CEM Proposal Budget Split Policy

Policy Statement

The University of North Dakota (UND) College of Engineering & Mines (CEM) requires, for multi-investigator or multi-UND-Unit proposals, that the project budget be split into subprojects at the time of proposal submission and that this budget split must be uploaded into the proposal’s Novelution file.

Reason for Policy

Creating a split budget between the multiple investigators (PIs and Co-PIs only) or multiple UND Units (e.g., CEM and another UND College or School) will facilitate a streamlined process for award budget setup and setup of the primary award and any subprojects after the proposal has been awarded by the sponsor. Doing so will ensure that F&A costs are tracked accurately, and F&A returns are allocated to the correct investigator or UND Unit. 

Scope of Policy

This policy applies to UND CEM faculty or staff who are submitting proposals for sponsored research. 

Contacts

Specific questions should be directed to the following:

Policy Clarification

Policy Implementation

Definitions

• PI / Co-PI: Principal Investigator / Co-Principal Investigator 
• Novelution: UND’s online proposal submission software.
• F&A: Facilities & Administration costs representing indirect costs 
• Sponsored Research: Research funded by an external sponsor

Principles

UND CEM recognizes the need to accurately track F&A costs and to correctly allocate F&A returns to the correct investigators and the correct UND Units. Splitting the budget at proposal time rather than post award will mitigate any miscommunications or loss of information that might occur during the interim period (sometimes several months or more) between proposal submission and sponsor award. This budget split will also serve as a convenient starting point if there are any changes in the awarded budget compared to the proposed budget or if there are any changes in investigators. 

Procedures

CEM-Internal Multi-Investigator Projects

Faculty and/or staff investigators should work with the UND CEM grant preparation assistant to create proposal budgets well in advance of the proposal due date (two weeks is ideal). For CEM-internal multi-investigator projects, the overall proposed budget should be split into sub-projects based on the expenditures planned by each of the investigators for their respective scopes of work. Only those personnel that are listed as a PI or Co-PI, using the NSF definition of these roles, should have a split budget. The investigators must both agree on this budget split. The budget split must be uploaded to the proposal Novelution file. The PI and Co-PI atestations completed in Novelution will serve as each investigator’s respective agreement/acceptance of the budget split. This budget split does not need to be provided to the sponsor. It is for internal use. 

Multi-UND-Unit Projects

Faculty and/or staff investigators should work with the UND CEM grant preparation assistant to create proposal budgets well in advance of the proposal due date (two weeks is ideal). For projects where CEM is submitting a collaborative proposal with one or more UND Units, a budget split must be prepared at proposal submission time that details CEM’s share of the proposed budget and the budget split between multiple CEM investigators (if applicable). This must be completed whether CEM is the lead or a collaborator. The budget split must be uploaded to the proposal Novelution file but does not need to be provided to the sponsor. It is for internal use.