Hello all-
I have a PI who is submitting a conference grant to NIH, and we have a
budget question:
How do we charge meals?

Yes, I know "entertainment" is unallowable, but we can't keep conference
participants in a room all day and not feed them.  Last time the PI did
this, NIH refused to reimburse these expenses because they were listed only
as "meals."  So, it seems that, though it is a necessary part of a several
day conference, meal expense has to called something else in order to become
an allowable cost.  The NIH guidelines seem to imply that these expenses can
be listed in two different (and supposedly allowable) ways:  we can charge
the maximum per diem, which includes lodging and meals, for each participant
as part of the travel budget, or we can list the meals as a necessary part
of the conference (meeting expense) and therefore included in the
registration fee (using, then, the lodging-only per diem rate in the travel
budget).

So, I guess my question really is, which way is better, in NIH's eyes?

I'd appreciate any advice you can give me.
Thanks,
-Amy

Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what
no one else has thought.
-Albert von Nagyrapolt

Amy Hibbard
Grants Administrator
Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences
535 Watson Drive, Claremont, CA 91711
T: (909) 607-9313 / 607-7855
F: (909) 607-8086
xxxxxx@kgi.edu
www.kgi.edu

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