ANNOUNCEMENTS

• ANNUAL SALARY INCREASES HAVE BEEN REVISED. Faculty rates are to increase by 4.5% each year. Graduate student salaries will receive a 3% increase Fall 2009. Salary increases for all other categories will continue at 3%. Also, starting FY08 $500 per semester will need to be budgeted for each Graduate student (RA) for health insurance fee. For example, a full time graduate student at 1320 hrs would have $1500 per year set aside for these fees. The proposal budget spreadsheet currently available on this page calculates these increases automatically. Please clear your internet cache before downloading the spreadsheet to get the correct version. Visit the Office of Sponsored Programs web site for more details on annual increases. OSP Salaries and Benefits.


• Proposals involving LESS THAN the full overhead rate of 45.1% need to be pre-approved by Director Barnes and if possible advance notice given to IAB proposal coordinators for the extra document and approval process.

Overview of the Proposal Process

1. Notify proposal coordinators Deseree Baker (x6665) and/or Sandra Preshaw (x6176) of your intent to submit a proposal as soon as possible. Provide the program announcement and a preliminary budget or schedule time to work with the coordinators.
2. Budgets that include subawards require extra documentation. Notify the coordinators if a subrecipient is included in the proposal.
3. Send required documents as they are completed to the coordinators for formatting review.
4. Send final electronic copies of all agency-required documents to the coordinators 10 working days prior to the deadline for final formatting, review and signatures.
5. IAB fiscal technicians will review the budget and justification according to agency, university and federal guidelines.
6. IAB Director, Brian Barnes will review the proposal.
7. UAF Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) will review the proposal and obtain a final signature by UAF's Authorized Organizational Representative. OSP requires that we give proposals to them at least 5 working days prior to the submission deadline. If a proposal is not given to OSP within the specified timeframe, there is no guarantee your proposal will be sent to the agency by the deadline.

Please note: Changes and/or corrections can be expected at any of these review stages.

Preparing Proposal Budgets

A UAF budget and budget justification are required for every proposal, regardless of agency requirements (per OSP policy).

• Budget spreadsheet template (excel) for standard proposals (i.e. NSF, USDA, etc.).
• Budget spreadsheet template (excel) for research work orders.
• Budget justification example (word).

The spreadsheet will automatically calculate salaries based on the following formula:
For example, a faculty member's salary for 2 mos at $40/hr:

($40/hr)(174hrs/mo)(2 mo)(1.017 leave benefit rate) = $14,157 in salary
($14,157 salary) (0.319 staff benefit rate) = $ 4,516 in staff benefits

For budgets with multiple years of funding, the spreadsheet will automatically calculate an annual increase to your salary each year to account for inflation. These spreadsheets are protected. If you have questions about the templates, please contact the IAB Business Office.

1. Rates of Pay

2. Student Stipends, Tuition, and Health Care

A student working 20 hrs/wk for two semesters works a total of 760 hours. A student working 40 hrs/wk all summer works 560 hours. FT summer work also accrues staff benefits of 8%. Total hours for a whole year: 1320.

• Check the UA Student Assistant Salary Table (pdf file) for Undergraduate Student Rates. Undergraduate students hired for research projects are usually Grade 4.
• You must request tuition for a graduate student researcher unless the agency expressly refuses to fund tuition (include documentation with proposal.) If you wish to supply tuition from another source, please include a memo confirming the source and available funds.

In-state grad tuition is $5,688 per year with a 10% increase each year tuition is requested.

Out-of-state grad tuition is  $11,628 per year with a 10% increase each year.

Starting FY08 $500 per semester will need to be budgeted for each Graduate student (RA), including summer. For example, a full time graduate student at 1320 hrs would have $1500 per year set aside for these fees.

3. Facilities & Administration Costs (F&A)

Current facilities and administration (F&A) costs rate: 45.1% * (For proposals that do not allow full F&A cost recovery, please contact the IAB Director, Brian Barnes.)

Calculating F&A

1. Add up all project costs to get your (TDC) total direct costs.
2. From the TDC, subtract student tuition, equipment in excess of $5000 per item, participant support, and subcontract costs after the first $25,000. F&A cannot be charged on these items. The remaining amount is known as your Modified Total Direct Costs (MTDC).
3. (MTDC)(45.1%) = F&A costs.
4. F&A costs + TDC = Total Project Cost

Please visit the OSP web site for information regarding Reduced & Off-Campus F&A rates (http://www.uaf.edu/osp/budgets/indirect.html).

Subcontract Information

All organizations subcontracting to UAF must provide:

1. Budget
2. Budget Justification
3. Scope of Work
4. UAF Subrecipient Form, completed and signed
5. Other documents as needed (e.g. CV and C&P, Facilities & Equipment, etc.)

All UAF investigators subcontracting to other organizations should provide the same information. The subcontract will be internally processed the same as a standard proposal and will need to get all the required approvals at all levels.

Important Notices for NSF and NIH Proposals

NSF

New formatting limitations are effective June 1, 2007. Use of only approved typefaces identified below, a black font color and font size of 10 points or larger must be used. Allowed typefaces are: Arial 11, Courier New, or Palatino Linotype at a font size of 10 points or larger or Times New Roman at font size of at least 11 point. No more than 6 lines within a one inch vertical space and one inch margins in all directions.

The Project Summary must clearly address in separate statements (within the one page summary): (1) the intellectual merit of the proposed activity; and (2) the broader impacts resulting from the proposed activity. See the NSF Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) for further instructions.

The Project Description must describe as an integral part of the narrative, the broader impacts resulting from the proposed activities. Examples illustrating activities likely to demonstrate broader impacts are available electronically on the NSF web site at: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2003/nsf032/bicexamples.pdf. See the GPG for further instructions.

For Fastlane proposals only, revised Project Descriptions may be submitted to the IAB DO up to 24 hours in advance of the NSF deadline. However, all other sections of the proposal must still be received no later than 10 working days prior to the Fastlane deadline.

Don't forget to include Results from Prior NSF Support for ALL Co-PI's of the proposed activities in your Project Description. You must report on results from the most closely related project for each investigator:

1. NSF award number, amount, title, and period of support
2. summary of results, including any contributions to the development of human resources in science and engineering
3. publications resulting from NSF award
4. brief description of available data and/or products not described elsewhere
5. if proposal is for renewed support, a description of the relation of completed work to proposed work.

NIH

All NIH Applications Require an NIH eRA Commons Account for all PI and Co-PI

NIH Application Guide (Instructions and Forms)
Electronic Submissions

• SF424

Paper Submissions

• PHS 398

Non-Competing Grant Progress Report

• PHS 2590

Instructions for NIH proposals

• NIH SF424 Version 2 (Updated 4/19/2007)


• NIH PHS 398


• NIH PHS 2590