The general outline of a grant application seeking federal funding is:

1. Specific Aims/Objectives (1 page), including hypothesis
2. Significance
3. Intellectual Merit/Innovation
4. General Plan of work/Research plan
5. References cited
6. Budget and Budget justification; Subaward budget (if appropriate)
7. Facilities, Equipment and other Resources
8. Biographical Sketches
9. Current/Pending Support
10. Data Management Plan/ Resource Sharing Plan

• Intellectual Merit
• Broader Impact
• Data Management

• Preventing
• Common Reasons

• Steps for Successful Grant Writing

• Facilities and Administration (F&A), or indirect costs, or overhead, all mean the same thing – i.e. costs incurred for a common or joint purpose benefiting more than one cost objective.  The current F&A rate at Georgia Southern is 40% for on campus work, and 15% for work conducted off campus.
• Cost share is research effort that is spent on a project funded by an external sponsor, but not compensated monetary is called cost-share.
• Salary support, e.g., summer salary, constitutes additional research EFT. While the sum of your submitted and pending proposals can exceed 1.0 EFT, all funded and other support cannot exceed 1.0 EFT.
• In-kind cost-sharing are project costs that are covered with contributions other than cash. These can include property, depreciation of equipment, third part contributions (services, equipment, property). In-kind cost sharing has to comply with:
  • Necessary/reasonable for accomplishment of project
  • Cannot by from federal source
  • Cannot be program income
  • Must be an allowable cost
  • Must be applicable to the grant period
  • Allowable Costs

• Personnel Related Forms

• Visit Digital Commons for a listing of Research Policies for more information on intellectual property, patents, or other technology transfer issues.

• Visit the Office of Research Integrity website for information on Biosafety, IACUC, IRB, and Environmental Safety for hazardous waste.

Biosafety Levels are:

• Biosafety Level 1 – suitable for work involving agents of no known or of minimal potential hazard to laboratory personnel and the environment.
• Biosafety Level 2 – suitable for work involving agents of moderate potential hazard to personnel and the environment. Agents which may produce disease of varying degrees of severity from exposure by injection, ingestion, absorption, and inhalation, but which are contained by good laboratory techniques are included in this level. Any agent from outside Georgia which may require a state or federal permit for importation are to be contained at BSL-2 or greater.
• Biosafety Level 3 – applicable to clinical, diagnostic, teaching, and research or production facilities involving indigenous or exotic strains of indigenous agents which may cause serious or potentially lethal disease as a result of exposure by inhalation. Autoinoculation and ingestion also represent major hazards to personnel working with agents in this classification. A greater level of attention to microbiological practices, laboratory containment and safety equipment, and facilities is required.
• Biosafety Level 4 – required for work with dangerous and exotic agents, which pose a high individual risk of life-threatening disease. Because maximum containment facilities are not available on campus and due to the proximity of the Centers for Disease Control (Atlanta) which has BSL-4 laboratories, work with Biosaftey Level 4 agents is not permitted at Georgia Southern University.