Grant Fact Sheet Update: New Mileage Rates

MU Grants Community, 

A new version of the Grant Fact Sheet, dated 12/23/2014, is available on the OSPA website. Please access the current version here, noting new mileage rates on page 3.

OSPA Update

MU Grants Community,

Greetings from OSPA! It is a busy time of year and – as we all well know – research doesn’t take a holiday. The following update covers several key developments and items of note. Should you have any questions, please contact your OSPA Pre-Award or Post-Award staff.

Sponsored Programs Procedure Guide (SPPG) and Forms

The OSPA website is updated with revisions to the SPPG and the OSPA Forms page. The image below describes revisions and additions in detail. Please note in particular that a new F&A Waiver form replaces the Request for University Contribution (RUC) form, effective immediately. RUC forms currently in process can proceed; we will not refuse the old forms but will ask that you use the new form for your next request.

OMB Uniform Guidance

On December 1, the UM System Controller’s Office and MU OSPA provided a campus training session on the new Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Uniform Guidance for Federal Awards that will become effective December 26, 2014. Presentation slides are available on the MU OSPA OMB Uniform Guidance page.

NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 15-1)

NSF has released its implementation of the OMB Uniform Guidance by way of a revised PAPPG (NSF 15-1), effective for (1) proposals with submission deadlines on or after December 26, 2014, and (2) awards issued on or after December 26, 2014. Until the effective date, the guidelines contained in the current PAPPG (NSF 14-1) continue to apply. A brief summary of the significant changes is included below for reference.

NIH Grantees: Disregard Reference to Form 2590 in Reminders for Non-SNAP Reports

The following notice was issued by the eRA Division of Communication and Outreach on Wednesday, October 29, 2014.

All Non-SNAP progress reports submitted on or after October 17, 2014 are required to be submitted using the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) format, per Guide Notices NOT-OD-14-092 and NOT-OD-15-014,

Please disregard the language in the Progress Report Reminder email notifications that references using form PHS 2590 - Grant Progress Report.  We will be updating the language in the reminder notifications, in a future release, to correctly reflect the requirement to use RPPR for all Non-SNAP progress reports.

We are sorry for any inconvenience it may cause.

eRA Communications

Division of Communications and Outreach

NIH Office of Extramural Research

Should you have questions, please contact your OSPA Pre-Award or Post-Award staff.

Grant Connections - October 2014

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

11:00 a.m. – noon
Room 572 (Collaboratory) of the Bond Life Sciences Center

Agenda

• Open Floor and Hot Topics 

• Grants and the Graduate School – Karen Gruen and Ruth Erwin
  The focus of the discussion will be the areas of the Graduate School’s processes and policies that impact sponsored projects, such as budgeting and best practices for paying student tuition and effort on sponsored projects.

• Uniform Guidance 101– Julia Rodriguez
  Curious about the “why” before the “what” of the Uniform Guidance? Julia will provide a brief history of Federal Grant Reform that led to the Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards, effective December 26, 2014. 

eRA Information: Quick Queries are Moving in November

The following alert was issued by the Division of Communication and Outreach on Thursday, October 23, 2014.

Quick Queries are a series of search tools designed to help find important information concerning your NIH awarded grant(s) without the need for having an eRA Commons account. There are currently four query options available on the eRA Commons Quick Queries page:

• Commons Registered Organizations
• Progress Report Search by IPF number
• IPF Number Search 
• Issued Notice of (Grant) Award 

In late November, these queries will all be moving to the eRA Commons system. You will be able to access all the queries from the eRA Commons home page (no log in required) using Commons Quick Queries link under Additional Links along the right side of the page. This move will result in a change in the URLs for each tool. If you have any of the tools bookmarked, please note that after the update the URL will no longer function and you will need to bookmark the new URLs.

NIH Notices: NIH RPPR Requirements | AHRQ RPPR Implementation and Uniform Due Dates

MU Grants Community,

Please take note of the following: 

• Reminder: NIH Requires the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) for All Type 5 Progress Reports
  (NOT-OD-15-014)
  As of October 17, 2014, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) requires grantees to submit all type 5 progress reports using the RPPR module in eRA Commons. Annual progress reports submitted in any format other than the RPPR will not be processed by the NIH and will require resubmission through the RPPR.   

• AHRQ Implements the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) and Uniform Progress Report Due Dates
  (NOT-HS-15-001)
  All Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) grantees, exclusive of recipients of multi-year funded awards, will have the ability to use the eRA commons RPPR module beginning October 19, 2014. Effective January 1, 2015, AHRQ will require use of the RPPR module. Also, effective October 19, 2014, AHRQ will standardize all annual progress report due dates. 

Should you have questions about the applicability of these policies to current or anticipated projects, please contact your OSPA Pre-Award or Post-Award staff.

RE: NIH Notices of Career Development Applicants

MU Grants Community,

NIH issued the following correction as a follow-up to the eSubmission Items of Interest communication below which we posted on October 3, 2014.

NIH Division of Receipt and Referral staff are checking each new K99/R00 application received for the October 14 deadline and will reach out to any applicants whose application is missing the required budget information on the SF424 R&R cover form.

Slight change in course for K99/R00 applications

The Items of Interest sent on October 2^nd included the following statement that we need to retract:

“Similarly, the ‘Estimated Project Funding’ section of the SF424 R&R cover form need only reflect the K99 funding request.”

We actually DO need the ‘Estimated Project Funding’ section of the SF424 R&R cover form (item 15)  to reflect both the K99 and R00 phases (i.e., the detailed budget total for the K99 phase plus up to $249,000 total costs per year for each year of the R00 phase). The Proposed Project Period (item 12 of the cover form) should span both the K99 and R00 phases, as well.

From the NIH Office of Extramural Research 

NSF FastLane Notice

MU Grants Community,

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has provided notice (below) that FastLane will be unavailable from 9:30 PM CT tonight (Friday, October 10) until Tuesday, October 14, at 5:00 AM CT. Should you have questions or concerns, please your OSPA Pre-Award or Post-Award staff. 

NIH Notices: Continuing Resolution | Application Webinars | New Inclusion Management System

MU Grants Community,

Please take note of the following:

• NIH Operates Under a Continuing Resolution
  (NOT-OD-15-001)

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), including NIH, operates under the Continuing Appropriations Act of 2015 signed by President Obama on September 19, 2014. The Continuing Resolution continues government operations through December 11, 2014 at 99.9 percent of the FY 2014 enacted level.

NIH will issue non-competing research grant awards at a level below that indicated on the most recent Notice of Award (generally up to 90% of the previously committed level). Upward adjustments to awarded levels will be considered after FY 2015 appropriations are enacted, but NIH expects institutions to monitor their expenditures carefully during this period. All legislative mandates that were in effect in FY 2014 (see NOT-OD-14-053 and NOT-OD-14-046) remain in effect under this CR including the salary limitation set at Executive Level II of the Federal Pay Scale as described in NOT-OD-14-052.

NIH Notices for Career Development Applicants

NIH eSubmission Items of Interest for Career Development Applicants - October 2, 2014

K99/R00 Budget Confusion
Are you planning to apply to the NIH Pathway to Independence Award (Parent K99/R00) opportunity? If so, you may be wondering just what we are looking for in the budget.

The original budget instructions stated:

In the initial application, an itemized budget is not required for the R00 phase. The applicant should indicate a minimum of 9-months effort for him/herself for each project period. The exact amount of direct and indirect costs does not need to be specified, and a zero may be used as a placeholder in these sections. Total costs of $249,000 should be entered in Total Direct and Indirect Costs. At the time of transition to the R00 phase, the R00 applicant institution will submit a detailed budget for each budget period of the R00 project period that reflects the direct and indirect costs at the R00 applicant institution.