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.)

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.

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 ProjectID 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 ProjectID to the related Research Office ProjectID 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.

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.

IBS is the Institutional Base Salary. It equals the total amount of compenstion 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.

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 vouchesr 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.

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.

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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.

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.

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.