Office of Sponsored Programs Administration & Accounting

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April 2015 Newsletter Header

 

Notice:

Business Hours: Monday - Friday, 8:00 - 5:00pm

Updates from the Director

Participant Support Cost Reminder:

As summer approaches many of you are making plans for your sponsor supported workshops and activities and many of these projects involve ‘participants.’  Some of our sponsors, most notably the National Science Foundation, include the costs for these participants in a special category of costs called, shockingly, Participant Support Costs (PSC).   In the proposal development stage, these costs were kept in a separate section of the budget and also have special monitoring requirements from the sponsor.  

Since those monitoring requirements require that JMU not reallocate budget into, or out of, this PSC category without the prior approval of the sponsor; and since special Indirect Cost (IDC) calculations apply to PSC expenditures, it is very important for JMU to properly identify expenses as PSC at the time of the expense.    Accordingly, as expenses are incurred for budgeted Participant Support Costs, please identify those expenses as Participant Support Costs (or “PSC”) so they are handled correctly. 

Sponsored Programs Accounting monitors expenses against the sponsor’s PSC restrictions to verify that rebudgets are not required and that IDC recovery calculations are handled correctly.  Without properly identifying PSC on the expenditure forms or documentation, expenditures may be delayed or rejected in an effort to comply with the sponsor’s regulations.  Since these monies may directly impact your participants, delays in processing the paperwork could be doubly painful.  We appreciate your assistance in properly coding “Participant Support Cost” expenses, thus ensuring that the sponsor’s regulations are followed.

May Symposium

Grant Proposal

Tillie Harris’s Grant Writing workshop will be offered during May Symposium on May 13, 14 and 15.  The workshop is free to the first 20 participants.  Enroll through the CFI registration process that will be released after Spring Break.  The workshop is most beneficial to individuals that have a funding opportunity in mind, but will also benefit those that have an idea for a project, but no funding opportunity identified.
  

Featured Funding Opportunity


Dominion Higher Educational Partnership Grant

The Dominion Foundation seeks grant proposals which have immediate benefits for students, the campus and the community. Proposals must align with one of the following target areas:

  • Business: Business practices, accounting, finance, or economics
  • Craft: Welding trades, power line or pipeline construction/maintenance
  • Engineering: Chemical, civil, electrical, mechanical, petroleum and natural gas, or nuclear engineering
  • Environment: Environmental sciences and study of the environment
  • Energy: Exploration of alternative energies or student-led conservation projects
  • Technical: Information systems, electronics, control trades, power plant operations, and electrical technicians

Limit on Number of Proposals per Organization: Dominion will not fund more than one (1) grant per university. We will conduct a limited submission competition to identify the best project to represent the University.

Funding: The maximum grant award is $50,000.

Project funding excludes:

  • Multiyear grants
  • Capital campaigns, endowment funds and scholarships
  • Long-term research projects
  • Costs associated with presenting at conferences

Web: https://www.dom.com/corporate/our-commitments/community/charitable-giving-and-the-dominion-foundation/dominion-higher-educational-partnership  

Internal Deadline: April 15, 2015

Sponsor Deadline: May 15, 2015 
 
Indicate your interest in pursuing an application by submitting the required Limited Submission Form by April 15.

Timely Topics

Year-End Preparations & Reminders

Before we know it the mid-summer fiscal year end period is approaching. While most sponsored program funding does “carry over” to the next fiscal year in accordance with the award’s project period, many projects end in June or July. Some projects have University matching pledges that do not carry over and need to be expended before the June 30 fiscal year end. Accordingly, please start now to ensure funds are not “lost” at year end. Given the required transactional “cut-off” to prepare for year end, and given that this is Procurement’s “busy season,” it is more appropriate to set May 31 as the target date to encumber all your expenses for the year. That will allow a week or two to reconcile balances and ensure all goods and services are received before the funds available to pay for them vanish.

Small Purchase Credit Cards and Year End Processing

Following is a reminder from the SPCC administrator: Fiscal Year-End is quickly approaching. In order for small purchase charge card charges to be on your June 15th statement and paid out of this fiscal year’s funds, please make sure all charges are made by June 9, 2015. Not all vendors will post charges immediately to your card; therefore, please be sure to check your account in WORKS to be certain the charges have posted.

Compliance Corner

For Export Controls:

Virginia Tech, University of Virginia, and George Mason University are excited to host the Third Annual Impact of Export Controls on Higher Education & Scientific Institutions

When: Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday June 7-9th 2015 
Where: Washington DC Liaison Capitol Hill

This year's conference will focus on US Export Controls for the academic and scientific community. The goal of this conference is to engage the university community on the export control issues that specifically affect universities, clinical research centers, and other nonprofit research institutions, and to share best practices for colleges and universities to address these compliance issues.  Please visit http://www.cpe.vt.edu/2015export/index.html for more information.  


Research Integrity: Change in IRB Process (Effective June 1, 2015) 

Starting June 1, 2015 actions that require responses on your part will be handled by the following process: 

Submissions will no longer be accepted on an old form. Any submissions received on outdated forms will be returned and you will be requested to fill out the new form. Please pull all forms from the Office of Research Integrity website to ensure they are current.

  1. Email notification will be sent to you detailing any actions needed from you regarding your protocol. If you have any questions regarding actions noted, you are encouraged to contact the Office of Research Integrity immediately.
  2. ONE courtesy reminder will be emailed to you requesting the need for actions on your part. If no response is received within (5) business days, your file will be closed and marked as incomplete. If you wish to start the project over, you will need to resubmit for review and approval. 

We know this is a change from how this has been handled in the past.  However, the changes are necessary due to the increased volume of protocol submissions and also in order for us to better track information for reporting purposes. 

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Office of Research Integrity.

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