Cost sharing is defined as project costs not borne by the sponsor .

Cost sharing is accomplished through:

• Project costs funded by the University (faculty salaries, fringe, travel, supplies, etc.)
• Project costs funded from other non-federal sponsored agreements
• In-kind contributions donated by third parties (equipment, supplies, etc.)

Federal regulations require full accountability for costs committed in the fulfillment of sponsored programs. Cost Accounting Standards require that costs proposed on a sponsored application be accumulated and reported on completely and accurately .

The University of Delaware chart of accounts carries a Project ID for all contracts and grant codes; including the Project ID on a non-CandG code will indicate to the system that there exists a relationship between the NON-CandG code and the award. In this way, the transaction is funded by a NON CandG code, but cost-shares a CandG Code. This method does not work when matching CandG Codes to CandG Codes.

Cost sharing may consist of direct expenses such as faculty effort (and thereby related salaries and fringes), lab supplies, equipment, and travel.

Any expense that the University has defined as an indirect cost, such as administrative salaries, office supplies, and operations and maintenance expenses, may not be cost shared. Unallowable costs as defined in Section J of 2 CFR parts 215-220, Cost Principles for Educational Institutions (OMB Circular A-21) may not be cost shared. For a pdf click here

Mandatory cost sharing is required by the sponsor as a condition of the award. Ordinarily this requirement will be indicated in the program announcement. Voluntary cost sharing is not required by the sponsor but is nevertheless offered in the proposal by the investigator; ordinarily this is in the form of contributed effort. Cost sharing that is proposed voluntarily by the investigator becomes mandatory (or also known as 'voluntary committed' cost sharing) once the award is made. One other kind of voluntary cost sharing occurs in the case of over-expenditures, if the additional costs are covered by University funds. All committed cost sharing, whether mandatory or voluntary committed, must be accounted for and tracked.

The following statements in the proposal budget or budget justification would be considered cost sharing:

• Dr. Dots will devote 20% of her time to the project at no cost to the agency.
• The department will purchase a data widget (cost $10,000) for exclusive use in support of Dr. Dots' project.

The following statements would not be considered cost sharing:

• Dr. Dots will be providing expert advice and consultation to the project.
• Dr. Dots' laboratory is 1200 square feet. She also has access to the departmental data widget.

If the award funding is reduced, under many circumstances, the cost share will be reduced proportionally. If the award was reduced so significantly that the scope of work cannot be performed with the available funding, and therefore additional funding from University resources is needed to complete the project as described in the original proposal, a request for additional cost sharing funds should be made to those potential resources. The committed cost share, however, will remain as it is written in the agreement.

Any cost of the project not borne by the sponsor is cost sharing and to that end our system neatly and easily allows for the tracking/itemization of non-sponsored funded cost share (through use of the Project ID field, see above). When cost share is provided by another Research Office code, however, our system is more complicated. This type of cost share presently requires either the creation of a new Purpose (such that the expenses can be easily identified) or in the case of effort certification, a user can link the Cost Share Research Office Project ID to the related Research Office Project ID by noting the relationship in the comments field.

Regardless of source, it remains the responsibility of the individual Principal Investigator and department to ensure that other sponsored funds used as cost sharing on sponsored projects are:

1. Allowable,
2. Not offered as cost sharing for more than one project,
3. Verifiable through auditable documentation, and
4. Accumulated at the end of the project and reported to the Research Office for the completion of the close out audit.

The UD Grants System will calculate the rate for each of the budget items entered into the budget. The rate is multiplied by the direct costs being cost shared on the expenses (accounts) that would bear FandA if charged directly to the grant. These items do not bear actual FandA costs (SFA), but bear Cost Shared FandA (CFA). There is also the matter of Waived FandA (WFA) which is the calculation of the institutions current FandA rate minus that which is charged as CFA or SFA.

Itemizing each budget entry on the proposal budget will capture the details needed to fulfill the cost share documentation for proposed budgets.

The Research Office equipment cost share dollars are available when proposals either require equipment cost share or the project budget exceeds the available funding in the area of equipment. The Research Office policy allows for one-time requests up to $50,000 with assistance from the college and/or unit requires an equal $50,000 of the requested amount (i.e., 50K from the Research Office, requires an equal $50K from the college/unit). This funding applies to individual P.I.(s) projects. Approval for cost share should occur at the time of the proposal submission through inclusion in the grant budget. The Proposal Approval Form will automatically be routed to those responsible for the cost share approval. Please refer to the policy for more information. Equipment Cost Share Policy

If the purpose code for the match source, itself, is a sponsored project, you cannot tag match transactions in the usual way because there is already a value in the project ID field.  To document cost-share provided by another sponsored project, note the amount and source in the comments field of the appropriate effort reports.

Yes, the system will allow effort administrators to route a copy to another administrator for their viewing needs, once the form is in completed status.

IBS is the Institutional Base Salary. It equals the total amount of compensation from the University to the employee in a year. The accounts included in the UD IBS total are as follows:

[120200 - 120299]
[120300 - 120399]
[120800 - 120899]
[121000 - 121099]
[121100 - 121199]
[121200 - 121299]
[121300 - 121399]
[121600 - 121699]
[121700 - 121799]
[121800 - 121899]
[122300 - 122399]
[122500 - 122599]
[122600 - 122699]
[122700 - 122799]
[123000 - 123099]
[123600 - 123699]
[126900 - 126999]

Other accounts will not be included in the effort analysis.

See the flow chart downloaded here- for a full explanation of how routing works in the effort certification process.

Cost transfers for periods originally certified on the old (paper) SAR system, must be revised on the old paper forms. Write 'REVISED' at the top of the report. Draw a line through the previously reported percentages and write the new numbers next to those. Send these to the Research Office for filing. Journals for this salary activity are permitted on the web form journal vouchers for effort prior to 9/1/04. When doing JVs for salary prior to 9/1/04, indicate in the explanation that the corresponding SAR has been revised. Any activity certified in the web-enabled effort certification system must be updated, adjusted or revised in the originating system.

Yes!  Effort reporting is a Federal requirement for institutions which receive Federal funding. The funding agencies take this reporting very seriously and expect it to be accurate and to be performed according to policy. Failure to comply could have serious legal consequences for principal investigators and financial consequences for the University as a whole.

Any and all time spent performing the types of work for which the University pays a person. This includes time spent doing  administrative tasks, instruction, public service, sponsored research and non-sponsored (department-funded) research, and any other work which is considered part of your responsibility to the University. It includes time spent outside of normal business hours.

Distribution of reported effort must be corrected before certification if the percentages noted are not close enough to what they should be. UD policy defines ‘close enough’ as +/- five percentage points. (Ex: if the effort provided by the employee during the period was 20% on a given project, then any value between 15% and 25% is acceptable for certification of that project’s effort.)

No. You may be confusing report accuracy with changes in committed effort. Depending on a sponsor’s guidelines, they may allow a PI to reduce an effort commitment by up to 25%. This is a revision of budgeted effort – either sponsor-funded or cost-shared effort. Ex: A PI commits a 15% level of effort on his project. 25% of 15% is 4%, so the PI may be allowed to revise his effort by 4 percentage points without prior approval. (i.e. he could go as low as 11% without written permission). This is a change in effort as budgeted only.

If the person is not on a 12 month contract, annualize their salary first. Find their monthly rate by dividing their salary by their contract length (in months), then multiply that value by 12. Next, multiply that value by the effort percentage. Ex: With a 9 month contract for $50K, the annualized rate is $50,000/9*12=$66,667. We’d assign the budget a value of $6,667 for a 10% level of committed effort.

1. You need to confirm the accuracy of the report based on the actual salary transactions in the financial system or by comparing it to internal records describing the appropriate allocation of the employee’s salary. (see next FAQ for advice)
2. You must obtain certification from the employee to verify the effort was provided as reported, or if the employee is not available, obtain suitable means of verification. (see FAQ below)
3. You are responsible for processing and completing any accounting transactions which may be required to correct the allocation of effort.
4. You are responsible for achieving ‘complete’ status of the report within the 60 day limit.

There are queries available in the report instance of PeopleSoft. You can run a GMQ effort query or a GMQ salary transactions query to extract salary transactions from the financial system.

Forward the report to other departments which provided funding, and ask them to confirm that their funding is reported correctly.

If the employee has a status of ‘terminated’ in HR, the effort administrator for that employee may choose the action ‘certify for former employee’. In this case, the effort administrator must obtain suitable means of verification as to the effort provided.

Confirmation from someone who had first-hand knowledge of the employee’s distribution of work effort. (Ex: a supervisor or faculty advisor) This should be documented and retained in the department as backup in support of the action.

By certifying an effort report as an effort administrator, you are agreeing that verification of the effort was made by someone who has this knowledge – either the employee or another person who worked with that employee. You are not claiming to have personal knowledge of the effort.

The Effort Manager and other staff members in the Research Office are able to re-route effort reports when requested.

Each department or unit has a single effort administrator assigned. Changes in assignment must be requested by contacting your department’s Contract and Grant Administrator in the Research Office.

There are several possibilities. If the employee has not been terminated, the employee must have certified the report. The person who is officially recorded as the department effort administrator must have certified the report. The system will not allow a report to complete if there are JVs still in progress. The ‘send to’ box must be empty for final submission.

The employee has not been officially terminated in HR. The HR liaison may need to process a termination JED. Once submitted to HR, it may take a couple of weeks before the HR system is updated with the new employee status.

If you’ve forwarded an effort report to the employee for certification, and they do not receive it or are otherwise not able to process it, there may be a problem with the way their email address is recorded centrally. Contact effortcert@udel.edu for assistance.

Negative effort is a logical impossibility. A negative value for a particular project indicates the need for a correction in the allocation of salary transactions. Review any JVs referenced on the effort report for accuracy. There will almost always be a problem with a credit line on a JV – ex: wrong project credited, wrong effort period on the JV, or the credit value is too high. A JV will need to be done to correct the error. A second possible cause is a salary reimbursement posted after the effort period in which the payments were made.

If you have a really good reason for needing to revise an effort report which was already certified, get permission from your contract and grant administrator in the Research Office, and forward your request to effortcert@udel.edu. The certification process will need to be repeated after the revision is made.

You may have received just a subset of reports from a particular group. That group could contain incomplete reports which you do not see.

Yes, if a no-cost extension is required to complete a research project, then it makes sense that the PI would still be providing effort. The sponsor may expect the PI to provide the same level of effort committed in the previous periods. However, if the reason the PI is no cost extending is because he/she was unable to perform the work, then the effort carries and needn’t be additionally committed.

The amount of effort which was budgeted to be paid by the sponsor must still be met whether or not the sponsor pays for it. If unspent, the budgeted effort must be met as cost-share any time during the budget year.

If any type of retroactive salary payment or refund occurs after the effort period in which it belongs, the department is responsible for notifying the Effort Manager that a correction must be made to the effort report. This must be done prior to certifying the effort report. Typically, a certification which is already complete should NOT be revised and there must be a compelling reason to do so. Examples include s-contracts for faculty summer salary which are processed after August 31, retroactive JED payments/increases, and refunds of salary overpayments.

GMQ_TRANSACTIONS_SALARY is a query in the financial reporting system (FIRPT) which accepts various search criteria to report transactions (both from payroll or JVs) from the general ledger in a format specifically relevant to salary transactions. This query requires a set range of transaction dates.

GMQ_EFFORT_0XX_SALARY finds salary transactions (again including JVs) relevant to a single effort reporting period. The resulting data should match the figures reported on the effort report.

GMQ_EFFORT_CURRENT_BY_PI  can be used to search for a particular PI's effort commitments for active awards.

GMQ_EFFORT_PROPOSED_BY_PI  can be used to find a PI's effort commitments made in grant proposals .

Faculty whose salary rates exceed the NIH salary cap must record the difference between their total amount of effort committed and the amount that is chargeable to NIH. This portion of their effort which is valued above the NIH salary cap must be tracked in the financial system by adding the award’s project to salary transactions paid by the University. The mechanism is the same as it is for recording cost-share, but this pay is not considered cost-share because it is an unallowable cost to the award.

Any time a PI who is over the salary cap commits effort on an NIH project, at least part of it must be met by attaching the project to part of his/her University-paid salary.

Example #1: Dr. X has an annual (12 month) salary of $200,000, or $16,667 per month. The current NIH salary cap is $196,700, or $16,392 per month, so $275 of his monthly rate is above the cap. If he commits one month of effort to an NIH grant, that would be equivalent to $16,667. He could charge a maximum of $16,392 to the grant, but the additional $275 must also be tracked as effort provided to the grant. Otherwise, his reported effort will not meet his commitment of one full month of effort. The $275 difference must either be charged to a discretionary account or reflected as part of his standard salary dollars on the 1book. In either case, the NIH project must be identified in $275 worth of salary transactions which are not charged to the grant.

Example #2: Dr. Z has a 9 month appointment with a full-time annual rate of $150,000. His salary is above the NIH salary cap of $196,700. To compare his full time annual rate for a 9 month appointment to the NIH annual salary cap, you must calculate his monthly rate and compare it to the NIH monthly cap. His monthly rate = $150,000/9, which is $16,667. The NIH salary cap is $16,392 per month ($196,700/12), so he is over the cap. If Dr. Z provides half a month of effort to the grant, this would be equivalent to $8,333 of his pay. This dollar amount is below the NIH monthly rate cap, but the full amount still may not be charged to the grant. $16,392 is a monthly rate cap, not a monthly pay cap. The NIH pay cap for half a month would be $8,196 ($196,700/24), so he may charge a maximum of $8,196 to the grant for half a month of effort. Again, the amount over the cap (8,333-8,196=$137) must be recorded as effort on another funding source.

Sample Application for Federal Assistance SF 424 (RandR) Form

PDF Link

1. The University of Delaware is already registered with grants.gov, so it is not necessary for you to register; however, if you do not have an eRACommons account, please notify your assigned Contract and Grant Administrator as soon as possible.
   
   
2. When searching for your application package, use the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) number—not the CFDA number. When completing your application package, please leave any field or reference to a CFDA number blank; NIH will fill in this information for you as appropriate.
   
   
3. After you have searched for your application package in grants.gov, download it and save it to your computer. When naming your application file use the following naming convention:
   UDEL PROPOSAL# PILASTNAME
   The PROPOSAL# is UD’s internal number assigned when your proposal information is entered into PeopleSoft for your webform routing and approval. This naming convention should also be used on the first page of the application, which is identified with a yellow box and titled, “Application Filing Name.”
   
   
4. When preparing your application, the NIH guidelines on font-size, font-type, and ½ -inch margins apply to the entire application package including ALL uploaded attachments. The guidelines state: “Use an Arial, Helvetica, Palatino Linotype or Georgia typeface and a font size of 11 points or larger. Type density, including characters and spaces, must be no more than 15 characters per inch. Type may be no more than six lines per inch.” Please note that Times Roman is not listed as an acceptable type font per NIH guidelines.
5. Although you are to follow all NIH proposal guidelines when preparing your application, remember that Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) guidelines will always supersede any in the NIH proposal guidelines.
   
   
6. All attachments should contain no headers and/or footers. NIH will generate those for you when it compiles your application image (this includes page numbers and PI name in the header).
   
   
7. Only use .pdf platform for all your attachments. .doc platforms will not be accepted.
   
   
8. In the SF424 (RandR) form, use the following emails as appropriate:
   For Box #5: Your CandG Administrator’s email address
   For Box #15: PI’s email address
   For Box #19: udelaware-awards@udel.edu.
   
   
9. Also when completing your SF424 (RandR), the UD Congressional District should be filled in with DE-001 in both fields; it is no longer “at large” or “1.”
   
   
10. When completing an application package that involves multiple-PIs, please consult the definition of a PD/PI from the NIH guidelines at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-07-017.html. Please note that it is required by NIH that you include an attachment justifying multiple PD/PI’s in box #14 of the PHS398 Research Plan form of the application package. Please note that NIH does not recognize Co-PI’s, so do not use that field description in the Senior/Key Person Profile form or in the budget or budget justification.
    
    
11. Also in the Senior/Key Person Profile form, the completion of the “Credential, e.g., agency login” field is required by NIH and if left blank, will be caught as an error when it reaches NIH validation. Completion of this field is required for all PD/PI’s, and the information that goes in the field is the PD/PI’s eRACommons login name. This is not required for other key personnel, just the PI/PD.
    
    
12. When completing your Research Plan, NIH requests that it should be organized as a whole 25-page document first, and then chopped up into its individual sections and uploaded as attachments in the PHS 398 Research Plan form. Once the Research Plan is in its individual attachment format, NIH will accept it as a 27 to 28 page document due to white space from chopping it up into sections; although the PI will receive an email with a warning they can disregard that warning.
    
    
13. Please remember to select one budget form to use from the “Optional Forms” box of the application. For example, if you are doing a modular budget, then you should select and complete the modular budget form. Do not use both forms. Note that your budget justification should be included as an attachment in the budget form.
    
    
14. When preparing the budget, many PIs will leave the field for the “Cognizant Federal Agency” information blank. If left blank, NIH validation will catch this and stop your application package submission with an ERROR message. Please remember to complete this field. The information is as follows:
    Office of Naval Research, Attn: Joanne Elkowich, (703) 696-7742.
    
    
15. If your application will include a consortium (subcontractor) organization, then NIH requires that you download the budget form titled, “RandR Subaward Budget Attachment” from the application package and email the form to your consortium PI for completion. This form is not a .pdf file. It is a pure edge viewer file so the consortium PI or their administrator must have pure edge viewer loaded on their computer. Once the form has been completed by the consortium PI, along with their budget justification attachment, then upload the form as a pure edge viewer attachment to the grants.gov package within the RandR Subaward Budget section. Please contact OVPR if this procedure isn’t clear, or if you will need further instructions.
    
    
16. A Cover Letter is not mandatory for a “new” first submission, but if your application contains errors at the NIH validation, then a cover letter must accompany the corrected application stating reason(s) for submitting a “corrected” application. Also note that Cover Letters are required for all renewals, supplements, and competing continuations. Note that each time you revise a Cover Letter in grants.gov, you have to upload all previous Cover Letters, along with the revised Cover Letter, as one .pdf file in the attachment.
    
    
17. After you have completed your grants.gov package, please “Check Package for Errors” before emailing it to Research Office for submission. When Research Office receives your package, the first thing that is done is to push that “Check Package for Errors” button, and if there are errors, the application package will be returned to you for correction, without review.
    
    
18. Please note that the “Check Package for Errors” is only a grants.gov validation; this tool does not check errors for the NIH validation. NIH validation will take place by eRACommons when NIH receives the application package from grants.gov.
    
    
19. Please note that when your application reaches NIH validation, “warnings” will not stop the acceptance of your application and will generate an image of your application; however, any applications with “errors” will not be accepted by NIH and will not generate an image of your application. Please be certain you take all measures to assure your application is not submitted with errors.
    
    
20. For further information and training on NIH grants.gov SF424 (RandR) process, please go to the following website http://era.nih.gov/ElectronicReceipt.
    
    
21. Don’t forget OVPR’s 72-hour deadline as posted on UDaily. This deadline includes receipt of the completed application package, as well as an approved webform and any other documents, such as Conflict of Interest and certifications for Recombinant DNA, human subjects (if not pending), IACUC, and radiation.

Yes, the University of Delaware is registered in Grants.gov. Individuals cannot register to submit proposals on behalf of the University. Only the Contract and Grant Administrators in the Research Office can submit proposals as the Authorized Organization Representative (AOR) for the University of Delaware.

To request a letter of support from one of these individuals, please follow this procedure:

• Draft the letter of support
• E-mail the letter to your contract-and-grant administrator in the Research Office. To locate the correct staff member, see the Department Administrator directory in the Staff Directory.
• If changes to the letter are required, you will be notified.
• The Research Office will shepherd the letter and proposal to the appropriate UD administrator for signature and provide a copy to you for your files.

Any time a new proposal is submitted to a sponsor, or an increase in the funding or University resources occurs (in the case of a re-budget or renewal) a Proposal Approval (web) Form must be routed. In the case of a renewal where the resources are less than expected, or there is NO change, a form NEED NOT be routed.

A Pre-proposals to a sponsor must go through the Research Office routing for approval and official submission through institutional signatures. Any time the University is obligating resources or requesting funds, the Research Office must be included in the submission.

Letters of Intent (LOI) that do not address funding amts. or UD commitments (ie; time commitments/match etc.) do not require signature of the Research Office (unless required by sponsor). However, the Research Office should be copied on the LOI. Typically, the purpose of this type of intent is for sponsor to determine the amount of man hours required for review process. Keep in mind that it is helpful to notify your Contract and Grant Administrator when you become aware of any proposal submissions.

Send PI's name, birth date, type of degree and the year it was received to your CandG Admin with a request to add the PI to FASTLANE. Please note Fastlane will provide the PI with a NSF login number that will become part of their personal logon process.

Authorized Representative	Proposed First Year Total
Contract and Grant Administrator	Up to $250,000
Trudy M. Riley, Manager Sponsored Program Administration	Up to $500,000
Cordell M. Overby, Associate Provost for Research	Up to $1,000,000
Daniel Rich, Provost	Over $1,000,000
Patrick T. Harker, President	Over $2,000,000

Send an E-mail to ovpr-access@udel.edu. Provide the following in the body of the e-mail:
Name: Employee Name
EMPLID: XXXXX
User ID:
Role Name: Identify Role Name*
Instance: FIPRD
DepartmentID (numeric):
*Access roles (indicate which one(s) needed): Grants - Research Administrators (Proposal entry and inquiry)
GM_RESEARCH_ADMIN
Grants - Proposal Data Entry only GM_DATA_ENTRY
Grants - Proposal Inquiry only GM_PROPOSAL_INQ

For information on Sponsored Research Program Income Procedures, follow this link.

To determine which type of service is required, evaluate the subtle differences between the three categories below. Your Contract and Grant Administrator can also help you determine the proper category.

Characteristics of a Subcontract are as follows:

• Performs substantive programmatic work under a grant or contract.
• Bears responsibility for programmatic decision making and measurable performance requirements.
• Must adhere to Federal compliance requirements if the source is a Federal award.

Characteristics of a Vendor (PO) are as follows:

• The procurement of goods or services from an organization which provides the goods and services to many different purchasers as part of its normal business operations within a competitive environment Not subject to the same compliance requirements as a subcontractor (if the source is a Federal award).

A consultant is an individual or company with the following characteristics:

• Not an employee of your institution.
• Proven professional or technical competence and provides this to your organization.
• Is not controlled with regard to the manner of performance or the result of the service.
• Considered a work for hire and does not retain any rights to the end product.

Subcontracts are charged overhead on the first $25,000 budgeted. The vendor or consultants are charged overhead for all expenses related to the work. It is helpful to get this distinction in your budgets at the time of proposal so that your budget need not be revised due to a change. These changes may require approval from the sponsor.

The Department prepares the requisition and attaches scope of work, budget and the completed Provider Category Determination Worksheet - (DOC format) to justify the subcontract to Procurement Services and the Research Office.

When all entities have worked together in the past, or when it is a University, it is usually quite swift. The delays can occur when it is an industrial contact that may be unfamiliar with our terms and conditions. Delays in the process should be discussed with your Contract and Grant Administrator.

The Principal Investigator is responsible for evaluating the merits of the invoice and determining whether the work has indeed been performed as noted. The invoices should include a summary of expenses by category, dollar amount, date of services provided, and subgrant #. The invoices are not paid until the PI has signed and approved the payment and availability of funds have been verified.

You must complete and route for signature, a University of Delaware Contractual Agreement for Consulting Services form. The form may be obtained from the Research Office. Consulting agreements greater than $25,000 must be accompanied by a Debarment Statement signed by the Consultant.