Agency
Forms Information
The
University is tax exempt in its capacity as
a 501 [c] 3 not-for-profit educational institution.
Employer
Identification Number (EIN) is 63-0477348.
Data
Universal Numbering System (DUNS) assigned
by Dun & Bradstreet for credit rating purposes
is 172750234.
Commercial
and Governmental Entity Code (CAGE Code) assigned
to USA by the Defense Logistics Information
Service is 1NZ96.
The
University’s National Science Foundation
identification number is 0010579000.
The University's U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services (DHHS) EIN number is 1630477348A1.
The
University is located within Alabama’s
First District [Mobile, Baldwin, Washington,
Clarke, Monroe, Escambia].
Official
Signing for Applicant Organization (Authorized
Organizational Representative):
Dr.
Russ Lea
Vice President for Research
Office of Research Administration
University of South Alabama
307 University Blvd., AD200
Mobile, AL 36688
Tel: 251/460-6333
FAX: 251/460-7955
Email: awards@usouthal.edu
Direct
Charges / OMB A-21
Federal Circular A-21 regulates which
items can be charged as a direct charge
to grants and which items are included
as part of the F & A expense.
This circular defines the terms "direct
charge" and "F & A expense" in
grants. Examples of items that are generally
considered to
be F & A expense are secretarial salary,
clerical salary, office supplies, copies, printing,
computers, and local telephone lines. The government"s
position is that when we negotiate our F & A
rate, it includes all of these things so if we
make a direct charge for one of
these items, we are, in effect, double billing
the government.
There
are only two exceptions to this regulation.
The first is if a project meets the government's
definition of major program, it may be allowable
to convert some F & A
expense to a direct charge. It should be noted
that very few programs at the University are
defined as "Major Programs". This is
decided on a case by case basis using the guidelines
found in Appendix C of Circular A-21. To meet
the exception the project must require more than
the normal amount of the type of charge being
considered. The second exception is if it is
included as a line item in the proposal and a
justification is included in the proposal explaining
why this is an unlike circumstance. An unlike
circumstance is something
that makes this situation different than what
would usually be the case for grants. For example,
a local telephone line is normally considered
to be F & A, but if the grant is a polling
grant and has a large number of callers, the
local telephone lines can be justified as a direct
charge under the unlike circumstances exception,
since many more lines would be required than
would be under normal grant circumstances.
Please
keep these regulations in mind when submitting
your proposals. If you include items as direct
charges that are normally part of the F &
A expense please include the justification so
that your proposal will not be delayed.
Memo from Office of Grants and Contracts Accounting,
November 2006
From
the NSF Grant Proposal Guide:
"In most circumstances, particularly for
institutions of higher education, salaries
of administrative or clerical staff are included
as part of indirect costs (also known as Facilities
and Administrative Costs (F&A) for Colleges
and Universities). Salaries of administrative
or clerical staff may be requested as direct
costs, however, for a project requiring an
extensive amount of administrative or clerical
support and where these costs can be readily
and specifically identified with the project
with a high degree of accuracy. Salaries for
administrative or clerical staff shall be budgeted
as a direct cost only if this type of cost
is consistently treated as a direct cost in
like circumstances for all other projects and
cost objectives. The circumstances for requiring
direct charging of these services must be clearly
described in the budget justification. Such
costs, if not clearly justified, may be deleted
by NSF."
From OMB A-21 Section F. 6.
b.
"2) The salaries of administrative
and clerical staff should normally be treated
as F&A costs. Direct charging of these costs
may be appropriate where a major project or activity
explicitly budgets for administrative or clerical
services and individuals involved can be specifically
identified with the project or activity. "Major
project" is defined as a project that requires
an extensive amount of administrative or clerical
support, which is significantly greater than
the routine level of such services provided by
academic departments. Some examples of major
projects are described in Exhibit C.
3)
Items such as office supplies, postage, local
telephone costs, and memberships shall normally
be treated as F&A costs."
OMB
A-21 Exhibit C
"Exhibit C -- Examples
of "major project" where direct charging
of administrative or clerical staff salaries
may be appropriate.
Large, complex programs such as General Clinical
Research Centers, Primate Centers, Program Projects,
environmental research centers, engineering research
centers, and other grants and contracts that
entail assembling and managing teams of investigators
from a number of institutions.
Projects which involve extensive data accumulation,
analysis and entry, surveying, tabulation, cataloging,
searching literature, and reporting (such as
epidemiological studies, clinical trials, and
retrospective clinical records studies).
Projects that require making travel and meeting
arrangements for large numbers of participants,
such as conferences and seminars.
Projects whose principal focus is the preparation
and production of manuals and large reports,
books and monographs (excluding routine progress
and technical reports).
Projects that are geographically inaccessible
to normal departmental administrative services,
such as research vessels, radio astronomy projects,
and other research fields sites that are remote
from campus.
Individual projects requiring project-specific
database management; individualized graphics
or manuscript preparation; human or animal protocols;
and multiple project-related investigator coordination
and communications.
These examples are not exhaustive nor are they
intended to imply that direct charging of administrative
or clerical salaries would always be appropriate
for the situations illustrated in the examples.
For instance, the examples would be appropriate
when the costs of such activities are incurred
in unlike circumstances, i.e., the actual activities
charged direct are not the same as the actual
activities normally included in the institution's
facilities and administrative (F&A) cost
pools or, if the same, the indirect activity
costs are immaterial in amount. It would be inappropriate
to charge the cost of such activities directly
to specific sponsored agreements if, in similar
circumstances, the costs of performing the same
type of activity for other sponsored agreements
were included as allocable costs in the institution's
F&A cost pools. Application of negotiated
predetermined F&A cost rates may also be
inappropriate if such activity costs charged
directly were not provided for in the allocation
base that was used to determine the predetermined
F&A cost rates."
A “Program Project” as
defined by NIH
"A
research program project (P01) award is for
the support of a broadly based multidisciplinary
or multifaceted research program which has
a well-defined major objective or central theme.
It is directed toward a range of scientific
questions having a central research focus in
contrast to the more narrow thrust of the traditional
research project (R01). The program project involves
the organized efforts of groups whose members
are conducting research designed to elucidate
the various aspects or components of the central
theme. Each research project is usually under
the leadership of a different experienced investigator
and should contribute to the common theme of
the total research effort. Collectively, these
projects should demonstrate essential elements
of unity and interdependence and result in a
greater contribution to program goals than would
occur if each project were pursued individually.
It is expected that most of the collaborating
scientists will be independent investigators.
Thus, support of one senior investigator and
several postdoctoral or research associate-level
scientists as project leaders is not appropriate.
The program project grant is not intended to
be a vehicle for departmental research support.
In most cases, several departments should be
represented."
If you have any questions,
please contact Steve Croft, OSP Associate Director, scroft@usouthal.edu,
460-6456.
Cost
Accounting Policies
The
Office of Grants and Contracts Accounting
website maintains the following information:
Budgeting 
Regulatory
Issues
Grant
Writing
Project
Closeouts
Cost
Principles
Minority
Business
Cost
Sharing
Cost
Transfers
Service
Centers
Program
Income
Reporting
Responsibilities
Roles
and Responsibilities
Project
Transfers
Proposal
Routing
Effort
Reporting
F&A
Cost Rates
