To promote and foster compliance with federal funding application rules, it is important to carefully follow the instructions published by federal sponsors. Failure to do so could lead to questions from federal sponsors about specific applications, funded projects, and progress reports. For your convenience, below are the National Institutes of Health definition of Other Support, and the National Science Foundation definition of Current and Pending Support.
- NIH: “Other Support includes all financial resources, whether Federal, non-Federal, commercial or institutional, available in direct support of an individual’s research endeavors, including but not limited to research grants, cooperative agreements, contracts, and/or institutional awards. Training awards, prizes, or gifts do not need to be included”. [emphasis added]
- NSF: Current and Pending Support is the support requested or available from other federal agencies and other sources. The NSF Grant Proposal Guide Chapter II.C.2.h states that “All current project support from whatever source (e.g., Federal, State, local or foreign government agencies, public or private foundations, industrial or other commercial organizations, or internal funds allocated toward specific projects) must be listed. The proposed project and all other projects or activities requiring a portion of time of the PI and any other senior personnel must be included, even if they receive no salary support from the project(s).” [emphasis added]
With heightened federal scrutiny and increasing concerns about this issue, it is more important than ever that together we ensure the submission of accurate and complete information about project support to federal sponsors.
