CALS Research Division > ARRA Information

Important Info About Recovery Act/Stimulus Funding Opportunities

The American Recovery Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is now in place. To help stimulate the economy, UW-Madison and institutions of higher education nationwide are being asked to contribute our expertise and strong record of success in research and education. ARRA provides an infusion of funding for research at an unprecedented level. At the same time, there are clear expectations of transparency and accountability in the use of these funds.

We are truly grateful to the key leaders, particularly Wisconsin's Congressman Dave Obey, Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, who supported the role of science in this package.

Research funding will be dispersed through various mechanisms. Some researchers have been contacted by agencies about proposals that were previously submitted and passed by, others are responding to proposal requests as they arise. Treatment of research funds originating from ARRA will require new management and reporting practices to the federal agencies, which must then report to the public through the website, www.recovery.gov.

As of July 1, 2009, UW System is offering funds to support faculty and staff efforts in applying for grants available through the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009. The purpose of the funding is to encourage submission of grant proposals to federal agencies and can be used for release time and summer salary, grant-writing assistance, matching funds, or other special needs. The maximum award is $20,000 per proposal. There is no deadline for requests; the fund will remain in place as long as federal stimulus grant opportunities are available or the funding, which is limited, is exhausted.

This information is available via a printable document as well as via eCALS.

For more information about how ARRA relates to research at UW-Madison, please visit the RSP ARRA Information site. Check www.recovery.gov for new opportunities.

If you plan on applying for an ARRA/Stimulus opportunity or have been contracted by an agency regarding a previously submitted proposal being recommended for funding under the stimulus money, please contact Becky Bound at the CALS Research Division immediately. She can be reached at (608) 265-8443 or rbound@cals.wisc.edu. These opportunities may have limited preparation time, special submission instructions, and specific reporting requirements. The Research Division looks forward to working closely with you to make sure proposals meet all requirements and are submitted on time.

ARRA Updates

NEW Information, Opportunities, and Forms
NSF Webcast on Funding for Research Instrumentation & Infrastructure
Instructions for Using FedConnect
RSP Notice 2009-2: ARRA Funds for Research

NEW Information, Opportunities, Forms

Title	Type	Date Posted
Recovery Act Limited Competition: Building Sustainable Community-Linked Infrastructure to Enable Health Science Research	Opportunity	October 2
Recovery Act: Biological Control Agent Development Project	Opportunity	August 28
Recovery Act: NSF Science Master's Program	Opportunity	August 28
FAQs Regarding Academic Research Infrastructure - Recovery & Reinvestment Program (ARI-R²)	Information	August 14
Recovery Act: Expansion of Infrastructure for Higher Ethanol Blends	Opportunity	August 6
Recovery Act: Training Program Development for Commercial Building Technicians, Building Operators, and Energy Commissioning Agents/Auditors	Opportunity	July 7
Recovery Act: Advanced Energy Efficient Building Technologies	Opportunity	July 7
UW System offers funds to support ARRA grant applications	Information/Opportunity	July 6
Biomedical Research, Development, and Growth to Spur the Acceleration of New Technologies Pilot Program	Opportunity	June 18
Environmental Internships	Opportunity	June 18
DOE - Energy Efficient Information and Communication Technology	Opportunity	June 5
FAQs regarding Academic Research Infrastructure Program Solicitation (ARRA)	Information	June 5
Recovery Act: Solar Market Transformation	Opportunity	May 29
Recovery Act: Geothermal Technologies	Opportunity	May 29
NSF Webcast on Funding for Research Instrumentation and Infrastructure	Information	May 28
NSF - Major Research Instrumentation Program (ARRA)	Opportunity	May 19
NIH NCMHD Dissertation Research Award to Increase Diversity (R36) (ARRA)	Opportunity	May 19
NSF-Academic Research Infrastructure Program (ARRA)	Opportunity	May 18
Recovery Act: Academic Research Enhancement Award	Opportunity	May 13
NIH Enabling National Networking of Scientists and Resource Discovery (ARRA)	Opportunity	May 4
Recovery Act: Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy	Opportunity	May 1
Great Lakes Regional Center of Excellence (GLRCE) Recovery Act Supplement	Opportunity	April 24
Administrative Supplement Template for NOT-OD-09-056	Form	Updated April 15
Challenge Grant Template for RFA-OD-09-003	Form	April 7
How to handle NIH ARRA Supplements and No-cost Extensions	Information	April 3
NIH has released two new Recovery Act funding announcements	Opportunity	April 3
For those PI’s applying for an NIH Administrative Supplement	Information, Form	April 3
Important information regarding protocol/compliance on stimulus proposals: an alert from William S. Mellon, Associate Dean for Research Policy, The Graduate School	Information	April 3
ARRA Requests for Information	Information	April 3
Frequently Asked Questions provided by NSF	Information	April 3

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NSF Webcast on Funding for Research Instrumentation & Infrastructure

During the webcast, the National Science Foundation’s (NSF’s) Academic Research Infrastructure – Recovery and Reinvestment program (the ARI-R2 solicitation, NSF 09-562) and Major Research Instrumentation – Recovery and Reinvestment program (the MRI-R2 solicitation, NSF 09-561) will be discussed.

Funds for these programs were appropriated through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.

NSF's inclusion in the ARRA reflects widespread recognition that short-term and long-term investments in fundamental science and engineering research and education are important for stimulating the American economy and ensuring that the United States continues its leadership in innovation.

Together, these two solicitations are intended to strengthen the nation’s academic research capabilities by providing opportunities to develop or acquire research instrumentation (MRI-R2), and to renovate research facilities (ARI-R2).

For the Academic Research Infrastructure solicitation, the deadline for letters of intent, mandatory for those institutions wishing to submit full proposals, is July 1, 2009. The deadline for full proposals is August 24, 2009. For the Major Research Instrumentation solicitation, the deadline for full proposals is August 10, 2009. (No letter of intent is required for MRI-R2.)

Those interested in submitting proposals are encouraged to carefully review the solicitations and program websites, http://www.nsf.gov/od/oia/programs/ari/ and http://www.nsf.gov/od/oia/programs/mri/. An interactive webcast summarizing both solicitations will be held on Thursday, May 28, 2009 from 1pm – 2:45pm EDT. Those wishing to participate in the webcast should register in advance at http://www.tvworldwide.com/events/nsf/090528/ . The registration site includes an opportunity to submit, by email, questions about the ARI-R2 and MRI-R2 solicitations in advance of the webcast.

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Instructions for Using FedConnect

FedConnect is a new system that Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Interior, and others may require for submission of research proposals. This system has not yet been used by UW-Madison for proposal submission. There is a requirement that individuals, as well as institutions, register before using the system. However, the registration process is not fully functional, and individuals may not receive their passwords in a timely fashion.

For any individuals that are going to be making application under any opportunity which will need to be submitted through FedConnect, the first point of contact must be Meredith Luschen at CALS Research Division, (608) 261-1500 or mluschen@cals.wisc.edu, due to the extreme complexity of this application system.

Given those problems and the very short notice of the need to use FedConnect, RSP recommends the following process for submitting proposals to FedConnect:

Download the Adobe forms from Grants.gov
Complete the application on the Adobe forms
Attach the Adobe forms package to the WISPER record for review
Be sure to note in WISPER that this is a FedConnect submission
Process the application through your Dean’s office for routing to RSP
RSP will submit the application package to FedConnect
RSP cannot submit proposals after 4:30 p.m. We recommend the proposal reach RSP by noon the day before the deadline to allow sufficient time for transmission through any electronic submission system.

Please Note:

If RSP submits the proposal for you, there is no need for you to register in FedConnect
- The FedConnect registration process does not work well at this point
- It is faster for RSP to submit your proposal than to complete the registration process
You must include a note in the WISPER record that the submission is to FedConnect. Your Adobe forms will look identical to a grants.gov submission
Some deadlines are as late as midnight. RSP does not have staff available to submit after regular business hours.

For More Information:

See the RSP website, http://www.rsp.wisc.edu
Contact Vince Borleske, (608) 262-5469, vborleske@cals.wisc.edu, or Cheri Gest, (608) 262-4880, cgest@wisc.edu

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ARRA Funds for Research

RSP Notice 2009-2

here

April 9, 2009

TO:

FROM:

SUBJECT:

The American Recovery Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is now in place. To help stimulate the economy, UW-Madison and institutions of higher education nationwide are being asked to contribute our expertise and strong record of success in research and education. ARRA provides an infusion of funding for research at an unprecedented level. At the same time, there are clear expectations of transparency and accountability in the use of these funds.

The magnitude of funding in ARRA and the speed with which the legislation was enacted caught many Federal agencies by surprise. Much of the information concerning the ARRA implementation has yet to be announced. RSP is gathering information from many sources and providing it on our website, http://www.rsp.wisc.edu/ARRA/index.html. We will continue to update this material as soon as it becomes available.

Treatment of research funds originating from ARRA will require new management and reporting practices to the federal agencies, which must then report to the public through the website, http://www.recovery.gov. Highlighted below are some important points regarding UW - Madison’s implementation of ARRA.

New Applications and Pending Proposals:

Please identify new applications in response to solicitations for ARRA funds by entering “ARRA” and then the appropriate solicitation number in the Sponsor Program Reference field in WISPER.
For any records previously submitted but selected for funding under ARRA, please notify RSP and your Dean’s office immediately.
Please simultaneously submit all protocols to all relevant compliance offices (human subject, animal, biosafety, etc.) when you submit your application or immediately upon notification from the Sponsor that a previously submitted application will be considered for ARRA funding. The short turn-around time of applications requires protocols to be approved in a timely manner.
Ensure that you are up-to-date on all effort reporting tasks and outside activities reporting. Your departmental administrator can help you verify this status.

Requests for Supplemental Funding:

In addition to Items 1-4, also:

Consider whether a no-cost extension is necessary. Supplemental funds may be awarded to grants nearing the end date of the original award. The time period of ARRA support cannot extend beyond the award end date, so a no-cost extension may be required for additional time that extends the end date.

Note that NIH recommends that a no-cost extension already be in place before an administrative supplement request is submitted, but that is not a requirement for all administrative supplement requests.
For NIH no-cost extension requests, please note that the eRA Commons Extension functionality does not allow extensions to be reported to NIH earlier than 90 days before the current end date. Please prepare the administrative supplement with the expected extension in mind, and note those intentions in the application. Be sure to discuss your plan to execute the extension through the eRA Commons Extension feature "soon.”

Managing and Accounting for ARRA Funding:

All ARRA funding will be set up as separate Awards and Project IDs in SFS. This practice will be necessary to comply with the ARRA terms and conditions. ARRA funding cannot be comingled with other funding. All ARRA funding must be specifically identified because it is subject to special reporting conditions mandated in the Act.

» All sub-awards issued under ARRA funding also will be required to be specifically identified. A new requisition and purchase order will be need to be generated.

Guidelines require funds to be spent in a timely manner. Federal agencies have indicated that they will consider reducing or terminating project funding for those awards not spent in an appropriate period of time.

» Please work with your departmental payroll and administrative support staff to ensure ARRA funds are spent before other funds. In some cases, payroll funding will need to be changed to the new Project IDs.
» Cost transfers are not an appropriate method to expend these funds. The additional time needed to process a cost transfer could result in an incorrect expenditure level being reported to the federal agency.
» ARRA funding incorporates strict reporting requirements and deadlines. For example, NIH and others are requiring expenditure reports 10 days after each calendar quarter. RSP will work closely with PIs and departments to ensure required reports are filed in a timely manner.

In all cases, the University of Wisconsin - Madison will continue to adhere to existing policies and procedures regarding compliance. In extraordinary circumstances, exceptions may be necessary. RSP will work with the Dean’s Offices to ensure that policies are being followed.

As members of the campus research community, our office is excited about the opportunities for scientific research provided through ARRA. We look forward to working with you to submit proposals promptly, to set up awards quickly, to facilitate expenditures of ARRA funds and to report accurately to federal sponsors. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact RSP.