Other Project Changes

Awards have very specific requirements that guide how budget and program changes are to be managed. To provide grantees with greater flexibility to manage project changes, many federal agencies have waived certain cost-related and administrative prior approval requirements and provided NIU with the ability to approve such changes. Sometimes, this waiver of approvals is informally referred to as “expanded authorities”.    

SPA will implement the change upon final internal review or upon receiving agency approval when required. Agency approval must be in writing and by an individual authorized to approve the change. Generally, these individuals hold a title such as grants specialist, grants management officer, or contract officer. Program Officers do not often have the final authority to approve program changes (though grants staff may consult with them on the reasonableness of the request.)   

Non-financial changes are handled by our SPA Award Acceptance team and will generally need routing through InfoEd. This process is referred to as the Institutional Prior Approval Systems (IPAS).

Common non-financial post-award changes include (but are not limited to):

• Advance accounts
• No cost extensions
• Change of Principal Investigator or Key Personnel specified in the award
• Significant reduction (>25%) in Key Personnel effort or absence of the PI or Key Personnel of three (3) months or more
• Change of scope
• Transfer of an award 

Common financial post-award changes include (but are not limited to):

• Rebudgeting
• Carryforward

Rebudgeting

Budget changes can occur at all stages of an award and therefore may be handled by different SPA teams. 

Pre-Award

All agency requests for budget revisions prior to the agency releasing the award are handled by our SPA Pre-Award team.  Contact your Proposal Coordinator for assistance.

These budget revisions are captured in InfoEd as a Budget Revision record and may be routed through InfoEd.  

Award Acceptance

Awards received for less than the proposed budget on record in InfoEd are handled by our SPA Award Acceptance team as part of the award acceptance process. An Award Coordinator will contact the PI to revise the budget.

In these cases, by signing the grant agreement or spending funds, NIU becomes legally obligated to carry out the full terms and conditions of the award.  This budget revision is for internal purposes to enable SPA grant account set up in PeopleSoft FMS.

Post Award

Budget changes on existing awards are handled by our SPA Post Award team. Contact your Grants and Contracts Associate for assistance.

If a rebudget requires prior agency approval, your Grants and Contracts associate will work with you to prepare the revised budget and submit it to the agency. The change will be enacted only after SPA receives written agency approval.

*Occasionally, an agency may direct a reallocation of funds within an award project budget as well. Typically, these are projects funded by the State of Illinois.

Carryforward

Carryforward refers to unobligated funds remaining at the end of any budget period, that, with the approval of the sponsor or with automatic carryover, may be carried forward to the next budget period to cover allowable costs of that budget period.

Carryforward requests are handled by our SPA Post Award team. Contact your Grants and Contracts Associate to confirm if prior agency approval is required.

If the carryforward requires prior agency approval, your Grants and Contracts Associate will work with you to prepare the carryforward request and submit it to the agency. The change will only be enacted after SPA receives written agency approval.

Sometimes, an agency will require a carryforward budget as part of a continuation proposal. In these cases, your Grants and Contracts Associate must confirm this amount prior to pre-award submission of the proposal.