Grant Administration

Grant administration encompasses the processing and administrative work that happens throughout the grant lifecycle. Grantees are encouraged to email questions to CSUBIOTECH at [email protected]. Calls to the program office are also encouraged and accepted at (619) 594-2822.

Budget Guidelines

The guidelines below pertain specifically to the following seed grant programs: Curriculum Development, Industry Partnership Initiative, New Investigator and Research Development.

For other CSUBIOTECH grant programs, see the individual Request for Proposal (RFPs).

Faculty Salary: Indicate how much time each faculty/key personnel will spend on the project and when they will be working on the project. A faculty salary budget up to $5,000 per individual is allowed, including fringe, for academic year release time, academic year additional employment or summer salary except for the Curriculum Development grant which does not set an explicit limit on faculty salary.
Student Salary: Name students where possible, indicate their status (undergraduate or graduate), the hourly salary rate, the number of hours each student will dedicate to the project, and whether they will be working during the summer and/or academic year. Proposed and paid student salaries should comply with amounts determined by your campus human resources department. CSUBIOTECH will not approve any salary or rate in excess of campus limitations. It is the applicant's responsibility to ensure funds do not conflict with these limitations or any others set by graduate or undergraduate programs with which the student may be involved. CSUBIOTECH funds cannot be used to supplement pay for effort if the student is already receiving payroll from another source for the same activity. Employment of foreign nationals is limited to individuals who meet the conditions set by their campus human resources department policies regarding eligibility to receive compensation in the United States.
Travel: CSUBIOTECH seed grant funds can not be used for travel to professional meetings. CSUBIOTECH’s Travel Grants Program is designed to cover those costs.
Facilities and Administrative (F&A, or Indirect) Costs: Grants are issued as a result of an internal competition within the CSU and are not subject to Facilities and Administrative (F&A), or indirect, costs. F&A costs are not allowed as a grant-funded expense in proposals submitted in response to RFPs from programs, such as CSUBIOTECH, that receive the majority of its support from legislatively appropriated funds, CSU lottery funds or student fees (including state university fees). The F&A forgone at the campus/auxiliary's federally negotiated off-campus rate may be shown as cost match on the proposal. The auxiliary or enterprise fund may use this amount to offset the university’s cost allocation plan, in accordance with EO 753/1000.

COVID-19 IMPACT ON CSUBIOTECH PROGRAMMING

CSUBIOTECH grants and awards impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic include everything awarded from Spring 2019 through Spring 2021, including grants that were already active during these time periods. CSUBIOTECH policy on these impacts is discussed on the COVID-19 webpage

GENERATIVE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TECHNOLOGY

CSUBIOTECH has adopted a policy on the use of generative artificial intelligence technology similar to that of the National Science Foundation (NSF). The NSF policy can be found at https://new.nsf.gov/news/notice-to-the-research-community-on-ai. The CSUBIOTECH policy applies as follows to all grant and award programs, including peer review.

To safeguard the integrity of the development and evaluation of proposals in the merit review process,

CSUBIOTECH reviewers are prohibited from uploading any content from proposals, review information and related records to non-approved generative AI tools.
Proposers have the option to indicated in the project description or proposal/application documents the extent to which, if any, generative AI technology was used and how it was used to develop their proposal.

Use of generative AI by reviewers in CSUBIOTECH review panels. CSUBIOTECH reviewers agree to maintain confidentiality of the review process, reviewer identities, and application/proposal materials submitted to CSUBIOTECH in response to grant and award Requests-for-Proposals (RFP’s) and Requests-for-Nominations (RFN’s).

The obligation to maintain confidentiality of review related information extends to the use of generative AI tools and “checking” programs. CSUBIOTECH reviewers are prohibited from uploading any content from proposals, review information and related records to non-approved generative AI tools or websites not approved by the CSUBIOTECH program office. If reviewers take this action, CSUBIOTECH will consider it a violation of the program’s confidentiality policy. CSUBIOTECH reviewers may share publicly available information with current generation generative AI tools.

Use of generative AI in proposal preparation. Proposers are encouraged to indicate in the project description or narrative of their proposals and applications the extent to which, if any, generative AI technology was used and how it was used to develop their proposal. Similar to NSF, CSUBIOTECH is studying the use of generative artificial intelligence in responses to our calls for proposals and nominations. CSUBIOTECH will continue to review NSF policy and may adapt its own policies as more is learned about this tool in future rounds of grant and award programs. To be clear, the use of generative AI in proposal preparation is not prohibited in CSUBIOTECH grant and award programs.

Proposers are responsible for the accuracy and authenticity of their proposal submission in consideration for peer review, including content developed with the assistance of generative AI tools. CSUBIOTECH’s policies stated in its Code-of-Conduct and Applicant Certification statements remain in force with regards to the use of generative artificial intelligence technology. Generative AI tools may create risks of violating these rules and regulations, and proposers and awardees are responsible for ensuring the integrity of their proposal and reporting of research results. This policy does not preclude research on generative AI as a topic of study.

CSUBIOTECH adopts the definition of GAI as stated in the NSF guidelines: “Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) is a technology that can create content, such as text, images, audio, or video, when prompted by a user. Generative AI systems create responses using algorithms often trained on large datasets of information, such as text and images from the internet.” (Source: U.S. Government Accountability Office, Science and Tech Spotlight: Generative AI; June 2023 available at www.gao.gov/assets/830/826491.pdf)

Transfer of Grant Funds Upon Award

Grant funds (with the exception of Faculty and Student Travel Grants) will be transferred via an Interagency Financial Transaction (IFT) Request, unless otherwise agreed upon with the CSUBIOTECH program office. Funding for projects involving animal or human subjects will not be transferred until CSUBIOTECH has received confirmation of IACUC or IRB approval from the Principal Investigator’s (PI’s) campus. The campus may be able to help make purchases or pay personnel before funds reach the campus, because the fiscal officer in the college or department office will be informed of pending CSUBIOTECH grants. Please note that CSUBIOTECH grant funds are state funds and should be spent within state accounts and regulations. The PI and the PI’s campus are responsible for carrying over CSUBIOTECH grant funds between State of California fiscal years.

Post-Award Grant Correspondence

The CSUBIOTECH program office will refer to a grant by its title post-award, so please use the correct and full grant title in all correspondence and reports. All post-award correspondence is sent to the PI only. The PI is responsible for forwarding information to any co-PIs or key personnel.

Post-Award Grant Changes

Budget Adjustment Request Form

The CSUBIOTECH program office must approve substantial changes in the budget before the project plan or operational budget is modified. Refer to the contact information at the top of this page.

Changes requiring approval are:

Moving funds into faculty salary budgets or out of student salary budgets.
Moving funds into new, not previously proposed or unapproved line items or categories.*
Changes greater than 25 percent to a budget category, when moving funds from one budget category to another.*

* The five budget categories are: 1. Salaries, 2. Equipment, 3. Supplies/Materials, 4. Travel, 5. Other.

The PI should submit a budget adjustment request (BAR) to the CSUBIOTECH grants official listed on the BAR form. The BAR should include dollar amounts of requested changes and names of all personnel involved in salary changes, if known. Additional documentation such as a letter from the chair or dean may be requested by CSUBIOTECH, if applicable. Requests to move funding out of a student salary line item should be well-justified and should explain how students will remain involved in the project. Requests to fully remove student involvement on a project will only be approved in rare instances. Changes to Industry Partnership Initiative Cost Match amounts should be submitted on the CSUBIOTECH Grant Change Request Form (described below).

Requests to purchase items not approved for funding in the proposal review process will not be considered without strong supporting justification. In addition, PIs should not purchase personal computers with CSUBIOTECH funds unless this was specifically requested in the proposal and approved by the review panel.

Any remaining unused grant funds greater than $250 should be returned to CSUBIOTECH after the grant final report is submitted. Amounts less than $250 may be retained by the campus for use in the grantee's research program.

Grant Change Request Form

Extension approvals are rare, due to the relatively small size of CSUBIOTECH grants and duration of the original grant period (18 months). Investigators wishing to request an extension should include in their justification:

Reason the project cannot be completed within the original 18-month grant period.
What parts of the project plan are incomplete.
Whether the extension will require a significant change in the original project plan.
How the extension will affect the timeline/milestones.
What effects the extension will have on the project budget.

Final Grant Reporting

COVID-19 Postpandemic Faculty Support Program
COVID-19 Research Recovery Microgrant awardees are required to submit a final report to CSUBIOTECH within 90 days of the project end date. Once completed, submit the final report to [email protected].

COVID-19 Research Recovery Microgrant Program
COVID-19 Research Recovery Microgrant awardees are required to submit a final report to CSUBIOTECH at csubiotech@sdsu.edu within 90 days of the project end date.

Faculty-Graduate Student Research Collaboration Program
Faculty-Graduate Student Research Collaboration awardees are required to submit a final report to CSUBIOTECH at [email protected] within 90 days of the project end date.

Seed Grants—Seed Grant Report System
Curriculum Development, Industry Partnership Initiative, New Investigator and Research Development grantees must submit a final report within 90 days of their grant end date. A delinquent report may jeopardize future funding from CSUBIOTECH. Final reports are submitted via the web-based Seed Grant Reporting System at the above link. CSUBIOTECH PIs are also responsible for submitting Long-Term Impact Reports for three years after the Grant Final Report is submitted. Each year, CSUBIOTECH will contact the PI and provide a unique link to the specific report(s) that need(s) updating.

Faculty and Student Travel Grants—Faculty Travel Grant Report Form or Student Travel Grant Report Form (.doc)
Recipients of Faculty and Student Travel Grants must submit their grant report within 30 days of completing their trip. If the trip occurred before the award was received, the grantee should submit their report to [email protected] within 30 days of the award notification.

Howell-CSUBIOTECHResearch Scholars and Presidents' Commission Scholars
The CSUBIOTECH program office will provide these scholarship recipients with instructions for completing their report(s) via our web-based reporting tool.