The following is from an email sent to all Research Advancement staff on 4/14/09:

Hello All,

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding opportunities include rigorous expectations for reporting on any grant that is funded using the ARRA funds. This reporting will be required within 10 days of the end of each calendar quarter for each ARRA award.  Departments/schools will be responsible, minimally, for tracking and reporting data on jobs created, jobs retained, and the status of research in the format determined by the ARRA. The government has proposed collecting data for more than 30 discrete data elements; once these data points have been finalized we will let you know what they are. There are some areas where we hope to be able centralize the data collection, but we will not know what we can do centrally until the data elements are finalized.

Because of the burden the reporting will cause for RA staff, ASU has determined it appropriate to immediately include an administrative salary for assistance in the tracking/reporting activity for these projects. Please plan to apply a minimum of 5% to a maximum of 10% (for larger, more complex projects) of an administrative salary. This discussion has been presented to the OMB for broad consideration, as this plan is consistent with OMB Circular A-21. Below is the text to be included in the budget justification of any ARRA proposal being submitted.

"Due to the extraordinary administrative oversight and reporting activities associated with awards made under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, this proposal includes (insert appropriate percentage of effort) salary support for the additional administrative services required by the Act should an award be issued. Regulatory support for this request is located at OMB Circular A-21 F.6. a. (2.), which states:  'Direct charging of salaries of administrative and clerical staff costs may be appropriate where administrative or clerical services required by the project are significantly greater than the routine level of such services provided by academic departments.' "

If there are any questions regarding this matter that I can address, please feel free to contact me.

Candyce C. Lindsay, CRA
Assistant Director Sponsored Projects Services
Arizona State University
480 965 8016-phone
480 965 2455-fax
candyce [dot] lindsay [at] asu [dot] edu