Guidelines for Grant and Contract Management
Physical Sciences Division
Time & Effort Reporting on Grant & Contract Proposals
To: PSD Faculty
From: David W. Oxtoby, Dean
Re: Time and Effort Reporting on Grant and Contract Proposals
It has been a common occurrence, particularly in NSF Grant Proposals on Current and Pending Support Forms, to list effort requested to be paid by the NSF (usually some one to two months of faculty off-quarter compensation) and some academic year time, which the NSF is not asked to fund.
We are strongly recommending that no time for which funding from the agency is not requested be listed either on Current and Pending Support forms or in the proposal narrative. By listing this non-funded time and effort the Federal auditors can conclude that the University has made a commitment of time and effort for which the government can then require specific effort reporting and other financial expenditure documentation. These accounting and reporting requirements work against the Universitys interests. This is the latest in some new Federal accounting interpretations that distinguish between voluntary committed time (unfounded effort that is shown anywhere in the proposal) and voluntary uncommitted time (time that the faculty spend on their research program but the time is not specifically promised to the granting agency in the proposal). Thus even though we know that our faculty spend academic year time on their research programs along with other academic duties, there are potentially burdensome and even costly consequences to formally committing the time in a proposal.
However, this does not apply to proposals where the commitment of University-funded time and effort is offered as part of the mandatory cost share requirements.
The principle being followed here is that all faculty have some discretionary time to spend on their research program, but to commit specific time to each area which may or may not be covered by sponsored funding is placing an unnecessary burden on both the investigator and the University.
We requested that Mary Ellen Sheridan poll our peer institutions on this matter, and this same non-reporting policy has been followed in almost all instances. Specifically, our Division has routinely made references to this time and effort. Now that the government is making any voluntary commitment of time anywhere in a proposal subject to effort reporting and financial documentation we concluded that a policy clarifying academic year effort commitment was necessary.
In order to monitor these commitments any proposal which list academic year time and effort either in the text or on some type of time reporting form will have to be reviewed by the Deans Office.
cc: W. Hogan
S. Hohmann
T. Jurczak
T. Mendoza
C. Murray
M. Sheridan
J. Talsma
R. Zimmer
