Uniform Guidance

The U.S. government requires recipients of federal grants, such as Indiana University, to adhere to specific terms and conditions. The overarching requirement IU must follow is the Office of Management and Budget’s Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards, 2 CFR Part 200, referred to as Uniform Guidance.

Uniform Guidance is a government-wide framework for grants management and provides an authoritative set of rules and requirements for federal awards. It is the foundation on which federal agencies develop their policies for grants and cooperative agreements.

Each of the federal agencies is responsible for incorporating Uniform Guidance into their grant terms and conditions. Many of the agencies have partnered with the Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP) to develop standard Research Terms and Conditions (RTC), which simplify implementation of the Uniform Guidance for research and research-related awards made by these agencies:

• DHS U.S. Department of Homeland Security
• DOC U.S. Department of Commerce
• DOE U.S. Department of Energy
• DOT/FAA U.S. Department of Transportation/Federal Aviation Administration
• EPA U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• NIH National Institutes of Health
• NSF National Science Foundation
• USDA/NIFA U.S. Department of Agriculture/National Institute of Food and Agriculture

RTC agency implementation statements

Federal agencies working to implement the RTC have published schedules (Research Terms and Conditions Agency Implementation Statements) that are updated periodically.

Approval matrix

Appendix A Prior Approval Matrix is an easy-to-view comprehensive guide to agency implementation of the prior approval requirements for Uniform Guidance.

Award types

Uniform Guidance details its applicability to different types of award types (e.g. grants, cooperative agreements, contracts).

Subaward requirements

• Requirements for pass-through entities
• Subawards are to include F&A costs at a subrecipient’s federally negotiated rate if the subrecipient has a negotiated rate established. Otherwise a de minimis rate of 10% of modified total direct costs is to be used unless an alternate rate is specified in the funding agency guidelines or funding opportunity announcement.