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Resources

Aspire Internal Grants Program
Sponsored Project Administration provides funding for faculty and graduate students to help offset the cost of traveling to conferences, publishing fees, project supplies, or other expenses for your projects.

Education on Grantseeking
Sponsored Projects Administration provides a variety of training for students and faculty related to grantseeking, project management, and federal requirements.

Federally Funded Investigators
Investigators, i.e., all PIs, Co-PIs, and Senior/Key Personnel of federally-sponsored proposals and awards, must complete training to ensure that the research or sponsored project is conducted in a transparent and objective way. The required trainings ensure that activities are compliant with both federal sponsor regulations and requirements, as well as with Ball State policies.

Fulbright Scholar Program
This educational exchange program is sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.If you're interested in becoming a Fulbright Scholar, learn more here.

Hanover Research
In collaboration with Ball State, Hanover Research provides support to investigators through webinars, proposal review, feedback, and development.

Mileage Reimbursement Policy
Mileage can be reimbursed to the traveler in accordance with Ball State's Purchasing Policy.

Office of Research Integrity
Research Integrity at Ball State University provides administrative support for issues of special concern including: Human Subject Participation, Animal Subject Care & Use, Use of Recombinant DNA or Infectious Agents, Radiation Safety, and Research Misconduct. It is also the responsibility of Research Integrity to make sure that all research at Ball State University is in compliance with Ball State University policies and with applicable provisions of federal, state, and local laws and regulations.

Principal Investigator Responsibilities Policy
This policy reviews what Principal Investigators or Project Directors are responsible for in regard to general project management, award administration, regulation compliance, and intellectual property.

Recognized Incentive Activity (RIA) Accounts
RIAs are accounts held by individuals at the University to support their professional, scholarly, or research agendas. These accounts can be used for travel, registrations, supplies, and other expenses.

Responsible Conduct of Research
If you are a Principal Investigator (PI) on a Federally Funded project (including direct federal funding and federal flow through), Ball State requires you to complete training in Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR).

SPA Fellows
This professional development opportunity brings faculty members together to dive into grant seeking. This 2.5 day workshop digs into the details of finding grant opportunities, writing the proposal, responding to reviewer comments, and executing the grant once you've been funded. 

Automated Monthly Reports for Grants
Two monthly reports come to the PI via email from erpfinance@bsu.edu:

  • Inception to Date (ITD) Report
  • Monthly Detail Report

These show both detailed expenses for the previous month, as well as a summary of the expenses on the grant to date in comparison to the awarded budget to show how much remains to be spent. These reports usually arrive in the PIs inbox around the 10th of each month during the grant period. Read these reports each month to assist in managing your project. 

When to Contact Your Grant Manager:

  • If you're unsure about an expense or see an error: Contact your Grant Manager ASAP, specifically before the next month's report. There may be time limitations due to sponsor terms of BSU systems that require prompt action to make corrections.
  • You want to add someone to the recipient list of these reports (administrative staff, project staff, key personnel, etc)
  • If you need a budget revision due to changing plans/circumstances.

Inception to Date (ITD) Report
This report's title will appear as "Grant Transaction Summary." This report will include:

  • All awards that you are the PI on, in order by Grant Number
  • The grant budget and all expenses to date by category. These categories are represented by an account code within Ball State's financial system.
  • Committed (encumbered) expenses for supplies
    •  Committed (encumbered) expenses for salary, students, indirect costs, etc will not show on this report
  • Available balance
    •  This will not include planned expenses
  • Negative values, which indicates you've overspent in a budgeted category. Work with your Grant Manager to revise your budget!

Example Report

Monthly Detail Report
This report's title will appear as "Grant Transaction Details." This report will include:

  • All award that you are the PI on, in order by Grant Number
  • Detailed activity for only one month, including individual line-items by category. These categories are represented by an account code within Ball State's financial system.
    •  Each line item includes the date of the expense, a description, and a document code for further information. For personnel, the names of the individuals will be included.
  • Negative values, which indicates that a transaction has been removed from the grant

Example Report

Tip: Create a rule in Outlook to organize these automated reports for simpler record keeping.

We know that questions will come up through out the administration of your grant. Feel free to reach out to your Grant Manager, but we've compiled a list of Frequently Asked Questions, too.

What's a FOAPAL?
The FOAPAL is the information that you'll need if you want to charge expenses to the grant. Here's how we use the F O A P A and L for grants:

  • F: The fund code will be a unique number associated with your grant, and it will begin with a 2.
  • O: The organization code will be your department's number
  • A: The account code represents each specific expense category (supplies, supplemental compensation, etc)
  • P: The program code denotes the TYPE of project it is. Grant's are almost always one of the following:
    • 2001 Instruction
    • 2002 Research
    • 2003 Public Service
  • A: The activity code is not always used, but it can be set up to aid in the tracking of multiple expenditures/projects on one fund code. Most grants don't utilize activity codes, but if yours does, please make sure to enter it any time you're entering FOAP information.
  • L: The location code is not used in sponsored projects.

What PIs are responsible for?

  • The account code. PIs are making decisions about expenses to incur on the FOAPAL in order to execute the project. Grant Managers can advise about choosing account codes to facilitate reporting. 

What SPA is responsible for?

  • All the other letters!

When can I start spending money for my project?
When you receive the FOAPAL information from your Grant Manager you can start spending. If you need to spend in advance of receiving this, contact your Grant Manager about options.  

How do I adjust the budget of my grant?
Contact your Grant Manager. Often, budgets can be adjusted without contacting the sponsor, so long as the scope of work is unchanged. Other times, depending on the terms and conditions and/or the amount of re-budgeting, the Grant Manager may have to seek approval from the Sponsor. Either way, your Grant Manager can enter the revised budget into Banner so that spending can be tracked more accurately.  

How do I find out how much money is left on my grant?
Each month the PI receives a report from erpfinance@bsu.edu that includes the budget, the expenditures to date, and the balance remaining.  

I am supposed to receive salary from the grant. What do I do?
The Grant Manager will complete the transactions needed for faculty pay to be expensed to a grant (AY salary for non-instructional load time and/or supplemental salary) based on the budget in the award notice. If there is a change in plans from the awarded budget, contact your Grant Manager. 

I need to order supplies for my grant. How do I do this?
PIs work with Administrative Coordinators to order supplies via JAGGAER and expense directly to the grant FOAP provided by the Grant Manager.

I need to hire a student on my grant. How do I do this?
The PI makes the decision to hire a student to work on a grant project, and the Administrative Coordinator completes these transactions in Ball State’s systems to set this up.  

I need to travel on my grant. How do I do this?
PIs work with Administrative Coordinators to create a pre-approval (PA) in Chrome River for all travelers individually.

How does BSU receive the funds for my grant?
As PI, you do not need to worry about this. The Grant Manager will take care of invoicing, payment requests, and drawing down of funds. If you receive a check directly from a sponsor, give it to SPA for processing.

Are there additional requirements if my grant is from a federal funding source (directly or indirectly via a subaward)?
Yes! You can find them in the Requirements and Guidance for Federally Funded PIs

I need an extension. What steps do I take?

  • Check with your Grant Manager at least 90 days before the end date of the project. SPA facilitates all extension requests; PIs should not contact sponsors directly.
  • As PI, you may need to provide justification for an extension, as well as a plan for the work and spending during the extension period.
  • Extensions are requested in increments of 6 months minimum (12 months is the recommended extension).
  • Extensions are never guaranteed to be approved by the sponsor, and second extensions are rare.