 by Leslie Schmidt
The MSU Grants and Contracts Office continues to undergo changes, some of which
I would like to share with you.
First, I am very pleased to introduce Sandy Sward as the new assistant director.
She replaces Genice Garner, who recently moved to Utah to be closer to her family.
Sandy comes to us from the private sector and brings a lot of energy and enthusiasm
to the job. She will oversee customer service for the office among many other duties.
A big change coming from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is a different type
of budget submission process. In the past, NIH required detailed budgets as part of the
proposal submission. However, with the implementation of a new modular grant awards
systems (for awards less than $250,000/year), NIH will not be requiring a detailed
budget at all. Please note that this does not mean that MSU will not require a
detailed budget; it simply means that NIH does not wish to see this type of information.
Our office will still need to see the detailed budget on NIH proposals at the time of
submission because we are still responsible for ensuring compliance with a number of federal
requirements.
In other agency news, we now have two institutional identification numbers for National
Science Foundation proposals - one for EPSCoR submissions and one for regular submissions.
Please watch to make sure you have the correct one.
On a different note, implementation of what has fondly been named the" 24-hour rule" is going well.
As a reminder, this is an internal requirement that grant proposals be submitted to our office for
review 24 hours before the final submission deadline. Many thanks to those of you who have helped
in the transition to this policy.
An issue that seems to be confusing for people is the travel expense policy. We have been returning
to the PI requests for travel reimbursement if the travel took place more than days 90 days prior
to the request. The State of Montana Operating Manual requires that we adhere to this policy.
Otherwise, we cannot reimburse you for your travel expenses.
And finally, please be aware that custodial recharges, local phone line charges,Internet
connections and CatConnect charges should not be directly charged to your federally funded
grants. Our cost accounting policy states that we will be paying for these types of
expenditures out of our indirect cost returns.
If you have questions about these or any other grant accounting issues, don't hesitate to
call our office at 994-2381.
Leslie Schmidt is the director of the MSU Grants and Contracts Office.
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March/April 1999
