Category Archives: Sponsored Programs

Updated Tables for Estimating GRA Stipends and Tuition

The Vice President for Research Office has updated the graduate student tables for budgeting stipends and tuition.  These rates are to be used immediately in proposal budgets to external sponsors.

The tuition rates per credit differ between Non-Engineering/Computer Science and the Engineering/Computer Science disciplines.  Remember to take this into account when budgeting for one (1) credit.  Budgeting for research mode is now an option at the proposal stage; those rates are also included in the table.

The updated stipend and tuition tables can be found on the VPR forms page at:

GRA Stipend Rates

GRA Tuition Rates

New Fringe Benefit Rates Effective July 1, 2018

The Office of Naval Research has recently approved a Fringe Benefit rate for Michigan Tech. These newly approved rates should be used immediately on all Sponsored Programs proposal budgets, and will be applied to all funds; including active sponsored projects.

In accordance with the Fiscal Year 2019 Fringe Benefit rate agreement, the rates effective July 1, 2018 are as follows:

  • Regular non-student rate: 37.4%
  • Summer/additional rate: 20.5%
  • Graduate student rate: 8.6%
  • Temporary employee rate: 10%
  • Undergraduate rate: 0%

The current fringe rate agreement can be found on the Research Facts and Figures page of the Sponsored Programs website.

Two-Tier Internal Deadline Implemented for all NSF Opportunities

Two-Tier Internal Deadline Implemented

For all NSF Opportunities

Due to the success of the two-tier internal deadline pilot, and in addition to its implementation to all NIH proposals, the Sponsored Programs Office will expand and permanently implement the two-tier internal deadline structure for all proposals due to the NSF on or after July 1, 2018.

As a reminder, all final internal documents and the application package are due to the Sponsored Programs Office no later than 7:00 a.m., 1 week (7 calendar days) prior to the sponsor deadline.  The application package must be completed in the appropriate submission system (Fastlane, Research.gov, NIH ASSIST, or Grants.gov Workspace).  Not all of the science documents in the application package, however, need to be final and the application package does not need to include the completed budget forms.  Once the Sponsored Programs Office receives the internal documents and the application package, personnel in the Sponsored Programs Office will enter the approved budget into the applicable application package….the PI/researcher will not need to complete this task.

All final science related documents are due via e-mail to the Sponsored Programs Office no later than 7:00 a.m. the day of the sponsor deadline.  Once received, personnel in the Sponsored Programs Office will upload the final documents into the application package.  This later deadline will provide valuable time for the PI/researcher to focus on the science aspects of the proposal.

The specific science related documents for the application package will be identified and communicated to the respective Principal Investigator once the intent to submit is known.

Feel free to contact the Sponsored Programs Office at 487-2226 if you have any questions.

Review of Foreign National Restrictions on Awards – Education Session

The Vice President for Research Office will host an educational session, “Review of Foreign National Restrictions on Awards” from noon to 1:30 p.m., Wednesday, May 9th.  The session will be in the Memorial Union Alumni Lounge. Registration begins today and ends on May 8.

This session will help faculty and staff understand and address foreign national restrictions considerations when conducting research.  Topics covered will include: managing technical data, intellectual property and proprietary materials; defining and working with foreign nationals, publishing and teaching; and exporting and licensing considerations.

Register now to reserve a seat!

This workshop is sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research. There will be desserts and beverages provided, please bring your own lunch.

If you have questions, please contact Ramona Englund at 487-2654 or rlenglun@mtu.edu.

Important news from NSF: Changes to the way the research community registers for NSF accounts and maintains account and user profile information

Important news from NSF: Changes to the way the research community registers for NSF accounts and maintains account and user profile information

Effective March 26, 2018, the National Science Foundation (NSF) is introducing a new centralized and streamlined account registration process in Research.gov for the research community that will provide each new user with a single profile and unique identifier (i.e., NSF ID) for signing in to FastLane and Research.gov for proposal and award activities.

New Functionality

The new account management functionality will:

  • Allow users to create and self-manage accounts, including personal information and role requests;
  • Eliminate the need for organizational Administrators to create accounts and maintain profile information for their users, allowing Administrators to focus on managing roles for their organizations through a dashboard with functions to approve, disapprove, assign, and remove roles; and
  • Replace the existing FastLane and Research.gov account management functions.

 Existing NSF Accounts

Existing NSF account holders will be migrated to the new account management system through a simple, one-time operation when initially signing in to FastLane or Research.gov after the new functionality is released. Account holders will be required to verify information to transfer it to the new system. Each user will have one NSF ID.

Helpful Links

Feel free to contact the Sponsored Programs Office with any questions at 7-2226 or rsch@mtu.edu

NSF Research.gov Proposal Preparation Site Preview Now Available and Research.gov Proposal Preparation and Submission Site Initial Release Will Be on April 30

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is pleased to announce that beginning on April 30, 2018, proposers will be able to prepare and submit full, research non-collaborative proposals in Research.gov. The initial release of this new Research.gov capability will run in parallel with existing FastLane proposal preparation and submission capabilities, so proposers can choose to prepare and submit full, research non-collaborative proposals in Research.gov or in FastLane starting on April 30, 2018.

Research.gov Proposal Preparation Site Preview

The other exciting news that we want to share is that starting today, NSF is previewing the new Research.gov proposal preparation functionality to the research community to collect preliminary feedback and to provide the community an opportunity to acclimate to the new technology. The preview can be accessed by selecting the “Prepare & Submit Proposals” tab on the top navigation bar after signing in to Research.gov and then choosing “Prepare Proposal.” This preview will continue until 8:00PM EDT on April 27, 2018, and will allow any research community user with a FastLane or Research.gov account to sample the following proposal preparation features prior to the initial release on April 30, 2018:

  • Initiate full, research non-collaborative proposals (other proposal types are planned for future releases);
  • Add Principal Investigators (PIs), Co-PIs, Senior Personnel, and Other Authorized Users;
  • Upload required proposal documents;
  • Create budgets;
  • Check compliance; and
  • Enable Sponsored Project Officer (SPO)/Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR) access for review.

Please be aware of the following important items as you test the new functionality during the preview period:

  • All test data entered on the Research.gov proposal preparation site from February 26, 2018, until the preview concludes at 8:00PM EDT on April 27, 2018, will be deleted at the end of the preview period.
  • NSF will not be able to recover any proposal test data entered during the preview period and deleted by NSF after the preview period concludes.
  • Information entered on the Research.gov proposal preparation site during the preview period will not be submitted to NSF.
  • Test data can be entered on the Research.gov proposal preparation site but actual proposals cannot be submitted to NSF via Research.gov during the preview period.
  • Additional information will be available on a Research.gov “About Proposal Preparation & Submission Site” page accessible on the Research.gov homepage.

Feedback on the New Research.gov Proposal Preparation and Submission Site

Your feedback on the new Research.gov proposal preparation functionality during the preview period (February 26, 2018 through April 27, 2018) and on the full Research.gov proposal preparation and submission functionality after the initial release on April 30, 2018, is vital to NSF. The survey link will soon be available on the Research.gov “About Proposal Preparation & Submission Site” page. Feedback from the community and NSF staff will be used to implement enhancements and expand functionality incrementally, with the goal of eventually transitioning all proposal preparation and submission functionality from FastLane to Research.gov.

NSF’s goals for the new Research.gov proposal preparation and submission functionality are to:

  • Modernize the applications supporting the proposal submission and merit review processes and improve the user experience via the development of a new application;
  • Reduce the administrative burden to the research community and NSF staff associated with preparation, submission, and management of proposals;
  • Increase efficiencies in proposal preparation, submission, and management;
  • Improve data quality and capture proposal content in a way that supports data analytics; and
  • Improve availability, security, and flexibility of proposal preparation and submission IT systems.

We invite you to keep these goals in mind as you prepare and submit your feedback on the new functionality, so that we may improve the new Research.gov interface and develop additional available features.

For IT system-related questions, please contact the NSF Help Desk at 1-800-381-1532 or rgov@nsf.gov. Policy-related questions should be directed to policy@nsf.gov.

Two-Tier Internal Deadline Implemented for all NIH Opportunities

Due to the success of the two-tier internal deadline pilot, the Sponsored Programs Office will permanently implement the two-tier internal deadline structure for all future NIH opportunities.  The implementation of this structure for other opportunities will be announced at a later date.

As a reminder, all final internal documents and the application package (completed in NIH ASSIST) are due to the Sponsored Programs Office no later than 7:00 a.m., 1 week (7 calendar days) prior to the sponsor deadline.  Not all of the science documents in the application package, however, needs to be final and the application package does not need to include the completed budget forms.  All final science related documents are due to the Sponsored Programs Office no later than 7:00 a.m. the day of the sponsor deadline.  Once received, personnel in the Sponsored Programs Office will upload the final documents into the application package.  This later deadline will provide valuable time for the PI/researcher to focus on the science aspects of the proposal.

Once the Sponsored Programs Office receives the internal documents and the application package, personnel in the Sponsored Programs Office will enter the approved budget into the applicable application package….the PI/researcher will not need to complete this task.

The specific science related documents for each application package will be identified and communicated to the respective Principal Investigators once the intent to submit is known.

Feel free to contact the Sponsored Programs Office at 487-2226 if you have any questions.

Changes to Participant Support Costs on Sponsored Projects

Due to recent clarification from the National Science Foundation, effective January 22, 2018, there will be changes to budgeting for participant support costs on all sponsored projects.

Per the federal regulations, the participant support cost category is for the support of participants or trainees only.  Participant support costs are for direct cost items such as stipends or subsistence allowances, travel allowances, and registration fees paid to or on behalf of participants or trainees (but not employees) in connection with conferences, or training projects.

Unless specifically approved in the sponsor solicitation, the participant support cost category should not include costs for items such as speaker or trainer fees, room rental fees, catering at the event, and supplies.  These costs are typically allowable but they must be budgeted and charged in the appropriate category within the non-participant direct costs portion of the budget.

Participant support costs will be charged in accordance with the approved budget on existing awards and any future awards where the proposal was submitted prior to this clarification.

Effective: 1/19/2018 – Changes to the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects

Effective January 19, 2018, Read about how the Revised Common Rule will affect researchers at Michigan Tech

Dear Michigan Tech Research Community:

Final revisions to the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects (a.k.a the “Common Rule”) were issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on January 18, 2017. The majority of changes will go into effect on January 19, 2018. Our institution will not be changing the method of processing continuing reviews at this time, and our current informed consent template has already implemented guidance for incorporating the new changes within your written consent forms.

What to expect:

Our institution asks that all research be submitted to our office for evaluation purposes.

Exemptions and Limited Review

The Compliance, Integrity, and Safety (CIS) Office announces the launch of a new human subject research submission form to be used by all researchers whether faculty, staff, or students effective January 19, 2018.

This new form will incorporate new categories and clarification of existing categories. Some exemptions may require “limited IRB review” (similar to an expedited review process). The form will ask questions to determine whether or not exemption applies or if limited review is needed. NOTE: not all research planned will be able to use this form; it is intended for use for only research qualifying under the explained exemptions, or the new Limited Review categories (example research types: benign social behavior projects, class assessment, research about a process and not someone, etc.). The form will also indicate when you do not qualify for any of the categories in which case you will need to complete and submit a Protocol Document and/or informed consent information along with other applicable documents for the study.

The new Exemption Form will be contained in the human subject library of the software tool our institution uses along with all other forms, and templates. You must be a registered user of irbnet.org to download all Forms, Templates, Samples, and Instructions.

Existing studies: those investigators who currently have ongoing human subject protocols approved before the effective date of Jan. 19, 2018, there is nothing that you need to do at this time. Your study may not be affected at all, however, if your study qualifies for any burden-reducing changes such as annual review, you may apply the new rule and request to minimize your burden at the time of your next annual review.

If you have any question, feel free to contact the Research Compliance Coordinator, Cheryl Gherna at 487-2902 or email irb@mtu.edu.

Additional information:  https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/regulations-and-policy/regulations/finalized-revisions-common-rule/index.html

Grants.gov Changes Coming

Effective 12/31/17, Grants.gov officially retire the current Legacy PDF Application Package method or proposal submission and replace it with an online environment called Workspace.  Workspace is a web-based application system that allows a grant team to access and edit multiple forms simultaneously within an application.  This will not affect the submission of proposals through NSF FastLane or NIH ASSIST.

Michigan Tech researchers, investigators, and staff (known as Organization applicants in Workspace) will now be required to register themselves with Grants.gov and are encouraged to register as soon as possible.  Please see the “Quick Steps” for assistance during the registration process.  Once registered and ready to work on a proposal, contact an analyst in the Sponsored Programs Office (SPO) to initiate a Workspace application by calling (906) 487-2226 or emailing rsch@mtu.edu

For more information about Grants.gov Workspace, please review the Grants.gov training resources or contact SPO for assistance