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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Foreign/International grants will normally be paid by U.S. Treasury check by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Financial Management (OFM) on a predetermined quarterly advance basis, usually in four equal installments. If circumstances make payment by check non-secure or too inconvenient, payment can be made via Direct Deposit (US Bank) or Wire Transfer, if all necessary information is provided as requested in the Notice of Award. The contact person at NIH, OFM who processes these payments is Ms. Joyce Lee, who can be reached at: 301-402-5798. The following assurances and certifications are required for grants to foreign organizations:
A change of grantee that involves the transfer of a grant to or between foreign institutions or international organizations is possible but will require approval by the appropriate NIH Institute or Center's Grants Management Officer and approval of the Institute or Center Advisory Council/Board. Transfer a grant from a foreign organization to a domestic organization requires only the approval of the Grants Management Officer. No. All requests for funds, including the budget contained in the application, must be stated in U.S. Dollars. Once an award is made, the NIH will not compensate foreign grantees for currency exchange fluctuations through the issuance of supplemental awards. Yes. Financial Status Reports (FSRs) must be submitted for each budget period on Standard Form SF-269. The SF-269 form can be found at: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/fsr_sf269_long.pdf [PDF]. Please follow the instructions for the revised PHS 398. The instructions may be found at: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/phs398.html. DO NOT use the Modular Budget Format Page. All budget items relating to faculty and administrative participation in the program should be itemized on PHS 398 Form, page 4. For the entire proposed project period, use PHS 398 Form, page 5. Please note:
The total direct costs from PHS 398 NRSA Substitute Form, page 4 should be summarized as an item on regular PHS 398, page 4 in the "Other" category, and identified as "Totals from PHS 398 Form, pages 4 and 5". This will result in Form, pages 4 and 5 reflecting the composite budget, showing all funds requested. All budget items related to trainee participation should be itemized on PHS 398 NRSA Substitute Form, page 4. No. Foreign or International applicants do not need to negotiate an F&A rate. Equipment is the only thing that is excluded from the F&A base (i.e., subcontracts are not excluded). You should put the F&A costs on the Checklist Form page of the application. You do not need to list a DHHS negotiated rate agreement. You will also need to check the Modified total direct cost base at the bottom of the Checklist Form page. Total costs reflect the direct cost amounts requested on the budget or budget justification page, plus the F&A costs listed on the Checklist Form page. The direct costs listed include the total costs of any consortium or "subcontracts". Interest earned on advances of Federal funds must be handled as follows: Non-U.S. Governmental grantees: Any interest on Federal advances of grant funds that exceeds $250 per year in the aggregate must be remitted annually to PMS (as the government-wide agent for collection) at the address below: Division of Payment Management Program Support Center Program income is gross income earned by a grantee, a consortium participant, or a contractor under a grant that was directly generated by the grant-supported activity or earned as a result of the award. Program income includes, but is not limited to, income from fees for services performed, the use or rental of real or personal property acquired under the grant, the sale of commodities or items fabricated under an award, and license fees and royalties on patents and copyrights. The requirements for accountability for these various types of income under NIH grants are specified on the next slide. Accountability refers to whether NIH will specify how the income is to be used and whether the income needs to be reported to NIH and for what length of time. Unless otherwise specified in the terms and conditions of the award, NIH grantees are not accountable for program income accrued after the period of grant support. Program income earned during the period of grant support (other than income earned as a result of copyrights, patents, or inventions or as a result of the sale of real property, equipment, or supplies) shall be retained by the grantee and may be used in one or a combination of the alternatives indicated below. Most foreign grantees will use the Additive Alternative (add the $ of program income to the amount awarded). Additive Alternative -- Added to funds committed to the project or program and used to further eligible project or program objectives. Deductive Alternative -- Deducted from total allowable costs of the project or program to determine the net allowable costs on which the Federal share of costs will be based. Combination Alternative -- Uses all program income up to (and including) $25,000 as specified under the additive alternative and any amount of program income exceeding $25,000 under the deductive alternative. Yes. Please provide complete, updated other support information including the amount of effort (in person-months) devoted to each item of support. A sample 'Other Support' page can be found here: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/othersupport.doc Unlike domestic grants, foreign grants are paid by U.S. Treasury check by the NIH Office of Financial Management (OFM) on a predetermined quarterly advance basis, usually in four equal installments. Foreign grantees do not have Federal funds deposited directly into their bank account from Payment Management System and may not have the same access to financial systems as U.S. grantees. Since many foreign institutions may have unique fiscal needs and/or may not have the infrastructure to pay pre-award costs, U.S. grantee institutions that have foreign consortiums may provide them with quarterly advances of funds or arrange a reasonable payment schedule to accomplish the goals of NIH grants. No. Receiving detailed budgets from foreign applications allows NIH staff to assist the applicant community with applicable regulatory and policy requirements for grant funding expenditure; therefore, modular budgets are not allowed from foreign applicants. However, if an application is coming from a domestic institution with a foreign subcontract, the application can include a modular budget. For more information, see policy notice NOT-OD-06-096. NIH grant mechanisms that can use the electronic SF 424 application process (e.g., R01) can now accept multiple Principle Investigators (multiple-PI) on an application. For grant mechanisms still requiring the paper PHS 398 application, multiple-PI applications are not allowed. The multiple-PI option is targeted specifically to those projects that do not fit the single-PI model, and therefore is intended to supplement, and not to replace, the traditional single-PI model. Currently there are no limits on the number of PIs, or their location (domestic or foreign), unless otherwise stated in a specific Funding Opportunity Announcement. Projects that have multiple performance sites or multiple contributors may still be considered single-PI applications if there is a clear scientific leader; other contributors may be considered "consortium participants" or "subcontractors", depending on the nature of the project. For more information on this topic, refer to OER's Multiple Principle Investigators site, or contact the program officer for the Funding Opportunity Announcement you are interested in. Should you require Adobe Acrobat for viewing PDFs on this page, current and free accessible plug-ins are available at the Adobe website.
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