Annual Certification Statements

• Annual Certification Statements will soon be in the mail. This statement requires a signed certification of effort expended on grant and contract accounts by monthly employees. Someone who has direct knowledge of effort allocations for the year must sign this statement. Signed certifications are due back to the Payroll Office on or before December 19, 2003. More information about the statement is located at:
  http://adminet.uchicago.edu/admincompt/erm/certification.shtml

DUNS Number

• Institutions must provide a Dun and Bradstreet “Data Universal Number System” (DUNS) number when applying for any federal grant or cooperative agreement on or after October 1, 2003. The University is already registered with Dun and Bradstreet and has a unique identifier. DO NOT REGISTER ON YOUR OWN. The DUNS number can be found on the fact sheet on URA’s website at:
  http://www.uchicago.edu/adm/ura/ura/factsheet.html

Voluntary Committed Cost Sharing Accounting

• Remember, effective July 1, 2003, Voluntary Committed Cost Sharing accounting is required for all federal and non-federal research award budget periods that begin on July 1, 2003 or later. The procedures for implementing the accounting can be found at http://adminet.uchicago.edu/adminann/grants_ann/cost_sharing.pdf.

Allowable Costs

• Questions as to whether or not a cost is an allowable cost can be researched in documents that are accessible through the Web. Three of the most useful are:
  OMB Circular No. A-21: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars/a021/a021.html
  NIH Grants Policy Statement:
  http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/policy/nihgps_2001/index.htm
  NSF Grant Policy Manual: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2002/nsf02151/gpm02_151.pdf

  In Explorer or Netscape, use the "Find" command in the drop-down under the "Edit" menu to find information on a particular type of cost or topic.
  

Administrative, Secretarial and Clerical Costs

• Remember, in order for administrative, secretarial or clerical costs to be allowable charges to federal awards, certain conditions must be met. Those conditions are described in the University's Guidelines for Grant and Contract Management at http://www.uchicago.edu/adm/ura/guidelines/G300/307B.html

Copies of Invoices

• Copies of invoices have been going to the AA#1 on appropriate accounts since the July 03 bills were mailed out in August. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact Pat Hallow or Hong An in Restricted Funds.

FAQ

• “I have an NIH award that is under FDP but excluded from SNAP. Should I create a new account each year?”

  Generally, if the award is FDP but not SNAP, then only one set of accounts, (a general ledger account, a master account and possibly one or more associate accounts) need be maintained for the life of the award segment. Be aware, however, that every award could have unique terms and conditions that should always be reviewed before applying generalities. One of the items to pay close attention to is “carryover of funds”. The NIH Grants Policy Statement that addresses the “carryover of unobligated balances” for awards with expanded authorities is located at:
  http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/policy/nihgps_2001/part_iia_5.htm#ExpandedAuthorities

This periodic newsletter is now being prepared by Pat Hallow, Manager of Post Award Administration. If you have any questions, contact Pat at 2-1970 or any one of the four Post Award Administrators: Kathy Watson, Rod Mendoza, Ron Stroud or Kai Jackson.