Faculty & Staff

For more information on proposal and budget development, select from one of the following topics in the pulldown menu.

Pursuit of Funding and University Restrictions

A principal investigator may become aware of international possibilities for new funding or increased funding under an existing funding instrument. The Department Chair or Center Director must be informed immediately of any possibility that the PI may want to pursue this new or additional funding. The PI may then proceed with discussions with representatives of funding agencies, but is not authorized to submit a concept paper, budget, or proposal to a funding agency, and may not formally request additional funds under an existing funding instrument.

The decision to pursue funding resides with the Department Chair or Center Director. All funding applications must be reviewed and approved by Columbia University’s Office of Research Administration with approval of the Department Chair or Center Director. In addition, all new large grants must be approved by the Mailman School Dean’s Office.

Promises or commitments from funding agency representatives do not suffice as a commitment of funds for new or existing international projects. Project staff must wait until the PI communicates that an official Notice of Award has been received by Columbia University. See Special Considerations for details.

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Risk Management Review

Proposed new international projects should be assessed to determine if they meet the criteria that require the application of the University’s policy on International Research and Service Projects: Risk Management Procedures. The procedures entail an initial review of large, complex, or high-risk international projects in the grant/contract application stage. See Risk Management for details.

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Guidelines and Resources for Preparing an Application

The most important resource for preparing an application is the University’s Sponsored Project Handbook. Institutional information that is required for inclusion in many proposals – including the University’s legal name, taxpayer identification number, and indirect cost rates – is available through another link at that same site.

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Engagement with Others in the Department or Center

The PI is responsible for engaging others in his/her department or center during the proposal development process. At a minimum, he/she should:

• Consult with the Department Chair or Center Director about the application for funding
• Work closely with the Department Administrator on all three pieces: the budget, the budget justification, and the narrative in which the operational modality will be described (see Operations  for details)

One role of the Department Administrator is to ensure that budgets for programs with more than one grant/contract are consistent with each other. This is especially important when a staff position is charged to more than one grant/contract: special attention must be given to the correct distribution of salary and fringe benefits to the funding sources.

If the funding application proposes establishing ongoing operations in a new locale, the PI should write to the Mailman School Finance Office to request that the Mailman School Dean’s Office initiate contact with the Office of the General Counsel and the Treasurer’s Office.

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Early Engagement with the Office of Research Administration

Early contact with the Office of Research Administration is required for several purposes:

• To inform RA about the plan to submit a funding proposal
• To verify with the RA Project Officer the correct fringe benefits rate, travel per diems, indirect costs rate(s) or administrative fee, and any other applicable rates that must be included in the budget (see below for more on indirect cost rates)
• To advise the RA Project Officer if the project will involve any of the following elements, for which University approvals may be needed prior to or soon after the submission of the proposal:
  
  • Use of human subjects or informants
  • Use of vertebrate animals
  • Use of recombinant DNA or hazardous materials
  • Use of the University's mainframe computer
  • Use of University space and/or special facilities
  • Subawards

These and additional required approvals are covered in the University’s Sponsored Project Handbook, the link for which may be found at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/researchadministration/. Note that projects meeting the risk-management criteria must be reviewed, as per the procedures in Institutional Review and Approval.

Research Administration requires PIs to submit all applications for funding in full, final form at least 5 business days prior to the submission deadline to allow for adequate internal review of the application. Well in advance of the deadline, PIs should send to Research Administration a draft of the project description with a copy of or the link to the solicitation for applications, if applicable. This provides the RA Project Officer with an opportunity to confirm that application instructions are followed (e.g., length, font size, and required information).

Note that Research Administration can help with proposal development by:

• Providing information via the InfoEd system on whether Columbia University has ever received an award from this agency, who received it, and the size of the proposed and awarded budgets
• Providing helpful comments on the budget, budget justification, and other issues pertinent to providing the general information required in the application

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Use of InfoEd for Electronic Proposal Development

InfoEd is the University’s grants/contracts management software. It allows tracking of grant/contract information throughout the lifespan of an award, including the pre-award and post-award phases. It generates account numbers and reports.

InfoEd’s importance to development of international projects is that it allows for and includes an electronic proposal development system. Its modules include:

• Proposal development
• Proposal tracking
• Account set-up
• Information on grant/contract and networking opportunities

For proposals to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) requiring electronic submission to grants.gov and in the future for all funding applications, PIs must use the electronic proposal development system in InfoEd.

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Indirect Cost Rates

All Columbia University applications for funding must include indirect costs. The PI should work with the Department Administrator and Research Administration to ensure the indirect cost rates and the associated calculations in the initial or renewal application are handled correctly. He/she should be aware of the following:

• Indirect costs are charged to grants and contracts as percentage rates that are known as Facilities and Administrative (F&A) cost rates and Fringe Benefit rates. The indirect cost rates for USG funding are negotiated periodically between Columbia University and the U.S. government and are documented in a formal agreement. These rates must be applied to all grants and contracts that the U.S. government awards to Columbia University. To find the F&A and fringe rates that should be used in a funding application, visit the University’s Sponsored Projects Administration site.
• All applications to USG funding agencies must include Columbia University’s official, negotiated indirect cost rates. Funding applications to non-USG entities must also include indirect cost rates. In those cases, the usual procedure is to use the NICRA rates.
• If a non-USG entity will only fund an indirect cost rate below the established NICRA rate, prior written approval is required from the department chair or center director, the Mailman School Associate Dean for Finance, and the Mailman School Vice Dean for Finance and Administration.
• The funds in the indirect costs line item on the approved project budget may not be spent by the international project. The University retains these funds in their entirety.

If project staff or in-country funding agency representatives have questions about indirect costs, these should be addressed to the Department Administrator.

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Limits on What May Be Included in Budgets

OMB Circular A-21, Cost Principles for Educational Institutions, contains specific language which precludes or limits budgeting and charging certain expenses to USG grants and contracts. These expenses include specifically unallowable costs, clerical and administrative salaries, and office supplies. For further details, see the University’s Sponsored Project Handbook found on the Sponsored Projects Administration site.

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Cost Sharing or Match

All of the resources necessary to carry out a project funded by a governmental agency, private foundation, or industrial or other funding agency should normally be budgeted on and ultimately charged to that project. There are occasions, however, when some of the costs of carrying out a project are to be funded from other sources, whether required by the funding agency as a condition of the award (Mandatory Cost Sharing), not required by the funding agency but nevertheless promised by the Principal Investigator to the agency (Voluntary Committed Cost Sharing), or not required by the funding agency and not promised by the Principal Investigator, but nevertheless charged to a funding source other than that of the project (Voluntary Uncommitted Cost Sharing).

For details on University policy, see the Columbia University Policy on Cost Sharing. Important points to keep in mind are:

• The funding source of Mandatory Cost Sharing and Voluntary Committed Cost Sharing must be identified and approved by the person with authority over those funds at the time the commitment is made to the funding agency. Further, those costs must be readily identifiable in the University’s financial records to auditors and others in order to document that those cost-sharing commitments have been met and are properly accounted for. Voluntary Uncommitted Cost Sharing does not have to be identified, nor does it have to be accounted for.
• USG regulations require that funds from non-USG awards be utilized as the source of cost sharing for USG-funded awards.
• In general, funding proposals should include only the minimum amount of cost sharing necessary to meet funding agency’s requirements, and Voluntary Committed Cost Sharing is strongly discouraged.

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Subawards

If contemplating passing funds to international or local agencies as part of project implementation, these actions will likely require formal subawards and should be noted as such in the application for funding. Subawards are subagreements and subcontracts that Columbia University gives to other entities (subrecipients) to facilitate performance of and payment for specific work to be conducted by the subrecipients.

The funding proposal should include all contemplated subawards; this is especially important for USG funding applications as part of the process for obtaining prior funding-agency approval for all subawards. Also, in the project design and its associated budget, the proposal should take into account that the University is responsible for monitoring subrecipients for compliance with all funding agency regulations and grant/contract conditions. See Subaward Mangement for guidance.

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