Manage Budgets and Fiscal Requirements

• Faculty Effort Certification (FEC) reports are required by the federal government to document the effort that faculty contribute to sponsored projects, and the amount of cost for that effort that is borne by the University (Cost Sharing).  These documents are referenced in audits, so it is essential that they be signed and returned to payroll coordinators on or ahead of deadline.  If you have any questions, please refer to the Department of Financial Management’s FEC Web Page or contact Tana Knight. 

• Grant or Contract Principal Investigators are required to sign monthly payroll certification reports to verify that stated work was performed by personnel.  These documents, also known as Grant and Contract Certification Reports (GCCRs), are subject to audit, so it is essential that they be returned to payroll coordinators on schedule.  If you have any questions, please refer to the Department of Financial Management’s Procedure for Grant and Contract Cert. Reports  or contact Interim Grants & Contracts Manager Helen Powell.

• When a PI reviewing the Payroll Certification Report finds an error in personnel effort, s/he may request a Retroactive Salary Transfer, or RST, to correct the effort and/or transfer salary funds between budgets.  RSTs are extremely costly and should be used only in rare cases. 

• To complete an RST:

1. Forward RST paperwork to Interim Grants & Contracts Manager Helen Powell for review and either approval or return.
2. If the RST is approved, the RST paperwork will be sent to the PI for signature.
3. The RST preparer then sends the original signed document to Payroll and two signed copies to Helen Powell. 
4. Helen Powell will forward the second copy to Tana Knight to ensure that the RST changes are reflected in FEC reports. 

• For more information on RSTs, please see Retroactive Salary Transfers.

• For other information on maintaining budgets during the project, please refer to GCA's Post-Award Process.

• Please also see the Department of Radiology's procedures for Project Cost Accounting as applied to Grant and Contract Budgets.

Manage Clinical Trials

As subjects are recruited, register them on the  CRBB web site to ensure proper billing.

Other requirements, from records management to complying with human subjects requirements, can be found in the Researcher's Guide to Clinical Trials.

Manage Project Change

Extending the Project (No-Cost Extensions)
When additional time is needed to complete the project, the PI may request a no-cost extension through OSP, who will in turn submit the request to the sponsor. Please see OSP's instructions for more information.

Changes to NIH Grants
For major changes to personnel, project objectives, or project period, contact the sponsor in advance. Deliver or e-mail a concurrence letter (which OSP will then approve and forward to the sponsor) explaning how the change will be handled. See GIM 18, Attachment A and GCA's Change in Level of Effort for detailed instructions.

Examples of Change:

• Project Period Dates

• Major changes to methods, procedures, or project scope (for minor changes, documentation in the yearly progress report is usually sufficient).

• Rebudgeting between cost categories of either 25% or $250K (whichever is less).

Submit Progress Reports

Preparing Progress Reports
Foundation grants usually contain specific instructions in the program announcement. NIH progress reports for research grants are typically more standardized and require either electronic or paper submission. When the NIH Notice of Grant Award (NGA) indicates that the application is eligible for the Steamlined Non-Competing Application Process (SNAP), you may submit your progress report electronically, using eSNAP. Otherwise, paper forms will be required. For instructions on each, please see links below:

• For NIH progress reports submitted via paper, please see the PHS 2590.

• For NIH progress reports submitted via eSNAP, please see the eSNAP Users Guide.

Approval Routing
Do progress reports require eGC1's and approval routing? Yes -- if the progress report is a requirement for continued funding, as in the case of NIH grants and many foundation grants. For such progress reports, assemble the content and route for approval, just as you would a new proposal. In your routing package to internal reviewers, please include:

• The yearly detail budget, including detail on personnel effort and imaging resources to be used.

  -- and --

• Progress report submitted to sponsor.