Amy,

When I did a conference grant budget (not NIH), we made sure that there was an
agenda during the meal, then it was okay.  So, have a luncheon speaker or have
special discussion groups or hold a business meeting if it's a societal meeting
during the meal.  The other possibility is to pay for the meals through the
registration fees.

Ruth

Ruth Tallman
Office of Research and Sponsored Programs
Lehigh University
526 Brodhead Avenue
Bethlehem, PA  18015
Phone:   (610)758-3024
FAX:    (610)758-5994
E-mail:   xxxxxx@lehigh.edu

Amy Hibbard wrote:

> 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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