Contract & Grants Information
In the College of Management, most of our funding comes from tuition
and state allocations. In addition, substantial funds come from
other sources, such as businesses, the federal government, state
agencies, and non-profit organizations. Most of this type of funding
falls into one of two categories. If the funds are in the form
of a gift and there is no expectation that the faculty/college
will provide any goods or services in return, these are Enhancement
Funds. On the other hand, if the funds are provided with the expectation
that research, education, and/or outreach will provide specific
outputs (deliverables), this is a Contract or Grant. This webpage
provides an overview of the procedures that must be followed to
apply for and administer Contracts and Grants.
Sponsored Programs and Regulatory Compliance Services (SPARCS) and the Office
of Contracts and Grants (C&G) have several detailed, but important, requirements.
When a granting organization chooses to run a grant through the university, the
university is taking the responsibility to be sure the funds are spent appropriately
and the deliverables are forthcoming. They are subject to regular audits, and
if there are problems it can jeopardize future funding. A small number of funding
organizations will provide funds that do not have to be managed by the standard
university practices; the money can be a gift to the university with no required
deliverables or the money can be treated as a consulting contract completely
outside the university.
One can apply for a grant in various ways. Many grants are competitive, and the organization issues a request for proposals on a specific topic. In other cases, an organization may approach the researcher to conduct specific research. Nonetheless, the procedures are the same.
The faculty members or principal investigator (PI) first should discuss the commitment with her/his department head to be sure there will be no problems.
The PI must develop a proposal and budget for the granting agency. Usually this is a hard copy, but NSF requires electronic submission through Fastlane and others will be following that lead.
The PI must initiate the electronic forms that are internally required by the university. This is called PINS (Project Information and Navigation System) and will be described in more detail below. These forms provide all the information to obtain approval at various levels in the university. The routing is electronic. Once the approvals are obtained, the grant application can be sent to the funding agency. THE APPROVAL PROCESS TAKES TIME. IT SHOULD BE INITIATED A WEEK BEFORE THE APPLICATION DEADLINE.
Details are provided below:
PINS
Budgeting
Hints
Awards
Other Useful
Links
To initiate the University approval process, go to the PINS access website, (http://www.ncsu.edu/sparcs/pins/). The second link on that page is PINS Help, which you may want to look at before you use the system. The first link takes you to the PINS system. This requires logging on with your Unity ID and password. If you have trouble logging on, there is contact information for assistance.
After logging in, you can click on "New Proposal" to initiate the internal documentation for a proposal. (If you have already initiated a proposal, you can click on "Select Proposal" and enter the proposal number to continue working on it or check the routing.)
This will take you to the Proposal screen. The required fields have an asterisk and must be completed. The other fields should be completed as necessary. The help page mentioned above provides more information on each field. You have to include an abstract of the proposal, which you can cut and paste. You have to complete the "Additional Proposal Questions." The Regulatory Compliance approval is typically not required for research in the College of Management unless you are conducting a survey, etc. If you are, the proposal may require "Human Subjects" approval. Check with the contact given there.
When you "Save" the proposal information, you will get a 'PINS number." Be sure to write this down so you can access the proposal later. After you have saved the information, you should click "Add Documents" to attach the actual proposal, the budget, etc. (everything you will send to the sponsor). Adobe Acrobat, Work, and Excel files can be attached.
After you have completed all the relevant fields and attachments and saved the information, you are ready to "Initiate Routing." Be sure you have everything the way you want it before initiating the routing, because you are somewhat committed at that point. Please contact Ray Palmquist when you initiate routing, because he has to set the routing map before it can go to your department head. It is also a good idea to let your department head know that a proposal will be coming to her/him. The routing goes to the department, the college, and Research Administration. If there is more than one department and/or college, it goes to each.
If the granting agency requires university signatures or letters, you will have to get them from Sponsored Programs when the approvals are finished. Templates for many letters you may want to use are available online: http://www.ncsu.edu/sparcs/forms/
Once you have obtained all the approvals (and not before), the proposal
can be submitted to the sponsor.
Budgeting Hints
On your budget, there are a few common questions.
If you have salary for yourself or others in your budget, you must include fringe benefits. Details on this and other issues are explained at http://www.ncsu.edu/sparcs/budgeting/. There are standard percentages that can be used for fringe benefits rather than calculating the various components separately. For graduate students, tuition must be included in addition to the fringe benefit rate.
If the grant will pay you during the summer and you are on a nine-month appointment, you should budget an amount equal to one-ninth of your regular salary for each summer month. The maximum you can receive during the summer is for three months and this includes income from all sources including summer school teaching.
If you have sub-contracts to another university, you should get a budget from them and a letter indicating their willingness to participate. NC State’s F&A rate applies to the first $25,000 of a subcontract.
If you are a subcontractor on a grant application at another university, process it as if it were your own grant and obtain a signature on a standard Letter of Intent -- http://www.ncsu.edu/sparcs/forms/ -- from Sponsored Programs indicating your intention to participate.
If you purchase computers for less than $5,000, they are not equipment but rather materials and supplies. All federal agencies and some other funding sources require documentation that the computer is necessary for the completion of the project, and the computer must be prorated if it is used for other purposes as well. Private agencies may not have these restrictions.
Use footnotes on your budget to document anything that is unclear. For example, which personnel, where and why on the travel, etc.
Do not include any cost sharing unless it is specifically required by the granting organization. If it is required, keep it at the minimum required.
There are negotiated F&A (overhead, indirect cost) rates that must
be used unless explicitly restricted by the granting organization. If the
organization restricts indirect costs, attach documentation to the PINS
forms and indicate the allowed rate on the forms.
Awards
Once the grant is awarded, you will get an account number (5-xxxxx). You will
be able to charge budget costs to that account. See your department administrative
assistant and/or the college bookkeeper.
You will have someone in Contracts and Grants who is associated with your grant.
If you have to move expenditures between major categories or if you need a no-cost extension on the grant, you will need to get approval in advance, using a Prior Approval Form. Post-award forms are at http://www7.acs.ncsu.edu/cng/forms/.
Even if your granting organization doesn’t require cost sharing,
as PI you are probably thinking about the grant even when you are not being
explicitly paid by the grant. A 1% cost share of time by the PI when she/he
is not being paid by the grant is recorded for you. You will have to certify
this once a year. It has no substantive effect on your salary or duties
or anything else, but it fulfills accounting requirements.
Other Useful Links
NC State's Contracts and Grants Toolkit
The university is developing a Research Toolbox for PI's at http://www.ncsu.edu/sparcs/guide/index.html.
If you are seeking funding, you may want to visit the Funding Opportunities webpage at http://www.ncsu.edu/sparcs/funding/. There are various links there. If you want weekly email notification of new opportunities in your area, set up a profile at Community of Science.
The SPARCS website http://www.ncsu.edu/sparcs/ has a wealth of information. Particularly useful is the budgeting information, http://www.ncsu.edu/sparcs/budgeting/. There are also links to “Funding Opportunities,” “Policies,” “Forms,” and “Sub Awards” that are useful. If you are doing a survey, go to “Compliance” and then to “IRB.”
If a non-governmental sponsor has a one-time project not to exceed $25,000 and they are willing to accept the university’s standard contract without modification, this can be handled with a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA). The F&A on MOA’s is only 15%. The contract is available on the SPARCS forms page, http://www.ncsu.edu/sparcs/forms/, form #11.
The Office of Contracts and Grants is at http://www7.acs.ncsu.edu/CNG/. It has links to forms, policies, etc.
Fastlane is NSF’s electronic grant submission system. It is at https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/fastlane.jsp. To get a Fastlane ID, see Ray Palmquist. Allow sufficient time to get familiar with the system and complete the many forms that are required.
Once your grant account is established, you will be able to see the University’s records of your expenditures, etc. by going to https://www.acs.ncsu.edu/scripts/pimgmt/nc_cg_mainmenu.