The grant specialists can help you process and submit your proposal. All proposals must be processed through ORSP to ensure that all federal, state and USD policies are being considered. Our team will review your proposal and budget not only for compliance with rules and regulations, but we will also help answer questions regarding conformance with agency guidelines. We do ask to be contacted at least five business days prior to agency submission to ensure time for routing and approval.
ORSP Process for Proposals
- Contact ORSP to notify staff of the intent to apply. Include the agency name and opportunity number of the proposal.
- Create a Cayuse SP proposal record, which includes filling out the compliance questions and budget. Cayuse SP is a system the Sponsored Program Office utilizes to track, record and gain approval for proposal submissions. You can find information on how to start a Cayuse SP proposal on the portal.
- Routing and approval occur electronically through Cayuse SP and must be complete prior to proposal submission.
- Submit to the agency.
Submission Information
- The authorized representative at USD is the person who can sign off on proposal submissions and granted awards. The authorized representative at USD is the vice president for research. An individual department or faculty member does not have the ability to submit proposals or accept awards without the authorized representative’s approval.
- If a granting agency requires a 501(c)(3) status for being eligible to apply, you can submit for this opportunity.
- The elements in a proposal that require extra time to process are subawards and costshare. Both items require extra signatures, budgets and budget justifications. Contact our office early if your proposal involves either of these two items.
- USD’s Office of Research provides proposal writing and editing through an external review company. If you are interested in receiving help for writing and editing your proposal, contact us.
Budget Information
When creating a budget for your proposal, it is important to include key items that an agency will be interested in having in the budget justification. Common elements include the following categories:
- Personnel
- Fringe benefits
- Capital expenditures
- Materials and supplies
- Subawards
- Consultants
- Participant support costs
- Indirect costs
- Other miscellaneous expenditures
Participant Support Costs
Participant support costs are costs that are paid to trainees or participants in a project. Participants cannot be USD employees. These costs can be paid to the trainees or on behalf of the trainees. The most common participant support costs include stipends, travel allowances and registration fees. These costs are in connection with meetings, conferences, or training projects.
Graduate Assistant Stipends & Tuition Remission
A graduate assistant will be input into the budget with their annual stipend and tuition remission. The annual stipend amount depends upon the different stipend levels set by each department. However, tuition remission is uniform across campus to be in conformance with the South Dakota Board of Regents policy. There are different tuition remission rates depending upon whether the Graduate assistant is in-state or out-of-state. Contact ORSP for these tuition remission rates.
Indirect Costs
Indirect costs are input into the budget for USD to recover facilities and administrative costs incurred by the university to support research. Different types of research will have different rates or percentages of indirect costs (called the F&A rate) to account for in the budget. On-campus rates are different than off-campus rates. These rates are federally negotiated with our cognizant agency, which is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. If the agency's indirect cost rate is less than the federally negotiated rates, we must have the agency’s indirect cost justification on file.
Costshare
Costshare is the amount of the project borne by USD rather than the funding agency. Costshare is sometimes required by agencies for submission and most associated with proposals to the state and foundations. USD discourages voluntary costshare. Both mandatory and voluntary costshare must be carefully tracked. There is a difference between cash costshare and in-kind costshare, and both kinds are subject to audit. Cash costshare are any costs that run through USD’s Banner system. In-kind costshare are any costs that are not automatically tracked through the Banner system, such as donation of time, supplies or gas money.
Rebudgeting
The first step in rebudgeting is to verify the agency guidelines regarding prior approval. Agencies can sometimes have different percentages or dollar amount levels at which a prior approval is required. Once we have determined that prior approval is necessary, we will compare the original budget to actual costs already encumbered to create a new budget and budget justification. The last step will be to reach out to the agency, either via an online submission or through an email depending upon agency processes.
No-Cost Extension
Our office will help process no-cost extensions. In order to submit a request to extend a currently active grant, please send ORSP@usd.edu the following: revised budget, budget justification, amount remaining in account and newly requested end date.
