[Nhcoll-l] NSF budget category for specimen cabinets

[Yuri, Tamaki]

Hello,

I sent out a question about budgeting specimen cabinets for NSF CSBR proposals about a week ago and received 12 responses, and 11 of them indicated that they have budgeted their specimen cabinets as equipment.  

Trina Roberts at the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County kindly pointed out to me that the program solicitation actually says:

"Specialized items that are components of a large system (e.g., specimen cabinets and compactors) are considered as equipment under the CSBR program (see Infrastructure Capacity for Biology (ICB) solicitation Special Information and Supplementary Documents section for additional guidance)."  https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=505541&org=DBI&more=Y#more. 

This statement is only available when you click the hyperlink "display more information" at the bottom of the main program summary page!

The one person who budgeted cabinets as supplies seemed to experience institutional restrictions similar to ours (OSU), which defines equipment as items that cost more than $5,000.  We ended up designing the cabinets taller so that each cabinet will cost more than $5,000 on average (including trays, installation and freight) and can be categorized as equipment (capital expenditure).

I hope this will help anyone who will be in the same situation as we are.

Thank you so much for all who took the time to respond to my question and wish me luck on the proposal!!

Tamaki
--------------------------
Tamaki Yuri, Ph.D.
Curator of Tetrapod Collection
Museum of Biological Diversity
College of Arts & Sciences Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology
1315 Kinnear Rd, Columbus, OH 43212
yuri.1 at osu.edu / mbd.osu.edu 

On 7/21/20, 6:26 PM, "Nhcoll-l on behalf of Yuri, Tamaki" <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu on behalf of yuri.1 at osu.edu> wrote:

    Dear colleagues,

    We are preparing a NSF CSBR proposal and have encountered a budget question.  For those who have submitted a NSF CSBR proposal before, have you categorized specimen cabinets as equipment or as materials and supplies?  It will make a big difference to us in the total indirect costs.  I would appreciate it if you could reply to me off the list.  I can post a summary of the survey to the list if anyone is interested.

    Thank you for your help!

    Tamaki

    -----------------------
    Tamaki Yuri, Ph.D.
    Curator of Tetrapod Collection
    Museum of Biological Diversity
    The Ohio State University
    1315 Kinnear Rd, Columbus, OH 43212
    yuri.1 at osu.edu / mbd.osu.edu 


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