Office of Sponsored Programs Administration & Accounting
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Notice:Business Hours: Monday - Friday, 8:00 - 5:00pm |
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Updates from the Director |
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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. REMINDER: All Office Supplies MUST be purchased through The Supply Room Companies (TSRC) Effective March 1, 2015, all office supply related items must be purchased through TSRC. This requirement extends to grant-related purchases as well. Reimbursements for office supplies are no longer acceptable, except in extraordinary and documented circumstances. The purchase of an office supply related item must be made through TSRC even if TSRC can only provide a comparable item. All purchasers will need to be flexible in their choice of office supply related items. Choosing items from the “Best Value List” will ensure the university and your department the most significant savings. Procurement Services has FAQ’s, a Fact Sheet and training resources related to this mandatory contract on their site, http://www.jmu.edu/procurement/index.shtml. |
Featured Funding Opportunity |
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Research Corporation Requires Preliminary Proposals for the Cottrell Scholars Program Research Corporation’s Cottrell Scholar (CS) program champions the very best early career teacher-scholars in chemistry, physics and astronomy by providing significant discretionary awards for research. Funding: $100,000 (3 years) Eligibility: tenure-track faculty members whose primary appointment is in a department of astronomy, chemistry or physics that offers, the minimum, a bachelor’s degree. Limited to faculty members who started their first tenure-track appointment anytime in calendar year 2012. Pre-proposal due May 15, 2015 Full proposal (by invitation only) due August 1, 2015. The online pre-proposal seeks technical content only and no budgetary information. Therefore, it is not necessary to run the pre-proposal through the Office of Sponsored Programs for University approval. |
Timely Topics |
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Need help administering your awarded grant budget or E&G budget? Try the OSP Budget Management Tool, designed to aid PI’s and their admins in the management of their grants and state budgets. This Excel based tool is user-friendly and comes with a written User Guide, as well as staff support for tutorials and to answer questions. The tool features a Budget Summary tab which gives the viewer the most basic budget information at a glance, an Expenditures tab used to enter all information about the org, including the original budget, budget revisions, and expenditures. It also includes a Budget Detail tab which gives in-depth data including budgeted amounts (including budget revisions), spent amounts and encumbered amounts for upcoming expenses. In addition there are Payroll and Travel tabs that can be used if desired, a Sub-award tab (on the grant versions) that allows the user to keep track of the remaining balance on any sub-awards, and a Budget Forecasting tab which helps project the budgetary needs of a project or state org for the next funding cycle. The tool is located at https://www.jmu.edu/sponsoredprogramsaccounting/accnt-resources.shtml and is available for one grant or state org, up to 5 grants or state orgs, and up to 12 grants or state orgs. If you are interested in learning more, feel free to visit the website mentioned above or call Cindi Smead (smeadca) at 8-6872.
The Uniform Guidance (UG) consolidated and simplified existing circulars from the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) into one regulation which governs the University’s costing practices and administration of federal grants and cooperative agreements. This new “super-circular” took effect on December 26, 2014 and applies to new awards and to additional funding (funding increments) to existing awards. Regulatory changes in the UG will ease administrative burden in some areas but add a few "challenges" in others. Uniform Guidance Information Page Uniform Guidance Quick Guide by Topic Federal Agency Implementation Plans for the Uniform Guidance Each federal agency is required to promulgate its own regulations to implement the UG. This is called the Revised Research Terms and Conditions (RTC). Check on progress for sponsors’ compliance with this requirement here. Previous Newsletters with UG content: July 2014, September 2014, October 2014, November 2014, February 2015 |
Compliance Corner |
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New Cuba Export Regulations The Department of Treasury, Office of Foreign Asset Controls (OFAC) has amended the Cuba Asset Control Regulations 31 CFR 515 to implement the new Cuba Policy announced by President Obama on December 17, 2014. Revisions that are pertinent to universities include being able to travel to Cuba for professional research and to attend professional conferences. The new regulations are available on the Federal Register's website: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2015/01/16/2015-00632/cuban-assets-control-regulations The Department of Commerce also issued an amendment to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) in support of the new Cuba policy. The EAR amendment creates a new license exception SCP (Support for the Cuban People), which authorizes the temporary export of certain items for use in professional research and educational activities. More information is available on the Department of Commerce's website: http://www.commerce.gov/news/fact-sheets/2015/01/15/fact-sheet-us-department-commerce-and-us-department-treasury-announcemen |
