Re-budgeting and Program Revisions

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Offices and Services

The Office of Sponsored Programs procedures for re-budgeting and program revisions:

Re-budgeting

In general, recipients of external grants are allowed a certain degree of latitude in transferring funds between budget line items with the understanding that no grant appropriations are to be used for purposes other than those consistent with the original intent of the project. It is the Principal Investigator's responsibility to become familiar with agency-specific guidelines.

In order for Davidson College to appropriately oversee expenditures and comply with general cost principles and agency regulations, all re-budgeting requests should be sent to the Grants Coordinator for review and approval using the Re-budgeting Request Form. Once approval is indicated by both the PI and Post Award Manager/Grants Coordinator signatures, fully executed copies will be sent to the PI and placed in the grant folder in OSP.

Department assistants, research assistants, and lab technicians are not authorized to either request or approve budget revisions.

Re-budgeting Request Form (Davidson login required)

NSF and NIH Policy

National Science Foundation (NSF) notifications/approvals are outlined in the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide, NSF 23-1.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) notifications/approvals are outlined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, Dec 2022.

When Prior Approval is Required

Prior Approval from federal funding agencies is required for any of the following program or budget reasons:

  1. Change in the scope or objective of the project.
  2. Change in key person specified in the application or award document.
  3. Absence for more than three months, or a 25-percent reduction in time devoted to the project, by the approved project director or principal investigator.
  4. The need for additional funding.
  5. Transfer of funds budgeted for indirect costs to absorb increases indirect costs, or the reverse, if approval is required by the awarding agency.
  6. Inclusion of costs that require prior approval in accordance with the OMB Uniform Guidance: Cost Principles, Audit, and Administrative Requirements for Federal Awards, Subpart E - Cost Principles.
  7. Transfer of funds allotted for training allowances (direct payment to trainees) to other expense categories.
  8. Subawards or contracting of any work under an award.

Restrictions

Federal agencies may restrict the transfer of funds among direct-cost categories when the federal share of the project exceeds $100,000 and the cumulative amount of the transfer exceeds ten percent of the total budget.

Any cost allocable to a particular sponsored agreement under the standards provided in the OMB Uniform Guidance may not be shifted to other sponsored agreements in order to meet deficiencies caused by overruns or other fund considerations, to avoid restrictions imposed by law or by terms of the sponsored agreement, or for other reasons of convenience.