DEPARTMENTAL ADMINISTRATION BOOT CAMP: Research Administration for the Department Administrator

1. DEPARTMENTAL ADMINISTRATION BOOT CAMP:Research Administration for the Department Administrator

2. Patricia Hawk Interim Director Office of Sponsored Programs Oregon State University patricia.hawk@oregonstate.edu Bruce Morgan Assistant Vice Chancellor Office of Research University of California, Riverside bruce.morgan@ucr.edu Samantha Westcott Grant Manager Division of Biology California Institute of Technology westcott@caltech.edu Workshop Faculty

3. What do you want to take with you from this workshop?

4. Proposals Award Acceptance Award Management Subawards Closeouts Audits Topic Areas We will also include a discussion about Cost Transfers.

5. Tasks: The Work We Do • Pre-Award • Funding Opportunities • Proposal Preparation, Review, & Submission • Award Review and Account Set Up • Post-Award • Cost Management and Account Monitoring • Cost Transfers • Closeout

6. Federal OMB Circulars Agency Guidelines State Public Institution or Private Institution Institutional Policies Procedures School Departmental Divisional Investigator Guidelines: The Rules We Obey

7. Sponsors: Government Foundations Corporate Donors Opportunities: RFA RFP PA Invitation Funding Opportunities

8. Discussion: Finding Funding There’s a New Kid in Town There is a new faculty member just hired to the campus. She is an Assistant Professor who has had a successful postdoc experience and has begun her own research but only has internal funding.

9. Questions for Discussion Who provides support for finding funding on your campus? If you do it, what tools do you use? How do you help a new investigator get ‘plugged in’ to your institution?

10. Proposal Preparation The major components of a proposal: • Budget & Justification • Abstract • Statement of Work • Biosketch • Resources/Facilities • Institutional Signoff Research vs. Administrivia

11. Benefits to Success: Proposals The more time invested by the PI on the research plan, the better the proposal. A successful proposal: • Jobs • Progress • No resubmission

12. Benefits to Success: Proposals How the Departmental Administrator helps: • Correct budget • Guideline review • Formatting • Up-to-date information • Routing and Sign-offs • Confidence • Competence

13. Categories Personnel Consultants Equipment Supplies Travel Consortium Other Direct Costs Subcategories Key Personnel Research Team Administration Animal Costs Human Subjects Patient Care Construction Budgeting: Basics

14. Budgeting: Details • Identify Cost Categories: Unidentified Costs • May cause overruns on the award • Institution shares in cost of research effort • May require sponsor approval for rebudgeting • Holds up post-award invoicing and financial reporting • Bottom line: Not in the budget? Ask. • Personnel Costs: Proposal vs. Expenditures • Reports of time and effort are certified • Bottom line: Reporting = Audits = Findings

15. Budgeting: More Details • Itemize Costs Correctly: Follow the Rules • Salary vs. Stipend • Stipends not allowable on research grants, only on training/ fellowship grants • Employer/employee relationship = salary • Trainee/fellow entitled to living allowance = stipend • Consider immigration status in allowability • Materials & Supplies vs. Equipment • A-21 threshold for equipment = $5,000 (or institution’s threshold if lower), with a useful life of at least 1 year • F&A rate applied to materials and supplies, but NOT to equipment items

16. Budgeting: More Details • Travel: domestic vs. foreign • Domestic: in-state or out-of-state • Foreign: allowable with prior approval, certain restrictions apply • Know basis/rates for reimbursement • Subawards vs. service agreements • Difference between the “big S” and the “little s” • Programmatic effort (“big S”) vs. goods and services (“little s”) • Impact on F&A/indirect cost recovery • F&A assessed on only the first $25K of the “big S” • F&A assessed on full amount of “little S” • Flow-down of prime award terms and conditions required for “big S”, not for little “s” • Subrecipient monitoring required for “big S”, not for “little s”

17. Budgeting: More Details • Pieces needed for Subaward • Subawardee budget, SOW, institutional approvals • Impact if not on file or request to issue Sub not initiated internally • Late issuance • Late start of work by collaborator • Late invoicing and payment • Late reporting • Remember, your institution as prime recipient is ultimately responsible for conduct of the work and meeting sponsor requirements!

18. Budgeting: More Details • Are costs allowable, allocable, reasonable? • Sponsor guidelines • OMB Circular A-21 • Institutional Rules • Are costs direct or F&A/indirect? • Direct: costs identifiable to a specific project • Indirect: costs incurred as part of overall operations • Ex: Direct vs. Administrative (F&A) costs • Salaries and wages of clerical/administrative staff generally *unallowable* as direct • Exception: meet the test of “major project” as defined in Exhibit C of A-21 • Application/treatment of costs should be consistent

19. Budgeting: Hints • Project the future: Look toward reality • Ask the question: What will it take to do this project? • Work budget backward starting with total costs • Compare reality with proposed budget • Plan so that every dollar is utilized to PI and institution’s best advantage: ask every question to get the full cost impact from your PI

20. Budgeting: More Hints Impacts of poor planning: • Loss of direct cost funding available to the project • Loss of F&A/indirect cost recovery • Disallowances

21. Budgeting: More Hints Open communication reduces: • Excessive, inappropriate, or late cost transfers • Manual adjustments • Disallowances • Revised invoices/financial reports • Audit findings • Loss of expanded authorities or letter of credit drawdown eligibility

22. Budget Justification • Personnel: Include everyone on the budget, their effort, role, and detail about what s/he will do on the project. • Each category in the budget should include a strong justification for the value that cost will bring to the project. • Read the instructions, read them again. • Use successful language from previous applications, if available.

23. Administrivia • Proposal Format Instructions: Read the instructions, gather the forms, read the instructions again • Biosketches • Resources/Facilities Descriptions • Anything required by the sponsor as part of the proposal • Share with others every successful form and ask for successful versions

24. Routing and Sign-Off • Work from the deadline backwards • Maximize time available for the PI to work on the research plan • Get a working draft with a final budget routing as early as possible to give everyone maximum review time • If urgent, CALL FIRST – give your colleagues fair warning

25. Pre-Award Setup Award Review Set-Up Assignment of Costs Monitoring Cost Transfers Reporting Closeout Award Management

26. Pre-Award Accounts • Risks • Unfunded Proposals • Costs incurred that must be reassigned • Federal to federal: BIG RISK • Federal to discretionary: LOW RISK • Discretionary spent assuming award will arrive • Rewards • Correct assignment of costs • Fewer cost transfers

27. Award Review Type of Award – is this an Assistance Agreement or a Contract? • Assistance Agreements are either grants or cooperative agreements; these are subject to OMB Circular A-110 • Contracts are subject to the Federal Acquisition Regulations

28. Award Review • Budget • Reduced? • Reduce the Scope of Work and Cost Sharing Accordingly • Performance Period • Align it with the workflow • Accommodates pre-award costs • Terms & Reporting • Non-Standard? • Can we live with it?

29. Award Review Examples of non-standard terms or reporting: • Reporting on labor hours • Detailed expenditure reporting How do you, as a departmental administrator, fit into these requirements?

30. Award Set Up • Accounting Structure • Plan your large awards ahead of time • Layout your vision of the award structure • Communicate with PI and users of account prior to set up • Budget • Align budgets to match requirements of award • Make monitoring easier for everyone

31. Let’s Take a Break!

32. Cost Sharing

33. Cost Sharing: Details • Most institutions’ policies, written or not: • No cost sharing unless mandated/required by sponsor • Voluntary committed cost sharing • Faculty/key personnel time and effort stated but not charged to the sponsored award • Must be tracked and reported upon • Has negative impact on F&A/indirect cost recovery • Indirect Cost Waivers • Does the difference between your institution’s federally negotiated rate and the reduced rate you agree to accept on the award represent cost sharing?

34. Cost Sharing and the Departmental Administrator • The most common form of cost sharing is contributed effort • Contributed effort is captured through your institution’s effort reporting system • Other types of cost sharing may involve: • Volunteer effort • Equipment purchases

35. Case Study • Cost Sharing/Effort Reporting

36. What is Effort Reporting? • Salaries charged to Federal awards must be substantiated • Effort reporting requirements are based on your institution’s cost principles • A-21 • A-87 • A-122 • 45 CFR 74, Appendix E

37. Procurement • Most institutions have procurement cards that can be used for small purchases • Small purchases are defined by your institution • All cards require some type of reconciliation • Someone must keep the source documents (receipts) • Someone should be checking the Excluded Parties List

38. More Procurements • Purchases above the small purchase limit • Sole source vs. competitive bid process • Source documentation typically resides with the departmental administrator • Purchasing Department is typically checking the Excluded Parties List

39. Expenditure Review • Typical reviewable expenditures • Food • Late charges • Entertainment costs • Foreign travel • Awards and prizes

40. Monitoring Expenses • Departmental Administrators are actively involved in monitoring expenses • Do you run reports? • Do you look at each expense? • Do you look at expenditure reports?

41. Award Reconciliation • Verify expenses on your sponsored accounts to ensure they “belong” on that account (involve your PIs also) • Investigate outstanding expenses • Resolve discrepancies in a timely manner (most institutions consider within 90 days as timely)

42. Case Study • Allocation

43. Subawards and Subrecipient Monitoring

44. Key Concepts • Subaward is an umbrella term that encompasses: • Subcontracts (procurement) • Subagreements (assistance flow thru) • Subgrants (assistance flow thru) • Subawards are used to transfer a portion of the programmatic work and associated funding to a lower tier entity

45. Subrecipients v. Vendors • The substance of the relationship is the most important factor • The relationship should determine the mechanism • Subaward v. PO

46. Accountability • Sponsors may • audit subrecipients, and • will hold the recipient accountable for the subrecipient’s performance and subaward management • A subrecipient’s disallowance becomes the recipient’s disallowance

47. Subrecipient Monitoring - Responsibilities • Responsibility is shared across many offices, units and individuals • Sponsored Programs Administration • Contract and Grant Accounting • Department and Principal Investigator • Know who handles what at your institution

48. Subrecipient Monitoring - Responsibilities • Principal Investigator and department • Cooperation and coordination is essential • Communication is the key to success • Know how to capture and understand the big picture by asking questions and knowing where to get information • Monitoring should be continuous from proposal through subaward close-out

49. Subrecipient Monitoring Activities • Review A-133 audit report or recently audited financial statement • If findings, have they been resolved and how? • Risk assessment • Negotiated F&A cost rate? • Recipient of other federal funds? • Designated cognizant audit agency? • Compliance with federal requirements? • Domestic v. foreign?

50. Subrecipient Monitoring Activities • Certifications, assurances, debarment & suspension • Technical and financial monitoring • Regulatory approvals • Compliance with subaward terms and conditions • Reporting requirements, deliverables, etc.