[Office-of-research] Clarification Regarding F&A Rates for Recovery Act Proposals and Awards

[Bruce Morgan]

Please broadly disseminate this message within your unit to Principal
Investigators and those individuals involved in the development of
extramural proposal budgets.

 

The Office of Management and Budget recently issued proposed guidance
regarding how the federal government will implement many aspects of the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, which includes $25
billion dollars in support of research and development, but also includes
unprecedented transparency and accountability requirements.  The proposed
guidance clarifies that federal agencies and ARRA funding recipients are
required to separately account for and report on ARRA awards, even when
those awards are made to supplement existing (non-ARRA) research awards.  

 

To comply with this requirement, federal agencies will issue all ARRA-funded
awards, including supplemental awards, as new awards (i.e., new award
numbers).  Consequently, all proposals for ARRA funding (including
supplemental proposals) should use the applicable rate consistent with UCR's
new Facilities and <http://or.ucr.edu/SP/Lifecycle/Prepare/index.aspx?T=5>
Administrative (F&A)Costs Rate Agreement.  In addition, all ARRA-funded
awards will be subject to UCR's new F
<http://or.ucr.edu/SP/Lifecycle/Prepare/index.aspx?T=5> &A Costs Rate
Agreement.  For ARRA-funded awards resulting from proposals that used F&A
rates from UCR's prior rate agreement, the difference between the F&A costs
contained in the proposal and the F&A costs calculated using the new
applicable rate will be rebudgeted from direct costs at that time the award
is set up.

 

Because of the extensive reporting requirements associated with ARRA-funded
awards, including quarterly reporting of funds expended, project status,
jobs created, jobs retained, funds obligated, etc. all within 10 days after
the end of each calendar quarter, the campus will not be in a position to
endorse and submit F&A cost reduction/waiver requests to the Office of the
President.  Notwithstanding the foregoing, if a federal agency has a
written, publically available policy that limits the recovery of F&A costs
to rates below those in UCR's F
<http://or.ucr.edu/SP/Lifecycle/Prepare/index.aspx?T=5> &A Costs Rate
Agreement, the Office of Research will submit a request to the Office of the
President for approval.

 

Questions regarding budgeting F&A costs in ARRA proposals and applicable F&A
rates for ARRA-funded awards should be directed to the Contract
<http://or.ucr.edu/home/Staff.aspx?t=3>  and Grant Officer assigned to your
unit.

 

Bruce Morgan

Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research

 

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