Award Management
Training Programs require continual review and oversight, including budget reconciliation, managing and tracking trainees, and preparing for annual deadlines. This example timeline demonstrates the ongoing administrative responsibilities of both the Program Director and Grant Administrator.
Administrative Best Practices
Administrative Management
Review the training program monthly. Proactive review of the training program will allow sufficient time for reminders to be sent out to faculty and trainees.
Monthly review should include: budget reconciliation, status checks on xTrain, and upcoming deadlines (e.g., trainee: re-appointments, terminations, progress reports; annual RPPR; evaluations, etc.)
Trainee Appointments & Recruitment
Review trainee appointments monthly and plan ahead for appointment end dates. For reappointments, collect trainee progress reports and evaluations for review by the Program Director. If you anticipate open slots, coordinate trainee recruitment with the Program Director.
Progress Reports (RPPR)
- Read through the NIH RPPR guidelines to identify any information that needs to be collected from others.
- Identify any new mentors and request biosketches and other support. New mentors are defined as those who were not named in the competing application or prior year's RPPR.
- E-mail trainees and mentors 2 months prior to the RPPR due date to collect: individual progress reports, evaluations, and other documents.
Feedback from faculty and trainees takes time.
Financial Management
Trainee Requests & Approval
Trainees should obtain approval by the Program Director or delegated Administrator for all travel, tuition, and lab supplies prior to purchase to ensure that they are relevant to the research training program experience. Requests should include a brief 1-2 sentence justification, explaining relevance to the trainees training experience. We recommend that Administrators notify trainees at the time of appointment that reimbursement is not guaranteed if they do not obtain prior approval.
Purchasing & Travel Process
We recommend that travel and purchases be arranged by the Training Grant Administrator so that all documentation (i.e., justification, travel itinerary, reimbursement) is maintained in one central location. If travel is arranged by trainee’s home department, request copies of the travel documents for the grant files.
Allowable & Unallowable Costs
Travel and purchases follow the policies and guidelines set forth in the NIH Costs Principles and the University of Utah Research Handbook. The policies provide guidance on allowable costs and the timing of purchases. In general, any computer equipment or other items of significant cost should be purchased early in the trainee's two-year appointment period to ensure that the purchases benefit the overall research project. It is understood that there will be exceptions to this timing, and those exceptions will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis to ensure that they are reasonable.
Below are examples of common items requested by trainees on T32 awards:
-
Generally allowable costs: one computer (iPad or laptop) per 2-year appointment, software that directly benefits the research project, lab supplies, use of core services, conference fees, professional development, board exams and review courses, childcare up to $3,000.
-
Generally unallowable costs: office equipment (e.g. monitors, chairs, stand-up desks, printers, etc.), air pods and headphones, day-camp fees (e.g. in relation to childcare).
Tracking Expenses
We recommend tracking purchase requests in the budget reconciliation sheet to easily tie expenses back to individual trainees. See Reconciliation tab.
Tuition
The process for reporting tuition will vary depending on the individual trainee circumstance. Below are the recommended procedures for reporting and paying trainee tuition.
Sponsored Tuition Benefit
Eligible graduate student tuition may be paid and allocated to the training grant through the Sponsored Tuition Benefit Program. Coordinate with the trainee's graduate program coordinator to process tuition payments each semester.
Scholarship Administration
Tuition costs for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars that are not eligible for the Tuition Benefit Program may be paid and allocated to the training grant through Scholarship Administration. This includes differential tuition. A new Item Type will need to be created annually to reflect the current training grant chartfield. Report only the tuition amount being paid by the training grant. The trainee's home department will need to report any tuition that they are paying.
Health Insurance
Health Insurance costs (self-only or family) are allowable trainee related expenses. Health insurance can include coverage for costs such as vision and/or dental care. Life and Disability Insurance may NOT be paid by the training grant and must be paid by an activity.
Predoctoral Trainees. Graduate Subsidized Health Insurance is not paid by the Tuition Benefit Program while graduate students are appointed to training grants. It is advised that grant administrators work with the trainee's home department to determine best practices as some trainee departments may have students sign up directly with United HealthCare to avoid gap in coverages for students.
-
Student Pay: If a student signs-up directly, the predoctoral trainee may provide an invoice for insurance that may be reimbursed up to the allowable grant budget authorized by the T32 Program Director.
-
Department Pay: In this scenario, once the trainee is set-up on billing, the department will receive a United Healthcare invoice. The trainee insurance costs may be paid either by an activity within the trainee’s home department or the T32 chartfield, depending on the grant budget authorized by the T32 Program Director.
Health Insurance payments will be made via the ePR system. The amount of Health Insurance paid via the ePR system must be reported through the Scholarship Admin system under Miscellaneous Awards (Activity/Project will be N/A). Payments will be coordinated between the grant administrator and trainee's home department.
Postdoctoral Scholars. Postdoctoral scholar insurance coverage will remain unchanged during the grant appointment, but the method of billing and payment will be revised while the trainee is appointed to the training grant.
Postdoctoral Health Insurance should be moved to manual billing by emailing HR Benefits. HR Benefits will send out a monthly statement reflecting the trainee’s Health insurance, Disability insurance, and Life insurance.
Postdoctoral Health Insurance costs should be paid by journal entry on a monthly or quarterly basis. Journal entries are prepared by the Training Program Administrator and are shared with the HR Benefits team. Use the Postdoctoral Health Insurance: Process Overview for step-by-step guidance.
Health insurance costs in excess of the trainee's individual award will be paid by trainee's home department. Life and Disability insurance will also be paid by the trainee’s home department from an activity or an unrestricted project, as these costs are unallowable on the grant. Discuss this expectation with the home department at the start of the award. Grant administrators should give an overview of expected insurance costs to the trainee's department and obtain a chartfield for payment during the trainee's appointment.
The trainee is generally responsible for paying the EMPLOYEE PORTION of health insurance costs though some departments pay this portion on behalf of the trainee. The trainee will complete the ACH Form to have the EMPLOYEE premiums withdrawn from their personal checking account once a month. The ACH Form should be completed and submitted to HR Benefits at the time of setting-up the trainee on manual billing.
Monthly Grant Reconciliation
Training grants should be reconciled on a monthly basis to ensure that trainees are being paid appropriately and to verify that expenses tie to trainees within your program.
All transactions must allowable, allocable, reasonable, and consistent with University and NIH policy.
Review also ensures that you are not overspent in restricted categories.
Example: This budget has an overall positive balance of $8,594. However, the combined travel, TRE, and F&A categories are overspent. Therefore, the grant is technically overspent and will need to cover the overage of $3,896 with an activity.
Quarterly Trainee Budget Reports
We recommend that you provide trainees with quarterly budget reports, outlining expenses to date and their remaining budget for the appointment period. This is another opportunity to validate expenses and confirm that purchases have been allocated to the correct trainee. An example of these quarterly reports has been included in the Reconciliation template.
Rebudgeting
Funds may be rebudgeted only as follows:
-
Stipends & Tuition: For rebudgeting purposes, trainee costs include funds awarded in the stipends and tuition budget categories. These costs may not be used for other purposes without prior approval of the NIH awarding IC. Rebudgeting into or within the stipends and tuition/fees is allowable without prior approval.
-
Travel & TRE: Rebudgeting of travel and TRE funds does not require NIH awarding IC prior approval.
Carryover Authority
The NOA will specify whether your grant must obtain prior approval to carry over funds. In most cases, NRSA grants must obtain prior approval from NIH to carry over funds.
Unliquidated Obligations vs. Unobligated Balances
Unliquidated obligations are financial commitments that have been incurred but not yet paid (e.g., stipends, tuition, health insurance). An unobligated balance reflects funds that have not been obligated (e.g., unspent TRE).
Unobligated balances accumulate each year of the non-competing period. Prior approval is needed in order to request and use unobligated balances. These requests are typically only approved in Year 5 of the non-competing period, to support second year appointments for trainees during a NCE period.
Note: If the NIH GMO determines that some or all of the unobligated funds are not necessary to support the program, the GMO may use the balance to reduce or offset NIH funding for a subsequent budget period. The GMO's decision about the disposition of the reported unobligated balance will be reflected in the terms and conditions of the NOA.
Federal Financial Report (FFR)
Trainee stipends and tuition are obligated for the full 12-month appointment from the budget period in which the appointment is initiated. Portions of stipends, tuition, and applicable F&A that extend beyond the budget period are reported as unliquidated obligations on the annual FFR. The same principal may apply to trainee health insurance when an institution cannot truly obligate the full amount of health insurance at the start of the appointment.