TO           :                Faculty, Deans and Directors

FROM     :                Vice Chancellor for Administrative Services, Pat Pitney

                               Vice Chancellor for Research, Dr. Buck Sharpton

Subject :                American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 2009 (ARRA) (a.k.a. Stimulus Funds)

DATE      :               April 22, 2009

Since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, 2009, was signed into law, the staff of the Administrative Services’ financial services and grants and contracts offices have been working towards setting into place proper and sufficient documentation, systems, and planning to provide adequate support to the university constituents who will receive funding via ARRA. Detailed information is provided to you in Attachment A, Notice to Principal Investigators, so that you will become fully informed about the special reporting requirements required of the federal awarding agencies, and which we fully expect to be imposed upon us with the advent of awards (Section 1512, ARRA).

Both the Office of Sponsored Programs, during the proposal phase, and the Office of Grants and Contracts Administration, during the post-award compliance and reporting phase, will have in place sufficient support to ensure that you are able to complete your proposed research without the additional burden that these reporting elements will impose. Special report coordinators will be appointed to work one-on-one with you during the life of your award to assist in compilation of the data points, keep you up to date on your financial progress on a frequent and regular basis, and to ensure that the required deadlines for reporting submission at met.

With heightened reporting requirements will come more finite oversight by our federal sponsors. It is in your, and our, best interest to utilize all the support systems that will be provided to you, and to ensure that your reporting deadlines are met. The Vice Chancellor for Research and I are committed to a successful outcome for UAF, and for your research endeavors.  

Sources:  

ARRA:

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h1enr.txt.pdf

Reporting requirements for each award made that utilizes ARRA funding will include, at a minimum, the following data elements. As a principal investigator, prior to submitting a proposal to an agency who has advertised ARRA funds availability, you should know that these data elements will be required of you no later than 10 days after each calendar quarter. The university is prepared to provide discrete assistance to enable these reporting elements to be met, and you will be given 1:1 counseling and guidance should you receive an award designated as ARRA funding. Here follows an extrapolation of Sec. 1512 of the Act:

“Not later than 10 days after the end of each calendar quarter, each recipient that received recovery funds from a Federal agency shall submit a report to that agency that contains—

(1) the total amount of recovery funds received from that agency;

(2) the amount of recovery funds received that were expended or obligated to projects or activities; and

(3) a detailed list of all projects or activities for which recovery funds were expended or obligated, including—

(A) the name of the project or activity;

(B) a description of the project or activity;

(C) an evaluation of the completion status of the project or activity;

  (D) an estimate of the number of jobs created and

the number of jobs retained by the project or activity;

and

(E) for infrastructure investments made by State and local governments, the purpose, total cost, and rationale of the agency for funding the infrastructure investment with funds made available under this Act, and name of the person to contact at the agency if there are concerns with the infrastructure investment.

(4) Detailed information on any subcontracts or subgrants awarded by the recipient to include the data elements required to comply with the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (Public Law 109–282), allowing aggregate reporting on awards below $25,000 or to individuals, as prescribed by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.”

The university is prepared to provide discrete assistance to enable the required reporting elements to be met, and researchers will be given direct counseling and guidance should they receive an award designated as ARRA funding. Two ARRA report coordinator positions have been created and these will work one-on-one with PIs during the life of the ARRA award to compile the accountability data points, keep up-to-date financial information, watch the progress timelines, and ensure all required deadlines are known and met.

Codes to be used on FRAPROP --  as PROPOSAL-TYPE follows:
  X1 - ARRA New Competitive
   X2 - ARRA New Non-Competitive
  X3 - ARRA Pre-proposal
  X4- ARRA -Renewal Competitive
  X5 - ARRA Renewal Non-Competitive
  X6- ARRA Revision

Also on USER Defined table:
  ARRA - Amer Recovery & Reinvestment Act - (Proposal)

Codes to be used on FRAGRNT   --   as GRANT TYPE follows:
  AX-Cooperative Agreement ARRA
  CX-Contract ARRA
  GX - Grant ARRA
  OX - Other ARRA

Also on USER Defined table:
  ARRA - Amer Recovery & Reinvestment Act - (Grant)

Account code 9356- to record ARRA funds received directly from the federal government

Account code 9332- to record ARRA funds passed through the State of Alaska

Account code 9490- to record ARRA funds passed through by non-State of Alaska entities

Fund Types:

AR, FR, JR, or SR= Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, and Statewide- State RSAs or other non-stimulus restricted funds that are designates as using capital budget authority.

AA, FA, JA, or SA= Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, and Statewide-ARRA funds of an operating nature, i.e. not capital, tha tuse capital budget authority.