[Sa-rfp] FW: Questions regarding Summer Academies Solicitation

Tue Aug 25 12:54:56 CDT 2015

I thought I sent this last week but for some reason folks didn't receive it.
In the interim, we now have an answer to #1.

From: Brown, Cynthia (OSRHE)
Sent: Monday, August 17, 2015 3:53 PM
To: SA-RFP (sa-rfp at lists.onenet.net<mailto:sa-rfp at lists.onenet.net>)
Subject: Questions regarding Summer Academies Solicitation

The following questions have been received by my office. I am sharing the responses in order to give everyone the same information.
#7 at the bottom relates to the new Recipient Commitment Form. These responses were given by Dr. Linda Mason, State Regents Coordinator of Grant Writing.

1.       Regarding the academy students, is an academy focused on a particular disability (i.e. a deaf education camp) allowable?
We are working on this one. Our attorney believes that the Oklahoma statute disallows this in the same way as other subgroups but is double checking for us.
After further conferring with our attorneys, we have decided this will not be an acceptable use of these funds.

2.       Regarding the mandatory training session to be conducted in January 2016, is this mandatory for only the first year of multiple year awards or for each year?  Is the attendance of the lead PI the only required attendee?  If not, what other attendees are required to attend?  Will this be conducted via webinar or on location?  If on location, where will this take place?  Will it be a one day or multiple day training session?  Will the costs of travel to/from the location be an allowable cost (if not conducted as a webinar) to the grant?

We request that you have someone attend each year in case there are changes in law, funding, etc. One person can carry the message to all if that is your preference. This will be a videoconference.

3.     Regarding subcontractors, should we submit a detailed budget form (Summer Academies Budget) that reflects the costs by line item for each of our subcontractors?

We have not had grants with subcontractors in the past so this is new territory for us. At this time, we will use the current budget and expenditure form which will be submitted by the grant recipient.

4.     Regarding the budget forms, are we to submit a budget form for each of the three years?  As I understand it, the budget must be consistent across each year.  How are we to treat salary increases or increases in costs from one year to the next?  Are we expected to maintain the same bottom line for each year based on the first year's budget?

We want one year's budget form. You will be asked to submit a new budget and abstract each year if we plan to continue your funding.

5.  Would you recommend including detailed lab procedures for the activities/experiments that we're going to do?  If so, will they count toward the ten-page maximum for the narrative?
Anything you include does count toward the ten-page narrative. I am less concerned with detailed lab procedures than with more broadly understanding the experiences the students will have.

6. (1) Can our proposal be considered for both the continued funding and the one-time funding? (2) When an applicant gets awarded a grant out of the $561,000 funding pool, do all three years of that grant come out of that $561,000 or does the $561,000 just fund the first year? In other words, if we have to choose which pot of money to apply for, we're trying to determine if the $561,000 provides approximately 8 grants or approximately 24 grants.
The $561,000 funds one year of three-year continuing grants. We do usually fund approximately 24 grants.
As to the two pots, this is still a bit nebulous but I anticipate that folks whose grants are just below the cut-off for 3-year awards, will be offered a one-year award with the hope we will be given more one-time funds next year.

7.      Regarding the Recipient Commitment Form, this appears to be a certification for federal funds.  As I understand it, the funds provided are state funds and are not federal funds.  Why are we being asked to certify to federal requirements that do not apply to these funds?
The OSRHE grant policy is based on the best practices. As such, we wish to practice all the best practices regarding grant funding with all our grants, regardless of the source.

a.     The Conflict of Interest section refers to 42 CFR Part 50, Subpart F which are the requirements of PHS's conflict of interest policy.  This is required for PHS funding (and a few other agencies) and is not a broad federal requirement.  In accordance with the Uniform Guidance, each federal agency is to institute their own COI policy. We ask that you respond to your institutional COI policy. As such, each sponsor may have different requirements.  Why are the PHS policies specifically referenced here, especially since these are not PHS funds?  I understand the inclusion of the second section of this Article but not the first (the one referencing the PHS policy).  Are we expected to apply the PHS policy to these funds even though they are not PHS funds?  If so, what is the state statute or requirement to do this? OSRHE has decided to treat all grant funded projects the same regardless of the source of funding. We ask that you monitor your Conflict of Interest in relation to our grants to you.

b.     The Responsible Conduct of Research section refers to training required for NSF research funds. Our requirement is that students who are conducting research be trained on Responsible Conduct of Research, regardless of the funding source of their research.   If this is referencing the NSF policy, these are not NSF funds.  Also, NSF's specific policy applies to research and does not require workshops to take this training.  As state funding, why are these policies being applied to these funds, especially since these are not research projects?  What is the state statute or requirement to do this?  Since this applies specifically to "researchers" would this be self-deleting?

c.      Cost Sharing/Matching In-Kind.  If additional funding is proposed to support additional efforts, will this then become mandatory cost sharing that must be met during the course of the project?  Otherwise, if additional support is provided but not quantified, is this acceptable Yes and will it be seen as leveraging or does it have to be quantified and appear in the budget as indicated in the Rating form? Not unless the solicitation requires matching funding Institutional support may be in a form that cannot be quantified.  Will this not be considered for points?

d.     Regarding the Institutional Grant Policy, this requests a copy of the university's "grant policy."  While some of our policies are available on line, many are not.  Are you requiring that all of our policies related to sponsored programs be printed and submitted with our proposal or are there specific policies that you are requesting?  If the grant policy is in a publically accessible place, such as online, we can just access it. Can we not just certify that we have policies in place? The institutional grant officer or responsible person is responding to Dr. Linda Mason with a statement of where the policy is and/or when the policy will be available before December 31, 2015. Check with that person to see your status, or ask Dr. Linda Mason for a statement of status.

e.     Regarding subcontractors/partners, if we have a subcontractor(s), are we required to submit a Statement of Assurances signed by each institution's President?  Are we required to submit a Recipient Commitment Form from each of our subcontractors along with their grant policies?  Yes

f.       Regarding Mandatory Violation Disclosure, this is again a federal requirement under 2 CFR 200.  Why is this being applied to state funding?  It is a best practice that OSRHE will adopt formally in the next couple of months.

g.      If OSHRE is implementing the Uniform Guidance through this form and applying it to the institutions, the Uniform Guidance also requires that full indirect costs be paid to institutions with negotiated rate agreements.  Is this portion of the Uniform Guidance going to be applied as well as the other federal requirements referenced in this form?  Yes, for those grants that are received with a full award of negotiated direct costs, the grant will pass on the full award of negotiated direct cost to the subgrantee. In the case of a limited amount, such as a cap at a certain % that is below the negotiated indirect cost, such pass through would have that limit. In the case that there is no indirect cost attached to the grant, the subgrantee will receive no indirect cost.

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