Equipment requested on a grant must be essential for the successful performance of the proposed project. All costs associated with making the item functional (e.g. costs of installation, renovation, shipping, etc.) should also to be included in the item’s cost.
To justify the proposed cost, OSP recommends obtaining three quotes for the item(s) to be purchased. Many federal sponsors require that these quotes be included in the application’s appendix or supplemental documents section.
Equipment requests are noted on the Internal Routing and Review of Sponsored Programs form on Item #4e. The specific need for the equipment should be well justified in the budget narrative and impact on the project if not approved described. If comparable equipment is available at the University or local area, the budget narrative (or proposal, if appropriate) should also convey why existing facilities or resources are inadequate or unavailable for project objectives.
NOTE: Computers ordinarily do not meet the cost threshold for equipment and, when for general use, are not allowable on federal awards.
Travel costs ordinarily include all reasonable business costs incurred by University employees while traveling on authorized University business. For a sponsored project, such expenses would include the means of transportation, food and lodging and other items associated with travel-related expense. Entertainment costs and personal items are unallowable. Travel costs of family members may be allowable in some circumstances, such as research projects abroad with long duration. Consult sponsor’s guidelines for assistance.
The reasonableness and necessity of travel costs should be explained in detail in the budget justification, including the number of travelers, round-trip economy airfare and ground transportation costs, conference registration if applicable, and number of nights of stay lodging and meals (if not included in conference registration).
Economy air-fare
Use Travelocity or some similar search engine to estimate costs of economy air travel. Sponsors recognize that airfare can vary widely and most allow re-budgeting across budget lines to accommodate changes in cost.
Conference fees and lodging costs are generally known in advance and available for budgeting purposes. Syracuse University’s travel policy applies, unless restricted by the sponsor (e.g., New York State or some federal cooperative agreements).
Ground transportation or mileage
Use estimates based on web-sites for ground transportation costs such as cabs, overnight parking, light-rail costs and the like.
Foreign Travel
Please be advised that sponsors may differ in what is considered domestic or foreign travel. Pay particular attention to the sponsor’s definition of foreign travel (e.g., NSF considers travel to Canada and Mexico domestic travel). Check with OSA with any questions or if you are in need of clarification on the policies and what is or is not permitted.
For federal awards, US air carriers or code-share arrangements must be used for all possible legs unless certain exceptions apply or the country or region has an Open-skies Agreement (Not applicable to defense sponsors).
Review Travel RatesThe National Science Foundation uses a budget category “Participant Support Costs” for participants or trainees (but not employees) in connection with NSF-sponsored conferences, meetings, symposia, training activities and workshops. NSF policy is to exclude participant support costs from the modified total direct cost base, however, these costs are not excluded from the MTDC base for most other federal agencies. Non-SU employees in this category are not to be considered consultants. Please be aware that compensation for teachers who are project participants may be determined by the terms of their specific union contract.
PI/PDs should clearly define what participants have to do to receive payment (e.g. attendance at conferences, workshops, etc.) and develop plans to maintain appropriate documentation of satisfactory completion of those activities.
Project participants should be distinguished from research subjects in the budget narrative (see “Research Subjects” below). Project Participants ordinarily are not subject to human subjects’ protection regulations, including the informed consent process. Since SU does not distinguish between research participants or research subjects, the documentation accompanying payment requests should make the purpose clear. Participants may also be compensated with a stipend.
- Laboratory materials – list major categories including: gases; plasticware; chemicals/reagents; cell culture media; restriction enzymes; radioactive reagents, etc.
- Animals and their per diem – you must have IACUC approval before you can acquire and use animals or animal products.
- Instrumentation (‘equipment-like’ items that cost less than $5,000, unless otherwise specified by sponsor), e.g., tape recorders, digital cameras, GPS, etc.
- Desktop or laptop computers – must be exclusively or predominantly used for the research or project-related purpose, essential to meet the project objectives and well justified; or the cost may be reasonably allocated to different funding sources, in direct proportion to the projected computing device usage for each funding source.
- Necessary computing devices may be charged in full to a sponsored project when predominantly used in support of the sponsored project. Predominant use is considered 75% or greater, and would be charged in full to the sponsored project. Those below 75% would be allocated as indicated below or shared between funding sources including other sponsored awards.
- For circumstances where the computing device is not predominantly used in support of a project, the project may be charged a reasonable proportion of the total cost, relative to the projected use allocated to the sponsored project.
Publication of research or project findings is an important strategy to disseminate award results. Some journals have page charges or other fees associated with the costs of public access. Budgets may include reasonable publication costs (e.g., is your pace of publication such that it is reasonable to expect you will have publication costs in year one of a project?). Photography and graphics costs (see office supplies) may be allowable, if essential for the publication.
Research subjects are individuals whose involvement in the project is covered by human protections regulations. Requested funds would be used to enable participation, or reflect the time donated to the research activity. Payment is modest so that it is not coercive or an undue enticement. No expenditures can be made on a sponsored project involving humans without necessary IRB approvals or authorizations first being in place. Please be advised that while the University seeks to protect the confidentiality of research subjects, payments that exceed $600 to one individual in a given calendar year require reporting to the IRS via a 1099 miscellaneous payment. Questions regarding this issue should be discussed in advance with the Office of Research Integrity and Protections and the Comptroller’s Office.
The applicable account number to be used for research subjects is:
- Account number: 561104 Sponsored Subjects
Remitted Tuition on Grants and Contracts
In addition to salary, graduate research assistants may be entitled up to 12 hours of remitted tuition per semester.
If an allowable cost, remitted tuition should be charged to the sponsor as an “Other Direct Cost.”
The Dean of the student’s unit may agree to contribute up to half of the student’s required tuition. In some cases this may be contingent upon the F&A rate used.
Internal Approval of Institutional Contributions
For all schools and colleges except Arts & Sciences (A&S), Dean’s approval of tuition contribution is documented on the Internal Routing and Review Form entering the applicable information in question #3 Graduate Asst. Tuition needs and their signature.
For Arts & Sciences, up to half the tuition required per academic year is automatically authorized for grants that recover full F&A. The number of credits needed is noted at Question #3 of the Internal Routing and Review form, but the Dean’s or his designee’s signature is not needed for this purpose.
Scholarship Tuition
The same procedures are to be followed for approval of institutional contributions of scholarship tuition, (i.e. tuition needed on individual fellowship applications to NIH NRSA, NASA and the like or institutional training grant applications) except that in these instances, the Dean of Arts and Sciences or his designee must document approval of scholarship tuition contribution by signing the Internal Routing and Review form, or sending an email confirmation to OSP.
Use of tuition as a source of Cost-sharing. OSP strongly recommends that tuition not be used for cost-sharing as the actual tuition charged to a grant is highly unpredictable. Since offers of cost-sharing in a proposal become financial obligations in the event of an award, any offered but unmet tuition cost-sharing costs will have to be met from other sources.
If institutional resources are used to contribute to the student’s tuition needs, the sponsor and the institution are to be charged equal amounts concurrently.
Tuition should be budgeted at rates anticipated to be in place during the time of expenditure and available on the OSP budget template. If the estimated rate is not available, increase the last available rate by 8.16% for each out year.
Budget Justification
Budget justifications or narratives are to convey this tuition support as an “institutional contribution.” The dollar value contributed should not be noted nor should the tuition be identified as “cost-sharing.”
Non-federal sponsors
NOTE: If tuition is not an allowable cost for a non-federal sponsor, the higher fringe benefit rate cannot be used.