Circular No. A-21 Cost Principles for Educational Institutions is an OMB (Office of Management and Budget) document that sets forth the government regulatory costing principles which must be followed by educational institutions conducting Government Sponsored Research. As of 12/26/2014 the Uniform Guidance replaced OMB Circular A-21 for all new awards and increments with effective dates on or after 12/26/2014.

Salaries of clerical and administrative personnel may not be charged directly to federal project unless the effort is proposed as integral to the project and justified. 

Administrative salaries can be charged to nonfederal project if the effort benefits the project. Some nonfederal sponsors may prohibit charging administrative salaries.

Only those costs that BENEFIT a project may be charged to that project

Each award notice specifically identifies certain conditions that are applicable to, and become part of, that award. The award conditions are typically available electronically on the sponsor's website.

Cayuse 424 is a web-based system-to-system solution that allows users to create, review and submit Grants.Gov proposals to OSR or RMG for institutional review and  submission to federal sponsors.

Please visit the ORA SeRA and Cayuse 424 User Guides webpage for the full suite of informative Cayuse 424 user guides.

Costs must be handled consistently across the university by following Stanford policy

Cost sharing is that portion of the project costs represented in the proposal budget borne by Stanford rather than the sponsor. Cost sharing must be proposed and accepted by the sponsor, and must be accounted for in its own task. Any direct cost that is allowable, allocable, reasonable and consistent can be cost shared. However equipment cannot be offered as cost sharing  unless it is specified in the award announcement.

According to Stanford policy and federal regulations, an expense qualifies as a direct cost for a sponsored project when it meets all four of the following criteria.

1. Allowable - as defined in OMB Circular A-21, the Uniform Guidance, Stanford Policy an in the terms & conditions of specific awards
2. Allocable -  only those expenses that benefit a project may be charged to that project
3. Reasonable - Costs must reflect what a prudent person would pay
4. Consistent - costs must be handled consistently across the University by following Stanford policy

Everyone who authorizes expenses at Stanford for any purpose must confirm prior to approving a transaction that the expenditures are:

• reasonable and necessary
• consistent with established Stanford policy and practices, as well as sponsor or donor terms & conditions
• applicable to the work of Stanford, which includes; instruction, research, and public service 

Direct costs are those costs that can be identified specifically with a particular sponsored project, an instructional activity, or any other institutional activity, or that can be directly assigned to such activities relatively easily with a high degree of accuracy. Direct costs include, but are not limited to:

• salaries
• travel
• equipment
• material and supplies directly benefiting the sponsored project or activity

FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulations) set forth the terms and conditions for Federal contracts.

eSubmit is Stanford's drop box for electronic research proposals and provides storage, routing, and tracking features. Potential users include faculty, departmental staff, and central office staff who participate in the creation, approval, and submission of these electronic proposals. It is primarily used in the School of Medicine.

View Additional Electronic Proposal Submission Tools

Fringe Benefit Rates are established in accordance with the federal policy. They are negotiated between Stanford and the ONR (Office of Naval Research), the cognizant federal agency overseeing the administration of sponsored agreements at Stanford.

The fringe benefit rate covers the costs of employee benefits.

The IO (Institutional Official) is an individual named by Stanford, who is authorized to act for the institution, and to assume the obligations imposed by federal, state and local laws, regulations, requirements and conditions, as well as Stanford policy that applies to a proposal and award.

The IO reviews, endorses, signs and submits proposals to the sponsor on behalf of Stanford. In signing a proposal and in accepting a corresponding award, this individual certifies that Stanford will comply with the assurances and certifications referenced in the application. 

This individual's signature further certifies that Stanford will be accountable both for appropriate use of funds awarded and performance of the sponsored project activities resulting from the application.

MTDC is the base to which F&A (indirect cost) rates are applied. The Uniform Guidance excludes participant support costs from the MTDC base and defines this base for sponsored projects awarded on or after December 26, 2014 as follows:

MTDC means all direct salaries and wages, applicable fringe benefits, materials and supplies, services, travel, and up to the first $25,000 of each subaward (regardless of the period of performance of the subawards under the award). MTDC excludes equipment, capital expenditures, charges for patient care, rental costs, tuition remission, scholarships and fellowships, participant support costs and the portion of each subaward in excess of $25,000.

The SeRA NOA is an email to the PI and PTA Manager generated by the SeRA system which indicates that a sponsored project award has been fully set up in Oracle financials and contains the Oracle PTA account number.

The PI is responsible for reviewing all project expenses including cost shared expenses and certifying that the costs are appropriate. The following certification statement appears in the eCertification system as is applicable for every sponsored project and cost sharing account:

As the principal investigator I confirm to the best of my knowledge that the salary and wages charged to this project are appropriate in relation to work performed on this project. All other costs charged to this project are, to the best of my knowledge, appropriate. Where required, corrections have been or will be made through the accounting system.

A proposal is a detailed request for funding usually prepared in accordance with the sponsor’s instructions. A PI (Principal Investigator) documents his/her research ideas and methodology in a detailed proposal to ask for a potential sponsor's financial support. The proposal is submitted to the sponsor for funding consideration; acceptance by the sponsor is conveyed by an award to Stanford University.

SBS (Stanford Base Salary) is the annual compensation paid by Stanford to individuals whose time is spent on research, teaching and/or other activities. It includes regular and supplemental salary. It excludes bonus payments and extra compensation such as faculty housing allowance, tuition reimbursement, etc.and any income that an individual is permitted to earn outside of Stanford responsibilities e.g., consulting payments. It may not be increased as a result of replacing Stanford’s salary funds with sponsored project funds.

The statement of work describes the what, why, how, and when of the research project. It shows how the project relates to the sponsor’s purpose and goals. For the proposal to succeed in peer review, it must win over the assigned reviewers. The application has two audiences: a small number who are familiar with the field, and the majority of reviewers who are probably not familiar with the proposed research techniques or field. All reviewers are important because each reviewer gets one vote. The proposal should be written and organized so all the reviewers can readily grasp and explain what is proposed and advocate for the proposal. 

The statement of work should provide a clear description of the work to be undertaken and must include:

• objectives for the period of the proposed work
• expected significance of the proposed work
• relation to longer-term goals of the PI's project
• relation to the present state of knowledge in the field
• relation to work in progress by the PI under other support
• relation to work in progress elsewhere.

The statement of work should outline the general plan of work, including the broad design of activities to be undertaken, and, where appropriate, provide a clear description of experimental methods and procedures.

A sponsored award notification is a communication (formal or informal) from an external sponsor to the University or to a PI (Principal Investigator) that their proposal has been selected to be awarded.

It may be an informal communication between an external sponsor and a PI. Some agencies like NIH have a formal mechanism. See NIH Notice of Award.

A subaward is a formal written agreement made between Stanford University and another institution or organization to perform an intellectually significant portion of the SOW (Statement of Work) under a Stanford sponsored project.