UPON RECEIPT OF A NEW GRANT

Congratulations on your new grant.

Below are 13 items – aligning with the first portion of the Fundamentals for New Awardees checklist – that especially need attention to enable best execution of your grant.

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1. Study your award terms and conditions. 

Look carefully at your award document to learn of applicable terms and conditions. Follow the links embedded in the document. Among many requirements, a couple of items are highlighted below:

Be aware of reporting requirements: performance and financial

  • learn of mechanism to send in report
  • review requirements and due dates

For NSF — Refer to Grant General Conditions, (GC-1, effective October 4, 2021) Project Reporting Requirements (item 15). *For reporting instructions, see About Project Reports.

  • ANNUAL reports are considered due during the 90 day period prior to the end of the current budget period. The report becomes overdue the day after the 90 day period ends.
    • Note: Aim to submit your report as soon as possible, at the start of the 90-day reporting window. Program officers are busy and need time to review and approve before the window closes: especially during the summer and early fall when there are end-of-fiscal-year demands. OVERDUE reports hold up new funding from being awarded.
  • FINAL reports (final project report and project outcomes) “should be submitted electronically no later than 120 days following the end date of the grant.” 

For NIH — Refer to NIH RPPR website for links and what information is requested for the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR). In brief, the PI receives an email from NIH two months prior to due date, initiates report and routes to SO; SO receives email request to review RPPR, and logs in to check and submit the report.

  • ANNUAL reports are due on or before the anniversary of the budget/project period start date of award.
  • FINAL reports are due within 120 days of project expiration.

For NASA — Refer to GCAM (p 48); use the RPPR format.

  • PROGRESS: 60 days prior to anniversary date of grant agreement
  • FINAL: due 120 days after expiration date of grant

For NEH — Refer to NEH’s Performance Reporting Requirements; submit via eGMS Reach.

  • INTERIM: refer to the award report schedule located in eGMS
  • FINAL: due within 90 calendar days after end of project period

Understand compliance requirements


2. Become acquainted with award management guidelines.

Read Carleton’s grant requirements

Read through Carleton Business Office’s Post-Award Grants Manual

Understand the funder’s award requirements

Obtain a copy of or link to your:

  • notice of award
  • budget
  • general or special terms and conditions
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For NSF

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For NIH


3. Learn the grant specifics.

For federal grants, note a few highlights below.

Allowable travel expenses

Review allowable travel expenses, and the Fly America Act requirements if international travel is included in a federal award.

Also, for any global travel, record your travel via the Carleton International Travel Record and refer to the Business Office’s International Travel Risk Management page.

Changes that warrant notification of funder

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For NSF

See Prior Approval Requirements (NSF, item 2, p 4), and the Prior Approval Matrix; note especially:

  • “Significant Project Changes” such as:
    • transfer of project effort (subawards)
    • changes in objectives or scope
    • long-term disengagement of PI/coPI
      • reduction of 25% or more in time devoted to project, or
      • disengaged for a continuous period of more than 3 months
  • Participant support cost changes, such as
    • additional categories desired
    • any transfer of funds originally budgeted for participant support costs

**Approval is obtained via use of NSF’s electronic systems; contact the Grants Office.

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For NIH

See Administrative Requirements-Changes in Project and Budget-Prior Approval Requirements-Change of Scope; note especially

  • Change in scope (8.1.2.5)
  • Change in status of PD/PI or senior/key personnel (8.1.2.6)
  • Rebudgeting funds from trainee costs (8.1.2.14)

Publicity requirements

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For NSF

See Grant General Conditions (item 27, Publications of the GC-1, effective October 4, 2021), and PAPPG Other Post Award Requirements and Considerations for detailed specifics on:


Acknowledgement of Support: Unless otherwise provided in the grant, the grantee is responsible for assuring that an acknowledgment of NSF support:

  • is made in any publication (including Web pages) of any material based on or developed under this project, in the following terms:
    • “This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. (NSF grant number).”
  • is orally acknowledged during all news media interviews, including popular media such as radio, television, and news magazines.
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For NIH

See Rights in Data (Publication and Copyrighting) In short, for acknowledgment of NIH grant support: “Each publication, press release, or other document about research supported by an NIH grant must include:

  • An acknowledgment of NIH grant support such as: “Research reported in this [publication, release] was supported by [name of the Institute, Center, or other funding component] of the National Institutes of Health under grant number [specific NIH grant number in this format: R01GM012345].
  • A disclaimer that says: “The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

For NASA

Cite NASA as a source of support identifying the award number, use disclaimer for non-prof journals (see p 84 of GCAM); when publishing, see also NASA Insignia Guidelines

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For NEH

Read “Acknowledgment and Publicity Requirements for NEH Awards.”

In short: “Unless advised to the contrary, an acknowledgment of NEH support and the policy statement must appear on all materials publicizing or resulting from award activities. The NEH logo and credit line should also be used in acknowledging NEH support whenever possible.”

NEH Policy Statement: “Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this {article, book, exhibition, film, program, database, report, Web resource}, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.”


4. Read Carleton’s subrecipient policy and contractor practices.

IF your budget includes a subaward or contract:

For challenges experienced or questions encountered in this process, contact Susan Benson (x5990, Grant & Cash Manager).


5. Review your evaluation plan.

IF an evaluation plan is included in the funded project

  • look again at the proposed implementation of any evaluation activities per the timeline given in the proposal
  • devise a plan to regularly review activity of external evaluator/s
  • obtain an annual or regular report from them

6. Be familiar with requirements for budget adjustments.

Learn the mechanisms used for budget adjustments.

  •  If you need to transfer funds from one category to another, contact Susan Benson (x5990, Grant & Cash Manager).
  •  Be aware that for significant project changes and participant support cost changes, the funder likely needs to be notified (refer to the Prior Approval Matrix). NSF requires notification via the research.gov portal when there’s any transfer of funds originally budgeted for participant support costs, and when there are significant changes as listed in item 3 above. For more information, refer to the Business Office’s grant manual section Budget changes in a grant.

Contact the Grants Office (Dee Menning x4441 or Charlotte Whited x5833) and the Business Office (Susan Benson x5990) to coordinate rationale and budget details. The Grants Office as the Sponsored Research Office will input the notification in NSF’s e-portal. Additionally, the PI can communicate with their funding agency program officer as needed.


7. Understand requirements for requesting no cost extensions.

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For NSF

  • 1st extension (Grantee-approved) of up to 12 months – must notify at least ten calendar days prior to the grant end date, providing supporting reasons for the extension, and may not be exercised merely for the purpose of using any unliquidated balances
  • 2nd extension (NSF-approved) of up to 12 months – must be submitted to NSF at least 45 days prior to the end date of the grant and explain the need for an extension, indicate unobligated funds remaining and a plan for their use
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For NIH


8. Realize requirements for equipment disposal.

Know that funders – especially federal – sometimes have specific requirements for disposal of equipment. Contact Randie Johnson (x4178) if needing to dispose of externally purchased equipment.


9. Be aware of electronic grants management portals.

For many post-award activities – such as notifications of changes, submission of annual reports, or reporting of publications – federal portals will be utilized. Common federal e-spaces are


10. Know about RECR requirements.

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IF you have an NSF or NIH award, Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research (RECR) training is required for all students participating in NSF- or NIH-funded research.

RECR training at Carleton includes the following components:

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  1. Each student must successfully complete CITI – Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative modules for RCR. Refer to the Grant Office’s RECR page, TRAINING section for instructions to access CITI training.
  2. Successful completion will be documented by the Compliance Specialist in the Grants Office’s assigned administration role in CITI. The Grants Office will maintain documentation until grant closes, available in OnBase or the Grants Office’s electronic shared space.
  3. The Grants Office will notify the PI when their research student(s) completes the CITI modules.
  4. The PI will notify the Grants Office and document when the student has received any additional person-to-person RECR training appropriate to the research and discipline.

11.  Comply with the funder’s Public Access Policy.

IF you have an NSF, NIH, or NEH award, know that there are specific requirements for publicizing your award and making your research accessible.

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For NSF
NSF Public Access information

 GC-1, effective October 4, 2021 (item 25, p 21) says,
“Grantees must ensure that all articles in peer-reviewed scholarly journals and papers in juried conference proceedings:

  • Are deposited in a public access compliant repository (sign in to Research.gov and choose “Deposit publication” from My Desktop); if not yet done by the time of annual report, the system will prompt the PI to deposit their publications to the repository via research.gov (Note: it may take up to 6 hours for the pubs to appear in the project report; see “Deposit Publications“)
  • Are available for download, reading, and analysis within 12 months of publication
  • Possess a minimum set of machine-readable metadata elements as described in the Public Access Policy
  • Are reported in annual and final reports with a persistent identifier.”

The NSF Public Access Policy applies to new awards, funded in whole or in part, resulting from proposals submitted, or due, on or after January 2016.

Resources:

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For NIH
NIH Public Access Policy

This NIH When and How to Comply page outlines instructions for

NIH Public Access steps
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For NEH  
Publicizing Your Project

Grant products are to be reported via the “Products and Prizes” tab in eGMS, NEH’s online grant management system located at.


12. Be aware of anti-sexual harassment policies.

Read the updated anti-sexual harassment policies established by federal agencies. Please be aware that Carleton is required to report to the federal agency any findings of or administrative action related to harassment regarding a PI or coPI or any other grant personnel.


13. Register with research boards.

As needed, register with Carleton’s research boards:


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