Tips: April 2, 2018

SPARCS Tips

The following are this week's tips on using SPARCS - 

• Updating Pass-Through Submissions - As many of you know, a pass-through submission is a submission that is made to one sponsor who will ultimately be submitting to another sponsor (example: CMU submits to the University of Pittsburgh who is submitting to the National Institutes of Health). There have been situations when once the proposal has been submitted to the direct sponsor (University of Pittsburgh in this example) that the submission details end up changing between receipt by the direct sponsor and the submission to the prime sponsor (National Institutes of Health).
  • What to do: If this is a situation you encounter, use the Email Specialist activity to send an email to the assigned OSP Specialist. Be sure to include in the email the details of the changes, which may include items such as: Title change, budget increase/decrease, compliance items, among others. Please note that the SPARCS funding proposal will be treated the same as if it has been sent directly to the prime sponsor, therefore NO changes will be made to the SPARCS record. The updated information will be captured during the award process.
• Cost Sharing - As we mentioned in the Week 11 edition of the SPARCS Weekly Tips, SPARCS terminology isn't always the CMU (or common) terminology. Generally there are three cost-sharing categories: Cost-Sharing, Matching Funds, In-Kind. In common use, Cost-Sharing and Matching Funds are typically used interchangeably. However, in SPARCS each of these three categories need to be represented in specific ways. Initially, all three of these will be identified as Cost Sharing. You will then need to further identify the type of cost share commitment.
  • Cost Share: These contributions should represent costs that will be covered internally by CMU funds (gifts, discretionary, etc.). These funds require that a detailed Cost Share budget be created within the same funding proposal. See the Cost Share QuickStart Guide on how to enter these funds.
  • Matching Funds: These funds are being provided by an external sponsor in the form of cash (grant award). These funds should be entered into a separate new SPARCS funding proposal. The OSP Specialist will be informed of the relationship between the two SPARCS funding proposals. This additional SPARCS funding proposal can be created either at the time of submission or the time of award.
  • In-Kind Contribution: The value of these contributions should be specified in a letter from the organization providing the resources. The letter of commitment should be uploaded to the funding proposal. The source and value of this contribution should also be identified within the SmartForms.

UPCOMING improvements to SPARCS:

• COST SHARING: In a future patch to the SPARCS system, the cost share details (mentioned above) will be consolidated to the Commitment of Additional Resources SmartForm. In the sponsor budget SmartForms, you will only need to identify whether or not a cost share budget needs to be added to the budgets.