Top 10 Things that Can and Do Go Wrong at the Department Level CReATE ver. 05/13 © 2008 Florida State University. All rights reserved Russell Lentz Associate Director Sponsored Research Services

Number One Failure to submit proposal to SRS for review and approval prior to submission to sponsor

Number Two Principal Investigators, Chairs and/or Deans sign and accept award on behalf of FSU

Number Three Failure to obtain Chair and Dean approval for cost sharing/matching commitments or requests for indirect costs waivers prior to submitting to SRS

Number Four Applying wrong indirect cost rate in a proposal (i.e., using main campus rate when work will be performed at NHMFL; using off-campus rate when work will be performed on campus; using OSA rate for a research project)

Number Five Treating FSU faculty in proposal as a consultant

Number Six Expectation of receiving a salary increase simply because proposal included funds to cover an increase

Number Seven Performing work and/or delivering the results to a sponsor prior to receiving an award

Number Eight Authorizing personnel without an appointment to work on a project

Number Nine Subcontracting out more than 50% of an award

Number Ten Making i nappropriate charges to projects and untimely initiation of cost transfers

Number Eleven Documenting or certifying an effort report without “a suitable means of verification” (i.e., first- hand knowledge) of work performance

Number Twelve Failure to satisfy and/or properly document cost sharing commitments

Number Thirteen Nepotism – PI employing relatives on a project

Number Fourteen Relying on a program officer’s authorization for prior approvals required by terms of award

Questions