Subject:                               Time:4:01 PM
 OFFICE MEMO          Pre-award costs                        Date:6/12/95

At Yale, we have set up a system to approve spending before an official award
notice is received (this is not really pre-award costs--we consider this a late
award notice).  As federal agencies lose staff, we are noticing that quite a few
award notices come in after the project start date.  To allow the PI to begin
the project and incur costs, we have developed a form, which must be signed by
the PI and the department chair, which requests that a grant account be opened
before receipt of the award.  The chair's signature indicates that if, for any
reason, the award does not come in, the department will be responsible for any
costs incurred.  Naturally, we only use this procedure when we are certain that
an award will be made and we have been told by the agency what the start date
will be.  There have been few problems with this procedure--only a couple of
instances when the agency screwed up and the award began later than anticipated.
 Our auditors have reviewed the form and procedure and have no problem with it.
The same form is also used when requesting pre-award costs for those federal
agencies which allow this.  If anyone is interested in seeing the form, I'll be
happy to fax it.
Sally Tremaine, Assistant Director, Grant and Contract Administration, Yale
University, xxxxxx@qm.yale.edu