| Budget Management
General Budget Information
Fund
General Operations & Maintenance (1000), Restricted State Special (1801) and Other Unrestricted Funds (1026) support the Grant-in-Aid program. The fund will be assigned by the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR).
DeptID
A Grant-in-Aid EFS string is established by the budget officer in the faculty member’s tenure department, which is the Chart of Accounts (COA) DeptID. The departmental budget officer receives all financial reports for the Grant-in-Aid and is responsible for grant monitoring and accounting. Expense documents must be signed with an authorized departmental signature; OVPR signature is not required. All document preparation, accounting, and reporting occurs within the department.
Program
20562 – Program value assigned to the Grant-in-Aid of Research, Artistry and Scholarship. This is the ONLY program value that can be used.
Fin EmplID
As financial activity must be tracked, the Employee ID of the Grant-in-Aid award recipient is required as part of the EFS string.
Accounting Management of Award
The departmental budget officer establishes the Grant-in-Aid EFS string in the financial system.
Expense Budget Lines
The departmental budget officer establishes all approved Account Values, including Revenue Transfer In Value 600202 (used to award funds) and Transfer Out Value 610202 (used to revert unexpended funds at the end of the grant period).
Fund Transfers
When all required documentation has been received (see HOLDS section, below), the OVPR budget officer transfers funds to the faculty member’s DeptID via Journal Entry. FUND TRANSFERS INTO OR OUT OF GRANT-IN-AID AWARDS BY ANYONE OTHER THAN THE OVPR BUDGET OFFICER IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
HOLDS: Human/Animal Subjects or Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Training:
The OVPR transfers funds for Grant-in-Aid awards pending approval for the use of human or animal subjects, if applicable. In addition, funding will be held if the PI has not completed all required RCR Training. Funds will not be transferred until:
Therefore, expenses may not be incurred until all approvals are on file at the Office of the Vice President for Research. If applicable, an addendum regarding incomplete requirements is included with the Grant-in-Aid award letter.
Approved Budget
An approved budget is enclosed with each Grant-in-Aid award letter. The faculty member and their budget officer are responsible for expending the award as approved. OVPR oversight of these funds is retrospective; the OVPR monitors grant activity quarterly to ensure that expenses incurred are reasonably consistent with the approved budget. The faculty member and his/her area budget officer are responsible for the removal of any over-expenditures or unauthorized expenditures.
Grant Period
Grant-in-Aid projects must be completed within the one and one-half year grant period. Current grant periods are July 1, 2009– January 15, 2011 (for Spring 2009 awards) and January 1, 2010- June 30, 2011 (for Fall 2009 awards). Funding is effective on the start date of the award and expenditures must be charged within the dates of the grant period. Requests for no-cost extensions must be submitted at least 30 days prior to the end date of the grant. Late requests will not be considered. The request must include: Proposal number, EFS string number, justification for the request in terms of the overall goals and objectives of the original proposal as reviewed and approved by the faculty peer review committee, and a revised timeline. PLEASE NOTE that extending the term of an award may affect future eligibility. Send requests to: facgrant@umn.edu, attention Myrna Smith, Director, Office of Grants and Awards. Typically, requests are reviewed and a decision distributed via e-mail within a week.
Effort Reporting
If personnel supported by a Grant-in-Aid are not supported by sponsored funds, effort certification is not required. If, however, personnel supported by a Grant-in-Aid are also supported by sponsored funds, effort on the Grant-in-Aid must be reported.
Graduate Research Assistant (RA) Salary and Fringe
The Grant-in-Aid program uses a standard allotment figure (salary and fringe combined), based on a 50% time, 2-semester appointment, to calculate the RA component of awards. Personnel budgets that include other terms and percentages of appointment are re-calculated and awarded using this standard allotment. The standard salary allotment is above the minimum of the salary range for a graduate research assistant, and the fringe is estimated at the maximum amount required. The faculty member may allocate the total amount to different RAs at different percentages of time and term, as necessary. While departmental policies regarding RA pay rates may vary from those used by the OVPR, please note that the faculty member must pay his/her RA no less than the standard rate of the Grant-in-Aid program. Additional information on graduate research assistant appointments may be referenced at the Graduate Assistant Employment Services website.
Please note that the Graduate School provides no augmentations for annual salary or fringe increases. If a graduate RA will be employed past June 30 of any given year, or if the standard allotment is not sufficient to support the student at the pay level desired, the grant must be supplemented by other funding sources or the term of support shortened to provide sufficient funds. If excess funds are allocated for salary and/or fringe expenses, the excess allotment may be used to extend the term or percentage of the appointment.
The Grant-in-Aid award does not cover fringe benefit charges for Social Security and Medicare. The current (FY2010) formula for graduate student tuition/fringe benefits is $14.32 per hour for tuition + 16.84% of gross salary for health insurance. This does not include the Social Security and Medicare fringe components (totaling 8.16% of gross salary) charged for graduate research assistants who do not meet minimum credit hour requirements (i.e., are registered for fewer than three credits, or less than one credit for advanced master’s and Ph.D. candidates). Should the graduate research assistant fall into this category, another source of funding must provide the additional 8.16% fringe charge or the term of support must be reduced. See the Graduate Assistant Employment Services website for a thorough description of graduate student assistant information.
Salary and fringe expenses may be transferred to the GIA EFS string using a Payroll Journal Voucher/Historical Salary Adjustment entry (HSA,) provided the original expense is within the grant period.
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Undergraduate students may be employed on Grant-in-Aid accounts as undergraduate research assistants. Other student classifications (lab assistant, etc.) and non-academic short term employment (temp casual) appointments are typically not appropriate unless specifically justified in the proposal and included in the approved budget. Contact Human Resources or your departmental HR officer for procedures on hiring undergraduate research assistants.
Reallocation
If necessitated by the nature of the project, an investigator is allowed to reallocate up to 25% of the amount originally awarded for a given expense category (Account Value) to another approved category (for instance, from equipment to supplies, from supplies to travel, etc.) without obtaining permission from the OVPR. Reallocation between Account Values in excess of this allowance requires advance approval from the OVPR.
Re-budgeting
Should the faculty member find it necessary to re-budget the grant beyond the 25% reallocation allowance, a written or e-mail request must be submitted to the OVPR at 420 Johnston Hall or facgrant@umn.edu. The following must be included: Proposal number, EFS string number, description of new budget item (or budget item in need of more funding), description of the existing approved budget item from which funding should be taken, dollar amount, and justification for the request in terms of the overall goals and objectives of the original proposal as reviewed and approved by the faculty peer review committee. Typically, these requests are reviewed and decisions distributed via e-mail within two weeks. Exception: If a faculty member wishes to substitute an undergraduate Research Assistant for a graduate Research Assistant or vice versa, no re-budgeting permission is required.
Additional Account Values, if required, will be authorized by the OVPR , and may be established by the departmental budget officer. This requirement ensures that expenses are consistent with the overall goals and objectives of the proposed research project as reviewed and approved by the faculty peer review committee.
Travel
The total allotment in travel may be reallocated within the expense line without obtaining re-budgeting permission. Similarly, if multiple trips are approved, the total travel allotment can be reallocated among the trips as necessary. The approved per diem for foreign travel is based on the U.S. State Department per diem allowances, or the faculty member’s lower estimate at the time the proposal was submitted. Per diem and other travel information can be found at http://travel.umn.edu
Other Approved Expenses
Approved supplies, services, equipment, and computers are purchased following the department’s standard purchasing procedures and policies. Travel expenses and reimbursements are also processed by department’s budget office. Please do not send copies of these documents to the OVPR. Expenses may be transferred to the Grant-in-Aid using transfer/expense redistribution journal entry, provided the original expense was incurred within the grant period.
Prohibited Expenditures
- faculty or visiting faculty salary support; regular full-time civil service salary support (except Cat. 7)
- support for personnel to edit or index publication material, or to word process manuscripts or proposals
- computer time charges for U of M computer use; U of M computer time application fee; charges to connect to a network
- computer equipment that was not included in the final, approved project budget
- books, subscriptions, reprints, publication costs
- travel to or from sabbatical and single semester leave sites
- travel expenses associated with professional meetings, conferences, and short courses
- small, general-purpose items, furniture, or maintenance contracts
- utilities (e.g., phone lines)
Fiscal Year-End
The funding period of a Grant-in-Aid always crosses one fiscal year-end (June 30,) and awards beginning on January 1 also end on June 30 (one and one-half years later.)
End of the Grant Period
Ending Date
Grants-in-Aid awarded on July 1 end on January 15, one and one-half years from the start date. Grants-in-Aid awarded on January 1 end on June 30, one and one-half years from the start date. No further expenses should be charged after the end date of the grant; although grants remain active through the end of the next month so outstanding invoices can be paid. All encumbrances must be cleared by either June 30 or January 31, depending on the grant period.
Account Balance
The OVPR reverts unexpended funds. If the account is in deficit, expenses must be transferred to another source of funding via expense transfer/redistribution journal entry. Note that journal entry fund transfers by departmental budget officers are strictly prohibited on these grants and cannot be used to remove positive balances or cover deficits at year-end.
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