SPA Policy: Budget Requirements
Multiple Principal Investigator Proposals & Awards
(effective date 29 January 2021, revised date 06 June 2023)
Sponsored Programs Administration is responsible for the administration of internal budget requirements as determined by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and by compliance requirements. UNMC has a duty to promote the understanding of and continued learning about budgeting for science across all UNMC researchers, especially early stage investigators. The internal management of Multi-Principal Investigator (MPI) proposals and awards has evolved over time, and the requirements set forth below rectify operational issues experienced by the institution with regard to MPI proposals and awards. This SPA Procedure sets forth current requirements.
Requirement: All MPI proposals/awards require a separate Child Budget for each MPI, for both modular and non-modular proposals/awards.
- Benefits of the Requirement:
- Reporting:
- This requirement supports the accurate reporting of research output of each unit, as well as the research proposal and funding activity of each investigator (even when the MPIs are in the same department).
- The increased accuracy of the reports will feed into the metrics for the space assigned to each investigator.
- SPA now has the ability to code MPIs as such in the institutional data.
- Conflict Resolution: This requirement supports the efficient resolution of conflicts between the MPIs when they arise.
- Reporting:
- All MPI Proposals/Awards (Modular and R&R): SPA requires Child Budgets (and thus Child Accounts, upon award) for each MPI.
- Modular Budgets: While many assume that most MPI proposals/awards are non-modular (aka, R&R), such an assumption has not necessarily been the case. Accordingly, the requirement for Child Budgets extends to Modular Budget scenarios.
- In addition, the requirement supports confirmation by both the department/unit and SPA that the budget can be properly accomplished within a modular proposal submission (rather than a non-modular or R&R proposal submission).
- Front-End of Lifecycle: New MPI proposals/awards will be required to submit a detailed budget for each MPI at proposal submission to allow the the capture of granular data (each individual investigator) starting at proposal.
- Number of Child Budgets & Alignment with Technical SOW:
- At proposal, each MPI will build a separate budget based on the effort and work to be conducted under the technical oversight of the MPI in question.
- In other words, the separate budgets should align with the technical scope of work allotted to each MPI.
- For example, SPA will no longer accept a straight ‘50/50 split’ of the total MPI proposal/award amount across two MPIs.
- Upon award, SPA will create a Parent PID record for the award itself and the appropriate number of Child PID records. A Child PID record is now required for each UNMC PI.
- UPDATED 06JUN23: A Child PID record is suggested but no longer required for any non-UNMC MPI to be funded by an outgoing subaward.
- At proposal, each MPI will build a separate budget based on the effort and work to be conducted under the technical oversight of the MPI in question.
- Modular Budgets: While many assume that most MPI proposals/awards are non-modular (aka, R&R), such an assumption has not necessarily been the case. Accordingly, the requirement for Child Budgets extends to Modular Budget scenarios.