Past announcements

The Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP) is hosting a Tri-University Research Administration Convening (TURAC) April 15-17, 2024. Availability of OSP staff during this convening will be limited.  Processing your sponsored project proposals early and alerting OSP staff to your needs well before these dates will reduce disruptions in your work. For emergency needs during the period of the Convening, please contact Tom Champagne (928-523-9464) or Nicky Jurgens (928-523-8949).  Thank you for your patience and support during this brief period of service…

Update: Federal Government re-opening and impact on NAU federally sponsored grants and contracts January 28, 2019 On Friday, January 25th, 2019, the Congress passed, and the President signed, a continuing resolution to fund affected agencies until February 15th, 2019. The Office of Management and Budget has directed agencies to prepare for an orderly reopening and provided a government reopening checklist. Agencies will need time to resume normal operations. One example is the National Science Foundation, which posted an ALERT about…

The Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP), along with NAU, will be closed Monday, December 25, 2023 through Monday, January 1, 2024. OSP staff will return at 8 a.m. MST on Tuesday, January 2, 2024. For urgent or emergency sponsored project administration needs during this time, please contact Tom Champagne, Associate Vice President for Research or  Nicky Jurgens, Assistant Director for Research Administration.

COGR published the following notice on October 5 regarding the proposed revisions to the Uniform Guidance: "OMB has posted its proposed revisions to the OMB Guidance for Grants and Agreements (Uniform Guidance) in the October 5, 2023 version of the Federal Register. Comments are due December 4, 2023. According to the FR Notice, comments must be submitted electronically before the comment closing date to www.regulations.gov. In submitting comments, please search for recent submissions by OMB to find docket OMB–2023–0017, which includes the full…

On September 22, 2023, Diedre A. Harrison from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under the Office of Federal Financial Management provided the following notice: Select the…

As of July 12, Samaneh Farazi and Michele Prieb no longer work with the Office of Sponsored Projects at NAU. For assistance with proposals, please contact Nicky Jurgens, Pre-Award Assistant Director, who will connect to your interim Pre-Award Research Administrator. Nicky Jurgens Nicky.Jurgens@nau.edu 928-523-8949  

The Office of Sponsored Projects is honoring NAU’s TrueBlue Summer Fridays. From Monday, May 15 through Friday, August 11, 2023, the OSP office hours are: Monday through Thursday – 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. MST Friday – office closed OSP remains committed to meeting sponsor proposal deadlines and other OSP commitments. For urgent matters outside of these summer office hours, please contact: Nicky Jurgens Asst. Director, Pre Award Nicky.Jurgens@nau.edu 928-523-8949 Thomas Champagne, AVP-Research, Sponsored Projects Thomas.Champagne@nau.edu 928 523-9464

Proposal Submission Guidelines Effective May 26, 2020, new Proposal Submission Guidelines (memo from the Vice President for Research) will be implemented to further improve services and practices provided by the Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP). Research, scholarship, creative activity, and public service supported through sponsored projects continue to grow significantly at NAU. In response to this growth, updated internal deadlines will follow best practices that balance sufficient time for university and unit review approval while allowing faculty members to continue…

Effective May 26, 2020, new Proposal Submission Guidelines* will be implemented to further improve services and practices provided by the Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP). Research, scholarship, creative activity, and public service supported through sponsored projects continue to grow significantly at NAU. In response to this growth, updated internal deadlines will follow best practices that balance sufficient time for university and unit review approval while allowing faculty members to continue producing the best proposals possible. Download the Late submission waiver request orm.…

Guidance for Preparing Other Support Documents August 21, 2019 Many federal funding agencies are revising their instructions regarding the disclosure of Other/Current and Pending Support. The agencies require similar, though not uniform, information and provide somewhat ambiguous instructions. The purpose of this announcement is to provide guidance for completing Other/Current and Pending Support documents when submitting grant proposals to federal funding agencies. Any activity conducted within the scope of an Investigator’s NAU appointment that provides funding or requires a quantifiable…

PI/Departmental administrators informational series for the 2019 - 2020 academic year August 19, 2019 The Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP) is pleased to announce the next brown bag PI/Departmental Administrators Informational Series for the 2019 – 2020 academic year. Purpose The PI/Departmental Administrators Informational Series is not a workshop or “training” program, but an invitation to engage in discussion about various topics relevant to sponsored projects. Specifically, the purpose is to assist NAU faculty and departmental administrators by ensuring they have the…

Northern Arizona University Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP) in collaboration with Institutional Research and Analysis (IRA) and Information and Technology Services (ITS) is pleased to announce The Sponsored Projects Principal Investigator Dashboard (“PI Dashboard”). Purpose of the Sponsored Projects Principal Investigator (PI) Dashboard? Development of the PI Dashboard was conceived via frequent inquires received by OSP, including input from Principal Investigator/Program Directors, who desired a tool to access their sponsored projects budgetary information. As a result, the PI Dashboard was…

Federal Government shutdown: Impact on NAU federally sponsored grants and contracts December 26, 2018 The Anti- deficiency Act prohibits federal agencies from incurring obligations that are in advance of, or that exceed, an appropriation. Thus, with certain limited exceptions, an agency may not incur obligations when the funding source for the obligation is an appropriation that has lapsed, or in this case, during a federal government shutdown. The following information and Q&As address the impact on NAU’s federally funded grant…

NSF Sexual Harassment Reporting Process Northern Arizona University (NAU) Purpose Document process for internal notifications and reporting to the National Science Foundation (NSF) for compliance with the NSF Harassment terms and conditions. Resources NAU’s Equity and Access Office (EAO) page, which includes links to the Title IX page and how to file a complaint with EAO. NAU’s Safe Working and Learning Environment Policy (Anti-harassment and Discrimination Policy) NSF FAQs NSF Terms and Conditions NSF Sexual Harassment NSF released its new…

PI/Departmental administrators informational series for the 2018 - 2019 academic year August 28, 2018 The Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP) is pleased to announce a brown bag PI/Departmental Administrators Informational Series for the 2018 – 19 academic year. Purpose The PI/Departmental Administrators Informational Series is not a workshop or “training” program, but an invitation to engage in discussion about various topics relevant to sponsored projects. Specifically, the purpose is to assist NAU faculty and departmental administrators by ensuring they have the information…

Submission, account changes at NSF February 26, 2018 This April, NSF will begin allowing applicants access to Research.gov. NSF’s so-called “proposal submission modernization” effort has been part of a multi-year initiative to relocate the capabilities now provided at FastLane.gov, NSF’s legacy application and accounts management system, to Research.gov. FastLane.gov will still be available for all proposals after the launch. NSF has been working to transition its proposal submission function to Research.gov to reduce the administrative burden for the research community…

FastLane compliance check for budget justification page limit January 24, 2018 Effective January 29, 2018, FastLane will run an automated compliance check for the Budget Justification page limit across several proposal types and will generate an error or warning when the submission validation compliance check is not met. Please note the Budget Justification page limit will increase from 3 to 5 pages. The automated compliance checks will also apply when a Proposal File Update (PFU) is performed on a proposal.…

Federal government shutdown: Impact on NAU federally sponsored grants and contracts January 23, 2018 The Anti- deficiency Act prohibits federal agencies from incurring obligations that are in advance of, or that exceed, an appropriation. Thus, with certain limited exceptions, an agency may not incur obligations when the funding source for the obligation is an appropriation that has lapsed, or in this case, during a federal government shutdown. The following information and Q&As address principally the impact on grant and contract…

Compliance issues to avoid when submitting proposals to the NSF Antarctic Research program solicitation (NSF 17-543) May 15, 2017 View NSF 17-543 at www.nsf.gov Issue #1: "Results from Prior NSF Support" must include evidence of research products. Guidance: You must provide evidence of research products and their availability. The requirements for the Results from Prior NSF Support section are given in the Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) Chapter II.C.2.d(iii)(e). Issue #2: "Letters of Collaboration" must not include…

Acknowledgement of federal research support May 10, 2017 As a reminder, an acknowledgement of the federal awarding agency support must appear in any publication, of any material, whether copyrighted or not, based on the development under the project, and, is orally acknowledged during all news media interviews, including popular media, such as radio, television and news magazines. Please contact your assigned Grants and Contracts Administrator (GCA), Post Award Administrator (PAA), or Sponsored Projects Officer (SPO) if you have questions. Back…

NIH operates under a continuing resolution March 20, 2017 The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), including NIH, operates under the “Further Continuing and Security Assistance Appropriations Act, 2017,” (Public Law 114-254) signed by President Obama on December 10, 2016. This Act (CR) continues government operations through April 28, 2017 at 99.8099 percent of the FY 2016 enacted level. Continuing the procedures identified under NOT-OD-17-001 and NOT-OD-16-046 and consistent with NIH practices during the CRs of FY 2006 –…

Interim guidance on salary limitation for grants and cooperative agreements March 20, 2017 The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016, restricts the amount of direct salary to Executive Level II of the Federal Executive pay scale. The Executive Level II salary was previously set at $185,100, and increased to $187,000 effective January 8, 2017. For awards issued in those years that were restricted to Executive Level II (see Salary Cap Summary, FY 1990 – Present), including competing awards already issued in FY2017,…

Suspension of foreign national H-1B visa processing March 6, 2017 The Center for International Education and the Payroll Office have received notification that beginning April 3, 2017, the USCIS will suspend H-1B Premium Processing for up to six (6) months. Currently the normal H-1B processing time is nine (9) months. For NAU, this means that any H-1B petitions for Foreign National hires for an August start date will have to be submitted this month (March) or we will likely not…

Electronic effort distribution report training announced January 10, 2017 The Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP) announces four training sessions for OSPs new Electronic Effort Distribution Reports (eEDR). Title: eEDR Training for Project Investigators When: Wednesday, February 1, North ITS Training lab, Rm 106 / Noon - 5pm Wednesday, February 15, North ITS Training Lab, Rm 106 / 10am - 2pm Wednesday, March 1, North ITS Training Lab, Rm 106 / Noon - 5pm Wednesday, March 22, North ITS Training Lab,…

New electronic effort reporting certification will go live January 2017 December 7, 2016 Dear NAU Research Community, The Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP) is very pleased to announce the implementation of an Electronic Effort Reporting System also known as Electronic Effort Distribution Reports (eEDR). The system is scheduled to go live January 2017 and this coincides with the 6 month certification period ending December 31, 2016. The new electronic effort certification process will significantly increase the efficiency and transparency of…

Record Retention Policy Effective June 1, 2016 May 6, 2016 Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP) issued the Record Retention Policy effective June 1, 2016. This policy determines a sufficient time to retain university sponsored project records to remain in compliance with sponsor regulations and Comptroller Policy (CMP) 103. Please visit the OSP Policies and Procedures page to read and download all current OSP policies and procedures. Back to Current Announcements

Advance account and subrecipient monitoring policy October 1, 2015 Advance accounts (also referred to as “At Risk” accounts) are encouraged when an award is eminent and there is sufficient information available to substantiate this. The use of advance accounts allow expenditures such as salaries to be charge to the correct account and avoid cost transfers, which represent a compliance risk. The Subrecipient Monitoring policy applies to subawards issued under either direct or flow through Federal funding to NAU. This policy is required…

Account codes and rolling FY16 July 1, 2015 View Account Codes and Rolling FY16

Major changes in the Uniform Guidance affecting proposal budgets and charging of direct costs The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has combined many federal circulars into a single guidance document (known as Uniform Guidance, or 2 CFR 200) that can be used by all agencies. These new regulations became effective December 26, 2014 for all federal assistance awards. Administrative and clerical salaries Applicable Uniform Guidance (UG) sections: 200.413, 200.430 The salaries of administrative and clerical staff should normally…

Revised PI Eligibility Policy May 10, 2018 Effective May 9, 2018, the revised PI Eligibility Policy removes the prior approval requirement for Clinical Faculty and Professors of Practice to serve as PIs or Co-PIs on proposals submitted to external sponsors. Thus, Clinical Faculty and Professors of Practice are now automatically eligible to serve as PIs or Co-PIs on proposals submitted to external sponsors without seeking prior approval via the completion and submission of the PI Eligibility form. All other requirements…