Grant Writing Workshop NIH T90

[vimo...@umn.edu]

A trainee on an NIH T90 is requesting reimbursement for an online grant writing workshop, and I don't know if this is an allowable training related expense on a training grant.  I found this in the program announcement under Training Related Expenses: "T90 research training component: NIDCR will provide funds to help defray other research training expenses, such as health insurance, staff salaries, consultant costs, equipment, research supplies, and faculty/staff travel directly related to the research training program."  And I found this in the NIH Policy Grants Statement: "Funds are provided to defray costs such as staff salaries, consultant costs, equipment, research supplies, staff travel, trainee health insurance (self-only or family as applicable), and other expenses directly related to the training program."

The expense report preparer wrote in the justification that the grant writing workshop is an allowable training related expense.  And I can't find anything that specifically says it is not allowable, but I can't find anything concrete on the allowable side either.

Thoughts?

[David Hagen]

Hi Megan,

I would suggest taking a look at the original proposal to see what how the purpose of the training was described.  If the proposed training was very specific, such as in a research technique, then a grant writing workshop might not be an appropriate expense.  On the other hand, if it was described as being a very broad based training intended to give the trainee all of the skills they will need to be independent researchers, then a grant writing workshop would fit with the scope of the award. It would be best of all if they had included something in the proposal about teaching grant writing skills, but having spelled it out in that level of detail isn't necessary as long as it can be reasonably argued that grant writing fits within the scope of the intended training as it was described in the proposal.

David