Glossary of Terms

A-21: "Cost Principles for Educational Institutions," a circular published by the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that establishes the principles for determining the costs applicable to grants, agreements, and other government agreements with educational institutions.

Allocable Costs: Those allowable costs that actually benefit the grant or agreement to which they are being charged.

Allowable Costs: Those categories of costs that can be charged to a grant, such as salaries and equipment. Certain types of costs, such as the cost of alcoholic beverages are not allowable and may not be charged to a agreement or grant.

Audit:  A formal examination of an organization's or individual's accounts or financial situation. An audit may also include examination of compliance with applicable terms, laws, and regulations.

Award:  Funds that have been obligated by a funding agency for a particular project

Budget:  The detailed statement outlining estimated project costs to support work under a grant or agreement.  (See also rebudget.)

Budget Period: The interval of time--usually twelve months--into which the project period is divided for budgetary and funding purposes.

Budget Adjustment: The act of amending the budget by moving funds from one category or line item to another.

Challenge Grant:  A grant that provides monies in response to monies from other sources, usually according to a formula. A challenge grant may, for example, offer two dollars for every one that is obtained from a fund drive. The grant usually has a fixed upper limit, and may have a challenge minimum below which no grant will be made. This form of grant is fairly common in the arts, humanities, and some other fields, but is less common in the sciences. A challenge grant differs from a matching grant in at least one important respect: The amount of money that the recipient organization realizes from a challenge grant may vary widely, depending upon how successful that organization is in meeting the challenge. Matching grants usually award a clearly defined amount and require that a specified sum be obtained before any award is made.

Close Out: The act of completing all internal procedures and funding agency requirements to terminate or complete a project.

Competing Proposals: are those that are submitted for the first time or unfunded proposals that are resubmitted; either must compete for program funds. Ongoing projects must compete again if the term of the original award has expired.

Consortium Agreement: Group of collaborative investigators/institutions; arrangement can be formalized with specified terms and conditions.

Continuation Project (Non-Competing): Applicable to grants and cooperative agreements only. A project approved for multiple-year funding, although funds are typically committed only one year at a time. At the end of the initial budget period, progress on the project is assessed. If satisfactory, an award is made for the next budget period, subject to the availability of funds. Continuation projects do not compete with new project proposals and are not subjected to peer review beyond the initial project approval.

Cost-Reimbursement Type Agreement/Grant: A agreement/grant for which the funding agency pays for the full costs incurred in the conduct of the work up to an agreed-upon amount.

Cost-Sharing: A general term, used as a noun or adjective, that can describe virtually any type of arrangement in which more than one party supports program, equipment acquisition, demonstration projects, programs, institutions. Example: the College receives a grant for a project estimated to have a total cost of $100,000. The funding agency agrees to pay 75% ($75,000) and the College agrees to pay 25% ($25,000). The $25,000 is the cost-sharing component.

Encumbrance: Funds that have been set aside or "claimed" for projected expenses pending actual expenditure of the funds.

Endowment: A fund usually in the form of an income-generating investment, established to provide long-term support for programs to enhance, supplement existing student services.

Expiration Date: The date signifying the end of the performance period, as indicated on the Notice of Grant Award.

Extension: An additional period of time given by the funding agency to an organization for the completion of work on an approved grant or agreement. An extension allows previously allocated funds to be spent after the original expiration date.

Fiscal Year (FY): Any twelve-month period for which annual accounts are kept (at PCC, July 1 through June 30).

Fixed-Price (FP) Agreement/Grant:  An agreement/grant for which one party pays the other party a predetermined price, regardless of actual costs, for services rendered. Quite often this is a fee-for-service agreement.

Fringe Benefits: Employee benefits paid by the employer. (e.g., FICA, Worker's Compensation, Withholding Tax, Insurance, etc.)

Funding Cycle:  Range of time during which proposals are accepted, reviewed, and funds are awarded. If a funding agency has standing proposal review committees (or boards) that meet at specified times during the year, application deadlines are set to correspond with those meetings. For some funding agency,  if proposals are received too late to be considered in the current funding cycle, they may be held over for the next review meeting (i.e., National Science Foundation's Target Dates).

Grant:  A type of financial assistance awarded to an organization for the conduct of a program as specified in an approved proposal. A grant, as opposed to a cooperative agreement, is used whenever the awarding office anticipates no substantial programmatic involvement with the recipient during the performance of the activities.

Indirect Costs: Costs related to expenses incurred in conducting or supporting program or other grant-funded activities but not directly attributable to a specific project. General categories of indirect costs include general administration (accounting, payroll, purchasing, etc.), grant project administration, plant operation and maintenance, library expenses, departmental administration expenses, depreciation or use allowance for buildings and equipment, and student administration and services. (also known as Facilities and Administrative Costs.)

Indirect Cost Rate: The rate, expressed as a percentage of a base amount (MTDC), established by negotiation with the cognizant federal agency on the basis of the institution's projected costs for the year and distributed as prescribed in OMB Circular A-21. At PCC, indirect costs are applied to a modified total direct cost (MTDC) base. The indirect cost rate is charged on a set of direct costs known as an indirect cost base.

Interim Funding: Authorization to expend funds on a project to a specified limit before the award document has been received from the funding agency.

Investigator-Initiated Proposal: A proposal submitted to a funding agency that is not in response to an RFP, RFA, or a specific program announcement.

Key Personnel: The personnel considered to be of primary importance to the successful conduct of a project. The term usually applies to the senior members of the project staff.

Modification: An award document that modifies any aspect of an existing award other than those named above. Example: Carryover approvals, adding or deleting special terms and conditions, changes in funding levels (including NSF's Research Experience for Undergraduates, NIH's Minority Supplement, DOD's ASSERT Programs), administrative changes initiated by the agency, extensions that include changes in terms, change of principal investigator, etc.

Modified Total Direct Costs (MTDC): At PCC, the basic indirect costs are calculated on a subset of direct costs, normally excluding among other costs, Equipment, Capital Expenditures, Charges for Patient Care, Tuition Remission, Rental Costs for Off-Site Facilities, Scholarships and Fellowships, and sub-agreement costs in excess of the first $25,000.

New Award: An award not previously awarded or a renewal or continuation award treated as a new award by the funding agency and given a new agency number.

New and Competing Proposals: Proposals that are submitted for the first time or ongoing projects that must re-compete for funding prior to expiration of the original award.

No Cost Time Extension: An extension of the period of performance beyond the expiration data to allow the principal investigator to finish a project. Usually, no additional costs are provided.

Notice of Grant Award:  The legally binding document that serves as a notification to the recipient and others that a grant or cooperative agreement has been made; contains or references all terms of the award; and documents the obligation of funds.

Pre-Proposal: A brief description, usually 2-10 pages, of program plans and estimated budget that is sometimes submitted to determine the interest of a particular funding agency prior to submission of a formal proposal. Also termed Preliminary Proposal.

Principal Investigator: A PI may be an employee, normally with an academic appointment who is or becomes eligible under this definition to submit a proposal for program support for projects in research, training, student and/or workforce development, public service, etc. to a significant degree, and who has primary responsibility for the scientific, technical and administrative conduct and reporting of the project.  A PI who is the head of a program or project may be known as Project Director or Project Administrator.  For the purposes of the definition, the terms shall be considered equivalent.

Prior Approval: The requirement for written documentation of permission to use project funds for purposes not in the approved budget, or to change aspects of the program from those originally planned and approved. Prior approval must be obtained before the performance of the act that requires such approval under the terms of the agreement.

Priority Score: A score derived from the rating given a grant proposal by each.

Program Announcement: Describes existence of a funding opportunity. It may describe new or expanded interest in a particular program or be a reminder of a continuing interest in a program.

Program/Project Officer: A funding agency's designated individual officially responsible for the technical, scientific, or programmatic aspects of a particular grant, cooperative agreement, sub-recipient, sub-grant or sub-agreement. Serving as the counterpart to the principal investigator/project director of the grantee/agreement organization, the program/project officer deals with the grantee/agreement organization staff to assure programmatic progress.

Progress Report: Periodic, scheduled reports required by the funding agency summarizing program progress to date. Technical, fiscal, and invention reports may be required.

Project Period (PP): The total time for which support of a project has been programmatically approved. A project period may consist of one or more budget periods. (Also see Budget Period.)

Proposal: An application for funding that contains all information necessary to describe project plans, staff capabilities, and funds requested. Formal proposals are officially approved and submitted by an organization in the name of a principal investigator.

Rebudget: The act of amending the budget buy moving funds from one category or line item to another. (See also Budget Adjustment)

Regs: Short for "regulations."

Regulations: The agreement rules and procedures governing grant-funded projects.

Renewal: Applicable to grants and cooperative agreements only. A competitively reviewed proposal requesting additional funds extending the scope of work beyond the current project period.

Request for Applications (RFA): Announcements that indicate the availability of funds for a topic of specific interest to a funding agency. Proposals submitted in response to RFAs generally result in the award of a grant. Specific grant announcements may be published in the Federal Register and/or specific funding agency publications. (Also see Broad Agency Announcements.)

Request for Proposal (RFP): Announcements that specify a topic of program, methods to be used, product to be delivered, and appropriate applicants sought. Proposals submitted in response to RFPs generally result in the award of a agreement. Notices of federal RFPs are published in the Commerce Business Daily.

Request for Quotations (RFQ): A formal request to vendors for a price quotation on equipment or supplies to be purchased.

Revision: A modified and resubmitted request for funding for a project that was previously not funded either because it was denied by the funding agency or withdrawn by the principal investigator.

Salaries and Wages (S&W):  Payments made to employees of the institution for work performed.

Scope of Work: The description of the work to be performed and completed on a project.

Sub-Recipient Agreements, Sub-Grant, or Sub-Agreement: is a document written under the authority of, and consistent with the terms and conditions of an award (a grant, sub-grants, sub-recipient agreements or cooperative agreement), that transfers a portion of the program or substantive effort of the prime award to another institution or organization.

Subs: is short for sub-recipients, sub-grantees.

Supplemental (Rebudgeting or Modification) Proposal: is a request to the funding agency for additional funds for an ongoing project during the previously approved performance period. A supplemental proposal may result from increased costs, modifications in design, or a desire to add a closely related component to the ongoing project.

Terms of Award: are legal requirements imposed on a grant or agreement by the funding agency, whether by statute, regulation(s), or terms in the award document. The terms of a grant or agreement may include both standard and special provisions that are considered necessary to protect the funding agency's interests.

Total Direct Costs (TDC):  The total of all direct costs of a project.

Total Project Costs: The total allowable direct and indirect costs incurred by the institution to carry out an approved project or activity.

Unrestricted Funds: Monies with no requirements or restrictions as to use or disposition. Grants, Sub-grants, Sub-recipients and cooperative agreements are considered to be restricted funds, while gifts are usually considered unrestricted funds.

Unilateral Award: An award made by a funding agency to an organization without considering competitive proposals. Unilateral awards are most often made when unsolicited proposals receive favorable treatment.

Unsolicited Proposal: are Proposals submitted to a funding agency that are not in response to an RFP, RFA, or program announcement. (See also Investigator-Initiated Proposal.)