All, I want to reinforce two points from Mike Laskofski’s email below:

 

  1. You charge time to a sponsored project commensurate with the time you actually work on it.  You cannot work on one sponsored project but charge that time to another sponsored project. This is the most fundamental rule for proper charging. Don’t ever break it.
  2. Charging time to a sponsored project in order to write a proposal is almost never allowed.

 

Mistakes happen. When they are discovered, they need to be promptly corrected, but please be mindful that it is not only a violation of Mason rules to intentionally charge incorrectly, it is illegal. Reach out to Terri Mancini if you have any questions about charging or if you encounter any unusual charging situation. She can help you out.

 

Regards.

 

Dr. Art Pyster

Associate Dean for Research and Professor

Volgenau School of Engineering

George Mason University

703-717-8110

[log in to unmask] 

 

 

From: OSP-AWARDS-L <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Michael Laskofski <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: Michael Laskofski <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tuesday, September 15, 2020 at 1:35 PM
To: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Charging Faculty Salaries to Sponsored Projects

 

Dear Mason Researchers - As we start a new academic year, I wanted to remind you to work with your College/School administration to ensure the salaries charged to your sponsored awards accurately reflects effort performed.  In a research environment, it's understood that faculty and staff are often shifting effort across multiple projects so it's necessary to process adjustments in timely manner. Guidelines for charging faculty salary to sponsored projects can be found at 

 

https://osp.gmu.edu/guidelines-for-charging-faculty-salary-to-sponsored-projects/

 

One area of focus by federal auditors is to make sure that time spent writing proposals is not charged to current awards.  Please find a description of a recent $10M audit settlement at Scripps Research Institute below. 

 

https://timesofsandiego.com/tech/2020/09/11/scripps-research-institute-to-pay-10m-over-improper-use-of-nih-grants/amp/

 

Your College/School administration and OSP are available to assist if you have any questions.  

 

Best Regards,


Mike Laskofski

Associate VP, Research Services

George Mason University