We have also run into this situation and were able to get ahold of the policy office at NSF. They told us that we should not be budgeting speaker travel as participant support cost. Rather we budget speaker travel as Other Direct Costs. The only instance I can see where this could be different is if the participants are speaking as part of their participation in the project (this has happened for a graduate research conference). However, in that instance I would consider those individuals to be participants and not speakers.

Thanks,

Kyle Johnson
Manager, Proposal Services
Sponsored Projects & Contracting Services
University of Arizona
(520) 626-6113
xxxxxx@email.arizona.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: Research Administration List <xxxxxx@LISTS.HEALTHRESEARCH.ORG> On Behalf Of Kelly Millsaps
Sent: Wednesday, August 1, 2018 1:28 PM
To: xxxxxx@LISTS.HEALTHRESEARCH.ORG
Subject: Re: [RESADM-L] Participant Costs

We just recently went through this. I asked for clarification from the PO (before escalating to the policy office) why he had requested speaker travel to be moved to participant costs (and cited policy newsletters that were provided to me by this listserv) and was told the policy was not enforced by his division. That seemed slightly outrageous to me, so I kept asking questions and told him I would need written guidance from the Grants Officer to keep for our records if we were going to make such a change. He forwarded a string of emails from his Program Director where division directors, grants administrators, etc. had conferred on a situation where a university had requested to keep speaker travel in participant costs after being asked to move them. Their reason was that all attendees had a primary role as a participant, and some were only subsequently speakers. The division determined that if the primary role was that of a participant, then they belonged in participant support costs.

After checking with my PI, I explained to the PO that our speakers were primarily speakers. The PO was then fine (and maybe slightly exasperated) with me keeping the speaker travel in Other Direct Costs. Still waiting to see if it's awarded and whether the grants officer will request any changes. But in the Budget Impact Statement, I made sure to include a sentence saying what the speakers' primary roles were.

Kelly

Kelly Millsaps
Grant Specialist
Grants and Contracts Administration
University of North Georgia
82 College Circle, Dahlonega, GA 30597-0001 Downtown Office Building Room 308A
(706) 867-2139 | xxxxxx@ung.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@LISTS.HEALTHRESEARCH.ORG] On Behalf Of Truscello, Roberta
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2018 7:52 PM
To: xxxxxx@LISTS.HEALTHRESEARCH.ORG
Subject: Re: [RESADM-L] Participant Costs

?Hi Sophia,

We are in a similar situation, and are not having much luck in reaching a common understanding of what expenses belong in this category.

Roberta

Roberta Truscello, M.A., C.R.A. | Director of Sponsored Programs | Hobart and William Smith Colleges | 20 Seneca Street |  Geneva, New York | phone: 315.781.3754 ________________________________
From: Research Administration List <xxxxxx@LISTS.HEALTHRESEARCH.ORG> on behalf of Sophia Hinojosa <xxxxxx@SCU.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2018 6:30 PM
To: xxxxxx@LISTS.HEALTHRESEARCH.ORG
Subject: [RESADM-L] Participant Costs

We have a program officer who is asking us to move conference speakers travel to participant costs. Here's the program officers response when we questioned:

The speakers are also participants.  Section E is only travel for Pis/co-Pis/students and others listed in section A.

Has anyone else had experience with this?

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