NIH and Federal (USA) funding
Federally funded grants can be identified by the inclusion of a CFDA reference number on the award letter, or by checking the funder against the list at:
https://www.cfda.gov/?s=agency&tab=list&mode=list
The award letter should also state that the award is for R&D.
It is a federal requirement that any sub-recipients of federally funded awards complete the A-133 sub-recipient form on receipt of the award and at the end of each subsequent financial year.
Ethical review requirements
There are a number of additional ethical review requirements for Federally funded research involving research participants.
For advice contact the Research Ethics & Governance team.
Conflicts of Interest
Guidance for NIH requirements regarding conflicts of interest can be found at NIH financial conflict of interest guidance and procedure. For further information see the Conflict of Interest section.
Sub-Recipient Monitoring
If we are passing through Federal Funds to another organisation, this organisation is classed as a sub-recipient, and we have to assess their suitability by sending them an A-133 form to complete.
In these instances, please contact Collis Robinson, the Operations Manager in Research Operations, who will send them the appropriate form to complete. On return of the completed form he will advise if any special measures are needed to monitor the performance of the sub-recipient.
This action is not required at Outline or Applications stage, only as part of Award Acceptance and Set Up.
Timesheets
Timesheets must be completed by those not working 100% on the project. Those working 100% on the project are not required to complete timesheets provided this is clear from their contract/job description.
All timesheets must include the name of the person they relate to and must be submitted quarterly to the Faculty Research & Innovation Office for their records.
Claims
For grants awarded from December 26th 2014, salary costs must be claimed on the basis of actual salary costs even if these have been charged to the grant through journals. For grants awarded prior to this date, staff costs can still be claimed on the basis of the journals.
The advice from Lees, our auditors for these awards, is that when claiming staff costs in the future, it would be most appropriate to use the same methodology as for EU grants, where staff time is re-calculated based on actual costs incurred and if total staff costs exceed the budget, claims are capped and this is noted on file.
Alcohol is not an eligible expense and cannot be claimed.
VAT is an allowable expense and may be added to claims.
Where Overheads have been awarded, Indirect Costs and Estates are claimed as a percentage of direct costs and not from expenditure posted to the grants in these categories.
Interest Payments
It is a requirement of NIH funding (OMB Circular A-133, section 3-C-1) that interest earned by the University on federally funded (including NIH) grants is monitored, and any interest balances greater than $250 should be returned to the Department of Health & Human Services.
You can download the procedure for monitoring interest on NIH and Federally Funded research projects here, and a template spreadsheet here.
This procedure applies to all NIH funded grants (including where the University is a sub-recipient of funding from a US organisation) and all federally funded R&D grants.
All interest declarations must be made in US Dollars and calculations should be made on a month by month basis. Interest calculations should be undertaken whenever a claim is made.
NIH Latest updates
For the latest updates from NIH including funding opportunities and changes to grant conditions see their weekly listings.