The Department of Justice (DOJ) has made the following revisions to the DOJ Grants Financial Guide, effective August 2018.

Chapter 3.2: Period of Availability of Funds; Obligation of Funds, page 33. Revised language regarding Obligation of Funds: An obligation is a binding agreement made during a given period that requires payment by the non-Federal entity during the same or a future period. For example, if an order is placed for a piece of equipment to be purchased with award funds, the order is an obligation. See 2 C.F.R. § 200.71 (definition of “Obligations”).

Obligations must occur during the project period stated on the award document. An obligation occurs when there is a binding agreement, such as in a valid purchase order or requisition, that covers the cost of purchasing an authorized item on or after the begin date and up to the last day of the award period. See 2 C.F.R. § 200.309 (Period of Performance).

Chapter 3.2: Period of Availability of Funds; Financial Management Tip, page 33. Revised language regarding obtaining the awarding agency’s approval in advance, if an award recipient intends to obligate funds prior to the start of the project period.

Chapter 3.2: Period of Availability of Funds; Project Extension Guidelines, page 37. Revised and added language regarding No Cost Extensions:

Generally, the following shall apply to all grants and cooperative agreements:

■  no more than one no-cost extension may be made to an award;

■  a no-cost extension may not exceed 12 months;

■  a no-cost extension may be made only if the period of performance has not expired;

■  a no-cost extension may be made only for award recipients that have no significant performance or compliance issues;

■  a no-cost extension may be made only if supported by a robust narrative justification establishing that the extension is for the benefit of the Federal government, and contains a plan and timeline for completion within the period of the no-cost extension;

■  a no-cost extension may not be made merely for the benefit of the recipient or for the purpose of the enabling the recipient to use unobligated balances; and

■  any provisions of the DOJ Grants Financial Guide relating to no-cost extensions shall be complied with (e.g., a no-cost extension must be requested via a Grant Adjustment Notice (GAN) in the grant system of records at least 30 calendar days before the project end date).

■  Extension of the liquidation period may be allowable for awards if approved by the awarding agency (this includes the OVC State Victim Assistance Formula Grant Program and State Victim Compensation Formula Grant Program).

Periods of Performance for Research, Evaluation, and Statistics Awards

Due to the nature of the work to be carried out by the recipient, the usual periods of performance may not routinely be appropriate for research, evaluation, and statistics awards.  (For example, long-term research or data collection efforts require sufficient time for activities such as institutional review board and Office of Management and Budget reviews (as appropriate), staff training, field work, data collection and analysis, presentation of findings, archiving of data, and dissemination of findings.)  Accordingly, a research, evaluation, or statistics award may exceed a 3-year initial period of performance (and/or a 5-year total period of performance, and more than two continuations awards), when appropriate under the particular circumstances of that project.

Leigh Benda 
Chief Financial Officer 
Office of Justice Programs 
U.S. Department of Justice

The Office of Sponsored Programs and the Office of the Vice President of Research has finalized a new pre-award account request procedure.    This procedure will allow a unit to request the creation of a new pre-award account so that charges that need to be incurred prior to UMBC receiving an award.

This procedure will allow the university to assess the risk when spending on an award is expected to arrive within the next 90 days, but has not been received yet.  The department requesting pre-award accounts will be required to provide chartstrings which will be able to cover the charges in the case an award is not received.

The new procedure and request form can be found along with all other OSP forms you may need at:

https://research.umbc.edu/forms-for-grants-contracts/

Only two weeks left until UMBC/OSP will be hosting an NCURA workshop called "Building Blocks for Research Administration." The event will take place on August 23rd, 2018 in Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery, 7th Floor.

If you or someone from your unit/department would like to participate, do not wait and sign in NOW (link to the registration form below). 

This full-day workshop (9 AM to 4 PM) will provide you with the knowledge, strategies, and tools needed to manage sponsored projects effectively.  The discussion will cover the federal regulations upon which institutional compliance is based;  the administrative concepts of proposal submission; costing issues; the concept of effort; post-award management; project closeout; compliance and audits.  

Learning Objectives: 

• Provide participants with a broad overview of the various aspects of Research Administration;
• Overview of pre-award processes;
• Gather basic understanding of post-award activities such as allowability of costs, effort reporting, cost sharing, closeout, and audits.    

This workshop is dedicated to everyone who has a basic understanding of the management of sponsored projects. Participants will benefit from a better understanding of the various concepts of Research Administration.

The registration form is available at https://ncuraregionii.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/UMBC-Building-Blocks-WORKSHOP-FORM.pdf