PAF Question 1.2 – Purpose for Routing PAF

Proposal

There are three common options that fall within the proposal category: Full proposal to a competitive solicitation (a notice of funding opportunity, request for proposal, published on website), supplement application or award transfer to U-M. Find examples of each below.

Full proposals to a competitive solicitation

• Common proposals
  Proposals for submission to competitive solicitations such as notice of funding opportunities (NOFO) and request for proposals (RFP) or published on sponsor’s website
  • Federal government proposals such as National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01, National Science Foundation (NSF) RAPID, NASA ROSES, Department of Energy (including National Labs), Broad Agency Announcements (BAAs) 
  • Nonprofit associations or foundations proposals such as American Heart Association, Breakthrough T1D, American Cancer Society and most Proposal Central submissions 
  • Industry proposals such as General Electric, Pfizer, Toyota Research Institute
• Subaward to U-M
  • U-M is a subaward on a direct sponsor’s proposal submission to a prime sponsor under a competitive solicitation. 
  • A new Subaward Agreement to U-M is received and no PAF for the awarded funds exists.
  • Subaward Agreement issued to U-M after the direct sponsor PI transfers institutions and this new agreement to U-M is issued from their new institution.
  • Examples of subaward agreements: FDP Templates or sponsor’s own agreement template.
  • Tip – For Subaward Amendments issued to U-M for an existing project with an AWD, see Subsequent PAF.
• Simultaneous review of terms and submission of proposal
  Sponsor requests proposal materials be submitted to a competitive solicitation and that U-M review/redline any terms or conditions at the time of submission. This is still considered a Proposal.
  • Request for proposal or quote
  • State of Michigan Procurement Proposals
  • Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation
  • Department of Defense BAAs
• Competitive renewal proposal application, developed as fully as though the proposer is applying for the first time.
  • NIH competing continuation (renewal) – requests additional funding for a period subsequent to that provided by a current award.
  • NSF competitive renewal – both traditional and accomplishment-based renewals.
  • Department of Energy renewal – additional funding to continue research for a project period subsequent to the current award.
• Individual projects under a master agreement – if they require submission in a sponsor system or are in response to an RFP.
  • See Working with MDHHS webpage for example.
• After-the-fact PAF
  A proposal to a competitive solicitation has already been submitted to the sponsor but ORSP did not approve the PAF prior to submission. (This includes if ORSP has already received a check, notice of award, contract, draft agreement, purchase order, or a request for U-M to draft a contract for negotiation).

Supplement or additional funding application to a competitive solicitation

• NIH competing revisions – an increase in support in a current project period for expansion of the project’s approved scope or research protocol. Applicants must apply and undergo peer review.
• NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Supplements on active awards.
• NSF Dear Colleague Letters for supplemental funds on active awards.
• CDC supplemental funding for an AWD.

Supplement or additional funding application (non-competitive) which must be submitted via the sponsor’s system.

• NIH diversity supplement
• NIH administrative supplement
• CDC supplemental funding request under an awarded NOFO

Tip: For supplement applications (non-competitive) not submitted in a sponsor system, see Subsequent PAF. 

Award transfer to U-M and sponsor requires U-M to submit information in a sponsor system or via email prior to issuing an award

• A faculty member / PI is moving from their previous institution to U-M and transferring a sponsored award to U-M and the sponsor requires U-M to submit information in a sponsor system prior to issuing an award.
• NIH transfer awards submitted via Grants.gov or email
• NSF transfer awards submitted via Research.gov

Tip: For award transfer to U-M where U-M is not required to submit materials in a sponsor system (e.g., industry and foundation awards) see Contract.

Contract

A contract is a project not in response to a competitive solicitation where sponsor has either:
Provided a funding document (e.g., draft contract, Purchase Order (PO), check)

• Clinical trials – A pharmaceutical company reaches out to U-M to perform a clinical trial using U-M patient data and provides U-M with a contract
• Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) Agreements – U-M faculty can work with any United States federal agency to enter into an IPA (e.g., Department of Veterans Affairs, Food and Drug Administration, Veterans Education and Research Association of Michigan) and an agreement is issued to U-M. These are often already signed by the agency. See Ann Arbor VA IPA website.
• U-M faculty consulting – A sponsor wants a U-M faculty member to provide consulting services and has provided U-M a contract where faculty will utilize U-M effort and funds will be paid to U-M
• Membership, recharge, and student project agreements – A single AWD record is used to manage agreements with multiple external entities. The initial PAF to set up the AWD and any additional PAFs either to add external entities, new agreements, amendments to existing agreements, or provide an updated annual renewal rate are all considered contracts.
  • Membership agreements – U-M manages paid membership (e.g., to a consortium or registry)
  • Recharge core services (e.g., animal modeling, imaging, phenotyping)
  • Student projects (e.g., Multidisciplinary Design Program (MDP), Tauber, Ross Multidisciplinary Action Projects (MAP))
  • Other projects where a single AWD will support agreements from multiple external entities
• New master agreements – The initial statement of work (SOW) or work order under the new master agreement is funded and both the master agreement and SOW or work order are provided at the same time
  • Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) new master agreement(s)
  • Industry projects where the sponsor wishes to use one agreement to facilitate multiple statements of work
• Purchase orders (POs) – PO issued as the funding agreement and no competitive solicitation is involved (e.g., NASA POs).
• Service agreements – A company wants U-M to perform laboratory testing on a company provided compound, material or product and provides U-M with an agreement.
• Editorial services – A U-M faculty member has agreed to provide editorial services to a scientific journal and the journal provides U-M a contract.
• Non-collaborative support – A U-M faculty member reaches out to a company or foundation and asks if they are interested in financially supporting a U-M research project or event, the sponsor informally agrees and writes U-M a check.
• Award transfer to U-M  – An agreement is issued to transfer a U-M faculty member’s award from their previous institution to U-M.
  • Tip: For an Award Transfer to U-M which needs to be submitted in a sponsor system or via email, prior to issuing the award, see Proposal.

Requested U-M draft an agreement

• A company reaches out to U-M to perform laboratory testing on a company-provided compound, material or product and requests U-M to provide the agreement
• Research consortium – U-M manages through a Various Sponsors AWD and a new member signs a funding agreement to provide annual membership dues which U-M needs to sign or a current member signs an amendment to provide additional funding on the Various Sponsors AWD
• Faculty collaborations – Faculty members from U-M and another institution want to collaborate on a project that will be funded by discretionary funds from the other institution and the other institution has requested U-M provide a contract.

Required a specific ORSP Action prior to issuing an agreement (e.g., submission of documents by ORSP, authorized institutional signature, certification and representations, vendor forms)

• Industry sponsor – A U-M faculty member reaches out to a company (e.g., Pfizer, GE) not in response to a solicitation and proposes a research collaboration related to the company’s product and the company has indicated that it intends to fund the project but first needs U-M to register as a vendor in its system and/or provide other types of documents (e.g., a budget or W-9) before providing a contract.
• Simultaneous review of terms and submission of materials (non-competitive) – Sponsor (e.g., Department of Justice) requests review/redline of draft award terms and requests materials be submitted via email (i.e., vendor forms, budgets, scope of work) prior to issuing an initial agreement or amendment to an existing award and there is no competitive solicitation.

Subsequent PAF

A subsequent PAF is additional funding for an existing AWD issued as an amendment (not a new award) and does not require a competitive proposal submission (total funding now exceeds approved PAF amount on AWD for the solicitation it was awarded under).
Additional funding (non-competitive) issued to an existing AWD via an Amendment, and now the total awarded funding exceeds the amount on the original PAF(s).

• Subaward amendment
  • Amendment issued to U-M for an existing project with an AWD and total amount of funds on the project increases and no PAF has captured those additional funds. Most often this is seen with FDP Templates for Subaward Amendments.
    
    For example, a direct sponsor like the University of Pennsylvania, who is funded by a prime sponsor like NIH, has issued a subaward amendment to U-M for additional funds on an existing project and all of the following apply:
    • There is already an award record (AWD),
    • The total authorized amount is now more than what the original PAF(s) had captured,
    • The funds are issued under the same prime funding solicitation.
  • Incremental funds – Subaward amendment which authorizes budget periods one year at a time under the same prime sponsor solicitation and there is an existing AWD. 
  • Tip: For a new Subaward to U-M see Proposal.
• Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) modification or extension, which increases funds to existing IPA AWD.

Supplement or additional funding application (non-competitive) and not submitted via a sponsor system

• Supplemental funds – A sponsor (e.g., National Labs, Health Resources and Services Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Alzheimer’s Association, Toyota, Department of Education) wishes to expand upon an already existing AWD either through a revised statement of work (SOW) or an addendum to the SOW and requests documents be sent via email (e.g., budget,  justification, revised SOW or Addendum) prior to issuing an agreement (e.g., an Amendment to an existing AWD) and there is no competitive solicitation.
• Additional reference: Standard Operating Procedure 500.04 New PAF Requirements for Processing Additional Funds
• Tip: For a Supplement Application (non-competitive) which must be submitted via the sponsor’s system, see Proposal.