Table of Contents
Summary: Time Line for Grant Proposals
Optimum time line for grant proposals for which the funding agency has a deadline. Failure to meet these goals may lead to delay in the proposal until the granting agency's next funding cycle. However, even if the goals are not met, the ED will attempt to expedite the proposal as much as possible to meet the deadline.
| 10 weeks before deadline | If proposer is an individual (not an MAA committee or council) 2--3 page prospectus to ED. ED sends to appropraite MAA Committee |
| 8 weeks before deadline | 2--3 page prospectus from committee to ED. Prospectus submitted to EC. Prospectus sent to MAA representative on the joint Data Committee if data collection is involved. |
| 6 weeks before deadline | Formal approval or disapproval of the prospectus given by ED to PI. Relevant data collection information should be cleared by the MAA representative to the joint Data Committee by this time. |
| 4 weeks before deadline | If prospectus approved, PI submits first full draft proposal.
If needed, begin process of getting
letters of agreement from subcontractor(s). |
| 2 weeks before deadline | Edited full draft proposal must be in to ED. |
| 3 days before deadline | Final version of full proposal must be in to ED. For NSF proposals, the PI must submit the proposal via FastLane. |
| By deadline | ED ok's proposal to NSF via FastLane, or submits proposal to the funding agency if it is not NSF. |
This manual provides information to people wishing to be the Principal Investigator (PI) or co-Principal Investigator (co-PI) on a grant under the auspices of the MAA. MAA uses the term PI for anyone, staff or volunteer, in charge of a grant or a project managed operationally or fiscally by the MAA. This use of the term PI is consistent with usage in federal grants and contracts.
Grants and projects under the auspices of the MAA often are initiated by an MAA committee and have a minimum of one volunteer willing to organize and coordinate the writing of the grant proposal and the management of the funded project. This person, the PI, identifies one or more funding sources for the project with the help of the committee, other MAA volunteers, and staff.
The MAA Executive Director selects the appropriate staff member to act as facilitator, who lends support to the PI in the management of the entire process from initial synopsis to final report. The status of the proposal and grant are reported quarterly to the Executive Committee of the MAA.
A master file is created and maintained in the office of the Executive Director. It holds all original documents pertaining to the project. Anyone, PI or MAA staff, who originates or receives any document or correspondence concerning the grant should send the original to the staff facilitator for distribution to the master file and all appropriate staff and volunteers. Documents include the synopsis, original full proposal, award letters, reports, requests for extensions and additional or supplemental support, letters responding to these requests, and other pertinent materials and correspondence.
The following is a description of the internal policies and procedures necessary for the approval and implementation of a project. It details the process and necessary interactions with the staff and committees as well as the timing of these interactions.
A project, to be funded through the MAA, must pass through several stages. The first is an appraisal to ensure that the aims and goals of the project are consistent with the mission, goals, and priorities of MAA. A prospective PI should first present a brief (1-2 page) prospectus of his/her project to the MAA Executive Director along with a copy of the grant program solicitation. This prospectus should include the background, rationale, a description of the proposed project and its activities, and a budget. The budget should include the MAA indirect cost rate, which is calculated annually during the MAA audit review. Please contact the Executive Director for help in writing this prospectus and to obtain the current indirect cost rate. See the Financial Procedures Section of this manual for further information.
If this is an individually initiated project, not one coming from a committee, the Executive Director will confer with the MAA Secretary to determine the relevant council/committee to give first approval. The approval process will vary depending upon the council/committee, its current agenda, and the needs and deadlines of the proposed project. Councils/committees can approve a prospectus by email or, if further in-depth discussion is needed, at their semi-annual meetings.
After approval by the council/committee, the prospectus is submitted to the Executive Director for distribution to the MAA Secretary, the staff facilitator for the project, and other appropriate personnel. The Executive Director or his/her designated presenter will present it to Executive Committee for review and approval. The Executive Committee can approve the prospectus by email or, if a more in-depth discussion is necessary, at a quarterly meeting. A decision may take several weeks depending upon the amount of discussion the Executive Committee needs to make a decision. The Executive Director will try very hard to expedite this process, but the PI should be aware that concerns concerning the prospectus might delay the project until a later grant cycle. The prospectus should be submitted to the Executive Director as early as possible in the grant proposal process to allow for meaningful feedback and so that the Executive Committee can make a timely decision as to whether the PI should continue to work on a full proposal. The optimum lead-time is at least six weeks before the grant agency’s proposal deadline.
Once the prospectus is approved by the Executive Committee, the PI prepares a full draft proposal in accordance with the granting source's requirements and submits it to the Executive Director. Optimally, this should be done at least 4 weeks prior to the funding source's deadline. The staff facilitator and/or the ED will work with the PI and the Executive Committee to revise the proposal in time for the application deadline. If the PI has worked closely with the staff facilitator throughout the proposal development process, this part of the process will go more smoothly and quickly.
The PI ascertains the granting source requirements and format for a proposal. The PI should work with the staff facilitator and the Executive Director during the grant proposal development stage. This collaborative effort will speed the approval process. The PI should submit the completed full proposal to the Executive Director or the staff facilitator appointed by the Executive Director according to the optimal schedule in the preceding section if at all possible. A proposal submitted with less time before the deadline may not be able to clear the final editing process in time. The PI, staff facilitator, and appropriate MAA staff and volunteers work together to edit the proposal to assure that it is clear, consistent with the MAA mission, and all budget items are in accordance with agency and MAA regulations. Review and final preparation of the proposal proceed according to the following guidelines.
The Executive Director or staff facilitator will make every effort to respond to the PI at least one week before the funder's deadline, if the PI has met the recommended MAA deadlines. The PI will then have adequate time to make revisions as required by this review.
Items to be included in entire package depend on the specifications in the program solicitation and usually include:
Cover letter or sheet
Abstract
Narrative
Budget and budget justification
Vitae
Completed subcontracts
Letters of support and/or acceptance from:
- subcontracting organizations
- individuals
- other organizations
- subcontracts if any, and accompanying documentation.
The PI of any externally funded project is welcome to contact the project Staff Facilitator, the Executive Director, or the Grants Accounting Manager for financial assistance or advice.
As soon as notification is received from the funding agency that the grant has been awarded and the final budget approved, the MAA Finance Office will assign a grant number to the project and send the Principal Investigator (PI) the following forms:
Although the PI is responsible for coding the expenses, the Grant Accounting Manager (GAM) will review all expenses submitted against the grant budget to ensure that:
MAA disburses all grant funds on a reimbursement, direct billing, or direct payment basis. This means that an expense has to have been incurred before grant funds can be requested.
The PI is required to authorize all expenses by signing the appropriate forms before payment or reimbursement can be made. The appropriate forms consist of the MAA Grant Expense Reporting Form (always needs to be submitted) and the MAA Grant Personnel Activity Form with Time and Attendance (submitted in addition to the Grant Expense Reporting Form only when requesting any type of salary).
All requests for reimbursement or payment of expenses are to be submitted on a MAA Grant Expense Reporting Form. This form has prelisted some of the most often used budget expense items and account codes. The task number for each budget expense item is not prelisted and must be written in on the form. If a budget expense item is not listed on the form, the budget expense item name, account number, and task number should be written in at the bottom. It is very important to specify the task number so that expenses are charged to the correct budget line.
The Form should be filled out completely, signed by the requestor and the PI, and then sent to the GAM. Proper documentation (original receipts, invoices, etc.) is needed for all expenses of $25 or more and must accompany the MAA Grant Expense Reporting Form. Original receipts/invoices are mandatory when the reimbursement request is for the total amount of an expense. Copies are only acceptable when the MAA is reimbursing or paying only a portion of an expense.
For travel, actual expenses are reimbursed but per diem may be used if budgeted and approved as such by the funding agency. Airplane flights should always be at coach rate and the passenger receipt ticket showing the airfare, flight class, and airline carrier must accompany all requests for reimbursements of air flights. The current government mileage reimbursement is 31 cents per mile. Please note that it is important to have all documentation intact so that reimbursements are not delayed.
The Grant Personnel Activity Form With Time and Attendance must be filled out completely, signed by the requestor and the PI, then sent to the GAM to authorize payment to any personnel whether salary, stipend, subcontract, or honorarium.
The documentation needed for verification of each honorarium/stipend or "salary" paid by a grant must be attached to the Grant Personnel Activity Form and submitted in addition to the MAA Grant Expense Reporting Form.
The PI is responsible for verifying that each person did in fact attend the meeting or did perform a service.
Government auditors expect to have contracts or letters of agreement for every honorarium/stipend that is paid, even if only for one day. When payment is requested, all available letters of invitation or announcements of meetings should be attached to demonstrate that the honorarium/stipend to each person was agreed upon as part of attending a meeting or other function, and that it is part of the grant budget.
After the Finance Office has received and processed all financial data to close a month, each PI will receive a MAA financial report that shows the budgeted amount for each budget line item and the actual expenditures year to date. The PI will also receive a copy of the general ledger detail that reports all the transactions by budget line item.
By using these reports, the PI can track the grant budget to see if it is on schedule and to check that the details in the MAA's records are correct. If any errors are found the PI should notify the GAM immediately so that they can be corrected.
Grant proposals that include subcontracts should have letters of agreement or contracts with the subcontracting agency. The person who will direct that subcontract should submit to the Executive Director, the staff facilitator, or the PI, a statement of the work to be performed and a budget with a budget explanation. The MAA staff will then prepare the subcontract agreement and forward the copies to be signed to the appropriate official of the subcontracting agency. For some agencies, such as NSF, the subcontract must be prepared by and submitted by the subcontractor along with the grant proposal. The subcontract must be reviewed and approved by the MAA along with the proposal.
The subcontract agent will be reimbursed for expenses upon receipt of invoices or receipts. The PI will be required to approve all subcontract financial disbursements. Subcontract agencies must comply with the same grant general terms and conditions as the MAA.
Cost sharing is the amount of expenses in a grant that are not covered by funds from the Funding Agency. Where a grant stipulates cost sharing as part of the grant agreement, the MAA must document that the cost sharing has been met. In the case of grant support from a federal agency, cost sharing must be provided with non-Federal monies. Cost sharing on grants from federal agencies is permitted only for items that are allowable in the grant budget, according to the program announcement. Documentation of cost sharing is the same as for expenses that are provided by the funding agency, that is, invoices, bills, time sheets, etc. It is the responsibility of the PI to ensure that cost sharing obligations have been met and to provide to the MAA documentation including the description, date, and amount of cost sharing transactions. Documentation of cost sharing should be submitted to the MAA at regular intervals as it is incurred. The reporting of cost sharing shows the obligations of other agencies are being met as expected in the course of the operations of the project. Failure to document cost sharing may result in termination of the grant, government investigation of MAA financial procedures, and denial of future grant proposals for the PI and for the MAA. The rules of federal agencies regarding the documentation of cost sharing have become extremely strict. The MAA Director of Finance and the SEFP work to ensure that the PI does provide appropriate cost sharing documentation.
Notice 128, Revision of the NSF Cost Sharing Policy, states that, for unsolicited proposals (and proposals submitted in response to program announcements), proposers should not include cost sharing amounts on Line M of the proposal budget. For proposals submitted in response to a program solicitation that specifically requires cost sharing, proposers should not exceed the cost sharing level or amount specified in the solicitation. This revised policy was effective for budget negotiations occurring on or after April 1, 2003.
After June 15, 2003, any proposal forwarded to the Division of Grants and Awards that is not in compliance with the revised cost sharing policy will be sent back to Program for corrective action. Program staff will be responsible for revising or obtaining a revised budget from the proposing organization that complies with the requirements of the NSF policy. If a revised budget is obtained from the organization, proposers must use the FastLane Revised Proposal Budget module to submit this information.
Occasionally a grant may call for special arrangements such as travel advances, direct billing, etc. Each of these will be handled on a case by case basis. Please contact the GAM directly to discuss these items.