Internal Management Memoranda

EFFECTIVE DATE: December 1, 1993

INTERNAL MANAGEMENT MEMORANDUM: 6C1-6.50-14 (Revised)

SUBJECT: IFAS; Acceptance Procedure for IFAS Sea Grant Proposals

1. The Sea Grant program is unique because the "agency", Florida Sea Grant College within the State University System (SUS), is located on the University of Florida campus. Once Sea Grant has received approved proposals (call Subgrants) from the SUS campuses and several private universities and laboratories, a composite proposal called the Master Grant is submitted by the Sea Grant College to NOAA (Dept. of Commerce) in Washington through the Office of Sea Grant (OSC). The Master Grant is then composed of subgrants from IFAS, other units of the University of Florida, and from universities across the State. The Master Grant also includes a discretionary funding component later used as "Immediate Response" grants by the Sea Grant Director (see Section 4 below).

2. The following procedure represents the annual review and acceptance process for Subgrant proposals submitted by IFAS faculty:
   1. The Principal Investigator provides a preproposal directly to the Sea Grant Director or Assistant Director describing a research topic. This proposal usually responds to an identified set of research priorities which Sea Grant is interested in funding. Preproposal communications then occur between IFAS investigators and the Sea Grant College before a full proposal is submitted for formal acceptance.

   2. The Principal Investigator prepares a full proposal, initiates a University Sponsored Projects Approval Form (available in the IFAS Sponsored Program office), and submits both with the Sea Grant forms, including a detailed budget, for review and acceptance by his or her unit administrator.

   3. After the Principal Investigator and the unit administrator have signed the University of Florida approval form the package (approval form, proposal, Sea Grant forms, budget) is forwarded to IFAS Sponsored Programs.

   4. IFAS Sponsored Programs reviews the proposal for administrative concerns and executes the proposal on behalf of IFAS. When IFAS reviews are complete, IFAS Sponsored Programs sends the proposal package to the Sea Grant Director.

   5. The Sea Grant Director submits the fully executed IFAS proposals along with all others to the Division of Sponsored Research (DSR) as a "Master Grant" proposal.

   6. The DSR reviews and accepts the Master Grant proposal and forwards the executed proposal to the Sea Grant Director.

   7. NOAA/OSG reviews the proposed Master Grant, at which time Subgrant projects are deleted or amended in concert with the Principal Investigator.

   8. The resulting "Implementation" Master Grant is prepared and forwarded directly to NOAA/OSG by the Florida Sea Grant College.

   9. To insure records are current, the Florida Sea Grant Accountant sends to IFAS Sponsored Programs the list of IFAS Subgrants within the Implementation Master Grant and provides documentation of all IFAS project changes and additions from the proposed Master Grant.

   10. When NOAA finalizes its funding decisions, (around January of each year), the Office of Sea Grant notifies the University of Florida Division of Sponsored Research of the Master Grant award.

   11. The Division prepares a Master Grant Notice of Award, itemizing the University of Florida Subgrants awarded and sends it to the Sea Grant Accountant.

   12. The Sea Grant Director sends a memorandum to all statewide Principal Investigators notifying them of their awards.

   13. The Sea Grant Accountant sends Subgrant award notices and final budgets to IFAS Sponsored Programs and IFAS Contracts and Grants Accounting with a copy of the Master Grant Award Notice.

3. The Marine Advisory Program (MAP) is a Subgrant within the Master Grant but is unique because it, too, is a composite of efforts, and it is operated and administered by IFAS Extension. The IFAS Dean for Extension, as principal investigator of the MAP, executes the procedures identified above for submitting the Subgrant proposal to the Sea Grant College for MAP funding. Immediate Response grants for MAP are processed as specified below, except communications occur between the Dean for Extension (or the MAP Coordinator) and Sea Grant.

4. Immediate Response grant requests from IFAS investigators may or may not be generated by Principal Investigators who have Subgrants. These funds are for accommodating small, rapid response needs related to Sea Grant program areas. Faculty will use the following procedure to request Immediate Response funds:
   1. The investigator contacts the Sea Grant Director or Assistant Director and presents a request for funds.

   2. The Sea Grant Director or Assistant Director gives verbal approval of the investigator's request and initiates an award form.

   3. The award form is sent by the Sea Grant Director to the investigator, and copies are sent to the Sea Grant Accountant and IFAS Sponsored Programs. The Sea Grant Accountant forwards the information to IFAS Contract and Grant Accounting.