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 Grant Vocabulary

501(c)(3) organization – a charitable entity. Cities, townships, villages, counties, and public higher education institutions all qualify as non-profit organizations but not as charitable organizations.

AOR -- authorized organizational representative. In grant proposal electronic submissions, the AOR must provide final electronic approval of the proposal before it is officially submitted. To make sure an AOR is available when needed, some advance notice that a proposal is being submitted is appreciated. For NSF grant applications, Tarleton's AOR is Dr. Bert Little (x. 9463). For grants.gov applications, Tarleton's AOR is Ann Pawlak (x. 9588).

Challenge grant – a challenge grant provides funds to be used as leverage to secure additional grants from foundations and corporations. A challenge grant is awarded contingent on additional grant funds being raised from other funding sources.

DHHS -- Department of Health and Human Services

Direct costs – expenses for personnel, equipment, supplies, contractual services, and other expenses (printing, subscriptions, phones, copying) needed for the project.

DOC -- Department of Commerce

DUNS -- Data Universal Numbering System. Tarleton's DUNS number is 073161697.

FASTLANE -- NSF's proprietary system for electronically submitting grants. If you are submitting a grant application in FASTLANE, please call the Office of Sponsored Projects (x. 9463) for the necessary log-in authorization and Authorized Organization Representative (AOR) approval.

Fellowships – fellowships are money to support graduate and post-graduate students in specific fields. Funds almost always are awarded to the institution, not to the individual student.

F&A -- Financial and Administrative Costs. Also called "indirect costs" (see below) or "overhead."

Full Proposal -- A complete description of a project for which funding is being requested. Specify requirements for the proposal's content and format are provided in the program solicitation and in grant sponsors' procedures guides.

Grant -- a type of financial assistance award and legal instrument that permits an executive agency of the Federal government to transfer money, property, services or other things of value to a grantee when no substantial involvement is anticipated between the agency and the recipient during the performance of the activity. The most common types of grants are: 1) "Standard" in which a specific level of support is provided for a specified period of time with no commitment to provide future support and2) "Continuing" in which a specific level of support is provided for a specified period of time (usually a year) with a commitment to provide additional support for additional periods provided funds are available and the results achieved warrant further support. [NSF definition]

Grants.gov -- the federal government's uniform electronic grant application system. If you are submitting a grant application in grants.gov, please call Ann Pawlak, in the Office of Sponsored Projects (x. 9588), to make arrangements for the required SRO electronic approval of your proposal.

"The Humanities" -- the humanities include the following academic fields: archaeology, art history and criticism, cultural anthropology, ethics, folklore, foreign languages, history, interdisciplinary studies (including American, ethnic, and gender studies), jurisprudence, literature, linguistics, philosophy, political theory, religious studies. (from the Texas Council for Humanities web site)

Indirect costs – indirect costs often are called “overhead.” Grant budgets do not reimburse all of the university’s project related costs – for example, for the salaries of people involved in payroll and purchasing and for the project’s proportionate share of utilities consumed, long distance telephone calls, and copying expenses.  Indirect costs usually are calculated as a percentage of direct costs on a separate budget line.  When provided in a grant, indirect cost funds are allocated among the Financial Affairs Department and the principal investigator’s College, Department and project.  Contact Business Services for Tarleton’s negotiated indirect cost rate with various Federal agencies.

In-kind contributions – in-kind contributions are donated personnel, office space, training space, supplies, materials, printing/copying, loaned equipment in lieu of cash – “hard” – contributions.

IRB -- Institutional Review Board. Tarleton's Human Subjects Research IRB and Vertebrate Animal Research IRBs review and authorize all research work involving humans and vertebrate animals, respectively. Research must be approved by the appropriate IRB before it commences, or Tarleton risks forfeiture of all existing and future grant funding.

Letter of Intent (LOI) -- lists project title and participants and short description of the project. Length usually is limited to one page or less and is strictly enforced. Grant sponsors use the LOI to gauge the size and range of the competition and to select and manage reviewers to avoid conflicts of interest. LOIs are evaluated only by grant sponsor staff and are not used to award funding.

Matching funds – a matching funds grant requires you to find other sources of funding to match or exceed the grant’s matching stipulation.  Stipulations usually are expressed as a percentage: for example, a matching grant might cover 50% of the project cost, which means you have to find another source or sources to cover the remaining 50%.

“Hard match” usually is actual cash match from your own general operating monies.  To specify actual cash match in a grant application, you MUST have budget authorization to spend the money.  For example, if you want to count a graduate assistant’s salary as hard match in a grant, the graduate assistant’s salary must be budgeted for the time period covered by the grant.

“Soft match” is other expenses that are related to the project but will not be charged to the project. Examples of soft match include: administrative and clerical support and facilities personnel salaries and fringe on a prorated basis; project-related travel not charged to the grant; existing or newly purchased equipment and/or supplies not being charged to the grant; and contracted consultants who will provide expertise to the project but whose expenses aren’t eligible for grant funding.

NIH - National Institutes of Health

Nonprofit organization – a nonprofit corporation is any organization exempt from taxation under Section 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 by reason of paragraph (3) or (4). Tarleton is a nonprofit organization.

NSF - National Science Foundation. NSF supports research and education in all fields of science and engineering. It accounts for about 25% of all Federal support to academic institutions for basic research. NSF receives approximately 40,000 proposals each year for research, education and training projects, of which approximately 11,000 (27.5%) are funded. [data from NSF's April, 2007 Procedures Guide]

Preliminary Proposal -- a proposal submitted in advance of a full proposal. Preliminary proposals are used to eliminate unnecessary effort if the proposer's project is unlikely to be funded and to assist proposers in developing more robust and acceptable full proposals.

Principal investigator (PI)/Project Director (PD) -- the individual you designate, and who is approved by the grant sponsor, to be responsible for the project's scientific or technical direction. If more than one, the first one listed has primary responsibility for the project and submitting reports. All others listed are considered co-PI/PD and share responsibility for the project's scientific or technical direction. "Principal Investigator" generally is used in research projects, while "Project Director" generally is used in education and other projects. However, for most purposes, PI and PD are interchangeable. [NSF definition]

Program Description -- broad, general descriptions of programs and activities which often are posted to encourage submission of proposals in specific program areas of interest. Proposals follow generic submission requirements. [NSF definition]

Program Solicitation -- formal request for proposals in specific program areas of interest that applies for only a limited period of time and is more focused than a program description. Proposals submitted in response to the solicitation compete directly with each other for funding.

REU - Research Experiences for Undergraduates. NSF program to provide funding for undergraduate research.

RUI -- Research in Undergraduate Institutions. NSF program to provide funding for undergraduate research.

Scholarship funds – awards to individuals. Any funds awarded to individuals are considered taxable income.

Sponsored Program/Project -- A sponsored program is an externally funded project that may have any or all of the following characteristics:

  • An award document.
  • Technical and/or fiscal reporting requirements
  • Certification and review for compliance issues are required
  • Defined time frame
  • Restrictions on use of funds
  • Commitment of university facilities, personnel and/or resources
  • Instructions for the disposition of residual funds and/or residual property/equipment
  • Indirect costs are included in the funding
  • It is a grant or contract, not a gift.

A sponsored program is a promise to perform work in exchange for support.  The sponsored program agreement is made between an external sponsor and the University, not the individual faculty member.  The University then delegates responsibility and authority to the faculty project director or principal investigator to carry out the work. The source of funding for a sponsored program is generally an entity that is federal, state, corporate, or private.

USDA -- United States Department of Agriculture