The University of Washington (UW) receives different types of training grants from federal and non-federal agencies. Training grants are awarded to support pre-doctoral and post-doctoral research training experiences. The primary federal agencies providing training grants are the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Office of Education (ED).
Some special regulations for NIH National Research Service Awards (NRSA) include:
Non-NRSA training grants may have different policies depending on the award and the sponsor. Please see the Training Grant Matrix.
Separation of costs is an important distinction between training grants and research grants. Training grant awards categorize funds as either trainee funds or other funds.
The trainee funds are restricted to be used for trainee cost categories only:
The other funds are allocated, but not restricted, to be used for other cost categories:
The University has set up expenditure object codes that are considered trainee cost categories. These object codes are:
01-50 - Stipends for Post-doctoral research trainees are always paid in object code 01-50.
01-90 - Stipends for Pre-doctoral research trainees will be paid in object code 01-90 if all of the following criteria are met:
08-02 - Stipends for Pre-doctoral research trainees not meeting all of the above criteria will be paid in object code 08-02.
08-05 - Tuition forms authorize the 08-05 payments for trainees. These forms are completed by the department and submitted directly to Student Accounts. Refer to the following web site for information and forms: http://www.washington.edu/students/sfs/sao/tuition/deptschol.html.
All expenditure object codes that are not identified in the trainee cost categories shown above are considered other costs.
Re-budgeting occurs when funds are moved within and between categories. Sponsor regulations allow re-budgeting from other cost categories into trainee cost categories and re-budgeting within other cost and within trainee cost categories. Sponsor regulations do not allow re-budgeting from trainee cost categories into other cost categories. See example in the Training Grant Workshop.
Refer to the Training Grant Workshop.
Obligated trainee costs are defined by NIH as follows:
The amount of the stipend, tuition and fees for each full period of appointment must be obligated from funds available at the time the individual begins training unless other instructions are furnished by the awarding office.
When trainees are appointed to the training grant, there must be enough money to pay for their entire appointments, not just enough money to pay for the portion of their appointments up to the budget end date. Refer to example in the Training Grant Workshop.
The F&A cost rate on training grants is typically 8%. Tuition, equipment, and benefits (stipend-related only) are exempt from F&A costs. Training grants are usually set up to exempt tuition and equipment from F&A costs. The UW system automatically charges F&A costs on all other expenditures. Since benefits associated with trainee stipends are exempt from F&A costs, GCA prepares a manual adjustment. This adjustment is done at the time of closing.
Appointment Process for NIH NRSA Institutional Training Grants:
Caution: When trainees are added at the end of a grant, old stipend levels must be used and trainees must be paid at the old rate for the period of their appointments. Departments must make sure that the stipends awarded match the amount allowed by the award. Any stipends awarded above the allowed amount must be paid from a non-federal source.
Paperwork requirements:
SOA and Termination Notice forms may be downloaded from the following web site: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/forms.htm#training.
Verify that:
Non-Competing: GCA will move it forward with department's concurrence or department may provide a non-federal budget for the transfer.
Competing: If over-expenditure is due to tuition/benefit shortfall, the non-competing rules apply. If not, the department must move the cost overrun to a non-federal budget.
