recovery of Indirect Costs.

 

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Revision to PI Eligibility Policy

ORSP Project Representatives may grant exceptions to the some Principal Investigator (PI) eligibility limitations with the prior documented approval of the school/college/institute/center ultimately responsible for the conduct of the sponsored project. This can be found in the Develop Proposal  > Principal Investigator Definition.

 

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NSF Proposal Checklist

Provided a finalized proposal is received within ORSP’s internal deadline and Sponsored Research Office (SRO) Access has been granted in FastLane, ORSP will check the items on this NEW NSF Proposal Review Checklist on a standard unsolicited proposal to one of the National Science Foundation’s standing scientific programs (i.e., proposals to which the only application guideline is the NSF’s Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG)

This will be placed on the ORSP Website under Tools & Resources > Sponsor-Specific Resources. Then click on National Science Foundation (NSF).
 

NIH Updates

Extended Timeline for Transition of Awards to Payment Management System - Just a reminder, as we reported last year, the transition of active awards was extended to October 1, 2015. Please note that NIH has made it clear that there will be no more extensions. For U-M NIH letter of credit pool accounting to subaccount accounting, and there are 243 parent P/Gs affected. NOT-OD-14-10

NIH Anticipates Transition to New Research Training Data Table Formats in FY 2016 - NOT-OD-15-112
 

NEA Updates

Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards; Final Rule for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) (6/29/15 Federal Register)

Second Cohort of Mentoring RAMPs Up

 

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Reminder to Register for RAN!

Join us on October 7th with our guest emcee, Heather Offhaus!
 

Select Funding Opportunities

The following are select funding opportunities that may be of interest to the research community. Searchable third party databases (like SPIN and Pivot/COS) mine funding opportunities and are excellent resources to help find funding opportunities in a specific research area.