Requests for Cost-Sharing

- The University will provide funds for cost-sharing provided that the sponsor’s written guidelines state that cost-sharing is required of all applicants.

- The University will cost share the tuition for graduate students receiving stipends from sponsored project funds. It is important, however, that those preparing project budgets not use the tuition as part of a guaranteed cost sharing amount, unless the Chair, and Dean, Graduate Studies, and the Office of Research specifically approve this. Sometimes, despite the best of intentions, it is difficult to expend the total amount of tuition projected in the proposal budget sent to the sponsoring agency. If the cost sharing is guaranteed and the University tuition fails to meet the guaranteed amount, severe financial repercussions may result and these must be resolved by the department and college.

Therefore, absent the specific approvals noted above, project budget sheets submitted to funding agencies should not explicitly show tuition cost sharing. The approximate amounts of estimated cost sharing may be discussed in the proposal narrative at the point where the budget justification is given, provided that it is made clear that the cost sharing is not guaranteed. Funding agencies now routinely label cost sharing amounts as being required terms of the award, so all award documents must be carefully reviewed.

- Requests for cost-sharing must be approved in writing by the University component providing the funds.

- For the full information, see Cost Sharing of Equipment and Cost Sharing of Tuition for details.

Subgrant/Subcontract Requirements

For each subgrant/subcontract included in a proposal, a clear description of the work to be performed and a budget justification and a separate budget signed by an authorized representative of the organization receiving the subaward is to be provided to the Office of Research before the proposal is institutionally approved and forwarded to the sponsor. At NSF, this information must be included within the proposal along with the basis for selection of the awardee. According to the NSF Grant Proposal Guide, no significant part of the research or substantive effort under an NSF grant may be contracted or otherwise transferred to another organization without prior NSF authorization.

Subgrants and subcontracts are normally detailed both in the proposal narrative and in the proposal budget and will thus be approved by the sponsor in the award documents. In these cases, the subgrant will be established at the time the award is set up. NOTE: If an award with a subcontract is received, but the proposal never mentioned the subcontract, money delays WILL occur.

Checklist for Subcontracts on ND Proposals

Pre-Proposals

The criteria for pre-proposals to be routed through the University is available at  Preproposal Procedures. It is important, with proposals and pre-proposals, to be sure that all of the appropriate people have approved the project before the application leaves the University.

Proposal Routing Form

The University’s Proposal Routing Form must be completed for all proposals, revised proposals, and revised budgets and routed for signature. This form serves as a checklist for many of the issues which pertain to sponsored program activity. Copies of the Proposal Routing Form are available from the principal investigator’s department office, the Office of Research, or on the OR website at Forms Instructions for filling out the form are included with each copy.

Sign-Offs

Each Proposal Routing Form must contain the following signatures: the principal investigator, who assumes responsibility for the intellectual quality of the work, the reports required, and the expenditures other than those earmarked for the department, college, or university, while also assuring that he/she is in compliance with the University’s conflict of interest policy; the department chairperson and dean of the college, who respectively confirm that the fiscal and academic departmental and college requirements are satisfied; the vice president for research and graduate studies, who assumes responsibility for seeing that the University requirements are satisfied.

Each faculty member participating in the project must sign the Proposal Routing Form. No per signatures are allowed, since the signatures certify that each faculty member will comply with the University’s Conflict of Interest Policy, and that he/she has filed an up-to-date conflict of interest disclosure with the Office of Research.

Reviews

Departments and colleges are expected to review proposals when they are routed through their offices. By signing off on the Proposal Routing Form, the department and college indicate that the proposed project has their approval.

Mailing of Proposals

The principal investigator may choose to mail the proposal or request that the Office of Research submit it to the sponsor. If the principal investigator elects to mail the proposal, the Office of Research will contact him/her when the necessary reviews and signature have been obtained.

If the Office of Research is to submit the proposal, the complete mailing address must be provided on the Proposal Routing Form. Please note that express carriers will not deliver to a post office box, and that they require a complete street address. If a sponsor phone number is available, it should also be provided on the Proposal Routing Form.

Due to the volume of proposals received and the uncertainties of the postal service, proposals that are to be sent via U. S. mail and which require a postmark by a specific date must be received by the Office of Research four working days prior to the postmark date if the office is expected to submit the proposal. Faculty submitting proposals with a receipt date should also take into consideration weekends and holidays and the effect they may have on delivery time.

Revised Budgets

Whenever any change is requested by a sponsor to revise the budget of a pending proposal that has already been submitted to a sponsoring agency, the change must be processed through the Office of Research with a new Proposal Routing Form. The revised budget sheet and the appropriate cover sheet is processed in the same way and with the same signatures as the original proposal to ensure that the parties who approved the original proposal are aware of any changes which may affect their budgets. See the Awards Section for procedures to follow if budget changes are necessary after an award has been made.

Date last reviewed October 2007