A key part of your proposal is the budget.  Working on a proposal budget and all of the components that are a part of it can seem daunting, but the CARES Team is available to assist you.

Budget Development

The CARES Team Coordinator is expertly equipped to assist you and can put a budget together for you based on your needs.

When submitting a proposal, the OSPA Budget template can be used as guide to draft the initial budget. All budgets are now entered into a web budget in Streamlyne and salary and fringe calculations will be somewhat different due to internal Streamlyne calculations. If you wish to use the excel budget to fine-tune your budget, your CARES Team Coordinator will use Streamlyne to determine the correct salary and fringe, enter into the excel budget and then it can be used to correctly get to final budget numbers. If the sponsor has their own budget form, both must be submitted. 

F&A Costs

Facilities and Administrative costs (F&A), sometimes referred to as Indirect Costs, IDC or overhead, are actual costs to the university incurred when research, education, or outreach projects are performed at ISU.  The F&A rate information is typically found in the RFP or funding announcement.

F&A costs are a component of all budgets and the ISU F&A rate must be included in proposal budget, unless the sponsor has a written, published policy that restricts F&A rates. If the sponsor does not have a published policy, then any deviation from the ISU F&A rate must be approved by the VPR’s Office.

Your CARES Team Coordinator can help you submit the Request for Facilities and Administrative Cost Reduction or Waiver form. In cases where a waiver has been approved, the PI will not receive incentive funds. Approved IDC/F&A waivers must be attached to the Streamlyne proposal document at time of initial review by OSPA.

Incentive

Fifteen percent of F&A charged on qualifying awards are credited back to the PIs in an incentive account, except where an F&A waiver has been approved.  A PI will have only one incentive account regardless of the number of awards. Details are available here https://www.ospa.iastate.edu/policies/facilitiesprogram. 

If incentive for a particular project is split among two or more PIs, the incentive will be distributed based on percentages entered in the Streamlyne proposal document.

Match/Cost Share

Some proposals require cost share or a match. Sources of match may include unrecovered F&A, faculty and staff salary and benefits, funds from start-up packages or PI incentive accounts, department and college level funds, or third party donations.  Funds from other sponsored projects typically may not be used as a source of cost share. Federal funds cannot be used as a source of match.

The CARES Team Coordinator can assist you with determining the best sources of cost share and working the information into the budget. When cost share or match is included in the budget, a signed Cost Share Request Support form must be attached att. 

Tuition Support

When stipend for a graduate student is requested on a budget, University policy is to include tuition, as well. If the funding announcement states that tuition is not allowed, PIs may request tuition support from the College. The CARES Team Coordinator will notify CALS of the need for College tuition support.