Grants Management

Grants Management is responsible for the administration of extramural support received by the SMHS for research, public service and instructional programs.

Training Videos

See our Novelution training video, budget tool, and proposal checklist/Novelution instructions below (or visit UND's Novelution login page at https://erac.und.edu/login):

Grants Management Services

News & Updates

• Award Budget Setup Form and Example
• Released February 10, 2022, the NIH Salary Cap changed under NOT-OD-22-076.   The Federal Executive Level II Salary Cap changed effective January 2, 2022. The  amount is $203,700. This will affect new NIH awards and some DHHS and Department of Justice awards.
• The current Indirect Cost Rate Agreement date is 05/12/2021.
• Indirect Cost Rates are 41% for Research and 35% for Other Sponsored
• ASSIST through the NIH Commons is available to generate NIH proposals. Workspace through Grants.gov is also available to generate NIH or other agency proposals.
• Graduate student fringe benefits are currently estimated about $120 per year.
• The budget tool has been revised to separate out Key Personnel and Other Personnel. Please use this tool if there is not an agency specific budget to use.
• In all budget justifications, please designate a Key Personnel section and also an Other Personnel section.

Did You Know - Research Tidbits?

• 10/5/2021 - The Public Health Service Financial Conflict of Interest (FCOI) training is now done through CITI training for faculty and staff.  Currently the electronic proposal routing system, Novelution, is not yet integrated with the CITI training.  For now, if you get a notification about FCOI in Novelution, please ignore it until the Central Office asks you to do the training.   

• The UND Research & Sponsored Program Development lead time policy for internal processing of grant proposals is five business days. This means that five business days prior to the due date of the proposal, a finalized version should have all SMHS signatures and be ready for the final authorized signature.
• As the PI of a grant project, you may be contacted by a Federal, State, or University auditor concerning expenses on your grant. When you receive these phone calls or e-mails, direct that individual to the SMHS Grants Manager.
• When a new grant project number is set up by the UND Grants & Contracts Accounting Office, the PI of the project is provided a copy of the PI Report and associated documents.
• UND policy states that if your grant project requires IRB approval, a grant project number (ex. UND0012345) will not be set up until the IRB approval has been obtained.
• Your proposal budget may ask for a "Cognizant Agency" for our Indirect Cost Rate Schedule. UND's "Cognizant Agency" is the US Department of Health & Human Services. Our Point of Contact is Karen Wong at 415.437.7820.
• Federal and UND regulations require that conflict of interest forms be on file for principal investigators (PI's) of proposals submitted to external funding agencies. UND has an approved a policy on conflict of interest. PIs must also submit a "Certification of Filing of Financial Interests Disclosure Statement" to the UND, or more frequently if their status changes during the year.
• In order to ensure that correspondence from granting agencies is received by UND Research & Sponsored Program Development in a timely manner, please use UND.RSPD@UND.edu on all external grant proposals.
• Reviewing your "PI Report" monthly helps you verify your budget, expenses and budget balance.
• If you are proposing a subcontract in your budget, you will need to receive a commitment letter with an authorized signature, budget, budget justification, scope of work and any agency mandated forms from that entity, before the proposal is submitted by UND.
• Once an employee receives his/her "Personnel Activity Confirmation" report, they have to review, sign, and return this form to the SMHS Grants Management so it can be certified within 30 days.
• It is very important to verify that your actual effort percentage on a grant project meets the effort percentage shown in the grant proposal.
• "Spending down" a sponsored project when it gets close to the end date of that project is strictly prohibited per the Federal Uniform Guidance.
• Facilities & Administrative Costs (F&A Costs also known as Indirect Costs) are only charged on the first $25,000 of each subcontract, and are not charged on any individual piece of equipment purchase $5,000 and above.
• Salary corrections should not be done on an employee once that employee has certified to their time on their "Personnel Activity Confirmation" report.
• A grant project number can be set up prior to the award document being received by submitting the appropriate memo to UND Research & Sponsored Program Development.
• No-cost extension requests need to be reviewed by Grants Management and submitted by UND Research & Sponsored Program Development.
• Expenses such as office supplies, line charges, postage, administrative salaries, memberships, food purchases, subcontracts and equipment are considered unallowable on grants and contracts unless they are listed in the proposal budget and justified in the budget justification.

Frequently Asked Questions

Below are some general questions concerning the administration of research projects at the SMHS. For questions specific to proposal budgets, please see the Proposal Resources ~ Budget Information section of this website.

Grant Proposal Signatures

Your proposal needs to be provided by email notification to the SMHS Grants Manager who will get signatures from Chair, SMHS Associate Dean for Research, SMHS Dean, and UND Research & Sponsored Program Development before you are allowed to submit it to the sponsor. This process may take up to five business days to complete once the SMHS has signed off on the proposal.

It normally takes five days to route a completed proposal for signatures after the SMHS has signed off on the proposal.

Verify PAC Report

Once you have received your Personnel Activity Confirmation Report (PAC), you need to review and sign this report certifying that the effort percentages shown are accurate and all projects are included, along with reporting percentages up to the amount proposed. Then return this form to SMHS Grants Management. This form will then be forwarded to UND Grants & Contracts Accounting office from the SMHS Grants Management and needs to be back in the UND Grants & Contracts Accounting office within thirty (30) days from the time the UND Grants & Contracts Accounting office printed.

Indirect Cost Rate

The current indirect cost rates for UND can be found on the Proposal Resources ~ F&A Rates section of the SMHS Grants Management website. At the present time, On Campus Research is 41%.

Fringe Benefit Rate

The current estimated fringe benefit rates for UND can be found on the Proposal Resources ~ Budget Information ~ Budget Categories section of the Grants Management website. Keep in mind that the fringe benefit percentages shown are approximations used for budgeting purposes. Once your proposal is funded, the actual fringe benefits will be charged to your project.

Salary for GRA's or GTA's

The current graduate student salary amounts for the SMHS can be found by asking your department administrator.

Do I have to follow my budget line items exactly?

Most of the time you are not restricted to follow the budget line items to the exact amount budgeted. You usually have the flexibility to overspend one line item (such as travel), while underspending another line item (such as supplies), as long as you do not exceed the total direct costs awarded. Some agencies will limit the ability to overspend line items and this information will be in the award document or the agency policies.

My proposal requires a subcontractor. What information do they need to provide to me?

It is university policy that you obtain a commitment letter signed by an authorized individual, scope of work, budget, budget justification and any agency mandated forms from your subcontractor before your proposal is sent through for the review process. This information obtained from the subcontractor shows a commitment toward your project and is essential to writing the subcontract agreement once your project is funded.

My budget does not include equipment, but I need to purchase some equipment. What do I do?

You need to contact the SMHS Grants Manager, as the purchase of equipment in lieu of other direct costs will affect the indirect expenses of your project. Also in most cases you will need to get the funding agency's approval to purchase any equipment not listed in your proposal.