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 non-federal sponsors may prohibit charging administrative salaries.

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 submission further submission to the sponsor.

That portion of the project costs represented in the proposal budget borne by Stanford rather than the sponsor. Committed cost sharing must be accounted for  in its own task.

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 AND 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 the 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, and supplies directly benefiting the grant-supported 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.

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 on Expenditure Statements for every sponsored project and cost sharing account:

The principal investigator confirms: to the best of my knowledge, 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.

SeRA supports various stages of the sponsored project lifecycle and is evolving into the institutional system of record for sponsored projects. The Proposal Development and Routing Form (PDRF) is accessed through the SeRA system.

A Solicitation is a publicly available document by which a federal agency, corporation, foundation or other nonprofit agency make known its intentions to award discretionary grants, cooperative agreements, or contracts, usually as a result of competition for funds. The solicitation is the roadmap for putting together the proposal. At Stanford, a Solicitation is typically called a Program Announcement (PA).

A sponsored project is an externally funded activity governed by terms and conditions specified in a written agreement between the sponsor and an entity such as Stanford University. The sponsored agreement is the legal instrument that binds the university to perform the Statement of Work under the direction of a PI (principal investigator) and further specifies the level of funding.

View a full description and comparison to other types of funding here

The TGP (Tuition Grant Program) Fringe rate is assessed on regular benefits eligible salaries charged to all non-government funded PTA’s including sponsored projects, operating budgets and auxiliary PTAs to support the costs of the Tuition Grant Program.  

The TGP charge appears in expenditure type 51770 FRINGE BENEFITS TGP.