PROPOSAL DEVELOPMENT RESOURCES

This website offers proposal development resources for Entomology researchers. It is *not* intended to be a comprehensive guide! Take advantage of what you find useful, and feel free to let Josh know if you have suggestions for corrections and/or additional resources. 
ENTM ROUTING TIMELINE
Here is a basic timeline for routing proposals in the Entomology Department. It can be adjusted as needed. Early submissions are very much welcome! 

AS SOON AS YOU DECIDE TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL
Send Josh an e-mail with:
  • The RFA (a.k.a., Funding Opportunity Announcement, Solicitation, etc.)
  • The official sponsor deadline
  • Draft proposal title and project dates (mm/dd/yyyy - mm/dd/yyyy)
  • A list of the UMD senior/key personnel and whether there will be subawards

If subawards are involved, they will need to send Josh the following items 10 business days before the deadline:
  • UMD subrecipient commitment form
  • Statement of Work
  • Excel budget spreadsheet
  • Budget justification
  • F&A Rate Agreement (a.k.a., indirect cost rate agreement)
  • Other subaward-related items, as applicable, e.g.:
    • Senior/key pesonnel documents: Biographical Dketch, Conflict of Interest, Current & Pending Support, and Letter of Commitment
    • Other subaward-specific items (e.g., Equipment; Facilities & Other Resources; etc.)
    • Sponsor-specific budget formats (e.g., grants.gov R&R budget form)

10 BUSINESS DAYS BEFORE THE DEADLINE
Send Josh an e-mail with:
  • Draft budget spreadsheet
  • Draft budget justification
  • Final subaward materials
  • ​Kuali certification: Each UMD senior/key personnel will receive an e-mail from the Kuali Research system requesting that they "certify" the proposal.
  • For multi-PI projects: How much DRIF/credit each senior/key personnel should get for the proposal in Kuali Research. 
  • For off-campus projects: Complete addresses of all off-campus field site locations. Here off-campus means that a significant portion of the project is taking place off campus for 3 or more consecutive months and that you are using one of UMD's federally negotiated off-campus indirect cost rates. 
  • For USDA-NIFA proposals: List of 3 - 5 keywords
 ​
​1 WEEK BEFORE THE DEADLINE
Send Josh an e-mail with:
  • Final proposal title and project dates (mm/dd/yyyy - mm/dd/yyyy)
  • Final budget spreadsheet
  • Final budget justification
  • Draft Project Summary or Project Narrative
  • Drafts of all other proposal documents

​2 DAYS BEFORE THE DEADLINE
Send Josh an e-mail with:
  • Final versions of all proposal documents (Note: You can continue working on the project narrative until 24 hours before the deadline)

​24 HOURS BEFORE THE DEADLINE
Send Josh an e-mail with:
  • Final project narrative
BUDGET DEVELOPMENT
Each section below corresponds to the major components of a proposal budget. You should use these as a guide to populating your Excel budget spreadsheet and writing up your budget justification, both of which are required by ORA regardless of whether they are by the sponsor.

​SALARIES & WAGES
  • ​Base Salaries & Effort: In addition to the specific amount of salary requested, you should also show the base salaries (and indicate whether they are 9- or 12-month), along with the % Effort or % FTE. Most sponsors report effort in "Person Months", so Josh will do the conversion. 
  • ​Cost of Living Allowance (COLA): Unless there are budget limits, ENTM principal Investigators typically include a 2 – 3% COLA from year to year. 
  • Graduate Research Assistants: 
    • Graduate Research Assistant stipends are budgeted according to the scale below (current as of 03/01/2022). ​
      • Step 1 (1st year MS & 1st year PhD without MS): Academic Year = $24,299; Summer = $5,589; Calendar Year = $29,888.
      • Step 2 (2nd year MS & 1st year PhD with MS): Academic Year = $25,202; Summer = $5,797; Calendar Year = $30,999.
      • Step 3 (PhD candidate): Academic Year = $25,683; Summer = $5,907; Calendar Year = $23,591.
    • If you are budgeting a Graduate Research Assistant during the Academic or Calendar Year, you must also budget tuition remission. 
  • ​Undergraduate Research Assistants: Undergraduate Research Assistants should be budgeted at an hourly wage (link) for a given number of hours during a specific time of the project year (are they working during academic year, over the summer, or throughout the calendar year.
​
​FRINGE BENEFITS
  • ​UMD has Fringe Benefit Rates approved by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) with an effective date of 07/01/2021. Fringe benefits include health insurance, FICA, unemployment, workers’ compensation, retirement, terminal leave payout and employee assistance and are calculated on the requested salary amount. Tuition Remission is a UMD fringe benefit but is not included in the fringe calculation and is budgeted separately as applicable (see Other Direct Costs below). The UMD fringe benefit rates are as follows:
    • Faculty (Summer), Graduate Student (Summer), Undergraduate Research Assistants & other hourly personnel = 7.7%
    • Faculty (Academic or Calendar Year), Postdoctoral Associates & other salaried personnel = 29.7%
    • ​Graduate Student, Academic or Calendar Year = 27.8%
  • ​​The current F&A rate agreement, showing the fringe benefit rates can also be found here. 

EQUIPMENT
  • ​This category is for individual equipment items over $5,000 each. Equipment items less than $5,000 should be itemized in Other Direct Costs > Materials & Supplies. Equipment costs should be individually named and justified in the budget justification.

TRAVEL
  • For domestic travel to field research sites, you have the option to estimate costs based on:
    • The [total mileage * current UMD mileage rate] for your personal vehicle or lab truck.
    • UMD Motor Transportation Services rates (coming soon)
  • For domestic travel to conferences, if you know the destination, your estimate should include the cost of conference registration, airfare, accommodations, ground transportation, and per diem. These estimated costs should be broken out in the budget justification.
  • For international travel to conferences, in addition to the details above, make sure to indicate what county you will be traveling to.  These estimated costs should also be broken out in the budget justification..

PARTICIPANT SUPPORT COSTS
  • ​This is a very specific category of costs (link), and we don’t typically use it. That doesn’t mean we can’t, but please ask before going down this road.

OTHER DIRECT COSTS
  • Materials & Supplies: This category includes the typical field and laboratory consumable research supplies, but it also includes such costs as printing/copying, small equipment items (including computers), etc. Small equipment items and other materials & supplies of particularly high value should be individually named and justified in the budget justification.
  • Publication costs: This category is typically reserved for the cost of publishing peer-review journal articles. (Printing/copying costs should be budgeted under Materials & Supplies and justified in the budget justification.)  
  • Consultant Services: See Subawards/Consortium/Contractual Costs below.  
  • Computer Services: This category would include such things data storage, data cruncher time, etc. Details of these costs should be clearly described in the budget justification. 
  • Subawards/Contractual Costs: This category is for a portion of the budget that is contracted to an outside entity. The determination as to whether the outside entity is a subaward, contractor, or consultant depends on a number of conditions (here). The contribution of the subaward, contractor, or consultant should be clearly described in the budget justification, and the following should be provided:  
    • Subawards: A complete subaward package as described in the ENTM Routing Timeline tab. 
    • Contractual Services: An official letter describing the contractual services provided, including the cost determination. 
    • Consultants: An official letter describing the contractual services provided, including the cost determination.
  • Equipment/Facility Rental User Fees: This category typically includes UMD Greenhouse space rental. Details of these costs should be clearly described in the budget justification.   
  • Alterations & Renovations: This category is rarely used…  
  • ​Other - Tuition Remission: Graduate Research Assistants are entitled to up to 10 credits of tuition per semester at the current rate, and a 5% increase in costs should be budgeted each project year. 
    • MS/pre-candidacy PhD students tend to take 8 credits/semester, so it is reasonable to budget for 8 instead of 10 credits if there are budgetary limitations; however, be aware that if a student takes more than 8 credits in a given semester, the additional costs will be charged to the grant.  
    • PhD candidates (i.e., passed the qualifying exam) are automatically registered for 6 credits of ENTM899 at a lower flat rate, so it is reasonable to to budget this amount if there are budgetary limitations; however, be aware that if the student takes additional credits or if you switch to an MS/pre-candidacy PhD student, their tuition costs will be charged to the grant. 

TOTAL DIRECT COSTS
  • ​This is the sum total of personnel salaries & wages, fringe benefits, equipment, travel, participant support costs, and other direct costs. The Total Direct Costs serve as the base for calculating indirect costs using sponsor-specific rates.

MODIFIED TOTAL DIRECT COSTS
  • This is the Total Direct Costs minus the sum total of individual equipment items greater than $5,000, tuition remission, participant support costs, and the portion of each subaward in excess of $25,000. The Modified Total Direct Costs serve as the base for calculating indirect costs using UMD's federally negotiated indirect cost rates (see below)​
​
INDIRECT COSTS
  • Unless specified in the sponsor’s Request for Funding Announcement (RFA), you should use the appropriate UMD federally negotiated indirect cost rate applied to the Modified Total Direct Costs (MTDC). 
    • ​On-Campus Research = 54.5% MTDC
    • ​Off-Campus* Research:
      • Remote (> 50 miles outside of College Park) = 26% MTDC
      • Adjacent (< 50 miles of College Park) = 27.5% MTDC
      • *Off-Campus: “For all activities performed in facilities not owned by the organization and to which rent is directly allocated to the project(s), the off-site rate will apply. Projects partially performed off-site are apportioned between their on-site/off-site components when projects activity is conducted off-site for at least three consecutive months.” You will need to provide the full addresses of all off-campus locations and indicate which, if any, are UMD Research Farms.​
  • USDA Restrictions on Indirect Costs​
    • USDA funding programs typically cap indirect costs at rates lower then UMD's federally negotiated rates.
    • USDA-NIFA generally limits indirect costs to the lesser of:
      • The sum of indirect costs resulting from the application of UMD's federally negotiated rates and those resulting from the application of any federally negotiated subaward rates, or
      • 30% of total funds requested (calculated as 42.857% of the Total Direct Costs), including the indirect costs charged by subaward institutions..
      •  This is not straightforward and is best explained by example (coming soon). 
    • Some USDA programs (e.g., Northeast SARE) limit indirect costs to 10% of the total funds requested. This is equivalent to 11.11% of the Total Direct Costs.
    • USDA-APHIS typically limits indirect costs on cooperative agreements to 15% of the total funds requested. This is equivalent to 17.647% of the Total Direct Costs. ​
    • Generally speaking, it is important to read the section of the RFA on indirect costs very carefully to be clear on how rates should be applied. If it does not state the indirect base type (e.g., it just says "indirect costs are limited to 10%", which happens...), you will need to contact an authorized representative to inquire. 
  • Other Sponsor Indirect Restrictions​
    • Other sponsors may limit indirect costs as well; however, such limitation needs to be officially and clearly documented either in the sponsor’s funding solicitation or in the sponsor’s general funding guidelines (e.g., an official policy document, a website, etc.). An e-mail from someone at the sponsor or by word of mouth does not count as documentation.​

​TOTAL FUNDS REQUESTED
  • This is the sum of the Total Direct Costs and the Indirect Costs. The Modified Total Direct Costs are not used in this calculation.
QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE
APPLICANT ORGANIZATION (UMD)
  • University of Maryland, Department of Research Administration, Division: Research, 3112 Lee Building, 7809 Regents Drive, College Park, MD 20742-5141, County: Prince George's, Congressional District: MD-005
 
PERFORMANCE SITE LOCATION (ENTM)
  • University of Maryland, Department of Entomology, 4112 Plant Sciences Building, 4291 Fieldhouse Drive, College Park, MD 20742-4454, County: Prince George's, Phone: 301-405-3913, Fax: 301-314-9290, Congressional District: MD-005
 
AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVES
  • Zinia Garcia, Contract Administrator, University of Maryland, Office of Research Administration, 3112 Lee Building, 7809 Regents Drive, College Park, MD 20742-5141, Phone: 301-405-7523, Fax: 301-314-9569, E-mail: zigarcia@umd.edu
  • Danette Boone, Contract Manager, University of Maryland, Office of Research Administration, 3112 Lee Building, 7809 Regents Drive, College Park, MD 20742-5141, Phone: 301-405-8108, Fax: 301-314-9569, E-mail: dboone14@umd.edu [contact information should be used for Signatory Official]
 
IMPORTANT NUMBERS
  • EIN: 1520710851-A1 (use this for PHS sponsors)
  • TIN: 52-6002033 (use this for non-PHS sponsors)
  • DUNS: 79-093-4285
  • UEI: NPU8ULVAAS23
  • ASAP: 2451208
 
FEDERAL COGNIZANT AUDIT AGENCY
  • Grants Finance and Administration Services, Program Support Center U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 2300, Bethesda, MD 20857, (301) 492-4858, Point of Contact: Steven Zuraf, Branch Chief 

UNKNOWN KUALI RESEARCH (KR) SPONSOR CODE
  • 011406. Use this code when the sponsor is not in the KR system. Enter the code in the KR proposal and write to kr-help@umd.edu with the sponsor details. They will generate a new sponsor code, at which point you can change the sponsor in the KR proposal.

Complete ORA Quick Reference Guide available here. 
SPONSOR-SPECIFIC RESOURCES
USDA
NSF
NIH
  • Coming soon

​OTHER COMMON SPONSORS
  • ​Northeast SARE
  • Maryland Grain Producers Utilization Board
  • Maryland Soybean Board
  • Maryland State Horticultural Society
  • Maryland Department of Agriculture
  • Maryland Department of Natural Resources
ORA & KUALI RESEARCH
OFFICE OF RESEARCH ADMINISTRATION (ORA)
​The Office of Research Administration offers many resources for proposal development, including: 
​KUALI RESEARCH (KR)
  • Coming soon
Department of Entomology 
University of Maryland 
4112 Plant Sciences Building 
College Park, MD 20742-4454
USA

Telephone: 301.405.3911 
Fax: 301.314.9290