Internal Forms and Templates

The College Research Office provides principal investigators and research administrators with a standardized budget template that can be used for common indirect rate calculations, specifically, MTDC, TDC, TFFC, and NIH’s modular format. It also accommodates the college’s requirement for account codes.

The template is managed by COE-ORA pre-award team, so, if you discover any issues, errors, or recommendations, please email preaward-coe@ncsu.edu.

COE Budget template

North Carolina State University has an extensive list of account codes, however, the College of Engineering only allows certain limited account codes in a proposed budget during the proposal stage. These codes can be found at the below link.

Budget Account Codes

As you know, the university establishes individual fringe benefit rates for each category of employee based on the actual costs plus health insurance and the federally negotiated Composite Rate. Fringe benefits can be complex to calculate, therefore, the college has developed a resource tool.

Fringe Benefits Calculation Guide

This guide provides a list of common and frequent research administrative inquiries and requests that are performed by principal investigators and research administrators. It is a cheat sheet or quick reference tool to help guide you through the many aspects of research administration in the College of Engineering.

Common Request Guide

As part of the proposal process, some solicitations may contain potentially problematic terms and conditions, commonly referred to as ‘red flag’ terms. The college research office provides a list of these frequent terms to help identify them in solicitations, as well as, a short description of what each one is and how to respond to them during the department review process.

Potentially Problematic Terms Questionnaire

Establishing a project ID (ledger 5) may be necessary before finalizing a sponsored agreement. When assured that a sponsored agreement can be reasonably expected to materialize, a pre-award project number can be established to begin recruiting project employees and ordering specialized equipment and supplies, for example, in preparation for the start of the project. If the University cannot fully negotiate and execute this agreement, the Department will retain sole financial responsibility for all costs incurred. If the agreement is successfully negotiated and there are unallowable costs, then the designated unit indicated on the pre-award request form will be responsible for payment of these costs from other appropriate funding sources.

Remember, risks may be associated with research compliance, like export controls when requesting a pre-award account that may be identified within the sponsor’s final terms and conditions. It is possible the solicitation referred to any compliance requirements like export controls, however, it may not be until the final agreement is received will it be certain.. Before requesting a pre-award account, it is vital to consider research compliance requirements and other restricting terms, such as the sponsor prohibiting employing the services of a foreign national on the research project. Therefore, consider these potential risks and proceed cautiously when requesting the pre-award account.

Pre-Award Form (PDF)

This agreement should attract the sponsor to do work with the university, but it can be used only once. This option includes a special minimum of 15% overhead and the total project cost is limited to $50,000. Delegated authority to sign this specific agreement, without negotiations or edits, is with the college.  To avoid any misunderstandings with the terms and conditions of this agreement, it is recommended the agreement be shared with your sponsor in advance. Please also be certain to secure departmental approval of your proposal before beginning the process with your sponsor.

Memorandum of Agreement MOA (PDF)

Further information HERE

The attached form must be completed and included in PINS for core and enhancement center projects, as well as, center subcontractors.

To help ensure that NC State faculty understand their responsibilities as recipients of industrial research funding, the Office of Technology Commercialization and New Ventures (OTCNV) has prepared a new PI Acknowledgement Form (approved by OGC and SPARCS and now a required component of PINS submissions) that is tailored to the specific needs of membership Centers and Institutes as well as industrial consortia.

• Please insert the name of your unit in all highlighted areas of the Form and save it as a template for use with projects funded by your Center, Institute or consortium.
• The Form should be included with your Center/Institute/consortium RFP on the project calls for funding by industry membership dues (internal and external).
• The Acknowledgement Form must be signed by the PI of each Core project at NC State approved for funding by your membership IAB, and uploaded to PINS with each proposal.
• Signed Form is required as a component of the PINS record for each Enhancement project funded by an industry member of your Center, Institute or consortium.
• The Form must be signed by the PI of each external project selected for funding and uploaded with each PMR request for provision of an external sub-award.

This requirement is applicable to all new and supplemental proposals (as described above) with the start date on or after July 1, 2018

All departments will need to add a project personnel document to each PINS record that has more than one PI.  This is due to the change in policy requiring Senior personnel to be added to PINS records. 

RELATED TO COE CENTERS AND CONSORTIUMS ONLY:

SUBMIT form for NCE* or increment requests related to the following projects:

• Projects funded from the membership pool, i.e. core and administrative projects
• For segment projects from the center, consortium, or institution’s federal award (5-acct)

(*NCE requests for projects led by the Director as the lead PI, otherwise, NCE requests must be submitted via the PMR System.)

DO NOT SUBMIT a form for:

• Enhancement projects:
  • NCE requests (PMR)
  • Increment notifications (sponsor sends to SPARCS directly at SPS@ncsu.edu. If not, then please forward the notification to the college pre-award team.)
• Core or Enhancement project:
  • Supplemental funding (PINS)
  • Revised budget requests (PMR)
  • Change in PI (PMR)

For any questions or issues, please contact the college at preaward-coe@ncsu.edu