Award Modifications

Common types of awards modifications include carryover requests, no-cost extensions and transferring an award.

Carryover Requests

Some external sponsors do not allow automatic carryover of unspent grant funds from one budget year to the next. If this is the case, a project with unspent funds at the end of a budget year, will need to request a carryover of funds to the next budget period. This written request is called a "Carryover Request" and must include the following:

An appropriate scientific justification.
A plan for the use of funds.
A detailed categorical breakdown of the unspent funds, including F&A costs (if applicable).
A copy of the final expenditure report.
In many cases, if the dollar amount is significant (typically 25% of total current year costs), an explanation of why the funds were not fully expended in the prior year may need to be included.

Carryover requests need to be reviewed and approved by UND Research & Sponsored Programs Development.

No-Cost Extensions

Sponsored projects contain a project start and end date that were provided at the time of the award. If the project end date needs to be extended due to reasonable circumstances, a request for a no-cost extension will need to go to the sponsor. A no-cost extension is an extension of a project end date without additional funding.

Here are some examples of reasonable circumstances that may require an end date extension:

Additional time beyond the established expiration date is required to ensure adequate completion of the originally approved project.
Continuity of sponsor grant support is required while a competing continuation application is under review.
The extension is necessary to permit an orderly phase out of a project that will not receive continued support.

The no-cost extension should be reviewed and approved by UND Research & Sponsored Programs Development. Depending on the agency, the request will be submitted appropriately.

Should the request be approved, the sponsor will issue a formal amendment to the award notice containing the new end date as well as a revised final reporting schedule. These final reports will change based upon the revised end date.

There may be limitations on the sponsor’s ability to offer grant extensions; therefore, it is not guaranteed that the request for a no-cost extension will be approved.

The fact that funds remain at the expiration of the grant is not, in itself, sufficient justification for an extension.

No-cost extension requests need to be done at least 30-days prior to the end date of the project!

Transferring an Award

A project is always awarded to the PI’s institution. Before it can be transferred to a new institution, the University needs to decide if it is appropriate to transfer the award. Once it is decided a transfer is to take place, then the specific policies of the awarding agency need to be followed. As a general rule the following must happen:

Award relinquished from the PI's Current Institution
Award applied for from the PI's New Institution