May 24, 2011

Impact of Regents’ Decision to Change “Educational Fee” to “Tuition” on Budgeting for Sponsored Projects

At the November 18, 2010 meeting of the Regents of the University of California, the following changes were made to Regents Policy 310 (University of California Student Fee Policy and Policy on Fees for Selected Professional School Students). These changes are effective as of July 1, 2011.
  1. Changing the name of the Educational Fee to “Tuition”
  2. Changing the name of Fees for Selected Professional School Students to “Professional Degree Supplemental Tuition”
  3. Changing the name of Nonresident Tuition to “Nonresident Supplemental Tuition”
Berkeley’s Office of The Registrar has implemented these changes for 2011-12: http://registrar.berkeley.edu/?PageID=feesched.html.

Principal Investigators should note that these changes will impact proposals to sponsors that have been willing to pay the above charges as “fees” but currently disallow “tuition” charges. This means that PIs will no longer be able to budget for fees if in fact these charges are now more appropriately termed tuition.

How sponsors will react to the change in classification of such charges under existing awards is not yet known. SPO will provide additional information on this as it becomes available.

May 13, 2011

DOED Cancels 2011 FIPSE Comprehensive Program

The U.S. Department of Education announced that the fiscal year 2011 Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) Comprehensive Program has been cancelled because “Congressional action on the FY 2011 budget substantially reduced funds available.” The program application deadline had been May 23, 2011.

The FIPSE Comprehensive Program supports reforms, innovations, and significant improvements of postsecondary education that respond to problems of national significance and serve as national models. The FY 2011 program announcement had estimated “$20,347,000 for awards under this competition. The actual level of funding, if any, depends on final congressional action.”

May 06, 2011

ONR Offering Funding for STEM Education Projects

The Office of Naval Research is offering a Sponsoring Scholars in Science Awards program to generate projects that cultivate student interest and participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), as part of a Navy-wide educational initiative. Up to 10 proposals will earn awards of $100,000 each in seed funding for further research and development of initiatives supporting K-12, higher education and educational research.

ONR will collect white papers for the program at the 2011 Naval Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Forum. All submissions must be presented in person at the event, to be held June 15-16 in Alexandria, Virginia.

May 03, 2011

Federal Standard Research Terms and Conditions Updated

The National Science Foundation issued a notice that new versions of the Research Terms and Conditions have been posted on the NSF web site:
The federal Research Terms and Conditions are a standard core set of administrative terms and conditions on research and research-related awards that are subject to OMB Circular A-­110, ‘‘Uniform Administrative Requirements for Grants and Agreements With Institutions of Higher Education, Hospitals, and Other Non-Profit Organizations’’ (2 CFR part 215).

The NSF announcement stated that ‘‘While there were NO changes made to the actual side-by-side version of the Research Terms, since the appendices are formally a part of the Research Terms, the document was simply re-dated and reposted to the NSF website. Using the date of June 2011 will provide sufficient time for all agencies to make any necessary changes to their systems to adjust to this new date.’’

NSF included a summary of the significant changes made to the Appendices:

Changes made to Appendix B: Subaward Requirements
  • Updated USDA/CSREES to reflect name change to USDA/NIFA, and other associated changes
Changes made to Appendix C: National Policy Requirements Matrix

New Categories of Requirements:
  • Created New Category, Health and Safety Standards
  • Created New Category, National Security Guidelines
  • Created New Category, General/Miscellaneous Requirements, and alphabetized listing of items that fall under this category
Federal-wide Requirements:
  • Added DUNS requirement
  • Added CCR requirement
  • Added FFATA
  • Added Hotel and Motel Fire Safety Act
  • Added Text Messaging While Driving
  • Added Prohibition on ACORN funding
  • Updated assurance language for NEPA to read: “Before a funding decision is made by the federal agency, identify to the awarding agency all potential impacts this award may have on”
  • Consolidated False Claims Act provisions and updated reference for EPA
  • Modified Human Stem Cell Research – updated and corrected
  • Updated Government-wide Debarment and Suspension references
  • Updated Paperwork Reduction Act by adding reference to M-11-07 “Facilitating Scientific Research by Streamlining the Paperwork Reduction Act Process”
  • Updated Research Misconduct reference for USDA/NIFA
  • Updated Environmental Standards reference for EPA
  • Updated Clean Air Act reference for EPA
  • Updated Metric System reference for EPA
  • Updated National Historic Preservation reference for EPA
  • Updated Utilization of Small Business Concerns reference for EPA
Agency Specific:
  • Added Federal Information System Security Management Act (HHS awards only)
  • Added Cert of Filing and Payment of Taxes (NIH awards only)
  • Added “and Exceptions on Restrictions on Abortions”
  • Added Training of Grad Students for Doctoral Degrees
  • Deleted “Restriction on Employment of Unauthorized Alien Workers (deleted from FY10 appropriations)
  • Updated Public Access Policy citation

June 17, 2008 Research Advocate: Federal Agencies Implementing New Standard Research Terms and Conditions