GAANN Handbook - Department of Biology

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who have demonstrated a high degree of financial need and are providing each fellow with a consistentlevel of funding not to exceed five years.Are GAANN Stipends Taxable?Fellows with questions about how their fellowship will affect their tax documents should contact the IRSor check their web site at: http://www.irs.gov. GAANN program staff does not have training in orknowledge of tax regulations regarding fellowships and will not be able to assist you.Administrative NoticesPR Award NumberEach application submitted for funding is assigned an eleven digit PR award number (i.e. P200A120045).Project Directors or other key personnel should reference this number when contacting the program officevia email, correspondence, or by phone. This number assists us with quickly accessing your grant awardinformation in our database to address any questions you may have concerning your grant.Time ExtensionsYou must notify us via email should you need a no-cost time extensions to complete grant activities.Notification must be submitted up to 45 days prior to the end of the three-year award so that we mayprocess your request in a timely manner. Under certain conditions, you may request a second extension,but this must be authorized by GAANN program staff. Your time extension request should include thefollowing:8(1) the PR number;(2) the extension dates;(3) the amount you estimate to spend during the extended period, and(4) the reason for the extension.Balance CarryoversBalances will automatically carry over to the next budget period. GAANN APRs require grantees toprovide a plan for using large unexpended balances prior to being awarded continuation funding. Thosegrantees that do not provide a detailed plan could experience a reduction or elimination in funding in thethird and final year of the grant award.Replacing a Project DirectorIf a new project director has been assigned to the grant, please send an email to the program office tonotify GAANN staff of this change. Please include an up-to-date CV for the new project director in youremail and include all contact information such as your address, phone number, fax number, and email.We are not able to process this change unless you submit all of this information.Evaluation and Reporting: Conditions and RestrictionsRecords and ReportsAn institution of higher education that receives a grant shall provide to the Secretary, prior to the receiptof grant funds for disbursement to a fellow, a certification that the fellow is enrolled in, is makingsatisfactory progress in, and is devoting essentially full time to study in the academic field for which thegrant was made.An institution of higher education that receives a grant shall keep records necessary to establish:(1) That each student receiving a fellowship satisfies the eligibility requirements in CFR 648.40;
(2) The time and amount of all disbursements and return of stipend payments;(3) The appropriate use of the institutional payment, and(4) That assurances, policies, and procedures provided in its application have been satisfied.Reporting RequirementsThe GAANN program requires the submission of the Annual Performance Report (APR) and the SF 425Federal Financial Report by April of each year. Failure to submit these reports before the requireddeadline may jeopardize future funding. The Final Performance Report (FPR) and the SF 425 report forexpired projects must be submitted 90 days after the end of the final budget period. Prior to submittingthese reports, you will receive a letter containing the web address with instructions for completing thereports online. The SF 425 form should be submitted via fax or scanned and submitted to the programoffice via email. Submission of these reports is required under the Education Department GeneralAdministrative Regulations (EDGAR) volume 34 CFR 74.51, 75.590, 75.20, and 75.730-732.The APR requests information about whether the student is making satisfactory academic progresscollects financial data about the fellows’ level of financial need to ascertain if financial need has beenconducted, and the amount of carryover funds for each grant award. The SF 425 form provides detailsrelated to the time and amount of all disbursements, the stipend award, the 25% matching requirement,and the institutional payment. Coordinate with the appropriate office at your institution to ensure thataccurate financial data is reported on the SF 425 form. This form can be accessed athttp://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/grants/standard_forms/ff_report.pdf. The information provided in boththe APR and SF 425 form is crucial in processing grant funds for the next budget period.Please be aware that after your grant expires, you will be required to submit a supplement to the finalperformance report two years after the expiration of your GANNN grant. This supplement to the finalperformance report will require you to provide data on the academic and employment status for allfellows that were awarded under this grant.Performance MeasuresThe GAANN program is held to Congressional oversight standards for the purpose of monitoring theefficiency and effectiveness of this program. Under the Government Performance and Results Act(GPRA), three measures and one efficiency measure have been developed for evaluating the overalleffectiveness of the GAANN program:(1) The percentage of GAANN Fellows completing the terminal degree in the designated areasof national need;(2) The percentage of GAANN Fellows from traditionally underrepresented groups enrolled ina terminal degree program in the designated areas of national need; and(3) The median time to completion of Master's and Doctorate degrees for GAANN students.The GAANN efficiency measure is the Federal cost per successful fellow. Successful GAANN fellowscan be defined as those students who have obtained either a Ph.D., a masters degree, or have passedpreliminary examinations.Data collected from the performance reports will be used to measure how successful the program is inmeeting these GPRA requirements. Please keep these measures in mind as you select fellows and pursueyour GAANN projects.9
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GAANN Handbook - Department of Biology

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