Two procedures to keep in mind as you seek external support for research
by COEHD Faculty Research
Greetings Colleagues,
For those of you who are seeking external funding for your research, I want to provide two reminders. Not all of you attended the Research Service Center meeting held by Jennifer Silver and Jesse Hernandez in Spring of 2019 when the first of these—the 5-2 rule—was explained by them. The 5-2 rule is this: a proposal must be uploaded into CAYUSE and available for internal review 5 days before it is due, and it must start its final routing 2 days before it is due to the funder (hence: 5-2). Jennifer and Jesse from the Research Service Center (RSC) explained that, whether for external or internal proposals that go through the RSC, if the proposal and budget are not received 5 days before they are due to the funder, your Department Chair will need to send a request for waiver of this rule, including an explanation for the delay in your submission and confirming that the faculty member and Chair understand that, if the 5-2 rules is waived (but was not allowed a full 5 days for prior review and vetting of the project budget), the late proposal may be submitted to the funder; but if it is funded, the College and RSC reserve the option to renegotiate the budget with the funder upon award and potentially not accept the award if sufficient resources are not included in the budget to oversee its administration.
The second reminder, which is only for external funding, but also was discussed at that RSC meeting, is that going forward most proposals to external funders will need to include some direct costs for administrative duties beyond what falls within the nominal scope of what is covered by F&A (Facilities and Administration, indirect costs). This addresses the recurrent problem of proposals being submitted absent of the administrative costs necessary for project tasks as well as absent funds budgeted for basic administration on grants projects that include either no faculty course buyouts, no or very low F&A, or both. The range in percentage of a fiscal staff person’s time required as direct cost is typically between 5% ($1800 annually) for small simple projects without F&A, to 25% (or $15,000) for large, administratively complex proposals requiring with or without F&A. A description of how to tally the necessary costs will be sent to faculty once they submit a notification via the WuFoo weblink of their intent to respond to an RFP or seek funds. Dr. Monica Trevino and Dr. Michael Karcher can help faculty determine needed direct administrative costs to include based on the planned activities of the project.
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Michael
Michael J. Karcher, Ed.D., Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Research
Professor of Educational Psychology
College of Education and Human Development, University of Texas at San Antonio
501 Cesar Chavez Blvd., Suite DB 4.337 (DT); MB 3.476 (Main Campus)
San Antonio, TX 78207
(210) 458-2032; 458-2650 (department)
michael.karcher(a)utsa.edu
