PRE-AWARD GRANT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

PRE-AWARD GRANT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

PRE-AWARD GRANT PROCEDURES

The Grant Office provides pre-award support and services to faculty, staff, and administration for federal, state, corporate, and private grants submitted on behalf of Vincennes University. Responsibilities include:

  • Finding Funding Opportunities
  • Writing of Strategic Grants
  • Research
  • Budget Development
  • Format, Layout, and Design
  • Online Submission of Federal, State, Corporate and Private Grants
  • Review Awards for Compliance
  • Ongoing Program Support
  • Authorized Signatures
  • Internal Review Board
  • Institutional Grant Archival

The Grant Office is located in Room 125 of the Welsh Administration Building on the Vincennes Campus. The Grant Office is open Monday - Friday from 8:00am to 4:30pm (EST).

Stephanie Stemle
Grant Development Office, Room 125
Vincennes University
1002 North First Street
Vincennes, Indiana 47591
Office: 812-888-4933
Fax: 812-888-2120
Email: sstemle@vinu.edu

RESPONSIBILITIES

The Grant Office provides pre-award support and services to the faculty and administration by assisting with writing, preparing, researching, designing, and submitting grants. Faculty and staff members who wish to prepare an approved grant (for federal, state, corporate, or private sources) must first notify the Grant Office. This notification will 1) prevent and eliminate any conflicts of submission that may occur, 2) prepare the Grant Office for a future electronic submission, 3) alert the Internal Review Board (IRB) to the potential of research being conducted, 4) prepare staff for the submission of VU’s institutional Routing Form, and 5) provide the required budgetary information needed for Banner access. The Grant Office is authorized to sign approved grant submissions on behalf of VU. The Grant Office archives all institutional grant submissions. Due to containing proprietary and/or confidential information, these records are not made public, but are retained for Federal and State audits and financial tracking.   

In the preparation and submission of proposals, the following provisions shall apply:

  1. The Grant Office must be notified of the intent to apply.
  2.  The proposal must conform with the policies of the Board of Trustees and the University Administration.
  3.  The project manager is responsible for reading and understanding the guidelines of the grant application.
  4. An internal Routing Form must be submitted to the Grant Office.  This form summarizes pertinent programmatic and fiscal information from the proposal and provides signature lines for the appropriate College Dean and Vice President.
  5. Legal review, when requested by the sponsoring agency, will be performed by the University Legal Counsel.
  6. Transmission of all proposals and acceptance of all awards from any sponsoring agency must go through the Grant Office which serves as the Authorized Organizational Representative.

BUDGET DEVELOPMENT

All grant budgets must be developed in coordination with VU’s Senior Accountant.  Budgets should comply with the financial guidelines found in the Solicitation for Grant Application (SGA).

INDIRECT COST RATES

All grant proposals must be evaluated to determine if an indirect cost rate or administrative fee should be budgeted for and charged to the grant. To determine if a facilities and administrative rate (indirect cost rate) should be charged first read the Solicitation for Grant Award, or applicable pre-award document, to determine if indirect costs are allowed and if there are any limitations stated.

If an indirect or administrative rate is allowed, the grant should be charged the approved indirect cost rate established with the Department of Health and Human Services.

View Vincennes University’s current INDIRECT COST RATE.

Consult with the Grant office to ensure that the program funded by the grant will be an on-campus program. In certain instances, the program will be classified as an-off campus program, which means the off-campus indirect cost rate will apply.

Once the appropriate rate has been determined, this rate should be applied consistently to the grant for the entire grant period.  

INSTITUTIONAL COMMITMENTS

It is the policy of the University to generally cost share only the dollar value of contributed personnel time during a project period. However, at certain times, and with permission of the Vice President for Financial Services and Government Relations, the University may cost share or match other costs as long as the costs are not included in the University's negotiated indirect cost rate. When this does occur, it is the responsibility of the Accounting Department to maintain records of actual cost sharing expenditures. 

In cases where a particular funder restricts the recovery of indirect costs by the University, the unrecovered portion of those costs may be shown in the project budget as cost sharing.  

GRANT SUBMISSION CHECKLIST 

  1. Identify funding sources and opportunities. 
  2. Notify the Grant Office of intent to apply.
  3. Develop budget draft.
  4. Submit completed ROUTING FORM and budget to Grant Office.
  5. Write proposal and submit an approved final copy electronically to the Grant Office.
  6. Grant office electronically submits grant on behalf of the institution. Notify the Grant Office of any online submission at least five business days prior to grant closing date.
  7. Submit final project in electronic form to the Grant Office for permanent archival.

RECEIVING THE CONTRACT/AWARD

When a funding source awards VU a grant, official notification is usually made via phone, letter, or electronically to the President’s Office, the Grant Office, or the Project Director. An award document will be received, which will require thorough review, negotiation, and signature (signed by the President or Authorized Organizational Representative) before being returned. VU will ultimately receive a fully executed award contract, which will bind the institution to the terms agreed upon.

CONTRACTS/AWARD NOTICES

All award notices and fully executed copies will be kept in the Grant Office. It is the responsibility of the Project Director to forward a copy of the contract, budget (signed by the Dean), and award notification letter to the Budget Office. The Budget and Accounting Offices will then establish a unique Banner account for each contract using a specific FUND number, ORGANIZATION code, ACCOUNT category, and PROGRAM code (FOAP). The Project Director will be notified of the appropriate codes and will be expected to attend Banner training sessions for efficient administration.

CONTINUING GRANTS AND CONTRACTS 

The President, Vice Presidents, and Grant Office (on behalf of the administration) have signatory authority for all continuing contracts and grants including amendments, renegotiated budgets, and yearly budget requests. All fully executed documentation, including amended contracts and awards, annual reports, final reports and close-out documents should be sent to the Grant Office for archival.

PRESS RELEASES

After notification of receiving an award, VU issues a press release notifying the VU Community of the project. Press releases are written by the Director of Media Relations or the Grant Office, and ultimately disseminated by Media Relations. Grantors may place restrictions upon information made available in press releases; thus, it is the responsibility of the Project Director to notify the Grant Office of any restriction that may jeopardize the relationship between grantor and grantee.

FUNDING SOURCES

Vincennes University currently subscribes to GRANTSELECT, which may be accessed from the Grant Office.

  • HTTP://WWW.GRANTSELECT.COM
    GrantSelect™ is a powerful online database which lists nearly 10,000 grant programs from over 4,000 sponsors. Straight-forward search tools and a clean interface make GrantSelect the preferred tool among researchers as well as nonprofit directors, development officers, small business owners, students, and educators. 
  • HTTP://WWW.GRANTS.GOV/
    Vincennes University uses Grants.gov to electronically find and apply for Federal grants. Grants.gov was established as a governmental resource named the E-Grants Initiative, part of the President's 2002 Fiscal Year Management Agenda to improve government services to the public. Today, Grants.gov is a central storehouse for information on over 1,000 grant programs for 26 federal grant-making agencies. 
  • HTTP://WWW.CFDA.GOV/
    CFDA provides a full listing of all Federal programs available to State and local governments (including the District of Columbia); federally-recognized Indian tribal governments; Territories (and possessions) of the United States; domestic public, quasi-public, and private profit and nonprofit organizations and institutions; specialized groups; and individuals.
  • HTTP://FOUNDATIONCENTER.ORG/
    The Foundation Center is the most authoritative source of information on private philanthropy in the US. The Center helps grantseekers, grantmakers, researchers, policymakers, the media, and the general public better understand the field of philanthropy.  The web site is designed to quickly guide you to the information you are looking for—instruction on funding research, help with proposal writing, tools for locating prospective funders, and news and research on the field.

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