1. Research Administration Forum
November 7, 2018

2. Agenda Annual Audit Follow-Up – Estella Venegas
FY 2019 Indirect Cost, Staff Benefit, and other Rates – Dick Seligman
NSF and NIH Policies on Harassment – Dick Seligman
Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) – Dick Seligman
Review of PI Eligibility Policy – David Mayo
Campus-JPL Collaborations (“50/50 Convention”) – David Mayo
“Where Does it Say I Have To Do That”? – David Mayo

3. 2018 Single Audit (Formerly the A-133 Audit)
Estella Venegas
Assistant Director, Post Award Administration

4. Topics of Interest Direct and Indirect Costs Payroll Confirmations
Cost Transfers
NIH Salary Cap
Period of Availability
Cost Sharing
Financial Reporting
Equipment
Service Centers
Procurement
Subrecipient Monitoring
Cash Management

5. FY 2019 Indirect Cost, Staff Benefit, and Other Rates
FY2019
On-campus F&A rate (provisional)
64.5%
Off-campus F&A rate (provisional)
26.0%
Staff benefit rate (provisional)
26.5%
Paid leave rate
18.5%
GRA tuition remission rate
(all federal funds, and funds that provide OH of 15%
or higher)
66.0%
(all non-federal funds that provide less than 15% OH)
66.0%-95.3%
Minimum overhead on endowment income:
Awards of less than $500k per year in total costs
Awards of $500k or more per year in total costs
15.0%
30.0%
Minimum overhead on non-federal funds:

6. Use of the Off-Campus F&A Rates
The Off-Campus F&A Rate may be used when a Caltech project is carried out at a location that is not owned by Caltech.
In general, only one F&A rate, with on-campus or off-campus, is applied to an extramural award made to Caltech.
Where an extramurally funded project is carried out at both on-campus and off-campus location, the F&A rate applied to the project is determined on the basis of where the majority of the Caltech effort is conducted; the portion of a project carried out by subcontractors or other non-Caltech collaborators is not part of this determination. Only the programmatic effort performed by Caltech personnel is used to make this determination.
A proposal that will utilize the off-campus rate should clearly describe the project activities that qualify it for an off-campus rate.
For particularly large projects with clearly identifiable on- and off-campus components, it is possible to apply both on- and off-campus F&A rates. Such situations should be anticipated at the proposal stage and discussed with Sponsored Research prior to inclusion in the proposal. Exceptions to these principles for use of the off-campus rate must be approved by the Provost prior to submission of a proposal.

7. NSF Policy on Harassment:
NSF doesn’t tolerate sexual harassment, or any kind of harassment:
Within the Agency
At Grantee Institutions
At Field Sites
Anywhere NSF-funded science and education actitivites are conducted

8. NSF Policy on Harassment (Continued):
New NSF Requirement: Grantees must report findings or sexual harassment, or any other kind of harassment regarding a PI, Co-Pi, or any other grant personnel.
Grantees must report the placement of the PI or Co-Pi on administrative leave relating to a harassment finding or investigation.
NSF expects all awardee organizations to establish and maintain clear and unambiguous standards of behavior to ensure harassment-free workplaces.

9. NIH Policy on Harassment:
NIH grants are awarded to institutions, not individuals.
Grantees are responsible for the actions of their employees.
NIH expects grantees to have systems, policies, and procedures in place by which they manage funds and activities.
NIH expects recipients to foster work environments conductive to high quality research

10. NIH Policy on Harassment (Continued):
Grantees are required to notify NIH of any change in status that might affect the ability of an individual identified as key personnel to conduct NIH-supported research.
If a grantee takes administrative action against an employee that impacts the ability of the employee to continue as Key Personnel on an NIH award, NIH requires the grantee to notify NIH and seek advance approval for replacement of PI’s and Senior/Key Personnel.

11. Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI):
What is CUI?
CUI is a designation used by the Federal Government to identify information that is not classified, but nevertheless must be protected from unauthorized access. Some CUI is also designated as “export controlled” information.
How is CUI protected?
Restricting access to U.S. Persons
Limiting use of computers for CUI to special cybersecurity arrangements, including secure servers and special arrangements for data storage

12. Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI – Continued):
How is CUI protected?
Restricting access to U.S. Persons
Limiting use of computers for CUI to special cybersecurity arrangements, including secure servers and special arrangements for data storage
How does the Federal Government deal with CUI?
Projects funded as basic or fundamental research projects should not include any CUI or other restrictions on access or dissemination of project results.
When the Government issues a grant, contract, or cooperative agreement that requires the PI to receive CUI in order to carry out the project, the Government is obliged to spell this out in the award documents, including an identification of the specific information that is being designated as CUI and the reason why this is being done.
If an organization accepts a Federal award that requires the Investigator to have access to CUI, it must immediately implement security measueres identified by the Government in order to protect the CUI. These measures are likely to be extremely cumbersome and very expensive. Under such circumstances, the project is not being conducted as fundamental or basic research.

13. Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) (Contined):
What is Caltech doing about CUI?
Caltech has recently developed a policy on dealing with CUI on campus.
The policy is now in effect and will soon be incorporated into Chapter VII of the Caltech Faculty Handbook.
Caltech’s Policy:
The Institute’s policy is that no government contracts, grants, or subawards are accepted if they require either receiving or producing Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) in order to carry out the project. Exceptions to this policy can be granted by the Provost’s Office in limited circumstances if so doing is in the best interests of the Institute.

14. PI Eligibility – David Mayo
Only Professorial Faculty (i.e., tenure track) are eligible to serve as PI
Everyone else requires an exception, including
Emeritus faculty
Research faculty (e.g., Research Professor)
Faculty Associate
Visiting Professors and Associates
Members of the Beckman Institute/Professional Staff
Postdocs and Students

15. PI Eligibility (cont.)
The VPR has issued a matrix to summarize available exceptions and associated criteria, which is available on OSR website
Deviations from the matrix must be submitted for approval at least one week prior to the proposal submission deadline

16. JPL 50/50 Convention
Originally implemented to ensure that proposals submitted by campus, and which included participation by JPL, were truly campus-led projects
Any campus proposal that budgets more than 50% of the funds to JPL will need review by the Vice Provost for Research prior to submission
This is not intended as a restriction but rather as a threshold of JPL participation that warrants higher level review

17. Regulation and Compliance
NCURA publication that summarizes over 180 federal compliance requirements
Each entry includes minimum requirements for institutional compliance (including differences in application to grants and contracts), penalties for non-compliance and references to original regulatory and/or statutory requirements
Caltech has purchased a limited site license
It will be available to Caltech personnel in the next month or so
Intended to support Caltech’s education efforts in research compliance

18. Where does it say I have to do that?
Presentation to detail many of the federal requirements associated with preparation/ submission of federal proposals, and management of federal awards
Will include references to Caltech requirements/ implementations
Look for it in January or February of 2019

19. PI Effort Commitment
Different sponsors require different representations of committed effort, for example
NSF: NSF-funded person months (10% equals 1.2 person months, not .1 person months)
NIH: Person months (10% equals 1.2 person months, not 10 person months)
NASA: FTE (10% = .10 FTE, not 10 FTE)
The Division is responsible for ensuring that effort calculations are correct relative to budgeted salary - OSR does not have access to salary information in order to validate this

20. PI Effort Commitment (cont.)
Any PI effort that is committed but which is not charged to the sponsor is cost shared effort
PI effort that is cost shared on federal awards must reimburse the general budget (via the Provost’s Office) for the unrecovered overhead on the cost shared PI salary and benefits. Exceptions
If the federal sponsor requires cost sharing, PI effort may be cost shared without incurring the overhead pay-back requirement
If the Provost waives the pay-back requirement; Division Chairs do not have the authority to waive this, but any submitted request must include the Chair’s support

21. PI Effort Commitment (cont.)
Please be consistent with how you represent committed effort between the budget and the budget justification (or at least accurate), and relative to the budgeted salary
Inconsistency can lead to a great deal of confusion when OSR records the commitment in the financial system
OSR takes effort commitment from the budget, with possible validation from the budget justification
OSR does not attempt to derive the committed effort from the budgeted salary, nor will auditors
Ideally, OSR will catch inconsistencies before the proposal is submitted, if there is sufficient time.