The Office of Sponsored Programs Administration within the Division of Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities supports faculty and staff throughout the post-award phase of both external and internal funded projects.
Upon notice of award, the Principal Investigator (PI) should contact the Office at ospa@acu.edu as soon as possible to allow sufficient time for review of contracts and negotiations with the sponsor. Once the award has been accepted by authorized institutional officials, financial accounts will be established for your project. It is the responsibility of the PI that all expenses comply with sponsor requirements and institutional policies. Additionally, certain changes to an award in scope, budget, personnel may require prior sponsor and/or university approval. The changes will be requested of the sponsor from the Office of Sponsored Programs Administration. It is important to notify the office at ospa@acu.edu as soon as any concerns arise.
Compliance
All externally funded projects must remain in compliance with University policies and sponsor regulations throughout the award period. PIs are responsible for maintaining required approvals and ensuring ongoing compliance. For more information, please refer to the Research Integrity and Compliance page.
Failure to maintain required compliance approvals may result in suspension of research activities and, when required, formal reporting to the funding agency.
Allowable Costs
Please see the table below for a summary of the allowability of selected direct cost expenses on Federal awards. Allowability on non-federal awards depends upon the agency requirements, any contracts/agreements and ACU policy.
Allowable Cost Table
| News release | Allowable with approval |
| Overtime | Allowable, with institutional approval |
| Patient costs | Generally allowable |
| Plant security costs | Indirect Cost |
| Periodicals | Unallowable unless approved by the funding agency or essential to the daily conduct of the project and not readily available from other sources (such as the library) |
| Postage: Routine postage | Unallowable except where a project requires specifically identifiable large mailings or the like |
| Postage: Special mailing or delivery costs | Allowable when necessary for the success or completion of the project. |
| Pre-award Costs | Unallowable, except for grants under Federal Demonstration Project grants and cooperative agreements from certain federal agencies with institutional approval. |
| Promotional items and memorabilia, including models, gifts, and souvenirs | Unallowable unless specifically requested and approved in the proposal. |
| Proposal costs | Unallowable as a direct expense |
| Publication costs | Unallowable unless approved by the funding agency or essential to the daily conduct of the project and not readily available from other sources (such as the library) |
| Registration fees | Generally allowable |
| Rearrangement costs, refreshments | Not allowable unless specifically approved by the contracting officer |
| Recruiting costs | Generally allowable |
| Relocation costs | Generally allowable |
| Rental/lease of facilities or Equipment | Generally allowable |
| Renovation costs | Allowable if approved by the agency |
| Repairs | Generally allowable |
| Royalty costs | Generally allowable |
| Salaries and wages: Faculty/Technical | Costs of personnel are allowable on research agreements to the extent supported by actual effort performed on the project and approved in the award budget. An individual's base salary must be used to compute the cost charged to a sponsored agreement |
| Salaries and wages: Administrative and Clerical | Generally recovered through indirect costs; therefore, they are usually unallowable as direct costs on federal agreements. Exceptions include: projects that involve extensive data accumulation, require making travel and meeting arrangements for large numbers of participants, projects where the principal focus is the preparation and production of manuals, books, etc, projects that are geographically inaccessible to normal department administrative services, such as field offices; projects requiring significant amounts of project-specific database management |
| Scholarships and student aid | Allowable costs for training grants only |
| Service charges | Generally allowable |
| Specialized service center costs | Generally allowable |
| Student activity costs | Unallowable |
| Subject costs | Generally allowable |
| Supplies: Project Supplies | Allowable if identified as being exclusively for the support of a sponsored agreement. Chemicals, laboratory supplies, pens, pencils, folders, notebooks, and the like |
| Supplies: Office Supplies | Unallowable if items commonly found in any office, such as wall clocks, calendars, waste cans, letterhead, staples, etc., that would likely be used for other purposes except in specific circumstances. |
| Taxes | Generally allowable |
| Telephone: Local | Generally unallowable as a direct cost |
| Telephone: Long Distance | Allowable when specifically identified with an individual project |
| Transportation costs | Generally allowable |
| Travel costs | Allowable within the approved budget limits and university policy. Foreign travel requires program approval |
| Examples of Unallowable Costs | Coffee Mugs for Administrative Staff; Bus Chartered for Administrative Staff; Reunion for Former Participants; Selling and Marketing; T-shirts; Engraved key chains; Texas State banners (unless specifically requested and approved in proposal) |
Purchase Threshold
Small Purchase Procedures: Small purchase procedures are those designed to simplify the purchasing process. Small purchase procedures do not require a competition of sealed bids or competitive proposals.
Micro-purchase threshold: Purchases at or below the micro-purchase threshold ($10,000) do not require quotes or documentation of vendor selection. The PI should document the allowability and allocability of the purchase (the expense documentation template in the Appendix List may be used). The PI should conduct some measure of cost/price analysis. The PI should select a vendor that offers the best combination of price, quality and service to meet the need.
Simplified Acquisition: For purchases of $10,001 to $250,000, a minimum of 2 rates or quotes is required. A Vendor Selection Form and all documentation must be submitted to ORSP and Finance before ordering.