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Taming Training Grants & Fellowships

NCURA Region I 2015 Spring Meeting

Leah Burberry (Harvard Medical School) Katherine King (Tufts University)

Brian Lynch (Tufts University)

Presentation Overview NIH awards: Kirschstein-NRSA individual fellowships and institutional training grants

Trainee Appointments

Financial Reporting & Unliquidated Obligations

Payback Agreement

Frequently Asked Questions

Appointment Termination

Allowable Expenses

• NIH awards Kirschstein-NRSA individual fellowships and institutional training grants to support predoctoral and postdoctoral training of individuals to undertake biomedical, behavioral, or clinical research at domestic and foreign, public and private institutions

• Limits of Support: • A trainee / fellow may not receive more than 5 years of

aggregate Kirschstien-NRSA predoctoral support • A trainee/ fellow may not receive more than 3 years of

aggregate Kirschstein-NRSA postdoctoral support


• xTrain is used to facilitate appointment management

• Appointment period is no

longer than 12 months but may be less

• Trainees can be appointed at any time during a budget period

• Best practice is to start appointments on the first day on of a month

xTrain • Xtrain is found within eRA commons • Statement of Appointment and the Termination Notice are

completed electronically through xTrain • Recommend Search options to find a grant in xTrain:

– PI name – Institute Code and serial number

• NIH Grant Number T32 DK 062032 20

Serial Number Institute Code

xTrain




Payback Agreement



Allowable Expenses

Pre-Award Spending

• Pre-award costs to an individual fellowship are limited. Stipends and tuition and fees may not be charged to a fellowship award until a fellow has actually activated and the appropriate paperwork submitted to the NIH.

• There are rare occasions when costs associated with the institutional allowance may be allowable as pre-award costs. Sponsoring institutions should consult with the NIH awarding IC when considering a pre-award cost.

Allowable Costs • Trainee / Fellow Stipend • Institutional Allowance (Fellowships)

– Health Insurance – Travel

• Training related expenses (Training Grants) – Staff salaries – Consultants – Equipment – Research supplies – Trainee Health Insurance

• Tuition & Fees (currently a 60% cap as noted below) • F&A at 8% MTDC (excluding F Kiosk awards)

Stipends

• Stipend payments are not compensation for services or time rendered. Stipend payments are made to individuals for subsistence support to defray expenses during the appointment period

• A stipend is not a salary • Stipend payments do not

correlate with effort • Must be paid in

accordance with the established NIH levels

FY 2015 Stipend Levels Career Level Years of Experience Stipend for FY 2015 Monthly Stipend

Predoctoral All $22,920 $1,910

Career Level Stipend for FY 2015 Monthly Stipend

Freshmen/Sophomores $8,640 $720

Juniors/Seniors $12,096 $1,008

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-15-048.html

Institutional Training Grants (T32, T35, T90, TL1 and Individual Fellowships (F30, F31)

Institutional Training Grants (T34)










FY 2015 Stipend Levels Career Level Years of

Experience Stipend for FY 2015 Monthly Stipend

Postdoctoral 0 $42,840 $3,570

1 $44,556 $3,713

2 $46,344 $3,862

3 $48,192 $4,016

4 $50,112 $4,176

5 $52,216 $4,343

6 $54,216 $4,518

7 or More $56,376 $4,698


Institutional Training Grants (T32, T90) and Individual Fellowships (F32)










Tuition and Fees

• For Predoctoral Trainees. An amount equal to 60% of the level requested by the sponsoring institution, up to $16,000 per year, will be provided. If the program supports formally combined dual-degree training (e.g., M.D.-Ph.D, D.D.S.-Ph.D.), the amount provided will be up to $21,000 per year.

• For Postdoctoral Trainees. An amount equal to 60% of the level requested by the applicant institution, up to $4,500 per year, will be provided. If the program supports postdoctoral individuals in formal degree-granting training, the amount provided will be up to $16,000 per year.

• Tuition and fees are awarded as a lump sum that can be allocated (without the prior approval of the NIH awarding IC) based on recipient needs.

Institutional Allowance • Institutional allowance is a

fixed amount • Predoctoral Fellow $4,200 • Postdoctoral Fellow:

$7,850 • If you are a For Profit

Institution the amounts slightly vary • Predoctoral Fellows:

$3,100 • Postdoctoral Fellows:

$6,750

• Institutional allowance may need to be prorated if the fellow is in training status for less than 6 months.

• Institution is not required to account for these expenditures on an actual cost basis

Institutional Allowance • Health Insurance

• Must be applied consistently to all individuals in a similar training status regardless of the source of support

• Travel • Payment for travel to scientific meetings when necessary for the

individual’s training & occurs within period of award • For fellows at Federal laboratories, reimbursement of travel

costs must be in accordance with applicable Federal travel regulations.

• Extraordinary Costs • when the training of a fellow involves extraordinary costs for

travel to field sites remote from the sponsoring institution or accommodations for fellows who are disabled

Trainee Related Expenses • Admin costs -Staff Salaries or PD/PI effort is allowable

if reasonable and allocable • Consultants- When speakers are part of program

required for NSRA-supported trainees • Meals- may be allowable if they are provided in

conjunction with a meeting where the primary purpose includes the dissemination of technical information

• Research supplies • Books (Not provided in School/Institution Library) • Equipment

– Computers (Must remain apart of the Trainee Program)

Question: Which of these is an allowable trainee related expense?

1) Slice of pizza after a long work week in lab

2) Administrator’s salary

3) Neuroscience textbook relevant to the project

4) Desktop computer used to analyze data

5) Consultant fee for “alternative career paths” talk

Employee Benefits

Individual fellowship awards can not be charged with costs that are normally associated with other employee benefits (FICA, workers compensation, life insurance, union dues, unemployment insurance, etc.) But… Medical liability (malpractice) insurance or other special insurance is an allowable cost to NRSA grants only if nature of the research training requires such special insurance.

Rebudgeting of Funds on a Fellowship

• Funds cannot be re-budgeted into the stipend category – The stipends must be paid at the appropriate stipend level – If a fellow terminate early, the unexpended stipend must be

returned and cannot be rebudgeted.

• Tuition and fees in general cannot be rebudgeted without prior written approval from the awarding agency

• If institutional allowance is unexpended, it can only be rebudgeted into the tuition and fees category when tuition and fees have been awarded

Rebudgeting of Funds on a Training Grant

• Trainee Costs (Stipends & Tuition/Fees) – The stipends must be paid at the appropriate stipend level – Rebudgeting into or within the stipends and tuition categories is typically

allowable without prior approval. – Note you cannot budget into other these funds into other budget

categories unless you have prior written approval.

• Tuition and fees in general cannot be rebudgeted without prior written approval from the awarding agency

• Travel and trainee-related expenses can be rebudgeted into any other budget category without prior approval from NIH




Payback Agreement



Allowable Expenses

Trainee & Fellow Terminations

Regular Terminations • The termination form is required to be completed when

the trainee is not immediately re-appointed

• The trainee, the training grant director or mentor, and the business financial officer must approve the termination notice electronically through xTrain

• Termination notices must be submitted within 30 days of the termination date

Trainee & Fellow Terminations

Early Terminations

• The termination notice should be revised to reflect the early termination date, and the stipend paid through that date.




Payback Agreement



Allowable Expenses

Financial Reporting

• NIH requires FFR submission 90 days after the budget period for training grants • Note: an FFR is typically not required for NRSA Fellowship awards

• Report is cumulative per grant cycle • Need to address any Unliquidated Obligations

Unliquidated Obligation Unliquidated Obligation: A cost that has been incurred but not yet paid or recorded. • Although stipends and tuition are obligated for the full 12-month

appointment from the budget period in which the appointment is initiated, this is not true for trainee travel or training related expenses. – Charges from these categories are only made to the grant when actual

expenditures are incurred. Therefore, only an actual charge for travel or training related expenses that has not cleared before the end of a budget period can be treated as an unliquidated obligation.

Carryover • The NoA for a Kirschstein-NRSA institutional research training grant

will specify whether or not the grantee must obtain the prior approval of the awarding IC to carry over funds

SF-425 Reporting Unliquidated Obligations

Trainee Stipend Health Ins. F&A Jennifer Highwater $3,820.00 $300.00 $329.60 Matthew Steel e $3,820.00 $300.00 $329.60 Tricia McGuire $3,820.00 $300.00 $329.60

SF-425 Reporting Unliquidated Obligations

Unliquidated Obligations:




Payback Agreement



Allowable Expenses

Payback Agreement

• Form PHS 6031 • The Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service

Awards (NRSA) legislation requires postdoctoral trainees to pay back the government through health related research, training, or teaching.

Year 1 Year 2

Postdoctoral trainee incurs a payback obligation during the 1st (initial) year.

The 2nd year of training pays back the 1st year of support.

Year 3

Financial obligation

Payback Scenarios

• Julian received a postdoctoral fellowship (F32) that started on July 1, 2012. Julian terminated his fellowship early on September 30, 2014. Does Julian have a payback obligation?

July 1, 2012 Sep 30, 2014

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

Payback Scenarios

• Jimmy receive a postdoctoral fellowship (F32) that started on July 1, 2012. Jimmy terminated his fellowship early on December 31, 2013 to join the circus. Does Jimmy have a payback obligation?

July 1, 2012 Dec 31, 2013


Payback Scenarios • Julian in completing the

second year and engaging in health related research, training, and teaching met the payback obligation.

• Jimmy in terminating half-way through the second year, does have a financial obligation and will need to make financial repayment for 6 months.


Jimmy Julian

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q.) The budget period of my T32 is July of 2014 to June of 2015, however my institution appoints trainees

from September 2014 to August of 2015. How should this be accounted for?

• A.) A trainee or fellow’s stipend, health insurance, and tuition and fee expenses should be charged to the budget period in which the trainee is appointed. Thus in the example, the stipend and health insurance charges for July and August of 2015 should be charged against the July 2014 to June 2015 budget period. The stipend and tuition are considered as charged at the time of appointment. Other trainee expenses such as research supplies or travel can only be charged to the budget period in which they are incurred.

Q.)My program director would like to charge a portion of his/her effort to the T32? Can this be done?

• A.)Training Related Expenses can be used to help defray such costs as staff salaries. However, such charges must meet the test of allocability and reasonableness. The charges would have to come from your T32's institutional allowance. As the budget for this cost category is limited and used to pay student health insurance, the amount of faculty effort to which you could practically charge would be very limited.

Q.) My trainee noted that the NIH announced a stipend level increase during the course of his/her

appointment. May I adjust the amount retroactive to the beginning of the award or date of announcement?

• A.)No, all stipend rates must stay the same throughout the course of the entire appointment. The stipend rate is subject to the NIH fiscal year to which the grant year was awarded.

Q.) I am aware that the NIH has a tuition and fee cap of $16,000 per degree seeking student. Can we

request up to $16,000 if tuition is higher?

• A.) From the NIH SF424 instructions: Grantees should request full tuition needs. The NIH/IC will adjust with formula and award at that amount. (Currently 60%)

Q.) Are meal costs allowable on T32 grants as an institutional allowance?

• A.) The cost of meals may be allowable if they are provided for a meeting where the primary purpose includes the dissemination of technical information. A portion of such a cost could be charged as Training-related expenses. Be extremely cautious as borders on being classified as ENTERTAINMENT!!!

Q.) Can a trainee’s stipend be appointed to a T32 NRSA institutional grant and another Research grant

(Either R01,R21,F31, or any Private Foundation)?

• A.) Compensation may not be paid from a research grant that supports the same research that is part of the fellow's planned training. However, the training grant is only intended to cover basic items of training. Additional grants may be permissible to cover other budgetary items more significant (i.e travel) which cannot be provided or fully covered from the T32 Award. The grantee should consult the IC to determine whether additional source of support would be permissible depending on the costs and budgetary items provided.

Questions? Comments? Contact Us:

Brian Lynch Grant Accountant Neuroscience Department Tufts University [email protected]

Katherine King Post Award Financial Specialist Tufts University [email protected]

Leah Burberry Senior Grants Manager Department of Systems Biology Harvard Medical School [email protected]

Useful Links • Training Grant Information http://grants.nih.gov/training/T_Table.htm • Fellowship Information http://grants.nih.gov/training/F_files_nrsa.htm • NIH Career Development Awards http://grants.nih.gov/training/careerdevelopmentawards.htm • Stipend & Tuition and Fee Levels FY15: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-15-048.html • NRSA Policy http://grants1.nih.gov/training/nrsa.htm#policy

http://grants.nih.gov/training/T_Table.htm

http://grants.nih.gov/training/T_Table.htm

http://grants.nih.gov/training/F_files_nrsa.htm

http://grants.nih.gov/training/careerdevelopmentawards.htm

http://grants.nih.gov/training/careerdevelopmentawards.htm



http://grants1.nih.gov/training/nrsa.htm%23policy

T32 Progress Report Tips • The NIH now requires that all type 5 progress

reports be submitted using the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) forms (see NOT-OD-15-014)


T32 Progress Report Tips for Budget

• Trainee stipends and tuition consistent with the guidelines set forth in NOT-OD-14-046. Please note that tuition for postdocs is only provided by NINDS for courses that are mandatory for all trainees, based on the application, or when, as part of the training program, trainees are enrolled in a degree-granting program.

• Training Related Expenses-$4,200 and $7,800 per predoctoral and postdoctoral trainee, respectively


T32 Progress Report Tips for Budget

• Trainee travel • For postdoctoral slots, please ask for the

salary level appropriate for the specific trainees to be supported

• F&A Costs-8% (Tuition is not part of Modified Total Direct Costs)

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