A budget is a detailed statement outlining estimated project costs to support a sponsored project. An effective budget outlines a proposed project in fiscal terms and helps reviewers to determine how the project will be conducted.

A budget will typically consist of two main categories of cost:

1. Direct costs
2. Indirect costs — also known as Facilities & Administrative (F&A) to the federal government; and generally known as “overhead”.

A budget should include all the Direct Costs and Facilities and Administrative (F&A) (or overhead) costs required to carry out the project objectives. Specific requirements, including cost principles as defined by the federal government in the Office of Management & Budget (OMB)'s Uniform Guidance, must be adhered to at the proposal stage and when the funds are expended. Proposals to non-federal sponsors requesting approval of direct costs which are unallowable for federal reimbursement should clearly include and justify those costs in the budget.

Budgets should be planned ahead of time, and all needs of the project budgeted for. Budgets must be final five days before the proposal deadline, and budget changes within the five days may only be made at the Office of Pre-Award Service's (OPAS) request. If a budget includes subrecipients, those should be included in Kuali and in the proposal package that will be submitted to the sponsor. If a final budget including the required subrecipient information is not included at the time of submission, the proposal will be considered non-compliant to the sponsored project proposal submission requirements and procedures, and will need to go through the late proposal process.

Please follow any budgetary guidelines that may be found in the Request for Proposals (RFP), Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), or other posted sponsor guidelines. Sponsors may limit indirect costs, PI or other salary costs, or require cost share to be responsive to the RFP.

It is also important to understand the Foundational Basis for Costing:

Costs must be 1) Reasonable, 2) Allocable 3) and Allowable, and 4) Consistently treated

Reasonable: The “prudent person” test is employed – would a prudent person purchase the item at this cost? The cost is necessary for the performance of the activity.

Allocable: Costs must be directly related to the sponsored project activity. Costs accrue to the project based on the proportional benefit to the project.

Examples of un-allocable costs:

• Charging 100% of a maintenance contract to one project although the covered piece of equipment is only utilized 50% of the time on that project.
• Including personnel costs for a temporary replacement lecturer to cover a professor’s time while that professor is out of the classroom conducting research for the sponsored project activity.

Allocable solutions to the above:

• Charge the allocable portion (50%) of the maintenance contract.
• Include academic year salary commensurate with the percentage of effort the faculty member anticipates working on the project. The faculty members’ department will not have to lay out funds to cover the sponsor funded academic salary, thus the lecturer can be paid from those cost savings. This arrangement should not be noted in the sponsor proposal. The faculty member’s effort would simply be referred to as “academic year effort” and not “replacement salary” or “course buyout.”

Allowable: Costs must be allowable according to the governing cost principles, the policies of the sponsor, and UMass policies and procedures. For federally supported projects, The Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Uniform Guidance is the document, other than sponsor guidelines, that determines allowability of cost. OMB’s Uniform Guidance is not applicable to non-federal projects unless federal terms and conditions flow-through from the prime funder.

Consistent: The cost is consistent with established university policies and procedures.

Policies and resources affecting the determination of RAAC (Reasonableness, Allocability, Allowability, and Consistency):

Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (2 CFR Part 200)

Cost Accounting Standards: Administrative Costs; Cost Sharing Requirements & Procedures; Cost Transfer Policy; University Business and Travel Expense Policy & Standards

Budget Basics

Direct costs are those expenses which can be directly attributed to the project.

This section goes over types of direct costs, including:

• Personnel costs
• Fringe benefits
• Materials and supplies
• Equipment
• Travel
• Consultants
• Subrecipients
• Other direct costs

Overview

A well-developed budget is accompanied by a budget explanation or narrative, also known as a budget justification. A complete and realistic budget justification demonstrates that your project is well conceived. It also tends to minimize the chances that sponsors will arbitrarily reduce or eliminate budget categories. Sponsors have a good idea of what a project should cost, and generally know when you are over or under budgeting. See some examples/templates below.

The budget is reviewed by OPAS and the sponsor to verify that costs are reasonable, allowable, allocable and necessary to carry out the proposed project, and if it conforms to the sponsor's instructions. During award negotiations a budget is sometimes subjected to further analysis by the sponsor's audit staff. Thus it is important to maintain all the documentation and justification you can assemble for each cost element and category, in case the sponsor questions items and estimates.

For newcomers to the process, consult with experienced faculty or staff within your department for advice, or contact the OPAS pre-award administrator assigned by sponsor to discuss potential costing.

The budget justification is a categorical description of the proposed costs. Generally, it explains staffing and supply/service consumption patterns, the methods used to estimate/calculate (including escalation or inflation factors) and other details such as lists of items that make up the total costs for a category. The budget justification should address each of major cost categories (salaries, fringe benefits, equipment, travel, supplies, other direct costs and indirect costs), as well as any additional categories required by the sponsor.

A thoroughly written justification that explains both the necessity and the basis for the proposed costs must accompany the budget. The justification section is critical as it enables the principal investigator to emphasize the importance of essential project costs. A budget that is adequately and appropriately justified is the best way to assure a positive cost analysis by the sponsor.

Below are some helpful tips:

• Organize the budget justification listing items in the same order and format as the sponsor’s budget categories.
• Only include budgeted items. Some sponsors like NSF will disqualify a proposal if contributed items are listed. Do not list cost-shared items unless cost-sharing is mandated by the sponsor.
• Budget narrative must match the budget in terms of dollar amounts and language — double check everything.
• Explain why items are essential in relation to the aims and methodology of the project as well as meeting the goals of the project.
• Explain the line items. Do not merely restate the proposed expenditure.
• Provide detail sufficient to justify the rationale for acquiring the item under the proposed project.

Budget Justification Examples and Templates

• NSF Budget Justification example
• NIH Budget Justification example
• Budget Justification For Any Sponsor

Salaries and Wages

Also see Personnel Costs.

• List all personnel and positions to be paid with project funds and briefly describe their role in the project.
• Only list paid personnel unless cost-sharing is mandated by the sponsor.
• In addition to how the sponsor requires effort to be shown, also always list effort in person months for faculty and staff. For Graduate Research Assistants, list number of months and hours per week.
• When listing effort, do not use approximations. Show effort out to two decimal points (e.g. 1.52 months) as applicable.
• Include a COLA of 3% to 5%. Verify any sponsor-driven limitations on COLAs. Currently for example, UMass budgets only 2% with the NIH.

Consultants

Also see Consultants and Subrecipients.

• List consultant name and describe in detail the services to be performed.
• Include number of days, rate of compensation, and total amount per year. This must be corroborated in a letter provided by the consultant.

Materials and Supplies

Also see Materials and Supplies.

• Only request supplies directly relevant (allocable) to the research plan.
• Explain in detail why specific supplies are needed.
• Do not request general office supplies if federal (allowability).
• Budgeting should be based on actual experience or quotes (reasonableness).
• Use an inflation factor (COLA) for future years (verify any sponsor limits).
• The breakdown should be more detailed when the total supplies cost is substantial. Where large amounts of supplies or expensive items are budgeted, specify items and justify their necessity.

Equipment & Travel

Also see Equipment & Travel.

• Definition of Equipment: A unit cost of $5,000 or more and a useful life of at least one year.
• Get accurate price quotes.
• Explain why the equipment is needed in support of the project aims.
• Confirm equipment is dedicated to the project. If equipment is shared with other projects, budget an amount that corresponds to expected project use and verify the rationale. Split funding of equipment should only generally occur with large equipment purchases.
• Ask for reasonable amounts.
• Indicate basis of cost (historical, quotes, etc.).
• State exactly which relevant meeting/conference you plan to attend. If not known, provide examples.
• Include breakdown of costs for airfare, meals, lodging, and ground transportation. Some sponsors like NSF will reject a proposal if insufficient details are provided.
• Include number of people, number of days, purpose and location of travel.
• Budgeting should be based on actual experience or quotes.
• Use an inflation factor (COLA) for future years.
• Avoid partial financing of travel requirements.

Other Direct Costs

Also see Other Direct Costs.

• Fee-for-service: Justify use; show the university approved rate, or if an external vendor, their published rate.
• Equipment maintenance and service contract (justify need) and verify that the covered equipment is dedicated to the project;  If proportional use on the covered equipment is anticipated, provide the proportional cost/use rationale;  Cost/usage should not generally fall below 50%; Note the basis of the cost (quotes, etc.).
• Software should be identified by brand, type, and unit cost; verify in the justification that it is dedicated to the project; and provide a strong justification for why it is needed especially emphasizing what aspect of the project will benefit from its use; the software should not be general purpose software but rather specialized in a manner that supports the specific technical aims of the project; verify basis of cost (quotes, catalog prices, etc.)
• Human Subject Payments (breakdown # of subjects and cost to each).
• Provide details for publication costs.
• Give detailed breakdown of each cost.
• Tuition — provide details. See the Fact Sheet for current rates and provide them to the sponsor. Use the Kuali Salary Guide found here.

Subawards/Subrecipients

Also see Consultants and Subrecipients.

• Clearly identify subrecipient organizations and their key personnel.
• Briefly explain their scope of work.
• Explain the need to subaward with a particular organization, expertise of subrecipient PI/key personnel, institutional facilities.
• Keep in mind that subrecipients will provide their own detailed budgets and corresponding budget justifications. These should be separate and distinct from the UMass budget and budget justification and follow the UMass budget and budget justification.

Federally-supported projects are subject to several cost restrictions, which are outlined in the OMB Uniform Guidance. Because the university must treat like costs in a similar manner, these restrictions have been implemented in the Administrative Costing Requirements for Proposals and Awards policy. Cost categories that the university normally charges as indirect costs must meet specific requirements to be justified as direct costs.

These costs include: 

• Administrative or clerical salaries
• Office supplies
• Postage
• Telephone service

These costs are likely to be more highly scrutinized and must be well-justified. Be sure to review the resources below, and check in with your department or college business manager or grant administrator, OPAS Pre-award administrator, or the R&E Help Desk with questions.

 

Policies and Resources Affecting Administrative/Secretarial Compensation

• Administrative Costing Requirements for Proposals and Awards
• Sample Secretarial Justifications
• Federal Research Policies & Regulations
• Guidelines for Charges to Sponsored Projects Funded by Federal Agencies

A Consultant may be an individual or a commercial entity and is a type of contractor (vendor) paid through a purchase order issued by the Office of Procurement. A consultant provides guidance or shares technical expertise on a specific aspect of the scope of work. In the past, the Internal Revenue Service issued audit findings against UMass regarding the payment of individuals as consultants rather than as employees or temporary employees. Therefore, special consideration must be taken in the appointment of consultants. Commonwealth of Massachusetts employees, including faculty from any of the other UMass campuses, may not serve as consultants.

A consultant's roles or characteristics include:

• An individual consultant is a non-UMass employee hired to provide technical expertise in support of a sponsored research project. As a general rule, the activities performed by a non-UMass faculty member who is named as an individual consultant in a proposal must fall outside of the individual’s normal academic duties and cannot make use of his/her institutional facilities, personnel or students. If these criteria are not met, then the faculty member’s home institution should appear as a subrecipient in the UMass proposal rather than as a consultant. 
• A consulting firm is a commercial entity whose regular business activity is to provide services similar to those proposed under the current project.
• UMass and other Commonwealth of Massachusetts employees cannot be paid as consultants on UMass-sponsored projects.
• A consultant lends their expertise and advice in their given field without conducting any independent research on the project. 
• A consultant’s deliverable may be intermittent throughout the project, is not clearly defined and do not ordinarily generate patentable or copyrightable results of an original or substantive nature.
• A consultant’s services are on a “work for hire” basis and all intellectual property or copyrightable rights are assigned to UMass by the consultant.
• A consultant is not subject to the compliance requirements of the Prime Contract.
• A consultant’s fee is based on an hourly or daily rate which is provided and explained in a consultant rate proposal.
• A consultant must provide UMass with a letter that describes their role and indicates the number of days/weeks charged to the grant and provide daily or weekly rate. As a general rule, the activities performed by a non-UMass faculty member who is named as an individual consultant in a proposal must fall outside of the individual’s normal academic duties and cannot make use of his/her institutional facilities, personnel or students. If the consultant letter is on their home institution’s letterhead, the letter should indicate that the individual consultant will not be using their home institution’s facilities for any part of their proposed consultancy. An email to the PI or to OPAS may be substituted if this information is omitted from the signed letter.

Consultants

A  contractor (vendor) is issued a purchase order based on a request sent by an administering unit to the university’s Procurement Office. The purchase of goods and services, including “consulting services,” are obtained from a commercial contractor. A contractor provides a good or service that is narrowly constrained or defined, normally a one-time procurement.

A contractor (vendor):

• Provides similar goods and services to multiple customers as part of their routine business operations.
• Competes for customers with other like providers.
• Provices services that are ancillary to the scope of work.
• Does not retain intellectual property or copyright to the deliverables.
• Does not require cost sharing
• Does not seek joint authorship of publications
• Does not receive the general terms of the Prime Contract.

Note: If the individual or company in question provides a service for which a flat fee is charged for the work to be done and they are not involved in the research effort but simply provide a service at a fixed fee, this transaction of services is classified as a standard procurement rather than a subaward. 

Contractors (Vendors)

A subrecipient, also known as subawardee (called an “Organization” in the Kuali system), is distinguished from both a contractor (vendor) and a consultant in that a subrecipient is responsible for a significant role under a sponsored project and engages in a reciprocal relationship with the prime recipient. Generally a subrecipient is defined as an entity, often another university, who helps the grantee carry out the activities of the award by independently performing a portion of the research work using their own facilities. 

The subrecipient:

• Performs a substantive portion of the proposed Statement of Work incorporated into the Prime Contract.
• Has responsibility for internal programmatic decision-making and design.
• Is responsible for assisting the Prime Recipient in meeting the goals of the project.
• Has its performance measured in relation to the larger project goals of the proposal and objectives of the program being funded.
• Contributes to a broader purpose in relation to the funded scope of work, rather than a narrower role of providing goods or services for the direct benefit of the Prime Recipient.
• Is responsible for adhering to applicable Federal programmatic compliance requirements.
• May be required to contribute a proportionate amount of cost share to a project.
• Retains intellectual property and copyright to the work produced by the subrecipient’s personnel; may co-author an article in a professional research journal.
• Is considered a Co-PI of the project.

Note: The university does not issue subawards to individual persons; only to a company or organization.

The UMass detailed budget should not blend subrecipient costs with UMass project costs. Two separate detailed budgets should be included. The UMass detailed budget will include a line item each year showing Subrecipient Total Costs (inclusive of indirect costs). Please also add the Subrecipient as an Organization to the Kuali proposal development record. Please see additional information on inputting subrecipient information into Kuali.

Be sure to attach the required Subrecipient Documentation in the Kuali record as well.

Effort is defined as the amount of time spent on a particular activity. It includes the time spent working on a sponsored project in which salary is directly charged or contributed (cost-shared).

Effort is expressed in the proposed budget and budget justification as a percentage of the individual’s total university appointment devoted to the project. Effort should be represented in the format requested by the sponsor but should also be shown in the budget justification in person months as well. For example for faculty with 9 month Academic Year appointments, if 25% effort is expected during the Academic year and 25% as well for Summer, it would be represented in person months as 2.25 Academic months and 0.75 Summer months. For faculty and staff on Calendar year appointments, 12 months is used as the base upon which percentages are applied; e.g. 25% of a Calendar appointment amounts to 3.0 Calendar months.

For faculty on 9 month academic year appointments, effort can be budgeted as Summer or Academic depending on when the effort is expended. Summer salary paid directly from federal and state grants is capped at 2.5 months; for more details, see Additional Compensation Guidance. The amount of Academic year effort available for research is negotiated with the Department Chair but generally may add up to approximately 3.5 Academic months.

For federally funded projects, a minimum amount of effort must be budgeted by the PI and all other key personnel. For more details, see the Minimum Effort on Sponsored Projects requirement.

Budgeted effort should always reflect the anticipated time commitments to the project.

Effort charged to sponsored projects must be allocable, allowable, reasonable, and consistently reported and tracked in the UMass Effort Reporting System (ECC).

A reasonable amount of precision should be exercised to insure that the following align with each other:

1. Key person effort as proposed and budgeted (or cost shared) in the original proposal submitted to the sponsor
2. Key person effort devoted and charged to the sponsored agreement (grant, contract, cooperative agreement, etc.)
3. Key person effort reported in the university’s Effort Reporting System (ECRT)

The effort maxim to keep in mind: effort budgeted in the proposal = effort charged to the grant = effort reported.

If the committed effort is reduced by 25% or more, the PI must contact OPAM for direction on how to appropriately notify the sponsor and receive permission for the reduction of effort. The university cannot directly commit quantifiable effort to any given project unless salaried effort is budgeted or cost shared to meet mandatory sponsor cost share requirements. That does not mean that faculty cannot perform research activities at no cost (no salaried effort) to the sponsor during the academic year. Indeed, how the effort commitment is worded in the proposal and budget justification will determine its allowability.

Auditors review the accuracy of the university’s payroll charges by verifying that the percentage of the employee's salary charged to a sponsored project reasonably approximates the actual proportion of the employee's FTE effort devoted to that project. The Effort Reporting System is called upon to provide this verification to audits.

In terms of cost-sharing effort, the university normally only cost shares effort when mandated in the sponsor’s written guidelines. If cost-sharing is not mandatory, it is the university’s policy to abstain from cost-sharing. See Cost Sharing Requirements for more details and how to request voluntary cost-sharing of effort.

Recently through the advent of OMB’s Uniform Guidance, the federal government provided greater clarification on its approach to the provision of voluntary committed cost sharing. If cost-sharing is not mandated in the sponsor guidelines, voluntary cost-shared commitments of effort cannot be used as a factor during the sponsor’s merit review of applications or proposals. For more details, see the Uniform Guidance, section §200.306; Cost sharing or matching. Keeping this in mind, it is extremely difficult to justify including voluntary committed cost shared effort in any federally funded projects.

 

Archived Effort Reporting Video from Oct 1. 2009 meeting - compressed version (350Mb)

Non-monetary third-party contributions should not be part of a proposal unless required by the sponsoring agency. 

In the event of such a requirement, and if a non-UMass Amherst third party pledges significant contributions to the project so that without that resource, the thrust of the project could be jeopardized, it is necessary to provide OPAS with a letter of support/commitment from the third party. This letter would provide some detail about the non-monetary resources committed at no cost and should be signed by the individual authorized to make such commitments (OPAS equivalent; contracting officer, business official, etc). 

When cost sharing is mandated by the sponsor, and the VCRE has approved third-party cost sharing, refer to the “Third-Party Cost Sharing” section of the Cost Sharing Requirements for more details.

Understand and communicate the compliance aspects of your project, such as intellectual property, inventions, human subjects, vertebrate animals, export controls, conflict of interest, etc. early on. There may be additional forms or notifications that must be completed at the proposal stage.

Please complete the request for special approvals well in advance so that the required documentation can be uploaded to the Kuali record before routing. Examples of situations that require special approvals include:

• Voluntary or Third-Party Cost Share requires a Cost Share Request
• F&A (Indirect Cost) Waiver or Reduction Cost Share Request Form
• VCRE Late Proposal Approval Request
• Conflict of Interest
• Export Controls
• Human Subjects protocol approval (may be pending at proposal submission; required prior to award)
• Animal Subjects protocol approval (may be pending at proposal submission; required prior to award)
• Training in the Responsible Conduct of Research
• NSF Safe and Inclusive Working Environments for Off-Campus or Off-Site Research
• Requirement by sponsor to approve award terms and conditions at proposal stage (contact @email or R&E Help Desk)
• Other Compliance approval processes

Intellectual Property

Consult with the university’s Intellectual Property Policy statement prior to discussing intellectual property issues with prospective sponsors, especially industry, and other non-federal sponsors.

Some industry sponsors will require the completion of a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) before faculty and industry personnel collaborate on the proposal since potentially proprietary information could be exchanged between each party without the proper legal protections.

Confer with the UMass Innovation Institute (UMII) for assistance crafting and negotiating potential NDA’s.

If you have any questions regarding inventions, patents, licensing, start-up companies, and services for the creative arts, contact the Technology Transfer Office (TTO).

Inventions and Confidentiality

New inventions, patentable ideas, proprietary or confidential information should not be included in proposals unless necessary.  If sensitive information must be included, or if it is difficult to determine whether certain information is patentable or confidential, please bring it to the attention of the OPAS team.  In addition, please contact the Technology Transfer Office (TTO) as soon as possible about any potential inventions or patentable ideas you may wish to include. Grant applications are considered confidential, but federal grant applications constitute “publications” when a notice of award is issued, which may limit or destroy foreign patent rights. In most federal grant applications, publication can be avoided by simply checking a box, but other procedures may be needed when applying to other funding sources.

For your protection, a proprietary rights legend should be added to the cover page of your proposal. Two versions are provided here for your consideration:

1. This data shall be disclosed only to sponsor employees or outside evaluators under contract to the sponsor and shall not be duplicated, used or disclosed in whole, or in part, for any purposes other than to evaluate the proposal; provided that, if an award is made to this offer or as a result of, or in connection with, the submission of this data, the sponsor shall have the right to duplicate, use or disclose the data to the extent provided in the contract, grant or cooperative agreement. The data subject to this restriction is contained on page(s):
   
   And mark each page that is to be restricted with the following:
   Use or disclosure of proposal data is subject to the restriction on the Cover Page of this proposal.
   
   Or, when the proposal contains ideas and information that could lead to patent applications and stronger, more specific language is desirable, the following sample legend is recommended:
2. This document, or portions of it, contains confidential information that is or may become the subject of a United States patent application and that is important to future commercial efforts based on such confidential information. Accordingly, this document and the confidential information is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, Sections 552(b)(3) and (b)(4) of Title 5 of the United States Code and corresponding regulations of United States government agencies.

          Each page containing confidential information should be marked "CONFIDENTIAL".

 

Please load documentation into Kuali under Internal tab in the Attachment section to verify the basis for cost calculations, as well as their reasonableness:

Grad student calculation assumptions

Upload Kuali Calculator grad calculations if available; if it is unavailable, the below assumptions need to be detailed in the budget justification. The Kuali Salary Guide with grad calculator can be found here.

1. The hourly rate
2. The number of hours the grad student is working during the 38 academic year
3. The number of weeks the grad student is working during the 38 academic year
4. The number of hours the grad student is working during the 14 week summer
5. The number of weeks the grad student is working during the 14 week summer

Grad fringe and tuition fee are based on the hours worked in the AY and the summer, so we need the number of hours and weeks to assess if it has been budgeted correctly.

Subawards

Please collate all documents below into one PDF form per subrecipient. See also Collaborations and Required Documents.

• A UMass subrecipient form
• Letter of intent to enter into a consortium/subaward agreement on letterhead and signed by an AOR is recommended
• Statement of work
• Budget loaded into Kuali (on the sponsor's budget form if required)
• Budget justification loaded into Kuali
• Fringe rate agreement loaded into Kuali
• Indirect cost rate agreement loaded into Kuali
• Other forms as required by the solicitation (biosketch, current & pending form, collaborator and other affiliations form, facilities form).

Consultants

• A signed letter from the consultant providing details on the nature of their consulting activities and documenting the basis for their rates (hourly or daily rate, # days or hours consulting, etc.).

Unpaid Collaborators

• When a named collaborator is going to provide information, expertise, and the like in a proposal, a letter from the collaborator should be included as part of the proposal. More info on documenting collaborations.
• For NSF, proposers should include in the facilities form an aggregated description of the internal and external resources (both physical and personnel) that the organization and its collaborators will provide to the project, should it be funded

Fee for service

• A letter or formal quote from the vendor detailing the activities, services, or items to be provided and the basis for the charges.

Materials & supplies

• Basis of cost must be explained in the budget justification
• Supplies must be detailed so we can assess reasonability, allowability and allocability

Travel

• Basis of cost must be explained in the budget justification
• Travel should be broken down by specific costs such as airfare, per diem, hotel, ground transportation, parking, etc. Provide detail so we can assess reasonableness, allowability and allocability

UMass Amherst Cost Center Recharges (UMass Facilities Fees)

• Cost center sheets for the current year with costs highlighted
• If there is not a currently approved cost center, please include a cost quote

Cost share

• AY cost share form for each PI committing cost share, signed and loaded into Kuali.
• Kuali budget shows cost share
• Voluntary cost share is approved in advance by the VCRE
• 3rd party cost share from a subrecipient has a letter committing to auditable cost share
• 3rd party cost share not from subrecipients must be approved by the VCRE
• If cost share is made from waiving indirect costs, approval of waiver is in Kuali

Indirect costs

• Indirect cost waiver loaded to Kuali if applicable
• Load sponsor's policy on indirect costs if non-standard
• See subrecipient requirements also

Limited submission

• Email from Office of Research Development (ORD) for federal sponsors, or from Foundation Relations for non-federal sponsors, confirming this proposal was selected for limited submission

Vendor Quotes

• Include vendor quotes

Equipment Quotes

• Include equipment quotes

Fabricated Equipment

• Include a separate detailed budget for fabricated equipment 
• Include a detailed justification for fabricated equipment within the budget justification for the proposal
• Complete the Kuali questionnaire for fabricated equipment

Proposal Cost Documentation

Revised budgets are generally requested by the sponsor if the proposal is up for consideration for an award. Revised budgets may be less or more than the original request. If the change in the amount of the revised budget is greater than 25% or there are changes to committed resources such as personnel, cost-sharing, etc., the Kuali Proposal record must be re-routed for approval signatures. The sponsor's request for changes must be included in Kuali as an Internal Attachment.

Revised budgets must be created in Kuali and then submitted to OPAS. OPAS will then review and submit the revised budget following the directions provided by the sponsor (e.g., Research.gov, revised Grants.gov package, email, etc.). See Creating a Revised Budget. If you have technical questions related to Kuali, please contact the R&E Help Desk. For specific sponsor-related questions, please contact the OPAS reviewer assigned to that sponsor. 

Some sponsored funding comes in the form of a contract with the funding organization. Grants are awards of financial assistance, usually from a governmental agency or foundation, primarily for carrying out a public purpose of support or stimulation. In contrast, a contract is used to acquire property or services for the government or organizations' direct benefit or use. In cases where the proposal is not being submitted in response to a Request for Proposals (RFP), there may be a period of informal negotiation before the sponsor sends a contract for signature. If during this process the sponsor requests a budget, be sure to reach out to OPAS for guidance before submitting any budget information to the sponsor. Submitted budgets can become binding commitments for the university, therefore they require institutional review and submission. 

Federal Contracts including IDIQ 

All federal contracts should follow the same process as federal grant submissions. Do not send budget documents that have not been vetted by OPAS, as the federal sponsor will consider them a binding part of the contract. IDIQ stands for Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity. In layman's terms, this means the quantity of products or services that the contractor is delivering is not yet determined. OPAS must review IDIQ proposals because the university will be bound by the rates set by the IDIQ for future contracts.

Industry Collaborations

Please reach out to UMII when starting this process. Involving UMII will make the negotiation and contract approval process go more smoothly. 

Commonwealth of MA

Commonwealth of MA contracts are usually issued in the form of an ISA (Interagency Service Agreement). If the agency is requesting a budget, then the proposal should be routed to OPAS for submission. In some cases an ISA is sent even though a proposal has not been submitted. These should be routed to OPAS for an internal review and for further processing by OPAM. See sponsor-specific guidance for more information on Commonwealth of MA proposals. 

OPAS ISA Guidance Questions

1. Who generated the ISA? (who filled out the form?) 
2. For the budget in the ISA: 
   • Is there a capped amount the sponsor will fund? 
   • Has the sponsor approved the line item budget or can budget changes be made if necessary? 
   • If there are cost centers in the budget, have cost center rates uploaded to Kuali in attachments?
3. What indirect cost rate is being used? 
   •  If there a federal prime sponsor, the indirect rate should be the full federal rate unless there is a posted sponsor limitation on indirect costs loaded to Kuali in attachments.
   • If the indirect cost rate is less than 26% and there is not a limitation in the RFP, please upload supporting documents to the Kuali record for the rate used. Example: cooperative agreements.
4. What is the earliest date that expenses will be charged for this project? 
   • ISAs are effective only on the date of last signature—if they arrive after the projected start date costs before the effective date will not be allowable unless stipulated in the terms of the ISA and agreed on by all parties. UMass needs to know about Pre-Award spending on an ISA prior to signature to make this happen. 
   • The ISAs are signed by the “Seller” (UMass) first and then the “Buyer” (Sponsoring Agency).
   • If the ISA funds a multi-year project, is carryforward allowed from one year to the next? 
5. If the sponsor is not requiring a budget justification, has an internal budget justification has been loaded to Kuali as an attachment?
6. Are we submitting the unsigned ISA and other proposal documents to the sponsor? If no, has the sponsor already seen and approved proposal documents? 
   • Has the PI verbally agreed to terms & conditions of the ISA? 
   • Has the agency given us any instructions on how they want the ISA signed (original signatures, wet signatures, hard copies, electronic signatures, email?) 
7. If the ISA is internal and to be reviewed by OPAS/OPAM, please: 
   • Do not put internal as proposal type under proposal details. Please use new, revised or supplement. 
   • If revised is selected, please enter the original institutional proposal ID number under basics, sponsor & program info. 
   • If supplement is selected, please enter the original award ID number under basics, sponsor & program info. Please note, this number must end in -00001. 
   • Please put "Internal to OPAM" under basics/delivery info/submission description.

A pre-proposal (sometimes called a white paper, letter proposal, preliminary proposal, pre-application, or concept paper) or a letter of intent is a short description of the proposed project. Usually, the purpose of a pre-proposal is to inform and interest the potential sponsor in the project, resulting in a request for a more detailed formal/full proposal. 

Pre-Proposals and Letters of Intent must be routed to OPAS via a Kuali Research proposal development record (choose "Pre-Proposal" or "Letter of Intent" as the proposal type) and will be subject to the university proposal requirements and procedures when they include any of the following:

• A commitment of university resources (including, but not limited to: PI time/effort, staff time, space, facilities use, project completion, students, and/ or post-doc participation/time, etc.)
• A detailed budget
• Cost sharing or an exception to the university F&A Cost rate
• Certifications, representations, or assurances signed by an institutional representative
• A requirement for an authorized signature or submission in a portal by an institutional official
• Acceptance of terms and conditions

It is not necessary to route a pre-proposal for institutional approval if it:

• Includes a total cost estimate without a detailed budget; and
• Is not expected to result directly in an award without a full detailed proposal; and
• The university is not bound in any way by the content of the pre-proposal; and
• Does not require an authorized signature

Please contact the R&E Help Desk if you have any questions about whether or not to route a pre-proposal.