FAQs

SAP did not know which Fund Center to use. Please ask your RAS Representative to add the appropriate Fund Center to the account.

When new accounts are set up, SAP compares the Supervisor and Profit Center information with other existing accounts. If a PI has one or more accounts in a Profit Center, but only has one Fund Center for those accounts, then that Fund Center will be added by SAP.

However, in cases where a PI has more than one Fund Center for a given Profit Center, one will need to be chosen. Spending may be problematic if the wrong fund center is chosen. Similarly, if there are no prior accounts for a PI in a Profit Center, then SAP will leave the Fund Center blank. Spending will be problematic or not authorized by SAP until this is corrected.

In either of these cases, ask your RAS Representative to revise the Fund Center to ensure that the appropriate people in your DLCI are authorized to spend. For additional information on Fund Centers and how they are assigned see the Roles Database or Roles and Authorizations on AdminConnect.

Research activities will be established in Research WBS elements (numbers 6xxxxxx and greater), and should be proposed at the current negotiated research F&A rate.

Non-research activities will be established in Fund WBS elements (numbers between 2xxxxxx and 3xxxxxxx), and should be proposed at the sponsor’s approved rate. Examples of non-research activities at MIT that receive sponsored program support include:

• Instruction
• Educational service
• Public service
• Student service
• Professional (non-research purpose) travel
• Professional (non-research purpose) conferences
• Graduate and postdoctoral fellowship awards

The data warehouse has a Brio Report which will display all cost-sharing commitments in a DLCI. 

Yes, there are often additional requirements for government contracts. Read the RFP carefully and contact your RAS administrator with questions.

Unless the sponsor guidelines mandate cost sharing, MIT policy discourages voluntary cost sharing. Refer to the Cost Sharing section for more details on cost sharing.

If MIT is responding to a competitive solicitation requiring man-hours, proposals sometimes include estimated man-hours conversion rates, with the following statement: MIT’s accounting system does not support estimating, accumulating and reporting personnel costs on a man-hour basis. Estimated man-hour conversion information is provided for sponsor proposal evaluation purposes only.  If an award is made, costs will be accumulated and reported on a man-month basis.

Funding opportunities, prize competitions, and award nominations with institutional limits are called limited solicitations. For all opportunities that limit the number of submissions/nominations, Research Development, a unit of the Office of the Vice President for Research (VPR), hosts an internal competition to select which proposal(s) will be submitted for funding and who will be nominated for prizes and awards. Announcements for internal competitions are distributed via the MIT Fund Ops listserv and posted online on the MIT Funding Opportunities webpage. The MIT Funding Opportunities page is the home of the submission portals for each internal competition as well as the home to an archive of internal competitions with passed deadlines. Please reach out to the Research Development team or your RAS CA with any questions.

Please refer to the Submission of Revised Budgets (in Negotiation section) section for a detailed explanation.

Please refer to the standard contract terms and conditions section of the website.

Please refer to the Preparing and Submitting a Proposal section to see a detailed explanation.