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It is the policy of New York University (NYU, “the University”) that all new awards must be set up in the University’s proposal and tracking system, Cayuse and in the University general ledger (FAME).

Purpose of this Policy

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The purpose of this policy is to establish the requirements for obtaining a new project ID for sponsored awards, which allows Principal Investigators (PI's) and their designees to expend award funding. 

Scope of this Policy

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This policy is applicable to all schools, departments, units, and personnel of the University involved in administering sponsored awards.

Procedures for Implementation

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a. Overview of Project Set-up and Modifications 

  • The Sponsor forwards the notice of grant award (NOGA) to the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP), the School/Department or Office of Gifts Administration.
  • When the School/Department or Office of Gifts Administration directly receives an award notice from the sponsor, it should immediately forward the award notice to the OSP
  • OSP will enter or update the award information into Cayuse. Cayuse will interface with FAME on a daily basis.
  • The award data is validated by the Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA) Financial Analyst. SPA will make the fund determination and assign a project ID based on select criteria. The criteria are available upon request.

The project ID consists of a leading alpha character followed by four numbers; i.e. F1234. The alpha character used determines the source of funding received. The alpha characters are assigned as follows:

- F=Direct Federal Awards, e.g., NIH
- N=Direct State and City Awards, i.e., New York State or New York City
- S=Direct Business and Industry Awards as well as Subcontracts (Federal flow-through as well as non-Federally funded)
- R=Direct Non-Government Award
- G=Abu Dhabi Awards

  • SPA will complete the project ID setup in FAME, e.g., enter due dates for reports, sponsor information, cost share commitments and related funding chartfields, and project team.
  • SPA will submit a request through the ModTrak system for Financial Systems Management (FSM) to validate the chartfield and activate the project ID, as well as add to appropriate FAME trees, e.g., combo-edit, letter-of-credit and program.
  • The SPA Financial Analyst will email the PI and project team a Project Authorization Form and request the department submit a detailed expense budget in the BIA Budget Module; this is generally the sponsored approved budget. All sponsored budgets submitted by the school/department will route to SPA for approval. The Project Authorization Form will include detail of relevant aspects of the project, including but not limited to the project ID, authorized budget amount, budget and award period, overhead rate and formula, and cost share commitments, if applicable.
  • The budget is approved by SPA and the project is available for spending within three business days.
  • For access to the BIA Budget Module, Departments need to complete a BIA– Budget Modification System Request Form in ServiceLink (NYUHome login required)
    • For global sites that must track original budgets, a FAME Budget template is required. The template can be requested from SPA.
  • If a detailed budget is not immediately available, at the request of the department, SPA will set up a direct and indirect temporary budget in Account 60000 (direct costs) and 76450 (indirect costs). The department will need to provide a detailed expense budget within one week. If a temporary budget was established by SPA, the department’s budget submission will need to include a line to reduce the Account 6000. Once the detailed budget has been submitted, SPA will ensure the temporary budget is reduced to zero. This will eliminate a possibility of the project budget being overstated, possibly leading to a project deficit.
  • Departments may begin using the project only after FSM has validated the chartfield and a budget has been posted.
  • A modification to an existing award is performed similarly to opening a project, but there is no FSM approval required since a chartfield has already been established. There are times, however, when SPA or the department needs to establish a new project ID. A good example is when funds need to be carried forward to a new budget period. In such cases sponsor approval may be required. When such approval is received, SPA establishes a new project, moves the funds into that project, and reduces the old project by the carry-forward amount

Depending on the modification, SPA may generate and distribute to the Project Team a new Project Authorization Form with any changes highlighted in bold.

b. Pre-Award Spending

Departments must request prior approval from OSP to incur pre-award costs on Federal grants. If the research involves Human or Animal Subjects, they must have proper approval from the Internal Review Board (IRB) or Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) before submitting the project setup request. In addition to receiving approval from OSP, the Department/School will need to request the risk project be established following procedures detailed below in the section What is an Advance/Risk Project?

c. What is an Advance/Risk Project?

The department will need to complete a Request for Risk Project Form. This will require approval of the Fiscal Officer of the administrative unit. Advance/ Risk accounts are usually established when:

  • The award notice has not been received, but communication from the sponsor indicates that an award notice is anticipated.
  • The PI wishes to begin spending the next budget year increment prior to sponsor approval.

In both cases, if the award does not materialize or authorization is not received, any funds spent are at the risk of the School/Department and would require that expenses be transferred to a departmental operating or discretionary chartfield.

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Notes
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  1. Dates of official enactment and amendments: Dec 1, 2017
  2. History: Last reviewed 12/31/2021
  3. Cross References: N/A