ARRA Administrative Salaries Correction
From: mailsvc@alpha.ddm.uci.edu [mailto:mailsvc@alpha.ddm.uci.edu] On Behalf Of ORA Sponsored Projects News
Sent: Friday, May 22, 2009 6:03 PM
Subject: ARRA Administrative Salaries Correction
On April 13, 2009, Vice Chancellor for Research Susan V. Bryant issued guidance to campus investigators strongly urging them to include a percentage of administrative analyst’s salary in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) proposals in order to offset increased administrative requirements. We now have received preliminary information from the Office of Management and Budget and from the National Institutes of Health indicating that ARRA funding alone does not justify the activity as a “Major Project” eligible to direct charge administrative salaries.
Therefore, we provide the following guidance:
- Proposals submitted with administrative salaries – We have been told unofficially that NIH staff will have discretion in determining if the amount awarded needs to be reduced. In the case of NIH Challenge Grants that are limited to total costs of $500,000 per year, the presumption is that if ARRA specialist salary costs had not been requested, then other costs could have been justified. Therefore, awarding the full $500,000 would be appropriate, with re-budgeting of the ARRA specialist salary costs to other allowable direct costs. Submission of a revised budget would not be necessary and is not allowed just to delete the administrative salaries.
- Proposals being prepared for submission – Unless the proposed activity qualifies as a “major activity,” we do not recommend that administrative salaries be included in the budget. Major Project, as defined in OMB Circular A-21 and used by UCI in its costing policies and procedures, is a project that requires an extensive amount of administrative/clerical personnel support, which is significantly greater than the routine level of such services provided by academic departments. Further information can be found at http://www.research.uci.edu/ora/sp/adminclersalspecgui.htm.
We will be issuing additional information as appropriate. If you have any questions, please contact your Contract and Grant Officer.
Please share this email with faculty and staff in your department or research unit who are or will be involved with ARRA awards.
