Find Funding

Connect with a program officer/manager at a federal funding agency?

Connecting with agency program officers/managers (PMs) typically involves some or all of the following steps and communication.  

  • Visit agency websites and read through their solicitations and broad agency announcements to figure out which PMs are best aligned with your research.  

  • Send an introductory email to the PM describing your research and how it might align with their programmatic priorities; request a brief telephone call to explore further.

  • Prior to the phone call, send some read-ahead materials--i.e., white paper (1-2 pages) or a few slides.

  • Provided there is interest, offer to send additional materials (e.g., longer white paper, publications) and/or suggest an in-person meeting the next time you are in the Washington, D.C. area.

Research Development staff [[email protected] , 3-6301] can assist you with any of these steps, including identifying well-aligned PMs, drafting introductory emails and white papers, and staffing phone calls and agency visits.

Find funding for research in my area of expertise?

The Office of the Vice-President for Research, the Brown Library, and the Office of Foundation Relations provide various services to help you search for external funding opportunities. The Office of the Vice-President for Research and many other offices also offer internal funding to help advance scholarly projects.

 

Apply for a seed grant?

OVPR offers a number of internal funding opportunities. Detailed guidelines and deadline information are available in the OVPR 2017 Research Funds and Application Guidelines for each type of grant.

Prepare a Proposal

How do I change my eRA Commons role?

The Office of Sponsored Projects will manage this request on your behalf. Please contact [email protected] or call the office at 401-863-2777 for changes to your eRA Commons role.

Request cost-sharing for a grant proposal?

Cost-Sharing Funds are available to help meet sponsor requirements and to increase competitiveness on certain external funding opportunities. For questions on OVPR cost-sharing, or to request cost sharing funds, please email Stephanie Endy in the Office of the Vice President for Research ([email protected])

Get assistance with a large, complicated grant proposal?

The Office of Research Development can assist you in thinking about all the components required for a competitive proposal. RD provides program management for large and/or multi-department grant applications, where RD serves as the primary point of contact for faculty for all aspects of a grant, helping the faculty member find the right person at Brown for any grant-related questions and planning ahead for all support a principal investigator (PI) may need from offices throughout OVPR and other organizational units at Brown to submit a successful proposal.

How do I know if I can serve as Principal Investigator on a proposal or an award?
How do I distinguish between a Subaward and Contractor (Vendor/Consultant)?
How do I know if I should use the on or off campus F&A (Indirect) Cost Rate?
Learn the difference between Grants and Contracts (managed by the Office of Sponsored Projects) and Gifts (managed by the Advancement Office)?

There can be a fine line between Gifts (managed by Brown's Advancement Office) and Grants and Contracts (managed by the Office of Sponsored Projects). 

To make the correct categorization, here is a checklist to consider:  

Is the funding from an Individual (not an organization) ?  if Y = Gift

Is the funding from federal, state, or local government agency or a flow-through from one of these agencies ? if Y = Grant/Contract

Is the funding in response to a proposal with a specific statement of work or defined deliverables ? if Y = Grant/Contract

Is there a line item budget ? if Y = Grant/Contract

Are there budget restrictions ? (e.g, prior approval required for re-budgeting from one line item to another ) if Y = Grant/Contract

Are unexpended (i.e., unspent)  funds or property required to be returned to the sponsor at the end of the project ? if Y = Grant/Contract

Do any terms of the award address patents, copyrights, rights in data or licensing of inventions ? if Y = Grant/Contract

Do any terms of the award require detailed financial reporting beyond a basic summary of expenditures ?  if Y = Grant/Contract

Do the terms of the award allow for audit of expenses or technical/programmatic activity ? if Y = Grant/Contract

Do the terms of the award require indemnification of sponsor by Brown ? if Y = Grant/Contract

 

Please contact your OSP Grant & Contract Administrator or Grant & Contract Accountant  if you'd like further assistance with this, or any question you may have regarding your research support.

What is the NIH Salary Cap?

A legislatively-mandated provision limiting the direct salary (also known as salary or institutional base salary, but excluding any fringe benefits and F&A costs) for individuals working on NIH grants, cooperative agreement awards, and extramural research and development contracts. The salary limitation rate applies to any individual whose salary is charged directly to awards from these agencies.

For more FAQs on NIH Salary Cap please see the NIH Salary Cap FAQs webpage.

How do I know the authorized signatory to sign my proposal, award, agreement or contract?

Please visit the Office of General Counsel's website, and consult their Contracts Signature Delegation  guide. In this guide, research is discussed on pp 13-14, and it is linked at their page's end (updated 9/25/19). 

How Do I Distinguish between a White Paper, LOI, Pre-Proposal, and a Full Proposal?
How do I know I'm using an acceptable e-signature on my proposal and award documents

Electronic signatures were formally adopted by OSP in 2019. OSP uses "e-signing" on outgoing subaward agreements and amendments in addition to standard grants & contract documents. For example, many foundations now require the use of the Docusign tool for award endorsement. 

At the proposal stage, we encourage electronic signature on internal forms including Investigator Certifications when a Certified Digital Signature is used. Using Adobe’s “Fill & Sign” tool is not secure or certified, so these signatures cannot not be accepted. Instead, use the Digital Signature option in the Adobe “Certificates” tool. Adobe's instructions can be found here and we've prepared our own instructions here.   

If you have questions or a digital signature isn't possible for whatever reason, please reach out to your OSP Representative and we'll find a solution

How Do I Determine How Much PI Effort is Required for a Proposal?

A measurable amount of effort should be devoted to each project in order for an Investigator to complete the scope of work as proposed per the Uniform Guidance 2CFR 200.306(k) ("UG"). In that section, the UG references an Office of Management and Budget (OMG) clarification memo that stated "most Federally-funded research programs should have some level of committed faculty (or senior researcher) effort, paid or unpaid by the Federal government." In addition, The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Grants Policy Statement notes that "...'zero percent' effort or 'as needed effort; is not an acceptable level of involvement for 'key personnel'. These requirements do not apply to:

  • equipment/instrumentation awards
  • dissertation support, training grants or other awards intended to be student augmentation; and 
  • conference awards
  • travel awards

How do I include students or PostDocs that are supported by foreign governments or institutions in my NIH Other Support?

Please see this template for including this information. 

Manage an Award

How Do I Determine the Life-to-Date Expenditures on an Individual Grant or Multiple Grants?

A Sponsored Award Budget to Actuals Report can be run which will provide the project budget, current months expenses, fiscal-to-date, and project-to-date expenditures in the report view. It also includes cost sharing expenses, outstanding obligations, and balance available. Please see the document below to run this type of report.

Budget to Actuals Report Guide.pdf

Report allegations of research misconduct?
Get assistance with regulatory compliance questions?

Please see ORI staff directory.

Find courses to fulfill Responsible Conduct of Research Requirements?
Submit my Conflict of Interest Annual Assurance?
Request an export control license?

Please see Export Control FAQs.

Submit an IACUC protocol?
Submit an IRB protocol?

Please see IRB Forms.

Does Brown offer any courses that fulfill the NIH RCR Requirement?

Brown offers several courses that meet the NIH RCR requirements.  Click here to review available courses, including refresher course options.

Learn the difference between Grants and Contracts (managed by the Office of Sponsored Projects) and Gifts (managed by the Advancement Office)?

There can be a fine line between Gifts (managed by Brown's Advancement Office) and Grants and Contracts (managed by the Office of Sponsored Projects). 

To make the correct categorization, here is a checklist to consider:  

Is the funding from an Individual (not an organization) ?  if Y = Gift

Is the funding from federal, state, or local government agency or a flow-through from one of these agencies ? if Y = Grant/Contract

Is the funding in response to a proposal with a specific statement of work or defined deliverables ? if Y = Grant/Contract

Is there a line item budget ? if Y = Grant/Contract

Are there budget restrictions ? (e.g, prior approval required for re-budgeting from one line item to another ) if Y = Grant/Contract

Are unexpended (i.e., unspent)  funds or property required to be returned to the sponsor at the end of the project ? if Y = Grant/Contract

Do any terms of the award address patents, copyrights, rights in data or licensing of inventions ? if Y = Grant/Contract

Do any terms of the award require detailed financial reporting beyond a basic summary of expenditures ?  if Y = Grant/Contract

Do the terms of the award allow for audit of expenses or technical/programmatic activity ? if Y = Grant/Contract

Do the terms of the award require indemnification of sponsor by Brown ? if Y = Grant/Contract

 

Please contact your OSP Grant & Contract Administrator or Grant & Contract Accountant  if you'd like further assistance with this, or any question you may have regarding your research support.

How do I arrange for an account to capture allocable and allowable expenses prior to Brown's receipt of my award document?

Please see the OSP Operating Procedure: ADVANCE ACCOUNT REQUEST for more details. 

 

What is the FDP?

This article will shed some light on the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP).

What is the NIH Salary Cap?

A legislatively-mandated provision limiting the direct salary (also known as salary or institutional base salary, but excluding any fringe benefits and F&A costs) for individuals working on NIH grants, cooperative agreement awards, and extramural research and development contracts. The salary limitation rate applies to any individual whose salary is charged directly to awards from these agencies.

For more FAQs on NIH Salary Cap please see the NIH Salary Cap FAQs webpage.

How Do I Request a No-Cost Extension of my Federally funded project?
How do I know the authorized signatory to sign my proposal, award, agreement or contract?

Please visit the Office of General Counsel's website, and consult their Contracts Signature Delegation  guide. In this guide, research is discussed on pp 13-14, and it is linked at their page's end (updated 9/25/19). 

How do I request carryover funds if my award has an annual budget restriction?

Use the template letter, completed with information on why carryover exists, in what amount and how the funds will be used.  Gather the PI signature and forward to OSP or BMRA for submission to the funding agency.  OSP should verify the amount of carryover prior to sending to an external sponsor.  Note that the request must be made and approval received before any charges to the unspent funds are made. For an excellent summary please see this NIH web page.

 

back to all

Award amounts in COEUS and Workday differ. Why?

For our continuing NIH award, the COEUS obligated total and the Workday total on the Sponsored Award Budget to Actuals are different.  It appears as though the Workday budget includes the carry-forward amount from the previous segment of the grant and the COEUS record does not.   Should the award amount in the two systems be the same?

In cases where funds have been carried over from a prior segment, the Coeus record and the Workday budget on the Sponsored Award Budget vs. Actuals report will not align.  Coeus is our 'official' record of funding and therefore, we cannot 'double dip', so to speak by counting funds twice.   Instead the approved carry forward amount is added into the Workday budget and also added as a billing limit 'override', so we can invoice up to this full amount (see screenshot below with the authorized amount vs. the billing limit override).

In this case, the award to date is $3,302,863 with approved carry forward of $69,109.86 from the previous segment, so our billing limit override is $3,371,972.86.

On the reverse side, if a carryforward request in a current segment is not approved, we do not reduce the award amount in Coeus (unless the sponsor explicitly deobligates those funds).  Instead, we restrict those funds by reducing the award budget in Workday and reducing the billing limit override in Workday.    Example:  Award comes in at $60,000.00.  Carryforward of $25,000.00 is not approved.  Coeus record remains as $60,000.00 obligated for the award, however, the Workday budget is reduced to $35,000.00 and we add in a billing limit override at $35,000.00, so that we don't invoice the sponsor for any portion of the restricted funds.

How do I cost share salaries and fringe benefits in Workday?

Please refer to the Cost Sharing Reference Guide maintained by the Controller's Office.

Commercialize Technology

How do I know the authorized signatory to sign my proposal, award, agreement or contract?

Please visit the Office of General Counsel's website, and consult their Contracts Signature Delegation  guide. In this guide, research is discussed on pp 13-14, and it is linked at their page's end (updated 9/25/19). 

Other

Nominate a faculty member for a Brown Research Achievement Award

The Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) is pleased to announce an inaugural awards program during academic year 2016-2017 to recognize outstanding research achievements of Brown faculty. Five awards will be given annually that each carry a research stipend of $5,000. A committee of faculty will review nominations and select the award recipients. OVPR invites nominations from deans, department chairs, and center directors, and also invites self-nominations and nominations by colleagues. 

Find your offices?

Vice-President for Research Jill Pipher
South Street Landing, 5th Floor
3-7408

Office of Research Development (RD)
(funding opportunities, limited submissions, internal seed funding, proposal development services)
South Street Landing, 5th Floor
3-5146

Brown Technology Innovations (Formerly IECV)
(commercializing research)
South Street Landing, 5th Floor
3-1585

Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP)
(proposal review and submission, award negotiation and acceptance, subaward issuance, cash management, invoicing, financial reports and project close-out)
South Street Landing, 5th Floor
3-2777

Research Administration Information Services (RAIS)
('Research at Brown' data)
South Street Landing, 5th Floor
3-2777

Office of Research Integrity (ORI)
(IRB, IACUC, COI, Export Control, Conduct of ethical research)
South Street Landing, 5th Floor
3-3050

How do I know the authorized signatory to sign my proposal, award, agreement or contract?

Please visit the Office of General Counsel's website, and consult their Contracts Signature Delegation  guide. In this guide, research is discussed on pp 13-14, and it is linked at their page's end (updated 9/25/19). 

Suggest Additional Questions

How do I suggest additional questions?

As we build this resource of frequently asked questions, we would appreciate your input on topics to include. Please send suggested new questions to Amy Carroll at [email protected].