Pre-Award Procedures & Policies

Pre-Award Policies and Procedures

    The process of procuring and administering extramural funding can be a daunting task if not properly organized. The following describes the respective duties of the Principal Investigator/Project Director (PI/PD) and the OGSP, in cooperation with other campus entities, to complete the proposal development process.

The Proposal Development Process

Director of Grants: The Director of Grants provides regular notice of funding opportunities to staff and faculty via email, the OGSP website, and other campus communication mechanisms. Faculty and staff will receive notices that fit with their expressed research interests or that are congruent with previously submitted pre-proposal summary forms.

PI/PD: When individual faculty or staff have a proposal idea and want to pursue a funding opportunity, it is the responsibility of the PI/PD to complete the pre-proposal summary form (available online) before starting the actual proposal writing. This is to ensure that the project idea is something that can be supported by the University, and also to prevent duplication of effort in the case that two or more individuals are pursuing the same funding opportunity.

Cooperative Activity: While the PI/PD is responsible for researching the technical content and drafting the proposal, the Director of Grants will assist in the critiquing of the rationale, proposed procedures, and feasibility of successful implementation of the project within the budget limitations.

Director of Grants: The Director of Grants must review the proposed budget for compliance with Federal and State statutes, Western expenditure policies, and the funding guidelines of the proposed funding agency.

PI/PD: If the proposed project involves human subjects or the use of vertebrate animals, the protocol must be reviewed and approved by the Committee on the Use of Human Subjects in Research (CUHSR) or the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) before the proposal can be submitted for administrative endorsements. The PI/PD must provide the necessary information to the appropriate review committee in order for the proposal to be reviewed before the submission deadline.

PI/PD: After the final proposal has been written and is ready for review, the PI/PD must submit the proposal endorsement form (available online) to the OGSP. The endorsement form must be accompanied by the full proposal including detailed budget. The PI/PD must have received previous sanction to complete a full proposal via the pre-proposal summary form.

Director of Grants: The Director of Grants is responsible for the routing of all pre-proposal and final proposal endorsement forms for applicable signatures (i.e., department chair, dean, budget director, development office, and finally the vice president). The signing of any certification or assurance forms to the funding agency will also be completed during this routing process.

Director of Grants: While the Director of Grants maintains the permanent archive of funded and non-funded proposals, it is also her/his responsibility to disseminate copies of the completed proposal to all other departments that require one for future administrative purposes (i.e., Accounting Services).

Cooperative Activity: While the Director of Grants is responsible for mailing or electronically submitting the proposal packet to the funding agent, the timely submission of the proposal is dependent up the ability of the PI/PD to complete all necessary tasks at least one week before the submission deadline.

    The following policies relate directly to the faculty and staff activities necessary to the extramural funding process. Some policies outlined below mirror or reinforce policies already stated in the Missouri Western State University Policy Guide (available on the web at http://www.missouriwestern.edu/hr/policyguide.pdf). It is through these policy and procedure standards that the extramural funding activities of the campus can be efficiently managed and maintained.

The Pre-Award Endorsement Process

    It is the institutional policy that all grants and contract proposals, including pre-proposals, letters of intent, and awards on which Western will be a subcontractor, must be routed through the Office of Grants and Sponsored Programs (OGSP) and ultimately approved by the appropriate vice president prior to submission.

    Completion of the Pre-Proposal Summary form is required before the principal investigator or project director (PI/PD) can begin the work of generating a full proposal or letter of intent (LOI). The pre-proposal form is designed to identify any administrative issues or concerns before the PI/PD completes a full proposal. The process also informs the OGSP of all grant writing activities and can prevent multiple investigators from developing proposals for the same funding opportunity. The pre-proposal form is available at the OGSP website (http://www.missouriwestern.edu/grants/forms/formlist.htm) and can be completed on-line.

     Every full proposal submitted for external funding to any agency or organization whether public, private, or otherwise, must receive administrative approval by the respective vice president before it is submitted. The OGSP is responsible for coordinating administrative approval of the proposal by the appropriate academic and financial offices at Western. The proposal and the endorsement form should be submitted to the Director of Grants at least one week before the proposal is due to be sent to the funding agency.

Salary and Fringe Benefits

    The salary budgeted for project staff is a combination of the percent of their base salary plus the amount necessary to cover fringe benefits. The base salary is the individual’s institutionally approved yearly salary. The portion of this base amount that is indicated on the grant budget is that which is representative of their project contribution. Since the fringe rate is variable depending upon level of pay, always contact the Director of Grants for the appropriate fringe rate before completing the personnel section of the proposal budget. For illustration, the average rate of 27% is utilized in the following budgeting example.

Example: If the yearly salary of a faculty member is $40,000 per year and their contribution to the project is 0.5 FTE (50% “Full Time Equivalent”) then the base salary indicated on the project budget for the individual is $20,000 per year. Using the average 27% fringe rate, the fringe calculated for the faculty member would be $5,400 per year. The total salary budgeted for this faculty member for a single year of the project would then be $25,400.

Summer Pay

    Most granting agencies will allow an investigator to supplement his/her pay if the investigator is employed on less than a 12-month contract. It is Western’s policy that if faculty are employed on a 9-month contract and are not teaching summer school, they will be eligible to receive up to 2/9s of their 9-month salary as additional summer compensation. The fringe amount necessary for summer pay may be significantly different from the amount budgeted for the regular 9-month contract period, so always contact the Director of Grants for the appropriate fringe rate before completing the personnel section of the proposal budget. Please note that the allowable amount of summer project pay is pro-rated according to an individual’s summer teaching load. The more you teach the less summer pay you can receive through a summer project.

Reassigned Time

    Faculty and staff reassigned time, externally funded through sponsored projects, is available only through mutual agreement with the appropriate department chair, dean, and vice president. Project funds must be used to cover the staffing costs associated with reassigned time such as adjunct faculty. A formal request for reassigned time (approved via the pre-proposal summary form) must be submitted to and approved by the appropriate chairperson and dean before adding it to your budget.

Indirect or “Facilities & Administrative” (F&A) Costs

    While the amount of money required to complete the project is referred to as direct costs, the overhead expenditures incurred by Western are referred to as indirect costs. Indirect costs, what the OMB refers to as Facilities and Administrative costs, are added to the total budget amount in order to compensate the institution for general operating expenditures (i.e., accounting, facility maintenance, and administrative services). This rate is approved by the Department of Health and Human Services, and cannot be negotiated by the PI/PD.

    Western currently utilizes the simplified procedure for small institutions, which looks at the ratio of total salaries and wages paid to all employees to the amount of facilities and administrative costs that are categorized as follows: general administration and general expenses, operation and maintenance of physical plant, library, and department administration expenses. Institutions that have total direct costs of sponsored program work that does not exceed $10 million in a single fiscal year may use this simplified method. Therefore, the indirect fees added to outgoing proposals should be calculated as a percent of base salaries and wages. The fringe benefit amount is not to be included in your calculation of indirect fees. Contact the Director of Grants for the current rate.

    Most federal and state granting agencies permit inclusion of indirect expenses in the budget, while private foundations often do not. Whether or not your prospective funding agent permits this allowance is usually outlined within the agency funding policies available via the agency website.

    It is the policy of Missouri Western State University to recover all allowable indirect costs for sponsored programs. All Federal agencies are obligated by law to recognize an institution’s full-audited rates. In some situations, however, the agency may recognize the full rate but allow only partial recovery. If the indirect costs are not recovered, they are contributed as formal or informal cost sharing, whether cost sharing is required by the program or not.

Research Involving Human Subjects or Animals

Every proposal for research that will involve human subjects or vertebrate animals must be reviewed and approved by the Committee on the Use of Human Subjects in Research (CUHSR) or the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) before the proposal can be submitted for endorsement to the Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs. Be sure to plan the proposal writing process so that the appropriate committee has sufficient time to schedule a meeting to review your proposal. See http://www.missouriwestern.edu/orgs/human_subs/ for further details.

Copyrights and Copyright Compliance

    Faculty and staff are expected to adhere to the institutional policies in regard to copyright laws and copyrightable work. This expectation applies to generating project proposals for funding, the reporting of project data, and the preparation of manuscripts for possible publication. These policies are explained in detail in the Western Policy Guide.

Reporting Requirements

    Complete and accurate reporting of grant-funded project outcomes is an important professional and institutional responsibility assumed by anyone who receives grant support. The PI/PD is responsible for completing grant reports as required by the funding agency. The utility of the information and the timeliness of the reports back to the funding agency reflect on our institution as a whole, so care must be taken to ensure that all reporting is of the highest quality.

    Copies of all project reports will be maintained in the OGSP. This provides the Director of Grants the information he/she needs to inform interested faculty, staff, or community members as to the important contributions that the PI/PD and project staff are making with their research or outreach activities.

    Accounting Services must also have a copy of any performance reports and the final report, if one is required. This copy completes the project file to the satisfaction of external auditors. If your grant is ever audited, Accounting Services will provide the auditor with the requested documentation of your project’s expenditures.

Proposal Development

Questions or Comments: kroberts6@missouriwestern.edu

Last Updated: 08/26/2008