Agricultural Experiment Station Capacity Grants

As part of the salary funding you receive to be a KAES (Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station) scientist, you are required to participate in a capacity project. USDA-NIFA uses these projects to review the work being accomplished by the effort (salary) they are paying for and receive reports of the projects results for their records. Although there is not sufficient funding to support all your project operating costs, your salary is still funded by AES dollars and a project is required.

• Only tenured and tenure-track faculty are required to participate. Non-tenure track are not required to participate, but can if they wish. All participants on capacity projects are required to meet the requirements of participation (i.e. annual reporting, compliance training, etc.).
• Any publications or presentations based on the work produced from these projects must recognize USDA-NIFA funding, even though the funding only provides for salary. USDA-NIFA provides this language: "This work is/was supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, [insert project type, e.g. Hatch/Evans-Allen/McIntire Stennis] project [insert accession number]"
• Leverage your capacity grant for additional competitive funding
• New AES appointees MUST be on a project sometime during their first year at K-State
• Faculty are responsible for project initiations when needed
• Faculty are responsible for timely annual reporting of results; the K-State deadline is December 31
• Faculty must notify KAES staff if their participation in a project changes
• Faculty must notify KAES staff if they are planning to leave K-State

IMPORTANT: KAES is making a concerted effort to reduce the total number of projects we are managing. Accordingly, we request you first rule out Hatch or Hatch Multistate projects in which K-State already participates BEFORE requesting involvement in a new Hatch or Hatch Multistate. A good first step is to discuss potential projects with your Department Head.

• Find a project in which KAES already participates.
  • Be sure to discuss your participation in an active project with the lead faculty member on that project. Objectives and scope have already been written and approved by USDA-NIFA, adding you to the project may require update to these.
  • A listing of all KAES projects can be found here search listing. Use the keyword search box to search project titles.
  • If KAES is already participating in a Hatch Multistate you wish to join, see the Hatch-Multistate drop down below. Multistate projects can be identified in the search list because they have a project number listed in the "MS #" column.
  • If KAES already has a Hatch project you wish to join, email Terri Fayle (tfayle@ksu.edu). Regular Hatch projects DO NOT have a number in the "MS #" column and include HA in the KSU #.
• If the above steps do not result in a reasonable project for you, review www.nimss.org for a potential Hatch Multistate project. The Associate Dean for Research must approve participation in a Multistate which KAES does not currently participate.
  
  • You do not need to login to search, just type a keyword into the initial search box on the main webpage. This keyword can be a faculty member's last name, a topic (such as beef), or a project number that someone may have suggested to you. Be sure to check the date range of the projects listed to find something current. When you View a project, click the Outline tab to review the project's objectives, then the Participants tab to see the listing of faculty already on the project (in Participants you can sort the listing by Station/Name).
  • KAES only supports Multistate Research Projects (you can only spend departmentally distributed funds or salary/FTE on these types of projects). You may be a participant in Multistate Research Coordinating Committees (CC), Development Committees (DC), and Education/Extension and Research (ERA) Committees; however, we are unable to map expenditures to these types of projects, so CC, DC, and ERA projects cannot serve as your KAES project. Research Projects do not have these additional letters and are only identified with their regional letter, for instance NC, S, W, NE. NRSP projects are also eligible to fulfill the KAES project requirement.
• The Associate Dean for Research must approve creation of a new Hatch (Kansas only) project or participation in a Multistate which KAES does not currently participate.
  • Email the Associate Dean for Research to request a new project. Include in your email why a currently active project here at K-State doesn't work for you, and, if you have chosen a Multistate from www.nimss.org, provide its project number. Also provide a brief paragraph about the work you would like to do.
  • Include in your email to the ADR other capacity projects in which you already participate and/or lead.
  • If the ADR approves participation in a Multistate, follow the Hatch-Multistate Information drop down below.
  • If the ADR approves creation of a new Hatch project, follow the NRS info for faculty drop down below.
  • Depending on your situation, the ADR may require you to participate in an already active project and not write a new one.

All expenses to multistate projects must be in line with 2 CFR 200 regulations and be directly related to the project's activities

Definitions and How to Participate (Questions? Terri Fayle, tfayle@ksu.edu)

• NIMSS (www.nimss.org) is the web location where the regional (multiple states participating) version of the project is managed. In order to officially participate in a multistate, you will need a logon to nimss.org and must process your Appendix B there first, before moving onto the second step in NRS. NIMSS can be queried regarding project details. NIMSS is separate from NRS.
• NRS (nrs.nifa.usda.gov) is where you will process the Project Initiation (proposal) for your multi-state participation as well as submit your annual results reporting.
• How to Participate:
  • Navigate to www.nimss.org and review the projects and their objectives to determine which project best fits your work. If you are uncertain which project is appropriate to join, the Associate Dean for Research might be able to help.
  • If K-State already participates in a project you would like to join, scroll down on this page to NIMSS instructions to add yourself to a multistate project and follow those steps to join.
  • If K-State does not already participate in a project you would like to join, email the ADR asking for approval to participate in the chosen project, along with a paragraph about your work and how it relates to the multistate. Also identify for the ADR the objective of the multistate you would work under. Please cc tfayle@ksu.edu on this email.
  • Users moving from another university to K-State who need to update their profile should contact Terri Fayle to have their profile updated instead of creating a new profile.
  • Follow the NIMSS instructions to add yourself to a multistate project below.

NIMSS instructions to add yourself to a multistate project (Questions? Terri Fayle, tfayle@ksu.edu)

• Use the New User link in the top right corner of www.nimss.org if you do not have a login.
• Login at www.nimss.org, use Forgot Password if needed
• Choose Participants from the left menu
• Choose Draft/Edit Participant Info
• Choose Draft New
• Complete the Appendix E
  • Choose the appropriate project number from the dropdown
  • Choose your name from the dropdown
  • Only when a project number is chosen will the Objectives show up. Select only the objectives which will relate to your research.
  • If you will be the official representative, click the box (the first K-State participant on the project will be required to be the official representative)
  • Enter your percentage Research time contribution under SY (scientist year) for assistant professor/scientist and above. Use .1 as FTE.
  • Enter your Knowledge Area, Subject of Investigation, and Field of Science codes. PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE "0" IN A FIELD. When you add a new row, please enter a KA, SOI and FOS on all rows. These codes can be looked up by clicking the link above each box. These must be completed. Each row is a complete record. You can enter multiple rows.

Allocation of Funds and Allowability (Questions? Maggie Quigley, senderm@ksu.edu or Terri Fayle, tfayle@ksu.edu)

• Allocations are being made to the departments for lead investigators for all project participants. If a lead PI's department choses to transfer dollars to a co-I's department, that is permitted.
• There will NOT be an additional travel allocation.
• The initial allocation is as follows:
  • Annual allocation of $7,500 per participant.
  • When a participant is a member of more than one multitate project, they will only receive one allocation.
  • Allocations go to the project lead's department to be used by the entire project. For instance, if a project has three faculty, two in biology and one in biochemistry, and the lead PI is in biology, all allocations will go to biology for management. If a lead PI's department chooses to transfer dollars to a Co-I's department, that is permitted.
  • Participants on the project can determine how the funds are distributed between each participant, as this does not need to be done equally. For instance, if there is a participant on the project who routinely does not contribute to the work or the annual reporting, it is possible for that participant not to receive any portion of the allocation IF the team decides it is appropriate. Teams should consider: If a participant receives funds there should be an objective within the project initiation that ties to their work, they should have that objective associated with themselves at www.nimss.org and there should be visible reporting in the annual report from that participant.
  • Allocations will only be made to projects that have been submitted to NIFA for approval by 12/1, or in other words, have a begin date prior to 12/1 of the allocating year.
  • All annual reports or results must be submitted by 12/1 in order to receive an allocation.
  • Only costs that can be 100% directly related to a multistate project can be charged to these accounts. Costs where a portion can be attributed to the multistate can have that portion charged to the multistate.
  • KAES MRF funds cannot be used for expenses related to CC, DC, and ERA projects.
  • Like competitive grants, Multistate Funds can only be spent on Active (i.e. awarded) projects. Projects are considered Active after your participation in the regional version of the project via NIMSS is approved, the project is approved by AES, and your Project Initiation has been approved by USDA-NIFA.

Annual Meeting (Questions? Maggie Quigley, senderm@ksu.edu)

• Research travel directly related to the outcomes and objectives of the multistate project is allowable.
• In no instance can funds be used for conference travel.
• For the NCAC department head groups, AES will fund the travel for the annual meetings. This amount will be in addition to the annual allocation for the projects.
• Travel to the annual meeting for research projects (does not include CC, DC, or ERA) by the faculty member identified as the KSU official representative will be expected.
• If the official representative is unable to travel, another current faculty team member can travel in their place, this does not require obtaining approval. Current faculty team members for a specific project can be identified in Cayuse or on the search page.
• If this alternative faculty team member traveling to the annual meeting is in another department, arrangements should be made for the department receiving the annual allocation to pay those travel costs.
• The annual allocation can be used to fund multiple people traveling to the annual meeting as long as they are current faculty team members, this does not require obtaining approval.
• In order for staff members other than “current faculty team members” to be reimbursed for their travel from these funds, those individuals MUST be presenting results on objectives associated with the multistate research project for the meeting being held, this does not require obtaining approval, but it does require descriptive text being added to the travel documentation for the Dean's business office approval. Having these staff members attend the annual meeting solely for the purpose of “representing” the Kansas project is not allowed.
• The Dean's business office will deny the travel payment if the travel is not one of the team members named on the project, UNLESS there is descriptive text stating name of employee traveling, who they are traveling in replacement for, and that they are specifically reporting on results obtained for objective X of project number Y.

Allocation Expenditure Period (Questions? Maggie Quigley, senderm@ksu.edu)

• Allocations are available to spend for one year between the 1^st of October and the 30^th of September.
• All funds remaining unspent at the 30th of September will be pulled back by AES. These funds are time restricted by USDA-NIFA. In October, departments will be asked to fill out an Outstanding Obligations report for all expenditures through 9/30.

Allowable Expenditures – Top 5 (Questions? Maggie Quigley, senderm@ksu.edu)

• Salaries for undergrad, grad students and researchers are allowable. Students must be performing actual research or assisting with research.
• Travel to conduct actual research is allowable. Travel costs for non-K-Staters to perform research is allowable.
• Journal article page costs are allowable.
• Consumable supplies that can be allocated 100% to the project are allowable.
• Fuel is allowable AS LONG AS the portion that is 100% used by the project is the only portion allocated to the project. For instance, you cannot charge a project for a full tank of gas if the project only used half the tank. But you can charge the project for the half tank.

Unallowable Expenditures (Questions? Maggie Quigley, senderm@ksu.edu)

• Any costs associated with CC, DC or ERA projects.
• Administrative Support Salaries are not allowable.
• Extension publications cannot be paid for from Multistate funds and are therefore unallowable.
• Equipment, costing $5,000 or more per item, has been deemed by K-State unallowable. There are many hoops regarding USDA-NIFA approval that make purchasing equipment complicated.
• Incentive payments (i.e. to participants of surveys) are not allowable.
• Periodicals are not allowable.
• Office supplies are not allowable, including toner, paper, pens, markers, etc.
• Teaching related expenses are not allowable.
• Tools, small utility tools that can be used for many different activities, are not allowable.
• Tuition is not allowable.
• Vehicle general maintenance is not allowable.
• Equipment repairs are not allowable.
• Promotional Items are not allowable.
• T-Shirts and clothing for participants and staff are not allowable unless they are for lab safety.
• Travel to conferences and meetings other than the Multi-State Annual Meeting are unallowable. Please see the Annual Meeting and Submission of Travel documents section.

Submission of Travel Documents (Questions? Maggie Quigley, senderm@ksu.edu)

• For research committee travel (projects without AC, CC, DC or ERA), all documents must specify travel is to the annual meeting and identify the Kansas project number (e.g. KS00-0018-HA).
• All documents related to research travel must identify the objective of the traveler's multistate project to which the data being collected will apply. Identify an objective as "#1" is not sufficient, identification should include the text of the objective (e.g. Objective #1 Determine the impact of recession on national gross domestic product).
• Regarding NCAC meeting travel, AES is hopeful Department Head's can and will participate in these committees and attend the annual meetings. Therefore, the Head’s actual travel costs will be paid by AES, which is separate and not included in your multistate allocation for the research committees. In situations where sending a substitute is required, this is approved by AES, with the understanding the substitute will provide a state report to the Head and assist with project reviews if needed. Departments would use their multi-state account to initially pay the traveler. Once all the travel expenses have been processed, send an email to Ag Business Office which includes total of the trip, traveler, purpose (i.e. NCAC01 annual meeting), travel dates, location, and if a substitute traveled include justification why the Head could not attend. Funds will be transferred back to your multi-state account. If the NCAC annual meeting is held directly before/after an association meeting, the airfare maybe be charged entirely to multistate, but the lodging and per diem charged to multistate should only include those days associated with the NCAC annual meeting.

Logging in to NIFA's NRS

• Before you can access NRS, NIFA requires you to have an eAuthentification account.
• Confirm whether or not you already have an eAuth account. At the eAuth website (https://www.eauth.usda.gov/eauth/b/usda/home), you can choose Manage Account or Forgot User ID to check. You are a Customer. Check both ksu.edu and k-state.edu. If you do have an eAuth account, let Terri Fayle know which email is used and stop here. She can use your current eAuth email to create a profile in NRS.
• If you do not have an eAuth account, decide which email you will be using to create the account. Consider having your Cayuse email, eAuth email and email used in capacity projects and competitive NIFA applications and systems to be all the same. If they are all the same, you can see all your projects under one login.

Steps to create an NRS account

• Navigate to nrs.nifa.usda.gov.
• Click Create Account.
• Choose Customer as your user type, then click Continue.
• You will receive a registration email, open the email and click Continue Registration.
• Enter your complete name as it appears on a government issued ID. Choose a password, then Submit.
• Click Login in to your application, login with the information you just used to create the account.
• Choose "Verify My Identity", choose the online option and complete the account profile.
• Answer the questions (this is the hard part). You are allowed to go through the questions more than once.
• After successful verification, click Continue.
• If you cannot online verify you will have to verify in person at a USDA office. The contact person in Manhattan is Kevin Religa, 785-776-7582.
• Once you see a screen similar to the below, you have successfully logged in.
• If you would like the NIFA documentation for completing the registration, contact Terri Fayle, tfayle@ksu.edu.

Drafting the Project Initiation

• Project Initiation Worksheet - helps you get the right information written in order to copy/paste into NRS.
• Initiations act as your 'proposal' that gets submitted to NIFA.
• If you will have other Kansas AES faculty joining you on this project, please include them in drafting the Project Initiation. Its important everyone's research be represented in the Initiation so their results can be reported.
• Your initiation is reviewed by AES before being submitted to NIFA, then by NIFA National Program Leaders to determine its relevance to USDA.

Annual Results Reporting

• Results Reporting Worksheet - helps you get the right information written in order to copy/paste into NRS.
• Accessing the results reporting area
  • Click on Manage on the Projects & Programs tile.
  • Find your project by typing your name in the Project Director search field. Once you see the project, click on the Title of the project to open the record.
  • Review the record you’ve opened to confirm it’s the right one. You’ll see project title, start end dates, and all the sections of the Project Initiation.
  • Once you’ve confirmed you’re on the correct record, in the top quarter of the page there is a box with drop down arrow that says “Results” – this is the reporting area.
  • Click the dropdown arrow for Results, then click Add Result.

Project Change

• Changes to projects can be made at any time. Please contact Terri Fayle and she can process the change for you.
• Its imperative to keep the Co-Project Directors updated as well as the lead Project Director.

Capacity Projects in Cayuse

All capacity projects are recorded in Cayuse. You can look up your project at any time to see your proposal and the co-investigators currently identified with your project. Cayuse is how AES obtains local approval for your project before it is submitted to NIFA.

Capacity Grant Training PDF 11-29-2018 (pdf)

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