Page 83 of the NIH Grants Policy Statement provides the explanation --
the F&A for entire project period is calculated on the basis of the F&A
rate in place at the beginning of the competitive period.

At a previous institution, the rate went from 40 to 43 and then back to
41.  While the awards were not adjusted, the organization adjusted its
F&A recovery.  So, for the first change, PIs had to re-budget from
direct to indirect without changing  the total costs.  Then when it went
down, the got a little back as direct costs.

John

John R. Baumann, Ph.D.
Director
Office of Sponsored Programs & Research Support
University of Missouri -- Kansas City
5100 Rockhill Road (US Postal Service)
5211 Rockhill Road (Express Delivery)
Kansas City, MO 64110

816.235.1303 (v)
816.235.6532 (f)
xxxxxx@umkc.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: Ruth Tallman [mailto:xxxxxx@LEHIGH.EDU]
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2003 9:45 AM
To: xxxxxx@HRINET.ORG
Subject: [RESADM-L] Falling F&A Rate

Good Morning, O Wise Resadm-l'ers,

Twice in one day I found myself talking about new awards and using the
F&A rate that was in effect at the time of the award throughout the
project period (usually three years).

Would someone please direct me to the standard or circular in which this
is spelled out?  Drawing a blank.

One of the reasons this came up is because our rate is about to go down
by 4 percentage points effective July 1, 2003.  Would you please let me
know how you would deal with this at your institution?  Here are the
issues we've discussed:

For new awards (not continuations) that come in over the next four
months, should we re-negotiate the F&A rate before receiving the award?

Would your institution stand firm at the old rate for three years of a
new award?

What if... a proposal was submitted at the higher rate but is awarded
after 7/1/03 - would your institution set-up the new award at the old,
proposed rate or use the new rate and rebudget the funds into other
budget categories?

If you rebudget awards proposed at the old, higher rate using the new
lower rate, do you claim the difference as cost-sharing?

I think it would be required to cost-share the difference but then,
right now,  I don't know where to begin to look for the topic of keeping
the F&A rate constant for the life of the award!  (It's the stress of
digging out of 24 inches of snow during an orange alert.)

As always, your feedback would be most appreciated.

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

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 Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including
 subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available
 via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists")
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