Forward:

The submission of both research grant and contract proposals is an absolutely critical component of the overall operations of the College of Pharmacy.  The College Administration encourages any and all faculty to submit as many competitive proposals as possible, as this activity is an integral component of a faculty member's effort reports and annual report.

In following, an “abbreviated” handbook on contract and grant proposal processing has been developed by the College of Pharmacy that should help all new and/or established faculty members in the college make the contract/grant administrative processing at both the college and university levels somewhat more friendly.

It is not our intentions to “reinvent the wheel” with this handbook… just to make the information more accessible to the individual faculty and grants administrative staff, such that contract/grant processing will be a smoother procedure throughout the college.  The handbook will have as little writing or explanation as possible… instead it will make use of hyper links to various web sites (i.e. inside the college and university or at external sites) that already have information or forms available for individual investigators.

As this is the first attempt at developing this handbook, the handbook will continuously be updated.  The use of hyper links ensures that this handbook will stay as current as the hyper links are.  I ask that any new hyper link that an individual investigator or grants administrator deems important to the “handbook” be sent to the Dean's Office and it will be incorporated into the handbook.
 
 

The College of Pharmacy contract and grant processing policies are identical to those of the University of Florida Division of Sponsored Research (DSR).  Investigators first need to become familiar with UF policies.  In doing so they, in turn, will be familiar with COP policies.  There are four (4) additional forms required by the College in addition to any DSR and specific funding agency forms.

The four forms relate to the proper documenting of contracts/grants that either originate in the College or utilize investigators whose primary appointments reside in the College for either fiscal (Proposal Processing Fact Sheet) or laboratory space (Grant/Contract Space Commitment Form) purposes, as well as to identify any possible conflict of interest ( Conflict of Interest Statement) or cost sharing issues (Cost Sharing Letter) with an individual proposal.

Because there is some time in making sure all contract/grant forms are completed and proper sign off activity has been completed, signature sheets and budget forms for a given contract/grant should be submitted to the College Office at least four to five days in advance of the contract/grant deadline.

PLEASE NOTE: If the Principal Investigator (PI) of a given contract/grant is a faculty member with their primary appointment in the College of Pharmacy, the College requires that all signatures pertaining to a given contract/grant be obtained prior to submitting it the College Office for final sign off.

At the time of sign off the COP requires the following (suggested order of submission):

 

	Proposal Processing Fact Sheet
	Contract/Grant Space Commitment Form

	Disclosure of Financial Conflict of Interest Form(s)
	Cost Sharing Letter

	Intercollege Grant Agreement Form (only required when faculty from multiple colleges are involved and the funding amount is in excess of $10,000)
	Contract/Grant Head Sheet (if a contract then the completed contract with signatures needs to be included)

	Abstract
	Budget Pages with Justifications (include NIH modular budget page)

	Checklist (NIH Only)
	DSR-1 Signature Form (if the PI is from the COP then the COP Dean's Office will be the last to sign off.  Please obtain all signatures from other colleges/centers first.)
	Modular Grant Checklist

Proposal Development

New Faculty Guide
DSR Manual
DSR Database Search
Proposal Submission (deadlines, frequently used facts, eligibility, fringe calculation, etc.)
Salary Offset Calculation Tool
F & A (indirect) Cost Rates
Human and Animal Subjects Approval

DSR –1 Signature Page
Institutional Review Board Approval Form (UF and HSC)
Animal Use Form
Cost Accounting Standard Exception Approval Form
Disclosure of Financial Conflict of Interest Form for all National Institute of Health/Public Health Service (NIH/PHS) or National Science Foundation (NSF) proposals

Proposal Submission Information
Budget Calculation Information
Facilities and Administrative (F&A or IDC) Rates
Salary Offset Calculation Tool

UFRF Handbook

Guidelines and Procedures

UFRF A1 – Authorization to Establish a Research Account
UFRF B1 – Authorization to Establish an account for License, Royalty or Copyright Agreement
UFRF C1 – Direct Disbursement Request
UFRF D1 – Request for Reimbursement for Travel and Entertainment Expenses
UFRF E1 – Equipment Purchase Request

Since the University of Florida is a state institution, reimbursement for its operational expenses should logically go back to the State, which initially advanced the costs incurred for federally funded projects.  However, the Florida Legislature has implemented a far-sighted policy that allows each state university to retain 100% of the recovered indirect cost funds.  In addition to funding RGP’s operating costs, RGP returns a portion of the IDC earnings directly to the PI (10%), dean (7.5%), department chair (7.5%), and if appropriate, the director of certain authorized centers (7.5%).

The 7.5% center share does not come out of the PI/DEAN/DEPARTMENT share but is in addition to the PI/DEAN/DEPARTMENT allocation.  Therefore, individual investigators should include, whenever possible, an appropriate center in the determination of IDC allocation at the time of contract/grant submission.

IDC return funds must be used for the support of research and research related activities.  This return generally occurs in January of each year and is based upon the indirect costs recovered from sponsors in the preceding fiscal year (July 1 – June 30).

The UFRF also follows this policy and applies this formula to any awards administered through the UFRF that have recovered indirect costs.
 

UF Policy

F&A Rates

UF Policy

COP Tuition Costs (scroll to the bottom of this link to find chart)
 

UF Technology and Licensing (OTL) Homepage
 

Federal Guidelines
OMB Circulars
UF Policies
Justification to Allow Direct Charge
 

The COP has developed a database whereby contract/grant submission activity of a given faculty member, department or the college can be tracked during any given fiscal year.  The database is and will be utilized by the Dean's Office during annual evaluations, determination of faculty rewards and annual faculty salary raises.  Therefore, the database needs to be as complete and as accurate as possible.  Thus, all faculty must send all new or continuation (competing and non-competing) contracts/grants through the Dean's office for documentation.  To simplify gathering of information about an individual contract or grant the COP generated a Proposal Processing Fact Sheet to be completed at the time of obtaining college signatures for a given contract/grant.  Contract/grant sign off will not be done in the COP unless the Proposal Processing Fact Sheet is properly and completely filled out.  Click here for the Proposal Processing Fact Sheet.

Specific items that are absolutely critical to complete on the Proposal Processing Fact Sheet are:

  All faculty with primary appointments in the COP, whether PI, Co-PI or Investigator need to include their deemed % effort and any salary offset (salary and fringe) for the first year only.

IMPORTANT: The COP understands that some funding agencies will not pay salaries for investigators.  Nevertheless, when this occurs each PI, Co-PI or Investigator still needs to include both their % effort and a copy of a statement from the agency that salaries will not be paid.

The COP has established a full-cost salary offset policy and mechanism whereby individual COP members can be rewarded for obtaining salary support from outside sources.  Click here for the COP Salary Offset Policy.

Name of Agency
Title of Grant
Projected Funded Period
Total Costs, Total Direct Costs and any Indirect Costs

IMPORTANT: The COP understands that some funding agencies will not pay IDCs on contracts/grants.  When this occurs each PI, CO-PI or Investigator will need to include a statement from the agency that IDCs will not be paid.

IMPORTANT: The COP requests that, whenever possible, each PI, Co-PI or Investigator will seek graduate student and tuition support from extramural sources.  Click here to calculate tuition costs for the COP.

The COP follows the guidelines of the University regarding Disclosure of Financial Conflict of Interest to all Federal Agencies.  Click here for the Disclosure of Financial Conflict of Interest Policy.

In an attempt to establish full monitoring of any financial conflicts of interest in the COP the following policy has been established:  Effective July 1, 2001 all COP faculty who may be a PI, Co-PI or an Investigator will be required to submit a signed Disclosure of Financial Conflict of Interest Form with every contract/grant regardless of funding source.  Click here for the Disclosure of Financial Conflict of Interest Form.
 

To ensure that a given contract/grant does not commit the COP to any additional funding, equipment, or space other than as specified below or in current use by the investigator(s), department(s), center(s), specialized service centers or recharge centers the Contract/Grant Space Commitment Form was established in the College.  This form needs to be completed and signed by the originating investigator, department chair and center director (if necessary) at the time of sign off in the College.  Click here for the Contract/Grant Space Commitment Form.
 

The NIH has instituted the new modular grant processing for all grants with annual direct costs of less than $250,000.  Click here for more information on NIH modular grants.

The new NIH modular grant process was designed to simplify the budgetary review process for NIH’s review.  However, the College and UF still need to have some vital information regarding the specific budget for both university and college accounting purposes.  This information relates to the personnel involved on the grant as well as the mechanism by which IDC rates are calculated.  To simplify this process the COP has developed a new modular grant checklist which is to be included with all modular grants at the time of sign off.  Click here for the NIH Modular Grant Checklist.
 

The colleges (Dentistry, Health Professions, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy and Veterinary Medicine) within the HSC at the University of Florida recognize the need to become more accountable with extramural research contract/grant monitoring for the University of Florida and Federal Cost Accounting Standards (CAS).  Thus, the HSC colleges have entered into a memorandum of understanding that, whenever possible, sub-accounts will be established in the Division of Sponsored Research (DSR) for investigators who enter into collaborative contracts/grants that extend across two or more of the HSC colleges or departments within a given college.

As part of this HSC memorandum of understanding, the “originating” PI will agree by their signature to establish with DSR appropriate and proportional sub-accounts (Co-PI/Co-Investigator sub-accounts) in the amount outlined in the Total Costs category of the table.  The Co-PI/Co-Investigators sub-accounts will be established upon funding of the proposal for Co-PI/Co-Investigator outside the “originating” PI’s college or department.  The Co-Investigator sub-accounts will include all salary offset dollars and any supply costs or other costs in the contract/grant owed to the respective investigator and agreed to by the “originating” PI to complete the project.  A sub-account is only required whenever total dollars allocated to the Co-PI or Co-Investigator exceeds $10,000.  Click here for the Intercollege Agreement Form.

CONTRACT REQUEST DOCUMENT

The Contracts Services Office now requires that all new contracts be sent to their office with a Contract Request document. This applies to Faculty Practice Association contracts as well. Click here for the Contract Request Document.

The University of Florida, with the approval of the Board of Regents, established the UFRF, a direct support organization, in June 1986. The UFRF was conceived to promote, encourage and provide assistance to the research activities of the University faculty, staff and students. Incorporated by the State of Florida in August 1986, the not-for-profit organization provides a means by which research can be conducted flexibly and efficiently and by which discoveries, inventions, processes and work products of University of Florida faculty, staff and students, can be transferred from the laboratory to the public. Funds generated by licensing such discoveries are used to enhance research at the University of Florida.

The University of Florida Research Foundation administers certain contracts and grants as an alternative to administration through DSR. Contracts and grants from either federal or state agencies can not be administered through the UFRF.

Principal Investigators should contact DSR to determine which route to use in accepting and administering their award. However, the following quick checklist may help investigators determine if there is an advantage to placing an award in the UFRF:

1. Grant funds associated with a research project designated for a national or international conference may be administered through the UFRF, provided they do not involve Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credits, in which case they should be administered through the Division of Continuing Education.

2. If there are funds for travel, the UFRF pays, not by per diem, but from receipts.

3. The UFRF can pay for food and beverages if there is proper justification showing that the expenditure is tied to the research project or to a meeting or conference related to the research project.

4. If a contract/grant has an extremely low component related to the payment of salaries… these contracts/grants would be administered best through DSR. The component of an award to pay salaries to University of Florida employees must be paid through the University of Florida, in which case the salary funds are transferred to a University of Florida research account.

5. An award intended to be declared a charitable deduction by the grantor must be deemed by the Internal Revenue Service to have complied with IRS Code 170. This requires that the donor(s) neither have direct control over the project, nor be reasonably expected to receive an economic benefit in return. This precludes a Principal Investigator donating money to his own research project. It also precludes a charitable donor company from receiving any intellectual property rights or deliverables, either formally or informally.
   

FORMS

University

DSR Forms
DSR 1 - Signature Pages
UFRF Forms

Proposal Processing Fact Sheet
Disclosure of Financial Conflict of Interest
Contract/Grant Space Commitment
Cost Sharing Letter
NIH Modular Grant Checklist
Intercollege Grant Agreement
Contract Request Document

NIH and NSF
College of Medicine
Research and Graduate Programs (RGP)

Last revised September 4, 2003
Address comments to debbie@cop.ufl.edu