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TC OSP News
TC OSP News
OTHER NEWS:
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION (NSF) CHANGES
NSF is currently implementing a significant change in the way Principal Investigators (PIs) (and Co-PIs) report on their NSF-funded projects. PIs will be required to submit their annual, final and interim project reports in Research.gov, NSF's modernization of Fastlane.
What does this mean for you as PI?
> Everyone who is currently registered in Fastlane can log on to Research.gov with the same login. If hyou do not remember your Fastlane User ID/Password, please contact your SPA for resetting.
> The Interface has changed for your reporting, however the actual content on the interim and final reports remain the same.
SUBMISSION CHANGES
As of January 14,2013, the following changes have been made for all NSF grant submissions:
Note: See NSF Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) for details
Project Summary:
Fastlane has been modified to display three separate text boxes in which proposers must provide an overview and address the 'Intellectual Merit' and 'Broader Impacts' of the proposed activity. Proposals that do not separately address the overview and both merit review criteria within the one-page Project Summary will not be accepted or will be returned without review.
Project Description
The Project Description must now contain, as a separate section within the narrative, a discussion of the broader impacts of the proposed activities. This section also was updated to indicate that the Intellectual Merit and Broader Impact activities must be described in two separate sections in the summary of Results from Prior NSF Support.
Bio sketches
Products replaces Publications on the Bio-Sketch format. Products may include, but are not limited to, publications, data sets, software, patents, and copyrights. products, whether or not related to the proposed project. Acceptable products must be citable and accessible including but not limited to publications, data sets, software, patents, and copyrights. Unacceptable products are unpublished documents not yet submitted for publication, invited lectures, and additional lists of products.
Letter of Commitment
Ensure that any letter you provide to a prime institution or receive from your subcontractor is one of commitment not a general letter of support (Unless the solicitation indicates this is permitted).
Facilities
Proposers should describe only those resources that are directly applicable. Proposers should include an aggregated description of the resources that the organization will provide to the project, should it be funded. Such information must be provided in this section, in lieu of other parts of the proposal (e.g., budget justification, project description). The description should be narrative in nature and must not include any quantifiable financial information.
If a principal investigator will receive no salary from a grant, the investigator's name should not appear in the proposal's budget. Rather, the investigator's contribution to the project should be discussed in the facilities form. (The investigator's name can also appear on the cover sheet.) Don't attach a dollar figure to anything discussed in the facilities section. Detailed financial information could be interpreted as voluntary cost sharing, which is not permitted in NSF grants. If for some reason you have no facilities, equipment, or resources to describe, write a brief statement to that effect on the form.
- DHHS has just issued our new Indirect Cost Agreement for 2013-15. The overall research rate remains 69.1%, Fringe benefits for FY 2013 have gone up slightly to 34.7% for FT employees and 8.4% for PT and interim employees. These changes have been made on the budget template. Existing grants will be charged at the current rates effective 9/1/12.
- GRANT SUBMISSION REMINDER: For all electronic submissions, OSP requires the ENTIRE, COMPLETE Proposal with all components, including the project narrative, no later than 12 noon the day before the due date in order to check for compliance with the RFP, sponsor guidelines, and to resolve any system errors that may occur. OSP cannot ensure your proposal will be submitted successfully if these internal deadlines are not observed.
- NEW RESOURCES: Anyone who has applied to NSF or NIH in recent years may have noticed that the full set of guidelines for proposal submissions can be spread out over several different sources: The general agency grant policy guidelines, the Grants.gov, NIH Commons, NSF Fastlane submission portals and the request for proposals itself. In order to consolidate this information into a single reference guide, our SPA's have created the NIH Grant Proposal Checklist and the NSF Grant Proposal Checklist. They are most useful to read side by side with the full application package to define terms and help to make out your work at the beginning of the proposal development process to map out the work ahead. If you notify your SPA at least two weeks prior to your submission deadline of your intent to apply, they can customize the checklist to include RFP-specific elements.
- NEW SECTION: Periodic Progress Reporting to our federal sponsors has become more complex in recent years as well, so we have created a new section, PROGRESS REPORTING GUIDANCE (see link on menu), to assist PIs in submitting annual progress reports electronically to NIH, NSF and USED.
- Effective for the 2011-12 Academic Year, the principal investigator share of net Indirect Cost Recovery sharing increases from 3% to 4%.
- NIH has recently capped the annual cost of living increase in grant budgets to 2% per year. We will be making sure this new requirement has been met when we prepare and review budgets. Please note that larger annual cost of living increases may be charge to a grant if there are funds available. The new policy only effects new grant applications, not current projects.
- In January 2010, the National Science Foundation instituted a requirement that all students, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows paid on its grants must undergo training in the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR). TC students and postdocs on NSF grants may satisfy the RCR via the CITI Training Program at citiprogram.org, the same website that provides our IRB training. Just follow the link, select Teachers College from the list of participating institutions, log on with your UNI and select either the RCR training for Social and Behavior Sciences or for Biomedical Sciences as appropriate. Once you complete the training, print or save the certificate of completion. You will need to show this certificate before OSP can place you on the payroll.
1. As of 1/1/08, the college has codified specific types of support for graduate students:
- Doctoral Research Fellowships: Includes a stipend of between $20-24K per year, with 12 credits tuition charged to the grant, matched by the college
- Graduate Assistant: Works no more than 20 hours a week and earns no less than $4000 per semester up to $19,999 per academic year.. Eligible for 6 points tuition waiver during the Academic Year only.
Part time hourly and part time professional lines may also be used to support graduate students.
2. The IRS sets rules as to who may be paid as a consultant. The determination as to whether a particular individual can be paid as a consultant or must be paid as an employee is made just prior to the start of work. There are no sponsor rules requiring that a given individual working on a project must be paid as a consultant; if an individual is determined to be an employee prior to hiring, that individual must be paid as an employee, with associated fringe benefit and indirect cost rate charges, regardless of how funds are budgeted in the grant.
Noncompliance in this area can lead to severe IRS penalties, so the Offices of the General Counsel, Purchasing and Payroll are extremely diligent in ensuring compliance with all applicable regulations.
3. The reference librarians have all been trained in the use of SPIN and the Foundation Center websites and are available to assist all TC faculty and students in searching for funding opportunities for research and other projects.
Natasha Guadalupe, Assistant Director of Client Services, 212-678-8199. Natasha will have responsibility for the following departments:
CPRE, COOO, BBS, HD, CCF, ILT, MST, IUME, AEGIS, Huber, Hechinger, Office of School & Community Partnership, Office of International Affairs.
CCRC, A&H, CCP, C&T, CPET, CTSC, ESPA, HBS, ITS, NCREST, OSCP, O&I, Org Psych, ICCCR, RWP
This memo to TC investigators dated 10/2006, describes in detail the new range of post-award grant administration services OSP will now be providing. The table below lists basic OSP and grant-related administrative procedures and shows the changes, if any, in the person/position now responsible for them:
Task | Former Responsible Party | Current Responsible Party |
Proposal Review, Routing | OSP Director | SPA |
Budgeting, other proposal Assistance | OSP Director | SPA |
Sponsor/TC Policy Questions | OSP Director | SPA |
Subcontracts | Contracting Manager | SPA |
ICAs | Contracting Manager | Associate Counsel |
Professional Staff Recruiting | Project or DAA | SPA |
Post Hire Paperwork | Project or DAA | SPA |
PAF Processing | Project or DAA | SPA |
Tuition Waivers | DAA | SPA |
Purchase Requisitions | Project or DAA | Project or DAA |
Check Requests | Project or DAA | Project or DAA |