Pre Award

Define Opportunity:  Funding opportunities can come from anywhere: databases, agency websites, professional publications or colleagues.  Federal grant opportunities can be found through Grants.gov.

Develop Proposal:  Once an opportunity has been identified OGSP will do the following:

Review the announcement for application requirements.
Meet with the Principal Investigator (PI) to develop a project management plan.
Work up a draft budget for PI approval.
Complete the sponsor/required forms and budget justification to be included in the application.

Submit & Negotiate:  Applications can only be submitted by GCSU or the GCSU Foundation.  Once internal approval has been received, designated staff in the appropriate office will submit the application on behalf of the PI and institution.  If awarded, GCSU or GCSU Foundation personnel will review and negotiate acceptable terms and conditions to GCSU, GCSU Foundation and/or USG.

Georgia Colleges is the legal recipient of all grants and contracts received by its employees. When an award is received, Principal Investigators and the Office of Grants and Sponsored Research assume the administrative, compliance, and fiscal responsibility on behalf of the university to manage the grant award.

Only full-time, regular employees are eligible to be designated as Principal Investigators and to submit applications for external funding. This includes faculty and staff. Students are not permitted to submit applications for external funding.

Limited-term, part-time, or visiting employees are not eligible to submit proposals for external funding unless they:

1. are designated as a co-investigator and have an eligible PI as described above
2. have provided written justification to and received approval for each submission from their department/unit head, dean or director, and the Provost’s office.

The Office of Grants and Sponsored Projects is available to assist you with budget development and creating a budget narrative for your grant proposal.  Our office is here to ensure your budget items are in line with both university and funding agency protocols.  We will work with the business and finance offices to secure accurate salary and fringe benefits information and provide standard and accepted procedures to value both budget and match items.

Salaries and Fringe Benefits 

Salaries: Pay rates and summer salary must follow university pay scales and policy. 
Faculty are eligible to secure up to 33.33% of academic year salary during the summer; however, some sponsors may limit proposal-funded effort (e.g. 2 summer months).  Salary support for sponsored activities conducted during the academic year may result in release time from teaching or service activities; one course release is budgeted at 10% of academic year. Academic year release time will require completion of the Institutional Commitment Form in consultation with the OGSP staff.
NOTE:  External awards cannot be used to increase faculty base salary rates. 

Students and other casual labor are generally hourly.  Hourly wage personnel should be budgeted on a per hour basis. The rate per hour and the length of time being spent on the proposal should be provided. The current federal minimum wage is used, but the rate per hour rate may be higher depending on the type of work or skills required for the project. 

Costs for administrative and clerical staff may not be allocated as a direct cost unless these individuals are identified, integral to the project, included explicitly in the budget, and not recovered as indirect cost. 

Fringe Benefits:  Georgia College & State University does not have a negotiated, fixed (composite) fringe benefit rate. Employee fringe benefits are charged to sponsored projects based upon the actual costs of the employee’s elected benefits in effect at the time salary is paid.  Fringe benefits include social security, Medicare, retirement, and insurance (health and life). Actual costs will vary based on employee elections for insurance and retirement plans.  Fringe benefits are reviewed bi-annually (January and July) and adjusted when insurance premiums or retirement contributions change. 

The fringe benefit rate is determined by taking the total fringe benefit costs paid by the university and dividing that amount by the total salary and wages of the employee.
               Example: Faculty salary annually: $95,000; Total fringe benefits: $29,000. 
               Fringe benefits rate: 30.5% ($29,000/$95,000)  
 The fringe benefits details are below. 

Current retirement plan rates effective 7/1/2024: TRS=20.78%  ORP=9.24%             *Calculated at the highest rate/amount

Please work with the OGSP to ensure salary and fringe benefit information is accurate.

GCSU vs. Foundation Submissions

If your potential funder is a state entity, federal entity, or professional association, the Office of Grants and Sponsored Projects (OGSP) will provide support for all aspects of your proposal development and submission. 

While OGSP provides the same support for private foundation applications, OGSP will work with the Georgia College Foundation on all foundation submissions. 

OGSP also requests that all budgets be reviewed by our office to ensure accuracy of budget items such as salaries, fringe benefit rates, match items, and indirect costs.

Submission

All grant proposals to federal entities, state entities, or professional associations must be routed for internal approval before submission may occur.  Our office is here to assist you in completing the internal review and approval process.  After your proposal has been approved internally, our office will also assist you with submission of your grant proposal to the funding agency.  It is important to include this internal process when developing your proposal preparation timeline.  Proposal should be routed for approval at least five working days prior to the submission deadline.

Limited Submission Procedure

On occasion, funders restrict the number of submissions per institution.  When this is the case, OGSP, with guidance from the Provost, will release an announcement to all eligible individuals for an internal competition.  Recommendations by a committee of peers will be given to the Provost for final decision.  All individuals will be notified of the outcome by OGSP.

In the situation where there are multiple individuals applying to the same opportunity, OGSP will confirm as quickly as possible that there are no limitations within the announcement.  Always complete the ENS form as early as possible so your hard work will be successful.

GCSU’s federally negotiated Facilities & Administration (F&A) rate is 38% for on-campus and 16% for off-campus projects. It is to be applied to all proposals regardless of the funder unless the funder states in the announcement or within their written terms and conditions that a reduced or zero rate is required.  All other situations of waiving F&A must be approved by the Provost.

The procedure to request a waiver of F&A is as follows:

• Email with the request and a justification is to be submitted for approval to Department Chair
• Then forwarded to the appropriate College Dean for approval
• Finally, the request and all approvals should to be forwarded to the Provost for final decision
• The Provost's decision should be forwarded to OGSP for budget development and to include in the grant file.