Providing post-award research administration services to Bowers Principal Investigators.
The Sponsored Research Administration Center (SRAC) provides comprehensive post-award research administration services to Bowers Principal Investigators (PIs) throughout their funded projects. Additionally, SRAC manages faculty discretionary funding and gifts, ensuring proper oversight and compliance with institutional policies and sponsor requirements.
Meet the team.
Location: Computing and Information Science Building
Email: srac [at] bowers.cornell.edu (srac[at]bowers[dot]cornell[dot]edu)
Research Quicklinks
Post-Award FAQs
Participant support costs are direct costs for items such as stipends or subsistence allowances, travel expenses, and registration fees paid to or on behalf of participants or trainees (but not employees) in connection with conferences, or training projects. They are allowed on most federal grants, but are most common on grants from NSF. Since guidelines vary from sponsor to sponsor and from program to program, it is important to refer to agency and program-specific guidelines.
A participant is an individual who is receiving a training opportunity at a workshop, conference, seminar, symposium or other short-term instructional or information-sharing activity funded by a sponsored award. Cornell employees may not be considered participants. A participant does not perform work or services for the project or program other than for their own benefit, and is not required to deliver anything or provide any service to the university in return for these support costs. However, their participation in the training opportunity must be documented; the SRAC has a template you may use for this documentation, or you may use another method such as a sign-in sheet.
Prior approval must be obtained to reallocate participant support funds for other purposes, so it is important to carefully consider the types of expenses you will incur for your activity. Participant support costs may include the following:
- event registration fees
- stipends (predetermined amount regardless of actual cost) for housing or subsistence allowances
- travel costs
- lodging and meal expenses paid to the event facility (if the payment is made on behalf of the participant)
- meals and incidentals when in travel status
While they may be allowable on the grant in other budget categories, participant support funds may not be used for:
- travel or other expenses for Cornell employees
- expenses that support the event rather than the participants (such as meeting room rentals, AV equipment fees, expenses for speakers who aren’t otherwise participating in the event or activity)
When determining allocability to grants, several key restrictions apply: grant funds cannot be used for entertainment, social activities, or meals for Cornell employees/students who are not in travel status, and funds may not support intramural meetings of any organization or its components, including laboratories, departments, or centers.
While such expenses are valid Cornell business expenses, they are usually federal unallowable and must therefore be charged to gifts or discretionary funds rather than grants. Most attendees at such dinners are Cornell employees and/or students who are not in travel status, and their meals are considered federally unallowable regardless of the purpose of the meal. The purpose of the meal must also be considered: if the purpose is to entertain a visitor, the expense is federally unallowable. If the visitor is in travel status his/her meal may be charged to the grant as a travel expense. In that case, the benefit to the funded project should be made clear in the business purpose. Typically, when a research visit is a necessary component of a funded project, all of the visitor’s travel expenses would be charged to that project. The best way to handle this is to have the visitor pay for his/her own meal and add it to the reimbursement request.
If the purpose of the visit is speaking at the weekly seminar, no, as that would be an expense for an intramural meeting. If the purpose of the visit is collaborating on your grant and the visitor happens to give a talk at the weekly seminar while here, the travel can be charged to the grant (note: when the expenses are submitted for payment or reimbursement, the business purpose should indicate how your funded project benefited from the visit rather than simply stating that the visitor spoke at the weekly seminar).
NSF technical reports are submitted through research.gov, which at this time, may only be accessed by PIs and Co-PIs. SRAC will provide information about personnel supported on the grant upon request (or you may choose to find this information in CISIS).
Annual reports are due 90 days before the end of each project year; they are considered overdue if they have not been submitted and approved by the last day of the project year. Final reports (and project outcome reports) are due 120 days after the grant ends and are considered overdue if not submitted within those 120 days. Because reminders about reports are sent by NSF (and OSP in the case of final reports), SRAC does not track report due dates or remind PIs about when they are due, however if you let us know when your final report has been submitted, we can prevent the OSP reminders from being sent to you. Overdue reports will cause delays in proposal and award processing not only for you but also for all of your NSF Co-PIs.
For more information:
- Questions can always be addressed to srac [at] bowers.cornell.edu (or drop by the SRAC office)
- NSF FAQ - Meeting Technical Reporting Requirements
- Project Report Screenshots and Instructions
- Project Report Getting Started Guide