Office of Sponsored Research and Programs

On Friday, February 7, the NIH Office of The Director released Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Grants Policy Statement: Indirect Cost Rates, Notice Number: NOT-OD-25-068, imposing a standard indirect cost rate of 15% on all current and pending NIH grants. On Monday, February 10, the Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, together with Attorneys General from Arizona, California, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the State of Massachusetts to “set aside the Rate Change Notice and enjoin any actions taken to implement its directives.” On Monday night, February 10, a federal judge for the District Court issued a nationwide temporary restraining order, preventing the February 7 notice from the NIH from going into effect. OSRP continues to monitor this court case but recommends that PIs restrict their indirect cost rates to 15% for budgeting purposes on grant proposals currently being developed for submission to NIH. OSRP staff will review all future NIH proposal budgets for allowable indirect cost rates at the time of submission.

OSRP Approved Budget Development Guidelines for Principal Investigators (PIs):

• Contact your OSRP Proposal Development Specialist to begin the budget development process.
• Your OSRP Proposal Development Specialist will schedule an introductory meeting to discuss budget needs and develop a preliminary list of budget lines and budget amounts.
• Your OSRP Proposal Development Specialist will enter the initial amounts into a standard OSRP budget spreadsheet and provide this initial spreadsheet to the Principal Investigator.
• Principal Investigators must use the spreadsheet format provided by the OSRP Proposal Development Specialist.
• The Principal Investigator and the OSRP Proposal Development Specialist will work together to gather feedback and revise the budget as necessary.
• Final budgets must be delivered to the OSRP Proposal Development Specialist for final review five days in advance of the proposal submission deadline.

Have you ever wondered how this entire grant process works? OSRP has created this process flowchart to illustrate the “cradle to grave” lifetime of your grant. To view the flowchart PDF click here.

Please be advised that all federal, state, and local government grants and contracts must be reviewed, approved, and submitted by OSRP staff.

OSRP recently completed another office move into 1041 Ninth Street Park. Please note that OSRP staff is currently working with hybrid work arrangements. Laneika Musalini and Kimberly Welp both work remotely from South Carolina, and Lisa Jones works remotely from California. Michael Heathcote and Tim Hawkins are available both on site and virtually. We all continue to be available via email, phone, Teams and Zoom meetings. To schedule an in-person visit in our MSU Denver 1041 Ninth Street Park Office please contact us for an appointment. For complete staff contact information, office hours, and responsibilities, please visit our staff page.

The Principal Investigator (PI) has primary responsibility for achieving the technical success of the project, while also complying with the financial and administrative policies and regulations associated with the award. Although Principal Investigators may have administrative staff to assist them with the management of project funds, the ultimate responsibility for the management of the sponsored project award rests with the Principal Investigator.

To serve as PI, one must be a full-time employee of MSU Denver. Several employment titles automatically confer PI/co-PI status due to the roles and responsibilities that come with that title. Titles of Professor, Associate Professor, and Assistant Professor and to library faculty holding the titles of Senior Librarian, Librarian, and Associate Librarian. Other administrative titles are also eligible for automatic PI status provided the individual is a full-time employee: Vice President, Associate Vice President, Assistant Vice President, Dean, Associate Dean, Assistant Dean, and Director. However, Emeritus faculty do not automatically confer PI status. Emeritus faculty may serve as co-PI or senior key personnel but not as PI.

The PI must have an active appointment with MSU Denver and is responsible for executing and financially managing the grant or project. Since a proposal and subsequent award are a commitment for MSU Denver in many ways, it is important to establish the qualifications and ability of PI’s and Co-PI’s to carry out the work on externally funded grants and sponsored projects.

MSU Denver has negotiated a new approved indirect cost rate for all programs, based on Modified Total Direct Costs (MTDC):

• On Campus: 39.7%
• Off Campus: 17.1%

Although the Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement (NICRA) has not yet been received from the US Department  of Health & Human Services (DHHS), to avoid future budget shortfalls we are requesting new proposals use the new indirect rate for your projects. In your Budget Justification document please note that we have a new ICR rate for FY25 and are awaiting the letter from our federal cognizant agency.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is revising the OMB
Guidance for Grants and Agreements, the Code of Federal Regulations Part 200 (CFR 200), commonly known as the “Uniform Guidance” for federal grant policies. In addition, the National Science Foundation has released the updated 2024 NSF Proposal and Award Policies Procedures Guide (PAPPG).

The effective date for the final Uniform Guidance is October 1, 2024. Federal agencies may elect to apply the final guidance to Federal awards issued prior to October 1, 2024, but they are not required to do so. OMB released a pre-publication version on April 4, 2024. In addition to adding clarifying language, OMB increased several monetary thresholds that have not been updated for many years, for example, increasing the threshold for determining items that are considered to be equipment from $5,000 to $10,000. OSRP staff will continue to review the revised guidance to provide additional information before the October 1 implementation.

The 2024 NSF Proposal and Award Policies Procedures Guide (PAPPG) will take effect on May 20, 2024. A few of the updates include:

• Concept Outlines, has been updated to provide additional clarity on the use of concept outlines and the Program Suitability and Proposal Concept Tool (ProSPCT).
• When to Submit Proposals has been modified to clarify that the 5 p.m. submitter’s local time is tied to the organization, and not the location of the PI.
• Research Opportunity Awards for Predominantly Undergraduate Institutions (ROA)(PUI) Supplemental Funding Requests has been added to the listing of types of proposals.
• Proposal font, spacing, and margin requirements has been modified to allow for submission of proposal documents in landscape format.
• Biographical sketches has been revised to remove the 3-page limitation. There is no page limitation for this section of the proposal. The Synergistic Activities section has been removed from the biographical sketch. This information must now be submitted by individuals designated as senior/key persons as part of the senior/key personnel documents.
• A complete summary of changes is available as a PDF download.

Recordings for the presentations from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Spring, 2024, Virtual Grants Conference, held during the week of June 3-5, 2024, are now available online from the NSF Resource Center.

Our representatives at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) Grant Resource Center (GRC) are available to conduct customized funding searches for MSU Denver faculty and staff, and can also create related future funding alerts for you. To access the Grant Resource Center first create your personal institutional account. After creating your account you will be able to access all of the GRC resources, as well as having the ability to request customized funding reports.

Proposers must now prepare the biographical sketch and current and pending (other) support using SciENcv. 

One significant change implemented in the 2024 Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) is the removal of Synergistic Activities from the Biosketch. Synergistic Activities are now required to be included as a separate one-page document.

On April 25, 2024 NSF held a webinar on NSF Implementation of the Common Forms for the Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending Support. The webinar is available here.

For additional information on completing the Common Forms:

• The SciENcv online portal is available here.
• For a tutorial about the requirements and processes for creating the documents online, this video tutorial was created at Clemson University and is being generously shared with us by Sheila T. Lischwe, Ph.D., Director of Sponsored Programs art Clemson University. The demonstration of the SciENcv online portal functionality begins at 26:25.

Supports projects that enhance undergraduate STEM education at Hispanic-serving Institutions in all disciplines supported by NSF and improves access to computing and lab resources necessary to enhance undergraduate students’ educational experiences. More information.

Upcoming HSI and MSI grant program deadlines are updated regularly. The anticipated deadlines calendar for January-June 2025 is available here.