In an effort to streamline the proposal process, the following guidance is given by the office of Grant & Contract Administration to all UMASS Amherst applicants for the WRRC/USGS proposals:
Routing of the IPF:
In order to route an IPF electronically, a proposal record must be created in the SmartGrant system. Please work with the business manager in your Department to develop the SmartGrant budget, upload the proposal and route the IPF.
Two types of SMARTGRANT budgets may be created to route the IPF:
A prop.xls budget (PREFERRED METHOD)– this is a budget with no line item detail. The only items that would need to be filled out for each year are the total of direct costs and the total of indirect costs and any waived indirect costs that are being cost shared. A detailed budget spreadsheet would need to be uploaded into SmartGrant in the “Proposal Related Documents” section of SmartGrant as detailed back up to prop.xls budget on the IPF.
A full SmartGrant budget – this is a budget that is created in SmartGrant with the detail given for each budget category. The detail is given for both cost share and the request to USGS, so basically, two budgets are entered: the Federal request, and the cost share. If you choose to do the full budget, please pick the budget type in SMARTGRANT as “zero indirect”.
All SmartGrant budgets must match the proposal submitted to USGS exactly. It is the PI’s responsibility to revise the SmartGrant budgets so that all figures (cost share and Fed request) are accurate and match the USGS budget. Since there is much question about what constitutes allowable cost share (see below), it is strongly recommended that the PIs use the prop.xls budget to route the IPF, as this type of electronic budget is easier to modify. Also, when using a full SmartGrant budget, the waived indirect costs do not end up showing up on the IPF and the waived indirect does need to be accounted for on the IPF.
Please note: All cost shared dollar amounts, and speed type account number must be on the first page of the electronic IPF at the time of IPF submission. If these items are not explicitly detailed on the first page, then the cost share is not considered approved. In an electronically routed IPF, the PI will need to re-set the signature approval map, so that proposals may be routed back to signatories electronically. Please take into consideration the time to obtain all of the signatures on the IPF when accounting for the mandatory 5-day lead time OGCA requires to submit the proposal. IPFs received without the necessary cost share signatures, will be considered incomplete & will need to go through the late proposal process.
Please see below for more detail on who can approve cost share.
Guidance on Cost Share (Referred to as Matching in the RFP):
The only allowable cost share categories for UMASS Amherst are: salaries, fringe, indirect costs, equipment, graduate student tuition waivers, and subcontractor cost share. No other budget categories should be used as cost share.
It is highly recommended that PIs stick to cost share from only salaries, fringe and indirect.
All UMASS cost share must be approved on the IPF by the appropriate party who is responsible for the expenditures and a speed type account number that the cost share will be taken from needs to be included on the IPF:
IPFs that do not have dollar figures on the 1st page of the IPF or speed type numbers will need to be routed by the PI back to the appropriate signatory. All cost share signatures on the IPF need to be in place before the proposal is submitted. Please take into consideration the time to obtain all of the signatures on the IPF when accounting for the mandatory 5-day lead time OGCA requires to submit the proposal. IPFs received without the necessary cost share signatures will be considered incomplete & will need to go through the late proposal process.
For salaries, fringe, and equipment, the PI’s Dean & Department Head are responsible for signature. Equipment must be purchased within the time period proposed by the grant. Equipment that has already been purchased and/or is on site, may NOT be used for cost share.
All graduate student tuition waivers must be approved by Debra Britt in the graduate student assistant ship office.
There are two types of third party cost share: Subcontracts and non-subcontracts.
All subcontractor cost share must be explicitly confirmed and amount stated in the subcontracting documents that they submit to the University for inclusion in the proposal. Other documents required for a subcontractor are a budget, budget justification, statement of work, and letter of intent from an individual authorized to bind the organization into legal contracts that states the organization will subcontract with UMASS should an award be made. The subcontractor cost share must also show up on the IPF. No internal approval as needed, as the subcontractor cost share is considered approved by the cost share confirmation in their letter. Please put “Not UMASS cost share” in the speed type number on the IPF.
Non-subcontract third party cost share is approved only in unusual cases, and must be accompanied by a letter of commitment from the third party, be approved internally on the IPF by the PI’s Dean & Dept. head and may need prior approval by the VCRE for Research & Development. The letter from the third party needs to include the following language: Company will be responsible for providing formal and auditable matching funds if the proposal results in an award. If awarded, a statement of itemization and confirmation of the cost-shared expenditures made during the award period will be sent to the Assistant Controller on a quarterly basis, and the dollar amount of the cost share must be specified within the letter. A template for the letter can be found at the end of this document.
Cost share needs to be justified in the narrative budget justification. All cost share costs must be explained separately from the USGS requested costs.
UMASS Fact sheet:
Current fringe rate, indirect cost rates, the UMASS tax ID number, the UMASS employer Identification Number and other necessary proposal information may be found on the UMASS OGCA fact sheet. The Fact sheet may be found here: http://www.umass.edu/research/sites/default/files/documents/factsht2.pdf
Please check this sheet before you begin your budget for current rates.
Third party Cost share template:
University of Massachusetts
c/o Carol Sprague, Director
Office of Grant & Contract Administration
Goodell Building, Rm. 408
Amherst, MA 01003
Reference: Cost-share
Title of Project: (INSERT)
UMass Principal Investigator: (INSERT)
Dear Ms. Sprague:
This is to confirm the collaboration and commitment of (INSERT NAME OF THIRD PARTY CONTRIBUTOR) as stated in the referenced proposal to the (INSERT NAME OF SPONSOR) for the project entitled (INSERT TITLE OF PROJECT). (INSERT NAME OF THIRD PARTY CONTRIBUTOR) will be responsible for providing formal and auditable matching funds if the proposal results in an award to the University of Massachusetts.
(INSERT NAME OF THIRD PARTY CONTRIBUTOR) will provide formal and auditable cost-share in the amount of (INSERT $ AMOUNT) per year for (LIST # OF YEARS IF MORE THAN ONE) years. These funds will be expended during the life of the project.
If awarded, a statement of itemization and confirmation of the cost-shared expenditures made during the award period will be sent to the Assistant Controller on a quarterly basis at: Grants & Contracts Section, University of Massachusetts, Goodell Building, Amherst, MA 01003-3210.
The final report will be submitted no later than 60 days prior to the grant/contract expiration date.
Sincerely,
(SIGNATURE OF AUTHORIZING OFFICIAL)