Policies and Procedures

 

Glossary of Common Terms Pertaining to Sponsored Projects 

Additional Employment: CSU employment that is in addition to the employee's primary appointment. Additional employment limitations are based on time-base, not salary. A maximum of 125% time-base is allowed under certain circumstances. The salary rate for additional employment may be the same as the rate for the primary appointment however, a different salary rate is permitted if appropriate for the work performed and if allowed by the funding source. In the case of a federal grant or contract, the rate of pay for the additional employment must be the same as the CSU base rate of pay for the primary assignment. 

Advance Payment: A payment that a Federal awarding agency or pass-through entity makes by any appropriate payment mechanism, including a predetermined payment schedule, before the non-Federal entity disburses the funds for the program purposes.

Allocable Cost (2 CFR 200.405): An item of cost assigned to one or more cost objectives, in reasonable proportion to the benefit provided or other equitable relationship. The cost must have a direct benefit to and be directly associated with the project(s) being performed. A cost is allocable to a particular sponsored project, if the goods or services involved are chargeable or assignable in accordance with relative benefits received or other equitable relationship. Allocability is a basic conditions that must be met in deciding whether a particular expenditure is appropriate to a particular project. 

Allocation: The process of assigning a cost, or a group of costs, to one or more cost objective(s), in reasonable proportion to the benefit provided or other equitable relationship. The process may entail assigning a cost(s) directly to a final cost objective or through one or more intermediate cost objectives. 

Allowability (2 CFR 200.403): Allowable costs are those costs which can be charged to a sponsored project as a direct or F&A cost. Costs that are directly related to a sponsored project, must benefit the sponsored projectand must conform to the policies and procedures of Cal Maritime.

Approving Authority: a person to whom authority has been delegated in writing to approve activities and/or expenses within Cal Maritime policy. The approving authority must evaluate the importance of the activity and/or expense in terms of the costs that will be incurred, the benefits to be derived from such an expense, the availability of funds, and any alternatives that would be equally effective in accomplishing the desired objectives. 

Audit: An examination of documents, records, reports, systems, of internal control, accounting and financial procedures, and other evidence to determine compliance with applicable laws and regulationis regarding financial transactions and to review effectiveness in achieving program results. 

Audit Finding: Deficiencies which the auditor is required by 2 CFR 200.516 to report in the schedule of findings and questioned costs.

Award: Term used to include all sponsored projects, grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements.  A federal award is any form of financial assistance received from a federal awarding agency directly or indirectly from a pass-through entity.

Budget: The financial plan for the project or program that the Federal awarding agency or pass-through entity approves during the Federal award process or in subsequent amendments to the Federal award. It may include the Federal and non-Federal share or only the Federal share, as determined by the Federal awarding agency or pass-through entity. 

Capital Asset: Tangible or intangible assets used in operations having a useful life of more than one year which are capitalized in accordance with GAAP. Examples of capital assets include land, buildings (facilities), equipment, and intellectual property (including software) whether acquired by purchase, construction, manufacture, lease-purchase, exchange, or through capital leases; additions, improvements, modifications, replacements, reinstallations, renovations, or alterations to capital assets that materially increase their value or useful life (other than ordinary repairs and maintenance).

Capital Expenditures: Expenditures to acquire capital assets or expenditures to make additions, improvements, modifications, replacements, rearrangements, reinstallations, renovations, or alterations to capital assets that materially increase their value or useful life.

CFS: Common Financial System is the PeopleSoft financial software used by Cal Maritime. It is the same software used throughout the CSU system. 

Chartfield: A Chartfield is a unique string of numbers assigned to identify the accounting activities of a project. The chartfield ‘string’ is made up of four (4) main components: fund number, department ID number, project number, and expense account code. 

Closeout: The process by which the awarding agency or pass-through entity determines that all applicable administrative actions and all required work of the award have been completed and takes appropriate actions.

Compensated Effort: Compensation for effort consisting of campus assignment, reimbursed time, additional employment, direct pay, and cost share for faculty and staff performing services under sponsored projects.

Competing Renewal Proposal/Continuation: A request for continued funding of a project for which the funding or project period is about to terminate.

Confidentiality: The prevention of disclosure, to other than authorized individuals, of a sponsor’s proprietary information or of a subject’s identity.

Consistency: Consistent costs refers to when costs being incurred for the same purpose in like circumstances are treated consistently as either a direct or an indirect cost. Consistency is a basic condition that determines whether an expense is appropriate to a particular project. 

Consultant: A person with professional expertise who can assess, evaluate, provide analysis, develop strategies, provide decision support and/or recommendations to management, provide management consulting or similar professional advisory services and/or prepare a report or presentation that summarizes the consultant’s work, recommendations or conclusions.

Contract: An agreement between Cal Maritime and a sponsor to provide a benefit, generally in the form of services, for compensation. The agreement is binding and creates a quid pro quo relationship between the parties.

Contractor/Vendor: A contractor/vendor is responsible for providing goods or services necessary to conduct the research or other programmatic effort, but is not responsible for the results of the effort. A contractor/vendor is only required to meet the terms of the procurement agreement and is not subject to compliance requirements of a federal (or other) sponsor.​

Cost Reimburseable: An award/contract that provides for sponsor payment of the allowable, allocable, and reasonable costs of the sponsored project. Cost reimburseable awards are designed to estimate total costs required for the work, and expenses are reimbursed as costs are incurred. Cost reimburseable awarsd set a spending ceiling that the may not be exceeded without additional funds being allotted by an amendment to the award.

Cost Sharing: Represents that portion of project or program costs not borne by the sponsor (generally the federal government). Cost sharing can be voluntary or mandatory (that is, required by means of a statute or law), and can take the form of either cash or in-kind contributions. 

Department ID: The Department ID in the chartfield string defines academic areas, research units, or administrative offices with an appointed manager, that have programmatic, operational, fiscal and/or budgetary responsibility for a specific set of activities and projects/grant. This Chartfield corresponds to the campus’s organizational structure. 

Direct Costs: Direct costs are those costs that can be identified specifically with a particular final cost objective, such as an award, or other internally or externally funded activity, or that can be directly assigned to such activities relatively easily with a high degree of accuracy. Costs incurred for the same purpose in like circumstances must be treated consistently as either direct or indirect (F&A) costs.

Disallowed Costs: Those charges to an award that the awarding agency or pass-through entity determines to be unallowable, in accordance with the applicable Federal statutes, regulations, or the terms and conditions of the award. 

Equipment: Tangible personal property having a useful life of more than one year and a per-unit acquisition cost which equals or exceeds the lesser of the capitalization level established by the non-Federal entity for financial statement purposes, or $5,000. 

Encumbrance: An outstanding purchase order or other liability whose goods or services have not been received or performed. 

Facilities and Administrative (F&A) Costs: Also referred to as Indirect Costs. F&A costs represent the expenses of doing business that are not readily identified with a particular grant, contract, project function or activity, but are necessary for the general operation of the organization and the conduct of activities it performs.

F&A Cost Rate Proposal: The documentation prepared by a non-Federal entity to substantiate its request for the establishment of an indirect cost rate.

Fiscal Year: A twelve-month period of time to which the annual budget applies and at the end of which a governmental unit determines its financial position and the results of its operations. In California State government, the fiscal year runs from July 1 through the following June 30. It is the period during which obligations are incurred, encumbrances are made and appropriations are expended. The Federal fiscal year runs from October 1 through September 30.

Fixed Amount Awards: A type of grant agreement under which the awarding agency or pass-through entity provides a specific level of support without regard to actual costs incurred under the award. This type of award reduces some of the administrative burden and record-keeping requirements for both Cal Maritime and the awarding agency or pass-through entity. Accountability is based primarily on performance and results. 

Fraud: Statements involving false, fabricated, or plagiarized information identified during research misconduct proceedings should be reported to the sponsor by the institution. Examples of fraud that should be reported include, but are not limited to, embezzlement, misuse, or misappropriation of grant funds or property, and false statements, whether by organizations or individuals. Other examples include theft of grant funds for personal use; using funds for nongrant-related purposes; theft of federally owned property or property acquired or leased under a grant; charging the federal government for the services of “ghost” individuals; charging inflated building rental fees for a building owned by the recipient; submitting false financial reports; and submitting false financial data in bids submitted to the recipient (for eventual payment under a grant). 

Fund: The Fund is a unique 5-digit (typically 46XXX for sponsored projects) number in the chartfield string assigned to each sponsored project. For RIO purposes, the Fund represents the award life cycle. A fund may have multiple projects, but a project will only have one fund. 

General Goods and Services Agreement: An agreement that is typically for vendors to provide both goods (e.g., materials, parts, supplies) and services (e.g.,  preventive maintenance or repair). 

General Services Agreement: An agreement for a vendor to provide a service. As opposed to consultants, these vendors usually will not contribute any intellectual property (e.g., prepare written or visual materials).

General Purpose Equipment: Equipment which is not limited to research or other technical activities. Examples include office equipment and furnishings, modular offices, telephone networks, information technology equipment and systems, air conditioning equipment, reproduction and printing equipment, and motor vehicles. 

Gift: Any item of value given to Cal Maritime by a donor who expects nothing of value in return, other than recognition and disposition of the gift in accordance with that donor's wishes. There is no formal fiscal accountability to the donor beyond periodic progress reports and summary reports of expenditures. These reports may be thought of as requirements of good stewardship, and, as such, may be required by the terms of a gift, they are not characterized as contractual obligations or deliverables. Gifts are typically accepted by University Advancement, not by RIO.

Grant: A type of award to carry out an approved project or activity. A grant generally anticipates no substantial programmatic involvement of the sponsor with the recipient during performance of the project or activity, but sponsors usually require deliverables/progress reports and/or final report – and an accounting of the use of funds or return of unused funds.

Grant Agreement: A legal instrument of financial assistance between an awarding sponsor or pass-through entity and another entity.

Grantee: The institution (public or private, nonprofit or for-profit, educational institution, corporation, organization, agency, or other legally accountable entity) that receives a grant or cooperative agreement and assumes legal, financial, and scientific responsibility and accountability both for the awarded funds and for the performance of the grant-supported activity.

Guidelines: Non-mandatory, supplemental information about acceptable methods for implementing policy requirements. 

Human subject: As defined by HHS regulations means a living individual about whom an investigator (whether professional or student) conducting research obtains (1) data through intervention or interaction with the individual, or (2) identifiable private information. As defined by FDA regulations, “human subject” means an individual who is or becomes a subject in research, either as a recipient of the test article or as a control. 

Institutional Review Board (IRB): Research at Cal Maritime using a human subject must be approved by the IRB which is an independent committee that protects the rights and well-being of research subjects. As part of the protocol and informed consent process, the IRB reviews all aspects of compensation and reimbursement made to a human subject including amount, proposed distribution method, timing, and if a human subject is either a Cal Maritime student or employee.

Internal controls: A process, implemented by a non-Federal entity, designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the achievement of objectives pertianing to effectiveness and efficiency of operations, reliability of reporting for internal and external use, and compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

Key Personnel: Employees of the awardee who are engaged in the awarded project, listed in the award application, progress report, or any other report submitted to the sponsor and who are considered by the sponsor as essential resources in the work performance. Key Personnel typically includes the principal investigators and co-investigators, but is dependent upon the individual award. 

Letter of Intent (LOI): An LOI memorializes the intent of parties to enter into a formal contract. All deal terms are typically nonbinding except for the confidentiality provision.

Line Item Budget: A detailed expense or expenditure budget, generally classified by object within each organizational unit, and, often, classified within each object as to authorized number of employees at each salary level within each job classification, etc.

Local Government: Any unit of government within a state, including a County, Borough, Municipality, City, Town, Local public authority, including any public housing agency under the United States Housing Act of 1937, Special district, School district, and any other agency or instrumentality of a multi-, regional, or intra-state or local government.

Master Agreement: Can apply to the entire entity or a specific department/lab/unit. A Master Agreement provides general administrative terms. Funding is provided by following and completed task orders or work orders with details specific to the funded projects. Master agreements may require extensive negotiation, but the follow on task orders or work orders are generally expedited.

Memorandum of Understanding (MOU): An MOU formalizes an arrangement or understanding regarding a particular transaction; it documents the key terms and provisions of that transaction. It could be binding or nonbinding and can be used in situations where the parties are still negotiating the definitive agreement.   

Micro-purchase: A purchase of supplies or services using simplified acquisition procedures, the aggregate amount of which does not exceed the micro-purchase threshold. The micro-purchase threshold is set by the Federal Acquisition Regulation at 48 CFR Subpart 2.1 (Definitions). 

Modified Total Direct Costs (MTDC): All direct salaries and wages, applicable fringe benefits, materials and supplies, services, travel, and up to the first $25,000 of each subaward (regardless of the period of performance of the subawards under the award). MTDC excludes equipment, capital expenditures, rental costs, tuition remission, scholarships and fellowships, participant support costs and the portion of each subaward in excess of $25,000. 

Negotiation: Pre-award discussions conducted by the Research and Innovation Office to establish the conditions and amount of an  agreement; based on recommendations from the PI, their department/school, a cost analysis of the applicant's budget, and a review of proposed activities.

Noncompeting Continuation: The next year’s funding within a multi-year grant.

Non-Federal Entity: A state, local government, tribe, institution of higher education (IHE), or nonprofit organization that carries out a Federal award as a recipient or subrecipient.

Obligations: When used in connection with a non-Federal entity’s utilization of funds under a Federal award, obligations means orders placed for property and services, contracts and subawards made, and similar transactions during a given period that require payment by the non-Federal entity during the same or future period.

Outside Employment: Refers to any employment not compensated through the CSU payroll. Employment directly compensated by a CSU foundation or other CSU auxiliary that is not compensated through the CSU payroll is considered outside employment. Employment that is compensated through the CSU payroll and is reimbursed by a foundation, other auxiliary, or other funding source is considered CSU employment. CSU employees may, consistent with campus policies governing outside activities, be employed outside the CSU system. However, conflicts of interest are not permitted. When determining the 125% additional employment under the CSU Additional Employment Policy, all CSU employment and all outside employment are considered together.

Overload: A term exclusive to employees represented by the CFA and refers to CSU additional employment in excess of a full-time workload, or when appropriate, in excess of a full-time (100%) time-base. A faculty member paid 100% from federal grant funds may not work more than 100% time. 

Participants: Not be confused with Human Subjects, Participants are people who are taking part in sponsor-defined training or sponsor-supported conferences, who are eligible to receive expense reimbursement under the terms of the sponsored project agreement. Participants cannot be paid for their participation in these events, but can be reimbursed for legitimate and justifiable expenses.

Participant Support Costs: Direct costs for items such as stipends or subsistence allowances, travel allowances, and registration fees paid to or on behalf of participants or trainees (but not employees) in connection with conferences, or training projects. 

Pass-through Entity: a non-Federal entity that provides a subaward to a subrecipient to carry out part of a Federal program. 

Period of Performance: the time during which the non-Federal entity may incur new obligations to carry out the work authorized under the Federal award. 

Principal Investigator (PI): The individual (whether referred to in the contract or grant as a Principal Investigator, Project Director or other similar term) designated by the Research and Innovation Office to be responsible for ensuring compliance with the academic, scientific, technical, financial and administrative aspects and for day-to-day management of the sponsored project.

Project Number: Every sponsored project at Cal Maritime will have at least one project number associated with its fund. The project number identifies a special set of activities or time periods related to an award, e.g. Year 1, Year 2, etc. or Task 1, Task 2, etc. 

Protocol: Plan of Study approved by IRB.

Proper Invoice: A proper invoice is one that meets the requirements of the sponsor, includes the required invoice elements from the Terms and Conditions of the Agreement, is submitted in a timely manner in accordance with the Agreement, contains costs that are deemed allowable, allocable, reasonable, and in line with scope of work progress to date.

Reasonableness (2 CFR 200.404): A cost is reasonable if the nature of the goods or services acquired or applied, and the amount involved, reflect the action that a prudent person would have taken under the circumstances prevailing at the time the decision to incur the cost was made. Reasonable costs that are generally recognized as necessary for the operation of a sponsored project, contain no conflicting relationship between the vendor and the principal investigator and/or institution, and are consistent with sponsor and institutional policy. Reasonableness is a  basic condition that must be met in deciding whether a particular expenditure is appropriate to a particular project.

Recipient:  The recipient of an award is either the University or Auxiliary, as the case may be, even if a particular component is designated in the award document, and shall not be an individual, department or other constituent unit. 

Request for Personnel Action (RPA): An RPA is required by RIO and Human Resources for anyone receiving compensation from a project (except for in the case of faculty/staff release time). 

Research: As defined by 45 CFR 46.102, research may be basic or applied and is a systematic investigation, including research development, testing and evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge. Basic research is defined as systematic study directed toward fuller knowledge or understanding of the fundamental aspects of phenomena and of observable facts without specific applications towards processes or products in mind. Applied research is defined as systematic study to gain knowledge or understanding necessary to determine the means by which a recognized and specific need may be met.

Research and Development (R&D): All research activities, both basic and applied, and all development activities that are performed by non-Federal entities. Development is defined as the systematic use of knowledge and understanding gained from research directed toward the production of useful materials, devices, systems, or methods, including design and development of prototypes and processes. 

Research and Innovation Office (RIO): The campus department designated by the University to administer sponsored projects.

Salary Cap: A limitation imposed by the sponsor on the amount of salary that can be directly charged to projects.

Segregation of duties: Established procedures that ensure no single individual is responsible for the collection, handling, depositing and accounting for cash and cash equivalents received by a unit. At least two (2) authorized individuals must be assigned to carry out key duties of the handling process.

Significant Financial Interest: Anything of monetary value, including but not limited to salary or other payments for service (e.g., consulting fees or honoraria); equity interests (e.g., stocks, stock options); being an owner, partner, director or officer in a non-publicly held company or entity; and, intellectual property rights (e.g., patents, copyrights) and royalties from such rights. Refer to the CSU FCOI Disclosure Requirements by Funding Source Chart for specific definitions for each funding source.

Special Purpose Equipment: Equipment which is used only for research, medical, scientific, or other technical activities. Examples of special purpose equipment include microscopes, x-ray machines, surgical instruments, and spectrometers. 

Sponsor: The party/entity paying for services or other economic benefit under a contract or providing financial assistance/contribution for a project or activity under a grant.

Sponsored Agreement: A contract, grant, or other agreement from a sponsor to the campus.

Sponsored Projects:  A project resulting from a grant, contract, or other agreement between the campus and a sponsor.

Sponsored Project Records: Include, but are not limited to, accepted proposals and applications; contracts or grant agreements; program reports and data; correspondence; budgets and supporting financial documentation; supporting human resources documentation; and other records relating to receipt, review, award, evaluation, status and monitoring of all sponsored projects.

Sponsored Project Work Product: Any work created in the performance of a sponsored project. Unless the contract or grant states otherwise, sponsored project work products do not include journal articles, lectures, images, books or other works that are subject to copyright protection and have been created through independent academic effort and based on the findings of the sponsored project.

Sponsored Project:  A project resulting from a grant, contract, or other agreement between the campus and a sponsor.

Stipend: Financial support for living expenses. A fellowship stipend may be paid in a lump sum at the beginning of the semester and remains in place so long as the student makes satisfactory academic progress as defined by the field/department and special committee.
A trainee stipend may be paid in a lump sum at the beginning of the semester and remains in place so long as the student makes satisfactory academic progress as defined by the field/department and special committee and meets the requirements established by the training grant.

Student Financial Aid (SFA): Federal awards under those programs of general student assistance, such as those authorized by Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, (20 U.S.C. 1070-1099d), which are administered by the U.S. Department of Education, and similar programs provided by other Federal agencies. It does not include Federal awards under programs that provide fellowships or similar Federal awards to students on a competitive basis, or for specified studies or research.

Subagreement: Pass through funding from the prime sponsor to a prime recipient, wherein the recipient of the funding, then issues a “sub” agreement to another organization to accomplish a portion of the scope of work that is integral to the success of the scope of work of the prime recipient.

Subaward: An award (subgrant or subcontract) of financial support from a prime awardee/pass-through entity to a qualified organization for the performance of a substantive portion of the programmatic effort funded under the prime award. This term also includes awards made by a sub-recipient to a lower tier subrecipient. It does not include payments to a contractor or payments to an individual that is a beneficiary of the program.

Subrecipient: The legal entity to which a subaward is made and which is accountable for the use of the funds provided in carrying out a portion of the prime awardee’s/pass-through entity’s programmatic effort under a sponsored project. A subrecipient has responsibility for programmatic and/or administrative decision making and adherence to the applicable sponsor program compliance requirements. The term may include institutions of higher education, non-profit organizations, for-profit corporations, and foreign or international organizations at the discretion of the federal awarding agency.

Supplies: All tangible personal property other than those described in §200.33 Equipment. A computing device is a supply if the acquisition cost is less than the lesser of the capitalization level established by the non-Federal entity for financial statement purposes or $5,000, regardless of the length of its useful life. See also §§200.20 Computing devices and 200.33 Equipment. 

Traineeship: A supervised position in which financial support is given to a graduate student to develop and extend research skills and knowledge in preparation for a research career. A traineeship is similar to a fellowship in that its stipend (provided by the training grant) will be used as a living allowance without any additional obligation on the part of the student to engage in teaching and/or research in furtherance of the university’s academic mission. Trainees may be subject to the participation requirements of the funding entity.

Unallowable Costs: Costs that are explicitly identified as unallowable or those that do not meet the conditions for allowability.

Unlike Circumstances: An activity or cost, which is substantially greater in amount or different in purpose than the normal use.  The term "unlike circumstance" comes from several citations in federal cost principles.  The government requires that costs incurred for the same purposes be consistently charged either as direct costs or as indirect costs.  To allow a charge normally included as indirect as a direct charge, there must be unlike circumstances.

Uniform Guidance (2 CFR 200): The Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (Uniform Guidance) are the federal regulations for the management of federal awards.  The Uniform Guidance streamlines and supersedes guidance that was previously contained in eight different OMB Circulars (including A-21, A-110 and A-133). 

Use of grant agreements (including fixed amount awards), cooperative agreements, and contracts:

(a) The Federal awarding agency or pass-through entity must decide on the appropriate instrument for the Federal award (i.e., grant agreement, cooperative agreement, or contract) in accordance with the Federal Grant and Cooperative Agreement Act (31 U.S.C. 6301-08).

(b) Fixed Amount Awards. In addition to the options described in paragraph (a) of this section, Federal awarding agencies, or pass-through entities as permitted in §200.332 Fixed amount subawards, may use fixed amount awards (see §200.45 Fixed amount awards) to which the following conditions apply:

(1) The Federal award amount is negotiated using the cost principles (or other pricing information) as a guide. The Federal awarding agency or pass-through entity may use fixed amount awards if the project scope is specific and if adequate cost, historical, or unit pricing data is available to establish a fixed amount award based on a reasonable estimate of actual cost. Payments are based on meeting specific requirements of the Federal award. Accountability is based on performance and results. Except in the case of termination before completion of the Federal award, there is no governmental review of the actual costs incurred by the non-Federal entity in performance of the award. Some of the ways in which the Federal award may be paid include, but are not limited to:

(i) In several partial payments, the amount of each agreed upon in advance, and the “milestone” or event triggering the payment also agreed upon in advance, and set forth in the Federal award;

(ii) On a unit price basis, for a defined unit or units, at a defined price or prices, agreed to in advance of performance of the Federal award and set forth in the Federal award; or,

(iii) In one payment at Federal award completion.

(2) A fixed amount award cannot be used in programs which require mandatory cost sharing or match.

(3) The non-Federal entity must certify in writing to the Federal awarding agency or pass-through entity at the end of the Federal award that the project or activity was completed or the level of effort was expended. If the required level of activity or effort was not carried out, the amount of the Federal award must be adjusted.

(4) Periodic reports may be established for each Federal award.

(5) Changes in principal investigator, project leader, project partner, or scope of effort must receive the prior written approval of the Federal awarding agency or pass-through entity.