GRANTS 101 DEVELOPING RESEARCH GRANTS

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GRANTS 101DEVELOPING RESEARCH GRANTS

• Johnna Kincaid
• Executive Director
• Sponsored Projects Administration
• The University of Texas Health Science Center at
  Houston 7000 Fannin, UCT 1007Houston, Texas
  77030-1500Tel [phone]

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Sponsored Projects

• Project Types
• Research Basic and Clinical
• Instruction
• Scholarship/Fellowship
• Service
• Award Mechanisms
• Grant, Contract/Agreement, Subcontract,
  Cooperative Agreement
• Government and Non-Government Sources
• Federal, State, County, and City
• Industry, public associations, foundations with
  standing grant programs

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Contracts/Agreements

• - Material Transfer Agreements (In and Out)
• - Confidential Disclosure Agreements
• - Clinical Trial/Study Agreements
• - Sponsored Research Agreements
• - Laboratory Study Agreements
• - Federal Contracts and Subcontracts
• - Research Salary Reimbursement Agreements and
  Interagency Contracts

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OSP supports the research mission of UTHSC-H.

• The mission of the Office of Sponsored Projects
  (OSP) is to advise, facilitate, and support the
  faculty in their efforts to secure sponsored
  projects.
• The responsibilities of OSP include pre-proposal
  guidance, proposal review/approval and
  submission, award negotiation and acceptance, and
  contracts development, negotiation and execution.

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OSP

• Functions as the preaward business office.
• Ensures grants and contracts meet sponsor, UT
  System and institutional guidelines.
• Serves as liaison between faculty and sponsor on
  administrative/financial issues.
• Provides preaward research administration
  training.
• Maintains sponsored project activity data base
  (SPAR) of proposals and awards.

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Authorized Institutional Officials

• Also known as Authorized Organizational
  Representative, Signing Official
• Johnna Kincaid
• Catherine Moore
• Jodi Ogden

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Purpose of Institutional Review

• Grants and contracts are made to the institution.
  The institution is legally and financially
  responsible for committing facilities and
  managing awarded funds.

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The Review Process

• A successful proposal begins with an
  institutional review.
• Primary areas
• Scientific
• Administrative (including compliance)
• Financial

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Department Responsibilities

• Eligibility of Principal Investigator (PI)
• Scientific merit within scope of department
• Proposal meets sponsor requirements
• Willingness of co-investigators and consultants
  to participate
• Subcontract documents from collaborators outside
  UT-H

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Department Responsibilities (Contd)

• Assurances
• Human Subjects Human-Derived Material
• Animals
• Hazardous Chemicals
• Radioactive Materials (Isotopes Quantity)
• Biological Agents (including rDNA)
• Human Embryonic Stem Cells

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Department Responsibilities (Contd)

• Compliance
• Conflict of Interest
• PI Training
• Financial
• Budget fits the scientific requirements of the
  grant application
• Full recovery of all costs
• Verification/support of salaries
• Salary support equal to level of effort
• Cost sharing
• R A form approvals

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School Responsibilities

• Scientific merit within research and education
  objectives of school
• Meets financial interests of school
• Additional space, renovations, equipment
  installation
• Approval of indirect cost waivers and cost
  sharing
• RA form approvals

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OSP Review

• Administrative Financial (AF) review for
  accuracy and conformity to sponsor guidelines
• Review for compliance with institution, UT
  System, state and sponsor requirements
• Review of assurances
• Secures final approval of cost sharing and
  indirect cost waivers

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REVIEW APPROVAL FORM

• PAGE 1 -- Institutional routing form that
  provides information about the project
• PAGE 2 -- Questions about you and the project
• PAGE 3 -- Approvals of PI(s), departments, and
  schools

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CAYUSE424

• Is a web-based software used to submit Grants.gov
  electronic proposals to federal agencies.
• SF424 forms based.
• Provides auto-fill capability that eliminates
  need to enter data multiple times.
• Tracks errors automatically and provides users
  with the ability to correct them easily.

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Cayuse424 Features and Benefits

• PC Mac Compatible
• Easy to navigate between forms.
• Stores institutional and key personnel
  information for future applications
• Provides ability to track proposal submission
  status
• Routing capability
• RA form of the future

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BUDGETS

• FOLLOW SPONSOR GUIDELINES WHEN BUILDING THE
  BUDGET
• FEDERAL BUDGETS FOLLOW OMB CIRCULAR A-21, COST
  PRINCIPLES FOR EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

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Budget Preparation

• Budget Should Recover all costs to conduct the
  specific research project!
• Draft Budget- Create during or before the body of
  the proposal is written
• First time Investigators--
• Develop a program in line with experience and
  research background
• JUSTIFY EVERYTHING (standard application)

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Budget Direct Cost Categories

• Personnel
• Consultants
• Equipment
• Supplies
• Travel (Domestic Foreign)
• Patient Care Costs (Inpatient Outpatient)
• Alternations and Renovations
• Other Expenses
• Subcontracts (Consortium)

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DETAILED BUDGETPersonnel

• Personnel costs comprise 80 of research costs
• List Everyone with EFFORT on project by Name
• All must be employees of Institution
• Principal Investigator
• Effort should reflect work required for project
• Be aware of Salary Cap Limitations (if
  applicable, primarily NIH Currently 191,300)

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Personnel (Contd.)

• Fringe benefits must correspond to approved
  institutional fringe benefit rate tiers (actuals)
  
• Can add/delete personnel in future years if
  scientifically necessary
• Can increase/decrease effort if scientifically
  necessary in future years
• Salary inflation should not exceed NIH inflation
  increment (3)

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Consultants

• Cannot be employees of the institution
• If consulting costs are substantial (gt10,000), a
  subcontract may be required
• Note If awarded, department handles consulting
  arrangement and payment through procurement

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Equipment

• Ask for what you reasonably need, especially if
  setting up a new lab.
• Itemize each piece with a cost over Institutional
  Threshold for Equipment (5,000)
• Equipment usually easier to justify in the early
  research years rather than later years.
• Equipment should be required 100 for project.

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Supplies

• Supplies must be essential to the proposal
• Itemize by category Glassware/Plasticware,
  Serum/Radioisotopes, Chemicals, Sequencing Kits
• Animal Purchase is usually in supplies.
• In the budget justification you must justify each
  category and show how you came to the amount
  requested.

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Travel

• Standard request is one domestic trip for PI
• Additional travel can be requested as required by
  the individual project
• Purpose of travel must directly benefit the
  project
• Foreign travel must be necessary and extremely
  well justified

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Patient Care Costs

• Represents payments to hospitals and/or clinics
  for either in-patient or outpatient care.
• Patient care cannot include travel, lodging, or
  donor/volunteer/incentive fees. These costs
  should be in the Other Expenses category.

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Alterations Renovations

• AR costs are unlikely!
• Equipment installation is not normally considered
  renovations.
• Alterations and renovations gt25,000 must be
  approved by NIH.

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Other Expenses

• Every Direct Cost not listed somewhere else
• Animal care costs (check with CLAMC) for current
  rates
• Publication costs/page charges/color plates
• Equipment Maintenance Contracts ( usage)
• Donor/Volunteer Fees - including
  travel/lodging/per diem
• Fee charges for services (Mass Spec., EM, Flow
  Cytometry)
• Patient participant incentives/travel
• Long Distance Telephone/Fax (Not Equipment/line
  charges unless specifically approved in review)
• Delivery Services (FedEx, DHL, UPS)
• Anything else that can be identified as a direct
  charge necessary to do the research

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Consortium/Contractual Costs

• Most subcontracts are to other non-profits, but
  in special circumstances we subcontract to
  commercial or foreign institutions
• Subcontract Direct and Indirect Costs are
  included in UTHSC-H Direct costs.
• NOTE If awarded, OSP will prepare the actual
  subcontract after the grant award is made. It is
  not a part of the application.

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Budget Justification

• General Principle
• JUSTIFY, JUSTIFY, JUSTIFY.
• Remember if you don't justify what you want you
  are at the mercy of the reviewer and potential
  auditor.
• If you CAN'T write a good justification for why
  you want it, you probably don't need it.

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NIH Modular Application

• Allows Peer review team to focus on scientific
  merit of applications rather than administrative
  aspects (budget, management of funds, etc.).
• Reduce certain aspects of proposal preparation
  and submission to just in time (JIT)--once
  decision to make an award has been made.
• Attempt to Reduce length of receipt to award
  cycle from 9-10 months to 6 months.

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NIH Modular Application (contd.)

• Applies to research grant applications requesting
  up to and including 250,000 direct costs/year
• Request total direct costs in modules of 25K.
• A typical modular grant application will request
  the same number of modules in each year.
• Provide budget narrative regarding all Personnel
  by position, role, and level of effort. This
  includes consultants and any to be appointed
  positions.
• Include a total cost estimate for any Consortium/
  Contractual arrangements
• Additional narrative budget justification will be
  required in the application only if there is a
  variation in the number of modules requested.

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Summary

• Budget becoming increasingly important
• A-21 Issues
• Justify, Justify, Justify
• NIH and other federal agencies increasing
  scrutiny of budgets and expenses as projects
  progress PLAN CAREFULLY
• Additional Help and Information
• Department
• Deans Office
• OSP