Beginning in September 2023, a faculty or staff member who is planning to submit an application for external funding must first complete and submit a Pre-Approval request using ORCS’s new ORCS Pre-Approval Form. A PDF containing step-by-step instructions on how to do this can be found here.
Developed in collaboration with IT using BP Logix, the new ORCS Pre-Approval Form will replace the hard copy forms that were used for years, as well as the K2 web-based version that many found cumbersome.
The Pre-Approval Form is used to ensure that all relevant administrative leaders are aware of and approve of your intent to submit a proposal, and is required for all grants or contracts which the College will manage and administer, if awarded.
To ensure that ORCS has sufficient time to provide you with the best possible service, it is recommended that you complete the Pre-Approval Form as early as possible, or at least ten business days before the sponsor’s submission deadline.
The 5-Day Rule For Proposals
To effectively manage the review and submission process on behalf of our faculty, the Office of Research & Creative Scholarship will now be adhering to the following proposal submission policy:
A complete proposal, accompanied by the necessary department and school-level approvals –as well as any other attachments or approvals required by the sponsor or the College– must be received by the ORCS office at least five (5) full business days prior to the sponsor’s due date. The proposal components must be in close to final form with the exception of the narrative, which may be submitted in draft form subject to revision.
Proposals received after this date cannot be guaranteed approval and submission. If ORCS does not have sufficient time for a thorough review, the proposal will not be submitted. In cases of extenuating circumstances, a request for exception to this policy must be made to the Executive Director of ORCS. A proposal submitted to ORCS less than 1 business day prior to the sponsor’s due date will not be submitted, and there will be no exceptions granted for same-day submissions.
Thank you in advance for your collaboration on this new system. Should you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to Eric Asetta, Executive Director of ORCS (eric_asetta@emerson.edu).
Every few years, Emerson College is required to negotiate the Facilities and Administrative (F&A) rates it uses in grants and contracts with the Federal Government. This month, Emerson received our new Rate Agreement from the Department of Health and Human Services for the period of July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2027, or until amended.
Effective immediately, the revised rates must be used for all federal sponsored project proposals with anticipated start dates of July 1, 2023 or later.
The new rates are as follows:
Indirect Costs/Overhead
From
To
Rate
Location
Applicable To
07/01/2023
06/30/2027
56%
On campus
All programs
07/01/2023
06/30/2027
26%
Off campus
All programs
07/01/2027
Until amended
56%
On campus
All programs
07/01/2027
Until amended
26%
Off campus
All programs
Fringe Benefit Rates
From
To
Rate
Applicable To
07/01/2023
06/30/2027
32%
Full-time employees
07/01/2023
06/30/2027
7.65%
Part-time employees
07/01/2027
Until amended
32%
Full-time employees
07/01/2027
Until amended
7.65%
Part-time employees
These rates will apply to all new or new-continuing contracts and grants awarded for funding on or after July 1, 2023. Existing contracts/grants may still use the old rates as originally awarded.
As a reminder, it is the policy of Emerson College to request indirect costs on proposals to non-federal sponsors, when permitted. Many foundations specify their own indirect cost rates, and it is the policy of the College to utilize these rates in its proposal budgets. When a non-federal sponsor is silent on F&A, a de minimis rate of 10% should be applied.
To learn more about F&A costs and how they are budgeted and recovered, please review the answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) below.
FAQs
What are Facilities and Administrative Costs? Also referred to as indirect costs, F&A costs are expenses incurred by an organization that cannot be identified readily and specifically with a particular sponsored project but contribute to the ability of the College to conduct sponsored projects. Expenses of maintaining and operating the College’s sponsored project infrastructure include costs related to buildings (labs, offices, training facilities, etc.), utilities (water, electricity, heating, air conditioning, etc.), maintenance (custodial and facilities services, etc.), equipment, libraries, general administration (purchasing, accounting, payroll, human resources, legal services, etc.), departmental administration (deans offices, academic departments, etc.), and sponsored project administration. These costs are considered F&A costs, and sponsoring agencies reimburse organizations for these expenses through an F&A rate.
To what budget items does the F&A rate apply? All rates are applied to a Modified Total Direct Costs (MTDC) base. The MTDC base includes all direct costs, excluding capital expenditures, equipment with a per-unit cost of $5,000 or more, charges for tuition remission, rental costs of off-campus facilities, scholarships, fellowships, participant support costs, and the portion of each subaward
Why does the College require project directors to budget for F&A costs? F&A costs are actual costs that are incurred by the College in administering a sponsored award. Because it is not practical for a project budget to allocate funding for all such costs, the Federal government utilizes a rate model to account for these expenses and to provide a fair and consistent method through which reimbursement can be made. The College requires that sponsored project budgets include F&A costs because facilities and administrative expenses are incurred for each sponsored project, and without funds to cover these costs, the College would not have an infrastructure that could support sponsored projects. It would be unfair to require students to cover these costs through tuition revenue, especially for projects that are not for their direct benefit.
How are the rates determined? The Federal government outlines specific procedures to be used in determining the rates and requires institutions to provide a proposal and financial data in accordance with these procedures. The government then uses a detailed review process to arrive at approved rates for each organization. The rates are not set by the College and cannot be amended without a new Federal rate agreement.
What does the College do with funds recovered through the F&A rate? Recovered F&A funds are used to help offset the College’s facilities and administrative expenses.
What if I want to apply to a funding program that limits or prohibits F&A costs? If a sponsoring agency limits or prohibits the recovery of F&A costs, the College currently accepts these restrictions and subsidizes the F&A costs provided that written documentation (i.e., policy statement or application guidelines) from the sponsoring agency is provided when the proposal is submitted for internal review.
What if I have a current sponsored project award that uses a lower rate? The revised rates apply only to new awards and do not impact existing awards. Effective immediately, project directors are required to use the new rates for all proposals submitted for internal review.
NSF has recently made enhancements to the biographical sketch and current and pending (other) support fillable PDF formats. The updated formats are consistent with the Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 23-1) and are available on the NSF biographical sketch and current and pending (other) support websites. NSF made the following enhancements in response to feedback received from the research community:
Current and Pending (Other) Support
Corrected the Status of Support radio button
Corrected fonts and margins for compliance with NSF policy
Included the revision date (rev. 01/19/2023) at the bottom of each page
Biographical Sketch
Corrected margins for compliance with NSF policy
Included the revision date (rev. 01/19/2023) at the bottom of each page
Staff from NSF and NIH conducted a webinar to discuss the revised formats and demonstrate the SciENcv system. A recording of the webinar will be made available in the coming days at: https://nsfpolicyoutreach.com/.
NSF appreciates the feedback from the research community. Additional feedback and questions may be submitted to: policy@nsf.gov
Guidelines and application materials for Grants for Arts Projects funding are now available on the National Endowment for the Arts’ website at arts.gov/grants (The program was previously called “Art Works”). Applications for projects beginning in 2022 will be due February 10 & July 7, 2022. Grants range from $10,000 to $100,000 (including indirect costs), and require a 1:1 institutional cost share/match.
Application Limits
As an educational institution, Emerson College may submit only one application under these FY 2023 Grants for Arts Projects guidelines, with the following exceptions:
Applications for Ploughshares, ArtsEmerson, HowlRound, and WERS, each of which NEA has classified as an “independent component” of Emerson;
Emerson may submit more than one application in the Grants for Arts Projects category through the Media Arts discipline at the July 7, 2022, deadline.
If you are thinking of applying this year, please contact ORCS at your earliest convenience. Depending on the number of inquiries, the College may need to hold an internal competition to select a single project for submission.
Program Description
Grants for Arts Projectsis NEA’s principal grants program for organizations based in the United States.
Through project-based funding, the program supports public engagement with, and access to, various forms of art across the nation, the creation of art, learning in the arts at all stages of life, and the integration of the arts into the fabric of community life. We encourage projects that address any of the following:
Elevate artists as integral and essential to a healthy and vibrant society
Celebrate the nation’s creativity and/or cultural heritage
Enrich our humanity by broadening our understanding of ourselves as individuals and as asociety
Originate from or are in collaboration with the following constituencies encouraged by White House executive orders:
Organizations that support the independence and lifelong inclusion of people with disabilities.
In recognition of the United States of America’s 250th anniversary in 2026, we also welcome arts projects that educate and engage communities in dialogue about the past, present, and future of our nation.
Applications will be due on August 12, 2021. Grants will be awarded in fixed grant amounts of $50,000, $100,000, or $150,000. Cost share/matching funds are not required. Unlike other Arts Endowment funding programs that offer project-based support, Rescue Plan funds are intended to support day-to-day business expenses/operating costs, and not specific programmatic activities.
Application Limits
As non-profit institution, Emerson College may submit only one application under these guidelines, with the following exceptions:
Applications for Ploughshares, ArtsEmerson, HowlRound, and WERS, each of which NEA has classified as an “independent component” of Emerson;
If you are thinking of applying this year, please contact ORCS at your earliest convenience. Depending on the number of inquiries, the College may need to hold an internal competition to select a single project for submission.
On June 1, 2020, the National Science Foundation (NSF) implemented the Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 20-1) for proposals due on or after that date. The revised PAPPG implements a variety of new requirements and clarifications. The most significant of these are changes to the following proposal sections:
Biographical Sketches: For the Biographical Sketch component of an application, NSF will only accept PDFs that are generated through the use of an NSF-approved format (This requirement went into effect on October 5).
Other changes include permission for the conditional use of “et al” for publication citations in the “Products” section, when citing multiple authors.
Current and Pending Support: The requirement to use an NSF-approved format for preparation of current and pending support went into effect for proposals submitted on or after October 5.
Along with the format change, the revised PAPPG expands the definition of current and pending support to include “all resources made available to an individual in support of and/or related to all of his/her research efforts… [including] in-kind contributions (such as office/laboratory space, equipment, supplies, employees [or] students).”
An NSF webinar covering the new format requirements was recorded in April 2020 and can be accessed here. Click here for a summary of all significant changes and clarifications made to the PAPPG.
Guidelines and application materials for Grants for Arts Projects funding are now available on the National Endowment for the Arts’ website at arts.gov/grants (The program was previously called “Art Works”). Applications for projects beginning in 2022 will be due February 11 & July 8, 2021. Grants range from $10,000 to $100,000, and require a 1:1 institutional cost share/match.
A Grants for Arts Projects guidelines webinar for potential applicants will take place on January 6, 2021 from 3-4 p.m. Eastern Time. Click here to register.
Application Limits
As an educational institution, Emerson College may submit only one application under these FY 2022 Grants for Arts Projects guidelines, with the following exceptions:
Applications for Ploughshares, ArtsEmerson, HowlRound, and WERS, each of which NEA has classified as an “independent component” of Emerson;
Emerson may submit more than one application in the Grants for Arts Projects category through the Media Arts discipline at the July 8, 2021, deadline.
If you are thinking of applying this year, please contact ORCS at your earliest convenience. Depending on the number of inquiries, the College may need to hold an internal competition to select a single project for submission.
