FAQs
sponsored research

1) I wrote a grant and the deadline is next week. Do I have to do any paperwork at the college?

Yes! All grants submitted from Fort Lewis College must go through the electronic routing and internal approval process in Cayuse 424. Cayuse 424 will route your proposal via email to your department chair, dean/VP, our office, the Provost, the VP for Finance, and the President to review and approve. Once all approvers have signed off, you are responsible to submit it to the outside funding agency for all non-Federal submissions. Federal proposals are submitted by our office via grants.gov/Cayuse 424.

2) What is an “in-kind” match?

Also known as in-kind cost sharing, these are services, goods, materials, office space, staff time, etc that are devoted to the grant project but are not paid for out of the grant. These materials or services can be given a dollar amount in a grant budget to show the institution’s commitment to the proposed project. If you are writing a non-Federal proposal and in-kind cost sharing is required, this must be noted on the Proposal Summary page in Cayuse 424.

3) What is a “cash” match?

A “cash match” is cash contributed to the project by a source other than the sponsor’s funds. FLC has a strict policy about cost sharing requirements with specific criteria about cash matching and the criteria the cash match must meet when it is a mandatory requirement of the proposal. Voluntary cash matching is not allowed. Any cash matching included in your proposal must be entered in the “Cost Sharing” section of the Summary Page in Cayuse along with source of the cash match. If you have questions about cash matching, please contact us.

4) What are “fringe benefits”?

Fringe benefits cover the cost of retirement, health insurance, dental insurance, worker’s compensation, and other things such as state and federal taxes. They are calculated as a percentage of an individual’s salary. The rate used to calculate fringe benefits changes every year. The current rate is listed on page #2 of the Project Data Sheet. In your grant budget, you must calculate fringe benefits on any portion of salary for full or part time employees paid from grant funds and include the total of salaries and benefits in the grant budget. For multi-year grants, we suggest that you increase the fringe benefit rate by a half percent each year. Fringe benefits are often confused with F&A, indirect costs, or overhead but are NOT the same thing and are calculated differently. However, together the total of all salaries, wages and fringe benefits related to faculty, staff and students forms the basis of indirect cost calculations.

5) What are “F&A” or indirect costs?

F&A or finance and administration fees are also known as “indirect costs” and sometimes “overhead.” These are a percentage of the total proposed grant budget paid to the institution to cover the invisible costs of running and housing the grant program, such as providing office space (electricity, heat, etc.), or providing financial management services (cashing the check, doing federal draw-downs, paying out funds as required, etc.). For 07/01/2023-06/30/2026, FLC has a federally negotiated rate of 30% of 'modified total direct costs'* for all grants that allow indirect costs but do not specify a rate. See the 'Forms and Resources' page for the current agreement. If the grant program does specify a rate—say, 8% of the total amount of the grant, for example—FLC follows the sponsor’s requirements. FLC always charges indirect on grants unless specifically prohibited by the sponsor and does not waive these fees. Ever. 

* Modified total direct costs, consisting of all direct salaries and wages, applicable fringe benefits, materials and supplies, services, travel and up to the first $25,000 of each subaward (regardless of the period of performance of the subawards under the award). Modified total direct costs shall exclude equipment, capital expenditures, charges for patient care, rental costs, tuition remission, scholarships and fellowships, participant support costs and the portion of each subaward in excess of $25,000.

6) Is FLC registered with Grants.gov?

Yes! Grants.gov requires that submission be done through an institution’s Sponsored Research office. All grants.gov proposals are submitted by our office via Cayuse 424. Please have your grants.gov/Cayuse 424 proposal approved and ready to submit at least three days prior to your grant deadline to be sure it moves through the federal submission process on time.

7) Yay! I’ve been awarded my grant! Now what?

Congratulations! It is hard work to get a grant funded! Now, download the Project Data Sheet. Fill it out, paying particular attention to the budget information requested on page two. Get the required signatures, including the Director of Sponsored Programs and Research, attach your award letter and provide it to the OSPR, where our Support Specialist will set up a separate account for the award from which you can draw funds to pay for your approved grant activities. PLEASE NOTE: The PDS is NOT available on Cayuse 424.

1. I’m only asking for $100, do I still have to route my proposal through Cayuse?

Yes. All requests for funds to outside funding sources regardless of the amount are grants and must be entered in Cayuse 424 and approved internally before they can be submitted to the sponsor. If you have any question about this, contact OSR for clarification.

2. How long will routing take?

Cayuse routing can take as little as a few hours or up to 5 days depending on the complexity of the proposal and whether you have entered the information the approvers need to see to be able to sign off. Our advice is to be sure your proposal is uploaded correctly into Cayuse before you initiate routing (ask OSR for help) and assume approvals will take 2-3 days.

3. Who submits the proposal once it has been approved at FLC?

Federal proposals that must be submitted to grants.gov are submitted by OSR once the PI gives us permission. A few federal proposals (NSF, for example) might be submitted via Research.gov/Fastlane rather than Cayuse (which also requires OSR to submit). All non-federal proposals (those to private foundations, State of Colorado proposals, and those to municipalities, for example) are submitted by the PI once approved at FLC.

4. Cayuse says the proposal is locked. Now what?

You can “take” the lock if you double click on the yellow lock icon. This produces a dialog box. Click “take the lock” on the dialog box and you’re in!

5. I started the routing but now I can’t go back in to make changes.

When you start routing, Cayuse automatically makes you a “read-only” viewer. This is done so that all approvers see the same application as it moves through the routing chain. Be sure you have uploaded everything correctly and entered all required information (budget, summary page, proposal narrative, budget justification, and correct routing order) before you click the box by your name to send it out for review.

6. Why do I list departments on the routing chain and not just people by name?

The Cayuse routing chain is set up by department, NOT by individual names. Using names will cause delays in routing. There are three simple steps to creating the correct routing chain. See “Step 4: Route for Approvals Picture Guide / Quick List” for more information.

7. I can’t find my Federal proposal on the Opportunities tab list. What do I do?

If the opportunity you want is not listed on the Opportunities tab list, you can search grants.gov directly for it. See “Step #1: Create A Proposal Picture Guide/Quick List” for more information.