*these link to other web pages

General FAQs

• Where should grant/contract payments be sent?
• Who is the Cognizant Audit Agency and Individual?
• How many copies of proposal a required by Sponsors? by the UW?
• How soon do I need to submit a proposal to OSP?
• I'm submitting a GC1 for a supplement. Do I put just the supplement amount on the GC1, or the amount of the whole grant?
• I'm submitting a no-cost extension request. Do I need to complete a GC1?
• I have a non-funded agreement that needs to be signed. Who should sign it?
• Who can serve as a principal investigator on a grant?

Clinical Study Agreements

• Why is a written agreement necessary?
• Who is authorized to sign a clinical study agreement for the university?
• How long does it take for a clinical study agreement to be approved?
• How are indirect costs calculated?
• How are publication rights protected?
• How is confidential information protected?
• What about patent rights?
• Why is it necessary for the sponsor to indemnify the university?
• What if the study is cancelled?
• When should human subjects review committee approval be obtained?
• How is the payment schedule established?

NSF FastLane Proposal Preparation

• How do I get started with NSF FastLane?
• How do I get a password or what should I do if my password does not work?
• What software do I need to prepare a proposal via FastLane?
• What security is provided with FastLane?
• What should I do to prepare for an electronic proposal submission?
• How does OSP know when I have clicked on the "Allow SRO access" button?
• How do I know NSF has successfully received my FastLane proposal?
• What are the benefits of using FastLane?

No-Cost Extension

• What is a No-Cost Extension?
• How does the approval process work?
• When are final reports due?
• I'm submitting a no-cost extension request. Do I need to complete a GC1?

Outgoing Subcontracts

• What is a Subcontract?
• As I write my proposal to an outside sponsor, what should I request from the proposed Subcontractor?
• After I get my proposal funded and a budget or account number is assigned by GCA, what do I do to transfer the funds to the Subcontractor?
• Once the Subcontract is fully executed, how will the Subcontractor get paid for the work they are doing?
• How do I amend the Subcontract?
• What are my options if the Subcontractor Institution is not performing up to expectations?
• How do I close out the Subcontract?

Sponsored Projects and Gifts

• Are all sponsored project charged facilities and administration (F&A) costs (i.e., indirect costs)?
• Is it true that there is heightened regulatory scrutiny of pharmaceutical company-provided external support?
• Is there a dollar threshold?
• Is it a sponsored project when a pharmaceutical company provides financial or non-financial support for the testing of a drug it manufacturers (i.e. free drug, support for data collection, support for faculty or staff salary etc.)
• If unrestricted educational funds are given to support a specific lecture or program, is it a gift?
• If external support is a gift at the time the support is committed or paid, but the gift is later used for an activity as a Sponsored Project, does the gift status of the funds change to a sponsored project?
• Are there any restrictions on the use of gift funds?
• If a gift is made to support a UW faculty member, or made directly to a UW faculty member and then placed in a UW account, would this be considered a gift or sponsored project (i.e. does the UW consider designating an individual to be a specific good, service, or deliverable)?
• Are funds donated "as an unrestricted gift to support the research and teaching activities of Dr. XX" considered a gift or a sponsored project?
• Are funds donated "as an unrestricted gift to support the research and teaching activities of Dept XX" considered a gift or a sponsored project?
• When there are difficulties in classification, who will conduct the appropriate institutional review?
• Hypothetical situation: A gift is donated in divided portions, with subsequent donations contingent on performance. For example, a scholarship fund for minority students whose annual renewal is contingent upon successful recruiting of minority students. I.e. donor retains authority to withhold support pending satisfactory completion of the objective of minority recruitment. Is this a sponsored project or gift?
• Who handles Material Transfer Agreements (MTA's)? Are they gifts or Sponsored Projects?
• In some cases, external funds may meet all of the criteria for classification as a gift except that the donor requires the return of unspent funds. In these instances, is it still possible for these funds to be classified and accepted as a gift?
• How should funds be classified if the funder designates that they are to be used for general research support (e.g. prostate cancer research) or for general research support by a specific investigator (e.g. to support the research of Dr. X)?

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

• Grants
• Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research
• NRSA Training Grants
• NRSA Fellowships
• Research Training Opportunities
• Public Access

Facilities and Administrative (F&A) Costs (Indirect Costs)

Similar to the overhead costs of a business, facilities and administrative (F&A) costs are the basic expenses involved in running the UW’s research program. This factsheet answers some of the more common questions about F&A costs. For detailed information or policy guidance, please see GIM 13 at www.washington.edu/research/osp/gim/gim13.html

• Are F&A costs the same as as indirect costs?
• What are the differences between direct costs and F&A costs?
• How are the F&A rates calculated and negotiated?
• What are the current F&A cost rates for research activities?
• How are a research project's F&A costs calculated?
• Can an individual researcher negotiate different F&A rates on a project?
• What if I am applying for a non-federal grant that pays less than the full F&A rate?
• Why should my grant pay F&A costs?
• What do F&A costs reimbursements pay for?
• How do F&A reimbursements benefit my department?
• How are F&A cost reimbursements related to University expenditures?

New Indirect Cost (F&A) Rates

• When do I begin to use the new F&A rate?
• Do I use these new F&A rates on all proposals?
• If I have a proposal for 5 years, do I use the same F&A rate for all 5 years?
• What would happen to the proposals sent prior to July 1, 2005 using the old F&A rates?
• Do I use the new F&A rate on the non-competing renewal proposals?
• If an award has been received and a budget has been established, do we go back and change to the new F&A rate?
• What would happen if the federal agencies refuse to use the F&A rate because the proposal was submitted using the old rate?
• Will these new rates apply to the Idustry Sponsors and Federal flow through funds?