USC Procedures for Rebudgeting Under Sponsored Awards

During the life of a sponsored project, there may arise a need to revise the approved financial plan (budget) for the project. 

Most federal agencies allow award recipients wide discretion to decide when budget revisions are necessary; however, there are certain circumstances when sponsor approval is required prior to making changes in an approved budget.    The requirements vary for non-federal sponsors, and these are governed the terms and conditions of the award. 

It is SAM’s policy that budgets should be revised only as required by the sponsor or under other compelling circumstances, including but not limited to changes that impact indirect cost recovery (e.g. changing funds allocated for equipment, tuition, participant support costs etc.)

The following actions normally require processing by your SAM administrator and prior approval of the sponsor: 

• Change in the amount of participant support costs.
• Change in the amount of approved cost sharing/matching.
• Changes to budget categories that impact indirect cost recovery.
• Change in a key person specified in the application or Federal award.
• Budget revisions that result from significant changes to the scope of the project.
• Budget revisions which result in a 25% or more reduction of effort for the principal investigator/project director (PI/PD). 
• Budget revisions which result in a 10% overall change in the budget last approved by the federal sponsor.
• The award terms and/or sponsor policy require prior approval for budget revisions.
   

Budget Revision Request Procedures

Requests for budget revisions should be initiated by the PI/PD and/or the associated departmental business administrator. All budget revision requests should be submitted as a Post-Award Action in USCeRA.  The request must include a summary of changes by budget categories with a justification for the proposed revision. 

Your SAM administrator will review the request for compliance with the sponsor’s policies and the specific terms of the award.  If warranted, a request for approval will be submitted to the sponsor for approval.  Upon receipt of approval, SAM will authorize the budget revision. 

Budget revision requests will be denied if the requested revision is not in compliance with university policy, South Carolina state law, federal funding policy (2 CFR 200) and funding agency policy and regulations. 

 

Changes to Project Scope or Program Plans

Award recipients are required to report deviations from project scope or objective, including the associated impacts on budget, and request prior approval from the awarding agency.

• Change in the scope or the objective of the project or program (even if there is no associated budget revision requiring prior written approval)
• Change in a key person specified in the application or the Federal award.
• The disengagement from the project for more than three months, or a 25 percent reduction in time devoted to the project, by the approved project director or principal investigator.
• Unless described in the application and funded in the approved Federal awards, the subawarding, transferring or contracting out of any work under a Federal award.