FAQs

Yes. a Sponsored Account (often referred to as “guest account”) is an MIT Kerberos account held by an individual who is not a current MIT faculty member, student, or employee. This may include contract employees/contingent labor, or research collaborators with no direct connection to MIT.

Sponsored Accounts can be used for:

• Getting access to MIT web sites such as Atlas for required training via the Learning Center.
• Access to download MIT licensed software (note: this may require additional steps to confirm the affiliate is approved for access).
• Use general access MIT computing resources such as Athena Clusters.
• Inclusion in a Kuali Coeus research proposal. For questions regarding if or when it is needed, please contact ra-help@mit.edu.
• Any scenario where a user requires access to MIT electronic resources but otherwise has no formal association with the Institute.

How does one request a Sponsored Account?

Complete the online request form on the Information Services & Technology (IS&T) site. Once a sponsor completes the request form, a system-generated email is generated and sent directly to the sponsoree/guest. The email will contain their new MIT ID number and instructions for registering for a Kerberos ID, which is typically the prefix in an MIT email address, before the @mit.edu.

Postdoctoral fellow appointments, as referred to in 5.3.3 of MIT Policies and Procedures, are not appropriate costs for organized research activities (research project WBS) of the Institute. The primary purpose of the postdoctoral fellow appointment is the development of the individual and not the advancement of a research project. See Policy reference below.

Non-federal awards in particular could mention the term Fellow in the context of recruiting postdoctoral level staff to work in their research programs. When we do have major agreements where the sponsor is supporting both an organized research program and a fellowship award program (two distinct purposes), RAS creates a research WBS for the organized research program and a fellowship WBS for the fellowship award program.

Please note, however, that where grants are made for the primary purpose of postdoctoral research training (e.g. NIH T32 training grants), consistent with A-21, the grant is established in an organized research account and postdoctoral fellow appointments are allowable charges to the research account.

MIT Policies and Procedures | 5.3 Academic Research Staff Appointments

Yes. With the designation of a discretionary source of back-up funding, the DLC may authorize the RAS to create a new WBS element in Pending Status (not billable to sponsor). Under such circumstances, the DLC assumes all of the financial risk associated with the possible failure of MIT to negotiate or receive an acceptable, fully executed award from the sponsor. The DLC must submit in writing the request for a cost objective in Pending Status; the request must be endorsed by an individual authorized to commit the source of back-up funding and by the DLC administering the pending WBS element.

No. As of 2013, the NSF has specified that only federally negotiated indirect cost rates are allowable on NSF awards. MIT does not have a federally negotiated F&A rate for non-research activities. However, federal regulations allow us to charge a de minimis F&A rate of 10% MTDC on non-research activity funded by Federal awards, provided we do so consistently. This is the rate that should be proposed and will be charged. DLCs are not required to fund underrecoveries of fund overhead associated with awards that receive the de minimis rate. 

NSF response:  Please see question #5 in this NSF document: Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Current and Pending Support June 28, 2021

This will address your questions. The text of the answer to question 5 is included below.

"Is mentoring of a trainee an example of a time commitment that must be reported in current and pending support? There is a difference between a time commitment and an activity that takes time. Should the latter be reported in current and pending support?

An individual need not identify any mentoring activities in their current and pending support submission that take place as part of their regular appointment at the proposing organization. If an individual, however, receives in-kind support either directly or through their organization from an external source to support mentoring of undergraduate or graduate students, that in-kind support, including the time associated with such mentoring, should be identified in the individual’s current and pending support submission."

Yes, the new CITI training on COI will need to be completed.

Additionally, at time of award, a new COI disclosure will be required as part of the annual COI disclosure, for yearly continuations, Renewals and New awards. The Significant Financial Interest (SFI) threshold has been lowered so will need to be done under the new regulations. For more information go to http://coi.mit.edu.

No. It is not required that the training be completed at that time. The MIT plan for training requires that training be completed within 60 days of their salary being charged to the account. RAS strongly recommends that the training be completed within 30 days.

Yes, use:

• Up to 66 percent of the MIT-provided tuition subsidy for Graduate Research Assistants
• Equipment
• Other expense categories
• Faculty academic year (AY) effort greater than 10 percent, Employee Benefits, F&A

RAS has developed some basic information on each of the major sponsors. Please refer to this section.

See pages 6-13 of the Cost Sharing Primer to determine how cost-sharing should be documented and tracked.