Office of the Provost

FAQ for Innovative Instruction Technology Grants

For important information regarding the grant application process please review the 2013 IITG RFP.

FAQ Updates (last updated 12/13/12)

Application Questions

How may I learn more about the application process?
Can multiple proposals be submitted from a campus?
Can multiple proposals be submitted from an individual?
What is the deadline for submissions?
How do I submit my application?
Is campus approval required when submitting a grant?
Is there a template for a letter of support?
Is department chair approval required when submitting a grant?
How many PIs are needed?
If we are a team applying for a grant, can/do we all have online access to the grant application?
What if I need to make corrections to my grant application?
Can I save my application during the process and return to it?

Budget Questions

Can an institution partner with a non-SUNY campus (or other entity)?
Can we work with vendors outside of New York State? International?
May I sub-contract a portion of my work to a vendor?
When do funds need to be expended by?
Do I need to include any campus overhead in my budget? (e.g., Income Fund Reimbursable (IFR))
Do I need to run this proposal through my local campus Research Foundation office?
Do I need to follow state procurement guidelines and get competitive bids for any materials supporting my proposal?
Can this grant be used to fund faculty salary recovery (course buy-out) or other types of personnel expense (e.g., student assistance)?
Can a portion of my salary or my student's salary be considered "in-kind"?
May I budget funds from this grant for Summer Salary or extra service compensation (particularly in cases where reduced course load is not an option in my department)?
Do we need to pay individuals at their state salary rate?
Do we need to calculate benefits as part of personnel expenditures?
Are there any limits on how much can be spent on equipment vs. salary?
Can these funds be used to support travel?

Administrative Questions

Are FACT2 representatives eligible to apply for a grant?
Are FACT2 representatives required to be listed as a collaborator on the grant?
I have more questions about SUNY FACT2 – How do I locate my campus representative?
What is required from me if I receive a grant?
Can I see the SUNY Learning Commons?
How must my project be represented in the Commons?
What is Foundant?
What is the process for determining grant winners?
I was working on my application when the computer crashed.  It only saved part of my application – how can I avoid this?

Application Questions

How may I learn more about the application process?

Visit http://www.suny.edu/provost/IITG.cfm for information documents and the link to the online application.

Informational webinars have been scheduled for:

Friday, Jan 18th, 11am – 12pm
Monday, Feb 11th, 2pm – 3pm

Registration information will soon be available from the SUNY Center for Professional Development.

Can multiple proposals be submitted from a campus?

Yes

Can multiple proposals be submitted from an individual?

Yes

What is the deadline for submissions?

All grant proposals must be submitted electronically no later than 5:00 p.m., Friday, March 1, 2013.

 How do I submit my application?

 First create an online account - and follow the directions. You may print the questions as a guide and create responses in a word processor. A tutorial guide to create an account may be viewed here.

Is campus approval required when submitting a grant?

Yes, you must certify in the application (or upload a letter of support) that your campus executive leadership is aware of, and supports this proposal – particularly when matching or in-kind funds are involved.

Is there a template for a letter of support?

No, but a statement example would be, “John Q. Public, (president, vice president, CIO, dean) has reviewed this proposal and endorses it as submitted, as well as agreeing to abide by the campus commitments specified in the proposal.”

Is department chair approval required when submitting a grant?

Not when submitting a grant, though your chair may wish to provide a letter of support.  It is assumed that the PI (and any co-PI's) will consult with any department(s) that may be called upon to support the proposal, including any technology support commitments. Please do not circumvent any step of your internal consultation process in order to ensure a timely contract process should you receive funding. It is anticipated that the final award contract will require signatures from the PI, department chair (or dean),  the department or campus financial officer affiliated with the account, and Chief Academic Officer (or designee, -president, vice -president, CIO, -dean).

How many PIs are needed?

There is no set number.  

If we are a team applying for a grant, can/do we all have online access to the grant application?

No, only one team member should submit the proposal. It is recommended that you print out the question guide and collaborate in advance, then “cut & paste” your agreed-upon responses into the online application.

What if I need to make corrections to my grant application?

You can save your application in "draft" form until it is ready for final submission. Be sure your application is complete before final submission. Once submitted, the application is considered complete and corrections or adjustments will not be accepted.

Can I save my application during the process and return to it?

We recommend that you download the application form, then "cut & paste" content from a word document into the system in order to maintain a local copy to ensure against any unanticipated technology failures. Your file is stored in draft form online until you submit it.

Budget Questions

(Note: the following three questions all have the same response)

Can an institution partner with a non-SUNY campus (or other entity)?

Can we work with vendors outside of New York State? International?

May I sub-contract a portion of my work to a vendor?

Yes, as long as the relationship is clearly articulated and in the best interest of the University and achieves the desired results. Any local campus policies and procedures that apply to partnerships must be followed.

When do funds need to be expended by?

June 30, 2014. No exceptions.

Do I need to include any campus overhead in my budget? (e.g., Income Fund Reimbursable (IFR))

No, this grant funding is backed by state tax dollars and is not subject to the overhead charges that are typically levied against some funding sources (e.g., fringe benefit charges, administrative overhead, maintenance/operations overhead).
 
Community colleges are governed by local county policies and employee contracts which might impose fringe benefits and account overhead charges, meaning some community colleges may have to pay fringe or account overhead on the monies. Community colleges have to follow local purchasing policies and procedures.

Do I need to run this proposal through my local campus Research Foundation office?

The Office of the Provost requires the grant application include an endorsement from either the campus president or provost. If local campus policy requires you to run the grant proposal through the local Research Foundation, please do so.

Do I need to follow state procurement guidelines and get competitive bids for any materials supporting my proposal?

This grant funding is backed by state tax dollars, and is subject to all state procurement policies and procedures in place at the local campus.

Can this grant be used to fund faculty salary recovery (course buy-out) or other types of personnel expense (e.g., student assistance)?

Yes, as long as those items are directly related to the grant, included in the grant budget, and approved as part of the award.

Can a portion of my salary or my student's salary be considered "in-kind"?

Campus resources qualify as in-kind contribution for this grant if the answer to these questions is YES:

• • Is this expense directly related to the grant award?
  • Is the campus only paying this expense because this grant award was received?
  • Is it possible to assign a value to this contribution, and will the awardee maintain records that documents this value, e.g., appointment/salary change notices, student timesheets, PO/invoice, etc.?

The following are two examples of qualifying in-kind contributions related to personnel:

1.  A full-time faculty member with a continuing appointment works on the grant. As a direct result of the grant award, the campus reduces this faculty member's workload by one-course during the Fall semester, and hires an adjunct at $2,500 to teach the course.  The $2,500 campus expense is an in-kind contribution because it is directly related to the grant and an expense that has to be paid only because the campus received the grant award.

2.  A student assistant is hired by the department and tracks the number of hours s/he spends on work directly related to the grant.  The payroll expense for the student's documented hours qualifies as an in-kind contribution.

May I budget funds from this grant for Summer Salary or extra service compensation (particularly in cases where reduced course load is not an option in my department)?

Summer salary, faculty release, and extra service is
 allowed. The reviewers will assess from the budget and justification if the expense is valid.

Do we need to pay individuals at their state salary rate?

No.

Do we need to calculate benefits as part of personnel expenditures?

No.

Are there any limits on how much can be spent on equipment vs. salary?

No, not for this round of grants.

Can these funds be used to support travel?

Yes, as long as the travel directly supports grant activity and results is an allowable expense.  Local campus policies and procedures in place for travel will apply.

Administrative Questions

Are FACT² representatives eligible to apply for a grant?

Yes

Are FACT² representatives required to be listed as a collaborator on the grant?

No

I have more questions about SUNY FACT² – How do I locate my campus representative?

Campus FACT² representatives are listed on the FACT² web site.

What is required from me if I receive a grant?

• An Award Acceptance Form will be signed between you and SUNY System Administration.
• You must identify a local campus financial point of contact who will have oversight of the account that is used to draw funds to support the grant.
• A brief, interim report is required approximately half way through the project (you will be notified well in advance), and the final report (the majority of which is anticipated to be the material shared in the SUNY Learning Commons). All projects are subject to random audits.
• You are expected to present findings at the annual SUNY CIT conference in a format of your choosing (more details will be made available when CIT 2014 enters a planning phase).
• Your project must be shared in the SUNY Learning Commons with use of a Creative Commons license. This will insure PI retention of intellectual property while co-licensing the innovation to SUNY to share in an open learning environment.
• Principle investigators or project sponsors should be reasonably accessible to colleague inquiries throughout the life of the project.
• You must plan for how to best share your innovation across SUNY through use of digital capture (e.g. scanned documents, video capture, etc.) to enable colleagues access to tools for successful replication of the innovation

The SUNY Learning Commons is wrapping up a pilot phase and anticipated to be available for IITG accounts during the Spring 2013 semester. There are many “Commons” associated with major university systems, a quick search will enable you to better understand how a Commons portal functions.

How must my project be represented in the Commons?

As described in the RFP (and expanded upon in the application), “…describe how your project outcomes will be documented and shared to enable others to replicate and/or build upon a project's success in an open education environment (e.g., use of video clips, captured presentations, related documents and assessments).”

What is Foundant?

Foundant™ is a software company that SUNY contracted with to provide online, hosted grant management services.

Grant submissions are evaluated by a peer review committee appointed by the SUNY Provost. Submissions are evaluated on a pre-determined set of criteria as laid out in the Proposal & Funding Evaluation section of the grant RFP.

I was working on my application when the computer crashed. It only saved part of my application – how can I avoid this?

Please remember to periodically scroll to the bottom of your application and save your work, also – do not open multiple browsers of Foundant at one time.

If the expanded FAQ does not meet your needs, please contact IITGrants@suny.edu and we will respond to your specific concern. We appreciate your use of this email address for all inquiries in order to track questions and concerns for future reference.