Glossary

This A to Z glossary contains common research administration terminology, including terms and phrases specific to CU��Boulder and the University of babyֱ��app system.

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Terms	Definitions
1/6th Rule	Board of Regents Policy that permits babyֱ��app consulting work outside the University as long as it does not interfere with teaching and other University commitments, normally not more than 1/6 of their time during any academic period
1800 Grant Street	Location in downtown Denver where University offices are located, ie, President's Office, Payroll and Employee Services, Office of University Controller, Office of Policy and Efficiency, Board of Regents, Internal Audit, University Systems Office, etc.
A-21	Office of Management & Budget (OMB) Circular A-21 -- Cost Principles for Educational Institutions�� (superseded by CFR Title 2, Part 200)
A-110	Office of Management & Budget (OMB) Circular A-110 -- Uniform Administrative Requirements for Grants and Agreements With Institutions of Higher Education, Hospitals, and Other Non-Profit Organizations�� (superseded by CFR Title 2, Part 200)
A-122	Office of Management & Budget (OMB) Circular A-122 -- Cost Principles for Nonprofit Organizations (superseded by CFR Title 2, Part 200)
A-133	Office of Management & Budget (OMB) Circular A-133 -- Audits of States, Local Governments, and Non-Profit Organizations (superseded by CFR Title 2, Part 200 Sub part F, see “Single Audit” below)
AAALAC	American Association of Animal Laboratory Accreditation Council
AAAS	American Association for the Advancement of Science
AAMC	Association of American Medical Colleges
AAU	Association of American Universities
ABRF	Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities
ACO	Administrative Contracting Officer
Account Code	a/c. ��A ChartField used to identify the nature and financial type of a financial transaction
ACM$	National Science Foundation’s system for awardees to manage award payment and post-award financial processes
ADA	Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
AFAA	Air Force Audit Agency
AFARS	Army Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement��
AFOSR	Air Force Office of Scientific Research
AFRL	Air Force Research Laboratory
AHRQ	Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Allocable	A cost is allocable to a particular award or other cost objective if the goods or services involved are chargeable or assignable to that award or cost objective in accordance with relative benefits received. Able to assign assigning a cost, or a group of costs, to one or more cost objective(s), in reasonable proportion to the benefit provided or other equitable relationship.
Allowable	A cost that is necessary, reasonable and allocable to sponsored agreements under the principles and methods provided for sponsored projects
ALN	Assistance Listing Number – five-digit number assigned in the awarding document for all federal assistance award mechanisms, including federal grants and cooperative agreements (formerly CFDA)
AMC	Anschutz Medical Campus
Amendment	Same as modification
ANPRM	Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
AOR	Authorized Official Representative
AP	Accounts Payable
APL	Applied Physics Laboratory
APPE	Association of Practical & Professional Ethics
APS	Administrative Policy Statement -- policy statements issued by the System Office and are applicable to all University campuses
AR	Accounts Receivable
ARL	Army Research Lab
ARO	Army Research Office
ARDA	Advanced Research & Development Activity
ARPA	Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E, ARPA-H, DARPA)
ASAP	Department of Treasury's Automated Standard Application for Payment system which allows web based funds withdrawal from grant accounts
ATP	Advanced Technology Program
At-Risk Extension	A type of extension that may be requested during the life of an award when a PI anticipates a sponsor will provide official documentation of a new end date, with or without additional funding
Audit	An inspection of accounting records and procedures by a trained accountant for the purpose of verifying the accuracy and completeness of the records, and may also include examination of compliance with applicable terms, laws, and regulations
Award	Funds that have been obligated by a funding agency for a particular project; an award may have multiple project numbers
Award Lifecycle	Also known as Lifecycle of an Award (LOA). This is the entire process of an award – starting from proposal development and ending with award closeout. There are two major stages: pre-award and post-award.
AWOF or AWF	Agreement Without Funds -- a non-monetary service or research contract, under the authority of the Office of Contracts and Grants, between CU and another external entity or entities
AY	Academic Year
B2B	Business to Business
BA	Business Analyst
BAA	Broad Agency Announcement
BLM	Bureau of Land Management
BPN	Business Partner Network
BPO	Blanket Purchase Order (replaced Standing Purchase Order [SPO] effective October 17, 2024) serves as the payment mechanism for a subagreement. See PSC web site for .��
Budget	A detailed statement outlining estimated project costs to support work under a sponsored project
Budget Deviation	Significant change from the sponsor-approved budget which may or may not require OCG or CCO approval (contact your Grant Officer or Area Accountant)
Budget Period	The interval of time, typically twelve months, when the project period is divided for budgetary and funding purposes
Burn Rate	The rate at which the budget is being spent
Capital Expenditure	Expenditure on an asset costing $5,000 or more that has a life of more than one year, used interchangeably with fixed asset or equipment. Individual sponsors may have different dollar limitations defining "capital equipment".
Carry Forward / Carry Over	The process by which unobligated funds remaining at the end of a budget period may be carried forward (carried over) to another budget period. Some awards require sponsor approval for carry forwards.
CAS��	Federally mandated Cost Accounting Standards intended to ensure uniformity in budgeting and spending funds
CAS 501	Cost Accounting Standards 501 -- Consistency in estimating, accumulating and reporting costs by educational institutions��
CAS 502	Cost Accounting Standards 502 -- Consistency in allocating costs incurred for the same purpose by educational institutions��
CAS 505	Cost Accounting Standards 505 -- Unallowable costs must be identified and excluded from all claims for reimbursement
CAS 506	Cost Accounting Standards 506 -- Institutions must consistently use the same cost accounting period for estimating, accumulating, and reporting costs
CAS Exceptions (3 criteria)	Contracts & Subcontracts exempt from all CAS requirements are those whose work will be executed and performed entirely outside the United States, its territories, and its possessions
CASB	Cost Accounting Standards Board
CBD	Commerce Business Daily
CBO	Congressional Budget Office
CCH	Commerce Clearing House
CCO	Campus Controller's Office
CCR	Central Contractor Registration
CFDA#	Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance – former unique number assigned to federal assistance programs (superseded by ALN in 2018)
CFO	Chief Financial Officer
CFR	Code of Federal Regulations -- the codification of the general and permanent rules and regulations (sometimes called administrative law) published in the Federal Register by the executive departments and agencies of the federal government of the United States
CFR Title 2, Part 200 (2 CFR 200)	Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards -- supersedes OMB Circulars A-21, A-110 and A-133 and became effective for universities on 12/26/14
CFS	Committee on Fundamental Science
Chart of Accounts	COA -- a list of accounts in the general ledger that are systematically classified by title & number
CICA	Competition in Contracting Act
CIW	Central Information Warehouse, Data tables from PeopleSoft Finance and HR modules maintained on-line and available for writing BrioQuery or Access reports.��
Classified Salary	Salaries of administrative and clerical staff that should normally be treated as F&A costs. Direct charging of these costs may be appropriate where a major project or activity explicitly budgets for administrative or clerical services, and individuals involved can be specifically identified with the project or activity. "Major project" is defined as a project requiring an extensive amount of administrative or clerical support, which is significantly greater than the routine level of such services provided by academic departments.
CLIN	Contract Line Item Number
Close Out	Procedures used after project termination to ensure all required paperwork, reports, and financial clean-up has occurred to submit required paperwork to sponsors and retire the project in PeopleSoft
CMIA	Cash Management Improvement Act
CMMC	Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification – DOD program to enforce protection of sensitive unclassified information that is shared by the Department with its contractors and subcontractors
CMP	Conflict Management Plan
CNO	Chief Naval Operations
CO	Contracting Officer
Co-PI/Co-I	Co-Principal Investigator/Co-Investigator
COGNOS Reporting Tool	Systems tool used to generate m-fin financial reports from PeopleSoft
COGR	Council on Government Relations
COI	Conflict of Interest
Concur	System operated and maintained by PSC that supports University travel (Concur Travel) and is the mechanism by which PCard transactions, employee reimbursements, and travel card expenditures are allocated to the appropriate SpeedType (Concur Expense)
Confidential Information (CU classification)	Includes data elements usually not disclosed to the public but are less sensitive than highly confidential data. If a legally required and applicable babyֱ��app Open Records Act (CORA) request is submitted, these records may be released. See additional information regarding CU’s .
Consistency	The principle of applying same methodology to similar transactions, events, or circumstances
Contract	A mechanism for procurement of a product or service with specific obligations for both sponsor and recipient. Typically, a research topic and the methods for conducting the research are specified in detail by the sponsor.
Cooperative Agreement	An award similar to a grant, but in which the sponsor's staff may be actively involved in proposal preparation and anticipate having substantial involvement in research activities once the award has been made
Corporate Travel Card	VISA card used by employees for University-related travel expenses; it provides State travelers with insurance coverage, and is required for expenses related to the use and fueling of rental vehicles, lodging, airline tickets and other common carrier tickets (if not purchased through an approved travel agency), and international travel expenses.
COS	Committee on Science of the National Science and Technology Council
COSEPUP	Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy
Cost Accounting Standards	(CAS) Federally mandated accounting standards intended to ensure uniformity in budgeting and spending funds
Cost Principles	The treatment of costs in accordance with Uniform Guidance, campus and university policies and procedures. The specific cost can be charged to an award only if it is allowable, reasonable, and allocable.
Cost Share	Cost Share or Matching is that portion of the costs of research, training, public service or equipment projects that the University or a third party pays for or documents as its portion of a project's costs
Cost Share: Statutory/Mandatory	Cost share commitments that are required by the agency for the award
Cost Share: Voluntary Committed	Cost share commitments that are not required for the award but are voluntarily committed in the budget and/or in the project proposal
Cost Share: Voluntary Uncommitted	Cost share commitments that are neither required for the award nor obligated in the project budget or proposal but represent University commitment actually spent on the project. This type of cost share does not need to be tracked, reported, or included in the F&A base.
Cost Share: In Kind	Contributions or assistance in a form other than money-equipment, materials, or services of recognized value that are offered in lieu of cash.��
Cost Transfer	A cost transfer involves the recording of an expense in a sponsored project SpeedType that had previously been charged elsewhere. Cost transfers should be considered “the exception, rather than the rule,” and must be kept to a minimum. They must be allowable, timely, reasonable, consistent, of benefit to the sponsored project that is the recipient of the cost, and adequately documented.��
COR	Contract Officer’s Representative
CORA	babyֱ��app Open Records Act
COTR	Contract Officer Technical Representative
CPARS	Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System
CPFF	Cost Plus Fixed Fee
CPSR	Contractor Purchasing System Review
CR or Cost Reimbursable	A funded agreement in which the sponsor reimburses the university after costs are incurred, invoiced and found allowable
CRADA	Cooperative Research and Development Agreement
CRS	Congressional Research Service
CSR	Center for Scientific Review
CTSA	Clinical & Translational Science Award
CU-Data	The official reporting system that contains m-Fin, eRA reports and other types of reports
CUI	Controlled Unclassified Information
DA	Departmental Administrator -- the person in a department (center, institute, etc.) that is responsible for the day-to-day transaction processing of departmental financial events
DA	Department Administration Costs
DA	Department of the Army
DARPA	Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
DCE	Direct Cost Equivalent
DCAA	Defense Contract Audit Agency
DCASRs	Defense Contract Administration Services Regions
DEAR	Department of Energy Acquisition Regulations
DFARS	Department of Defense supplement to the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR), applicable to DOD contracts and subcontracts, implements and supplements the FAR
Deliverable	Specific end product as a result of work performed on a sponsored project. Examples include a final technical report, an evaluation report, technical assistance, training, compiled database, etc., usually with specific deadlines.
DEPA	Disclosure of External Professional Activities -- the annual disclosure of information relevant to potential conflicts of interest and/or commitment
Depreciation	Allocating the acquisition cost of a fixed asset over its estimated useful life rather than charging its full cost in the year it was acquired
DHEW	Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
DHHS	Department of Health and Human Services
DHS	Department of Homeland Security
DIA	Defense Intelligence Agency
DIALOG	A computer-based search system using key words��
DIPEC	Defense Industrial Plant Equipment Council
Direct Cost (DC)	Costs identified with the sponsored work that can be identified relatively easily with a high degree of accuracy. General categories of direct costs include but are not limited to salaries and wages, fringe benefits, research supplies, contractual services, travel and communication, equipment, and computer use.��
DIS	Defense Investigative Service
DNA	Defense Nuclear Agency
DOC	Department of Commerce
DOD��	Department of Defense
DoD GAR	Department of Defense Grant and Agreement Regulations -- these regulations provide uniform policies and procedures for the award and administration of DoD Grants and Cooperative Agreements (see FAR for contract regulations)
DOE	Department of Energy��
DoED	Department of Education
DOI	Department of the Interior
DOL	Department of Labor
Donor	An external party that provides a gift or endowment to the university who has no expectation of anything in return
DOT	Department of Transportation
DRA	Department Research Administrator
DS-2	The Boulder Campus Disclosure Statement filed with and approved by our federal cognizant agency (Department of Health and Human Services). The DS-2 formally states our policy for direct charging expenses to sponsored projects.
DSMB	Data Safety Monitoring Board for human subjects research
DSMP	Data Safety Monitoring Plan for human subjects research
DUNS	Dun & Bradstreet Number (replaced by UEI in 2022)
EAR	Export Administration Regulations
EARS	Electronic Approval and Routing Systems
ebXML	Electronic Business Extensible Markup Language
EC	Electronic Commerce
EDA	Economic Development Administration��
EDGAR	Education Department General Administration Regulations
EDI	Electronic Data Interchange
EEOC	Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Effort Reporting	Reporting the amount of time spent by an employee on a particular activity during a certain period of time
EFT	Electronic Funds Transfer
EHS	Employee Health Services
EH&S	Environmental Health & Safety
EIN	Employer Identification Number
EMTALA	Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act
Encumbrance	Costs obligated for expenditure but not yet realized. May be created by PO, SPO, tuition or payroll subsystems.
EO	Executive Order
EPA	Environmental Protection Agency
ESTTOOL	Estimation Tool – internal budget form used to estimate project costs
ePERs	Electronic Personnel Effort Reporting System -- paperless effort reporting forms completed & filed electronically
Equipment	(Also called capital equipment or fixed assets) Tangible personal property with a life of more than one year and a cost of $5,000 or more.
ERA	Economic Regulatory Administration��
ERA	Electronic Research Administration
ESCRO	Embryonic Stem Cell Research Oversight
ESSCB	Empire State Stem Cell Board
ETA	Employment and Training Administration��
EVS	Equipment Visibility System
Exchange-like Transaction	Transaction in which there is an identifiable exchange between the University and a sponsoring agent but the exchange may not be quite equal, or the direct benefits of the exchange may not be exclusively for the parties
Expanded Authority	The authority granted to CU that waives the prior approval requirements by a sponsoring agency.�� Expanded authority is used only for changes that are necessary for the completion of the project within its original scope and original total budget.
F&A (also IDC)	Indirect Costs, also known as overhead or facilities and administration costs (F&A)�� -- Indirect (F&A) Costs: defines indirect (F&A) costs as “those costs incurred for a common or joint purpose benefitting more than one cost objective, and not readily assignable to the cost objectives specifically benefitted, without effort disproportionate to the results achieved.” IDC or F&A are real costs to CU Boulder that are not readily or easily assignable to a specific funded project. Indirect costs help promote organized research at CU Boulder by providing funds for research-related expenses such as heat, light, water, electricity and custodial services in offices and laboratory spaces; occupational safety and hazardous waste removal; telecommunications; computers and internet access; and many other support services.
F&A Rate	A rate (in form of a percentage) that UCB charges to a sponsored project for the use of institution facilities and administration. This rate is negotiated every 3-4 years.
FAA	Federal Aviation Administration
Fabrication	Created component parts that work together to make a product or structure
FAPIIS	Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System
FAR	Federal Acquisition Regulations -- the primary regulation for use by all Federal Executive agencies in their acquisition of supplies and services with appropriated funds (federal contracts are often subject to the FAR)��
FARS	Financial Accounting and Reporting System
FASA	Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act��
FASAB	Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board
FASEB	Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology��
FastLane	FastLane is an interactive real-time system used to conduct NSF business over the Internet.�� Much of the system functionality has been transferred into Research.gov.
FBO	Federal Business Opportunities��
FCC	Federal Communications Commission��
FCST	Federal Council for Science and Technology
FDA	Food and Drug Administration
FDP I��	Florida Demonstration Project Phase 1
FDP II	Federal Demonstration Project Phase 2
FDP III & IV	Federal Demonstration Partnership Phase 3 and 4
FEA	Federal Enterprise Architectures
FECAI	Federal Electronic Commerce Acquisition Instructions
Federal Cognizant Agency	The federal agency to which we are assigned for purposes of certain administration functions such as F&A rate negotiation and audit resolution
Federal Flowthrough	A non-Federal entity that provides a Federal award to a subrecipient or subaward to carry out a Federal program
FEDIX	An online federal data base serving most federal agencies for online searches
Fellowship	Fellowships are funding to support the educational experience of the recipient and are not considered compensation for performance. The purpose of fellowships are to enhance academic experience or career growth and may be for research or non-research activities. Fellows are not considered to have an employee-employer relationship with the university.
FEMA	Federal Emergency Management Agency
FERPA	Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act
FFATA	Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 or "Transparency Act" -- The FFATA Subaward Reporting System tool is used by Federal prime awardees (i.e. prime contractors and prime grants recipients) to capture and report subaward and executive compensation data regarding their first-tier subawards��
FFMIA	Federal Financial Management Improvement Act
FFR	Federal Financial Report
FHWA	Federal Highway Administration��
FICC	Federal Interagency Coordinating Council
FileMaker	OCG database that supplies proposal and award information on proposals and awards.�� This system is no longer used for this purpose and was replaced by InfoEd in 2015.
FIMA	Financial Management System
FIPSE	Fund for Improvement of Post Secondary Education
FISAP	Fiscal Operations Report & Application to Participate
Fiscal Manager	(Formerly known as Key Contact) Departmental Administrator who receives monthly project financial reports and is responsible for managing its financials
FISMA	Federal Information Security Management Act
Fixed Asset	Expenditure on an asset costing $5,000 or more that has a life of more than one year, used interchangeably with capital equipment or equipment
FP or Fixed Price	A funded agreement��in which payment will be made upon a set dollar amount, regardless of how much is expended to complete the agreed upon performance
Fly America Act	This requires Federal employees and their dependents, consultants, contractors, grantees, and others performing United States Government financed foreign air travel to travel by U.S. flag air carriers
FMC	Federal Management Circular
FN	Foreign National
FOA	Funding Opportunity Announcement
FOB	Free On Board
FOIA	Freedom of Information Act
FPS	Financial Procedure Statement, which provides procedural guidance for University financial activity
FR	Federal Register
Fringe Benefits	Employee benefits paid by the employer (e.g., FICA, Worker's Compensation, Withholding Tax, Insurance, etc.)
FS&T	Federal Science and Technology Budget
FTC	Federal Telecommunications System
FTE	Full Time Equivalent
Funding	Financial resources provided to sponsored projects.
Funding: Incremental	A method of funding contracts that provides specific spending limits below the total estimated funding. These limits may be exceeded only at the contractor's own risk. Each increment is, in essence, a funding action.
Funding: Modular	Specific to NIH R01, R03, R15, & R21 awards that have direct cost budgets of $250K or less that require no budget detail with the proposal submission. Payments are made in $25K increments.��
Funding: Advance	Funding paid to the University by the sponsor at the beginning of the project. The terms of this type of payment usually require returning any unused funds to the sponsor at the completion of the project.
Funding: Fixed price (FP)	A contract/grant for which one party pays the other party a predetermined price, regardless of actual costs, for services rendered
Funding: Cost reimbursable (CR)	A contract/grant for which the sponsor pays for costs incurred in the conduct of the work on a defined cadence up to an agreed-upon amount
Funding: Supplement	Additional funding to a current funded award to add a closely related component to the ongoing award that is within the scope of the approved award
Funding Source	Funding received by several types of sponsors: Federal, State of babyֱ��app, Industry, Foundations, Non-profits, Foreign entities, and other universities
FWA	Federal Wide Assurance
FY	Fiscal Year
G5	U.S. Department of Education grants management system
GA	General Administration (Costs)
GAAP	Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
GAIR	General Administrative and Infrastructure Recharge is a combination of the General Administrative Recharge (GAR) and the General Infrastructure Recharge (GIR). The two have their own rates and are calculated separately in the Finance System, but are often referred to together as GAIR.
GAO	General Accounting Office
GAR	General Administrative Recharge -- a percentage rate charged to auxiliary and self-funded funds (20, 26, 28, and 29) and their renewal and replacement plant fund (78) and to agency funds (80) calculated monthly on expenditures.
GASB	Governmental Accounting Standards Board
GATT	General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
General Purpose Equipment	Equipment which is not limited to research, medical, scientific, or other technical activities. Examples include office equipment and furnishings, modular offices, telephone networks, information technology equipment and systems, air conditioning equipment.
GIR	General Infrastructure Recharge -- a percentage rate charged to auxiliary and self-funded funds (20, 26, 28, and 29) and their renewal and replacement plant fund (78) calculated monthly on expenditures.
GL	General Ledger -- that part of PeopleSoft Finance that contains the accounting records of all financial data for the University that are used to generate the official financial reports of the University.
GMO	Grants Management Office
GMRA	Government Management Reform Act
GPO	Government Printing Office
GPRA	Government Performance and Results Act��
GRA	Graduate Research Assistant
GSA	General Services Administration
Grant	A grant is a legal instrument of financial assistance used to transfer money, property, or anything of value to a recipient in order to accomplish a particular purpose, without substantial involvement from the sponsor, in the direction of the project.��
Grant Officer (GO) /Contract Officer (CO) (OCG)	OCG staff member responsible for reviewing and negotiating contract terms, administering the award, and liaising with sponsor representatives during a project's period of performance.
Grant/Contract Officer (Sponsor)	A sponsor's designated individual who is officially responsible for the business management aspects of a particular grant, cooperative agreement, or contract. Serving as the counterpart to the business officer of the grantee/contractor organization, the grant/contract officer is responsible for all business management matters associated with the review, negotiation, award, and administration of a grant or contract and interprets the associated administration policies regulations, and provisions.
Grants.gov	Portal used to submit proposals for many federal awards, which are then distributed to each appropriate agency. Electronic proposal submission required from Feb 1, 2007 onwards.
GUIRR	Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable
HBCU	Historically Black College and University
HCFA	Health Care Financing Administration��
HCM	Human Capital Management -- this is the PeopleSoft human resources module that stores all personnel data and handles payroll and personnel actions.
HEGIS	Higher Education General Information Survey
HHS	Department of Health and Human Services
Highly Confidential (CU definition)	Includes data elements that require protection under laws, regulations, contracts, relevant legal agreements and/or require the university to provide notification of unauthorized disclosure/security incidents to affected individuals, government agencies or media. See additional information regarding CU’s .
HIPAA	Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act
HRSA	Health Resources and Services Administration��
HSARPA	Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency
HSC	CU Denver's Health Sciences Center
HUD	Department of Housing and Urban Development��
IAA	Interagency Agreement
IACUC	Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee
IAEGC	Interagency Electronic Grants Committee��
IBC	Institutional Biosafety Committee
ICC	Interstate Commerce Commission��
ICR	Indirect Cost Recovery (or Revenue) -- F&A expenses charged to projects generate F&A revenue (recovery) that are booked to the general fund. This helps offset project expenses so a portion of ICR is then reallocated back to departments that generated this revenue and is transferred to a departmental ICR SpeedType.
IDC	See “F&A” above
IDEA	Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access or, for the U.S. Department of Education, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
IDIQ	Indefinite duration indefinite quantity
IFB	Invitation for Bid -- a solicitation issued to prospective bidders. An IFB describes what is required and how the bidders will be evaluated. Award is based on the lowest bid. Negotiations are not conducted.
IFR	Industry and Foundation Relations
IG	Inspector General
IN	Interdepartmental Invoice -- issued when one service department performs work or provides supplies for another University department
IMS	The Integrated Master Schedule (IMS) is a time-based schedule containing the networked, detailed tasks necessary to ensure successful program/contract execution that traces to the Integrated Master Plan (IMP), Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), Statement of Work (SOW), Contractor Performance Report (CPR), and Earn Value Management system (EVMS).
IMURA	Inter Mountain University Research Administrators
Indirect Cost	See “F&A” above
infoEd	The system of record for proposal and award management. Also known as eRA or electronic research administration system.
Interest Account	An account (SpeedType) separately created for earned interest from non-federal sponsored awards, most common with awards from foundations. This type of account is specifically stated in the award terms and conditions.
Internal Controls	Mechanisms, rules and procedures that ensure the university financial, monitoring and compliance activities are accurate
IP	Intellectual Property��
IPA	Interagency Personnel Agreement��
IPASS	Interagency Panel on Advanced Science & Security
IPR	Intellectual Property Rights
IRB	Institutional Review Board (for human subjects research)
IRIS	An online search system for research opportunities developed by the University of Illinois.�� Also the acronym for International Resource Information System, an electronic grants portal maintained by the U.S. Department of Education for programs funded by Title VI of the Higher Education Act and the Fulbright-Hays Act.
ISC	Internal Services Center��is a University center that provides goods and services to other University units, resulting in these units being charged an expense within their SpeedType
ISO/IEC	International Organization for Standardization and International Electrotechnical Commission
ITAR	International Traffic in Arms Regulations
ITMRA	Information Technology Management Reform Act
ITSO	Information Technology Security Office at CU Boulder
IUCRC	Industry–University Cooperative Research Center
JAG	Judge Advocate General
JE	Journal Entry (aka Cost Transfer)
JCS	Joint Chiefs of Staff
JPL	Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Key Contact	Now known as Fiscal Manager.
LoB	Line of Business
LOBD	Level of Budget Detail
LOC	For CCO-RFS, LOC refers to Letter of Credit (see Payment: LOC), but means Limitation of Cost for OCG. Limitation of Cost is a mandatory clause for cost-reimbursement type contracts. Under the clause, the sponsor is not obligated to reimburse the contractor for costs in excess of the stated amount. The contractor, however, is not obligated to continue performance once expenses reach the stated amount.
Loggers (OCG)	OCG member who monitors the ocg@colorado.edu inbox and receives award documents and assigns action to appropriate OCG Grant or Contract Officer within infoEd.
LSA	Labor Surplus Area
M&O	Maintenance and Operations or Management and Operations Contractors
m-fin reports	On-demand reports delivered via the Cognos Reporting System
Marketplace	CU Marketplace is the University’s electronic procurement system that creates and approves purchase requisitions, places purchase orders, receives goods and services, and processes invoices through the internet. This system is maintained by an outside vendor.
Matching	See “Cost Share” above
Matching Grants	Matching grants are conditional awards that require the recipient to contribute a specified portion of the cost of a supported item of equipment or project be obtained from other sources. ��The matched amount is considered by CU Boulder to be cost share (see “Cost Share” above).
MBDA	Minority Business Development Agency
MBE	Minority Business Enterprise
MECA	Midwest Conference on College Cost Accounting
Milestone (PeopleSoft)	PeopleSoft attribute that represents a report or invoice that is due and what date the report or invoice is due. An award may have multiple milestones.
Milestone (Project)	Milestones are markers on the project timeline to identify the important events, activities, or tasks.
Modification	An award document that modifies, changes, or revises any contractual aspect of an existing award
MOU	Memorandum of Understanding
MRA	Master Research Agreement
MSKCC	Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
MTA	Material Transfer Agreement��
MTC	Modified Total Costs
MTDC	Modified Total Direct Costs -- F&A classification that exempts certain cost categories from F&A expense, such as tuition remission, fixed assets, student aid, and subagreement fees greater than 25,000
NACCA	National Conference on College Cost Accounting
NACUBO	National Association of College & University Business Officers
NAS	National Academy of Sciences
NASA	National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NASULGC	National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges
NCC	National Coordinating Committee
NCE	No-Cost Extension -- a modification to an award that extends the end date without additional funding to allow for more time to complete the programmatic scope of work.
NCI	National Cancer Institute
NCRR	National Center for Research Resources��
NCST	National Council of Science and Technology
NCURA	National Council of University Research Administrators
NDA	Allows one party to share confidential information with the other party specifying how the receiving party/parties will protect and use the confidential information. NDAs are��sometimes referred to as nondisclosure, proprietary information, or secrecy��agreements, emphasizing the recipient's handling of the confidential information.
NEA	National Endowment for the Arts
NECA	Northeast Conference on College Cost Accounting
NEH	National Endowment for the Humanities��
NFS	NASA FAR Supplement, applicable to NASA contracts and subcontracts, implements and supplements the FAR
NGA	Notice of Grant Award
NIAID	National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases
NICRA	Negotiated indirect cost rate agreement -- Indirect costs are negotiated with the federal government regularly, in accordance with guidelines set forth in Appendix III to 2 CFR 200
NIE	National Institute of Education��
NIEHS	National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
NIH	National Institutes of Health
NIJ	National Institute of Justice
NIST	National Institute of Standards and Technology
NLRB	National Labor Relations Board
NOA	Notice of Award
NOAA	National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Nonexchange Transaction	Transaction in which a sponsoring agent gives value to the University without directly receiving a benefit in exchange
NPR	National Performance Review
NPRM	Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
NPS	National Park Service
NRC	National Research Council
NRC	Nuclear Regulatory Commission
NRL	Naval Research Laboratory
NSA	National Security Agency
NSABB	National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity
NSB	National Science Board
NSC	National Security Council
NSDD	National Security Decision Directive 189 (issued 1985)
NSF	National Science Foundation��
NSF/STIS	An online search system of the National Science Foundation
NSI	National Security Initiative at CU Boulder
NSP	Not Separately Priced
NSTC	National Science Technology Council
NTIS	National Technical Information Service��
NTSB	National Transportation Safety Board
NYSCF	New York Stem Cell Foundation
NYSTEM	New York State Stem Cell Science��
OBBR	Office of Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research (NCI)
OCG	Office of Contracts & Grants
OCR	Office of Civil Rights
OCR	Office of Clinical Research (at MSKCC)
OEC	Office of Export Control at CU Boulder
OEDIT	babyֱ��app Office of Economic Development and International Trade
OES	Office of Employment Security��
OET	Office of Employment Training
OFAC	Office of Foreign Assets Control
OFCC	Office of Federal Contract Compliance��
OFFM	Office of Federal Financial Management
OFM	Office of Financial Management��
OFR	Office of Federal Register
OHRP	Office of Human Research Protection
OIA	Office of Industrial Affairs
OIEC	Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance at CU Boulder
OIG	Office of Inspector General
OIRA	Office of Information & Regulatory Affairs (OMB)
OIS	Office of Information Security
OLAW	Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare
OLT	Over the Limit (cumulative expenditures posted are greater than the approved budget)
O&M	Operations and Maintenance Costs
OMB	Office of Management & Budget -- the federal office that establishes the principles for determining costs applicable to grants, contracts, and other government agreements
ONR	Office of Naval Research��
OPAS	Organizational Prior Approval System -- OPAS is designed to be a PRIOR approval system for budget deviations and other project changes that require OCG approval
OPM	Office of Personnel Management
OPERA	Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration
OPRR	Office of Protection from Research Risks
ORA	Office of Research Administration��
Order of Precedence	Hierarchy of the many rules and regulations that must be followed throughout the life of an award with the most restrictive policies being the institutional policies
ORI	Office of Research Integrity��
OSEP	Office of Special Education Programs
OSHA	Occupational Safety and Health Administration
OSP	Office of Sponsored Projects
OSTP	Office of Science and Technology Policy
OT	Office of Transportation
OTA	Other Transaction Agreement/Authority is a legal contract with the federal government that is not a grant, cooperative agreement, or a federal contract governed by FAR. ��
OTT	Office of Technology Transfer (NIH)
OUC	Office of University Council
PAPPG	Proposal & Award Policies and Procedures Guide – NSF’s guide comprised of documents relating to the Foundation’s proposal and award process for the assistance programs of NSF, updated annually
Participant Support Costs	Direct costs to support participants (non-employee of CU) in connection with conferences or training projects. Costs such as stipends, subsistence allowances, travel and registration fees. Most common with NSF grants; criteria for defining “Participant” for this purpose can vary by sponsor, but most follow NSF’s rubric.
Pass-through entity (PTE)	A non-Federal entity that receives a grant, contract, or cooperative agreement directly from a Federal awarding agency and passes funding to a subrecipient to carry out a portion of the research or substantive effort of the prime award.��
Payment	Remuneration per the terms of the award
Payment: LOC	Cash requests are made through a Letter of Credit draw process for Federal awards
Payment: Invoice	Invoices are mailed according to the requirements of the sponsor, or draws are made via agency web sites
Payment: Auto Pay	Agency sends check or makes electronic funds transfer (EFT) to cover the award amount; agency may or may not require an invoice or a final report of expenditures
PCARD	CU Purchasing Card -- a VISA, issued to a specific individual, used by authorized University staff, babyֱ��app, and students, and by designated affiliate fiscal staff to purchase small-dollar items (maximum of $5,000) for university use (previously known as the A-Card)
PCAST	President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology
PCC	Policy Coordination Council
PCO	Procuring Contracting Officer
PDF	Portable Document Format
Pending	This term has a number of meanings & uses in OCG
PeopleSoft	CU’s official finance system used to record many of the financial transactions
Period of Performance	The time period during which the proposed work will be completed, and the funds awarded are available for expenditure by the recipient
PET	Payroll Expense Transfer -- transaction in PeopleSoft to move payroll charges to another SpeedType; the PET process automatically moves the benefits associated with the earnings that are being moved
PET: PETC	Correction Payroll Expense Transfer -- this is used to correct a single pay period using Employee ID and Pay Period/Pay Check. A PETC is used to correct a time entry override SpeedType/account code error
PET: PETP	ePER Payroll Expense Transfer -- a PET automatically generated by the PeopleSoft financial system when a variance has been created by a certified, submitted ePER
PET: PETR	Retroactive Funding Change -- this can correct multiple pay periods using specific Begin/End Date by position number. It can also extend into the future.�� A PETR is used to modify a normal Time Collection transaction.
PETA	People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
PHI	Protected Health Information��
PHS	Public Health Service
PI	Principal Investigator, now known as Principal or Fiscal Principal
PIE	Pooled Investment Earnings -- used when interest is to be earned on advance payments. This is usually for federal awards, but can also apply to select non-federal awards and to all University SpeedType in funds 2x, 7x and 80.
PIGABS	Principal Investigator Grant Administration Burden Survey (done by FDP)
PII	Personally Identifiable Information
PKI	Public Key Infrastructure
PM	Project Manager or Program Manager
PMO	Program Management Office within OCG
PMS/DPM	Payment Management System/Division of Payment Management -- HHS web based payment system, aka SmartLink, Electronic 272
PO	Purchase Order (see Procurement web site for directions on requesting an PO via Marketplace)
POA	Physician Office Assistant
POP	Period of Performance, also known as PP or Project Period
Post-Award	That part of OCG that processes, negotiates, and manages grants & contracts. Post-award can also refer to financial management activities of sponsored projects within CCO.
PPS	Procurement Service Center Procedural Statements -- guidelines for utilizing PSC tools and for navigating through PSC procedures
PRD	Presidential Review Directive��
Pre-Award��	That part of OCG that processes and submits proposals, makes determinations on activity and Indirect Cost types, checks pre-submission compliance and certification requirements, and provides pre-selection information to sponsors prior to award.
Pre-award Authorization	When expenditures can be incurred on a project during the period of 90 days prior to the effective date (start date) of the award
Pre-award Spending Account	Establishes sponsored project account for contracts and grants without expanded authority so that work can begin or continue prior to receipt of official award documents. Department must sign a departmental guarantee form and the project must cover work within the anticipated period of performance.
Pre-proposal	Information requested by a sponsor to help them decide which projects they would like to fund and/or for a sponsor to gain an idea of how many full proposals to expect. Traditionally these do not require submission by an AOR. Sometimes called white paper, letter proposal, letter of intent, preliminary proposal, pre-application, abstract, or concept paper.
PRIM&R	Public Responsibility in Medicine & Research
Prime Award	The originating funding source from the prime sponsor, a part of which may be awarded to a subrecipient via a subagreement.��
Prime Awardee	The organization to which an award or contract is issued by a sponsor.
Principal	Also known as Fiscal Principal, may be referred to as PI or Principal Investigator
PROG	Peer Review Oversight Group
Program (General)	Group of related projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them individually.
Program (PeopleSoft)	Identifies a specific activity within an organization in the Finance System. Programs are used in funds 10, 11, 20, 28, 29, 34, 72, 73, 74, 78, 80, 99. Budget, revenue, expenses and transfers are tracked for a fiscal year.
Program Income	Revenue that is derived directly from the program itself and helps to reduce the net cost of the funding from general revenues. Treatment of program income generated by federally sponsored awards is addressed in 2 CFR 200 Uniform Guidance.
Program Management	Application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to meet program objectives.
Program/Project Officer	A sponsor's designated individual officially responsible for the technical, scientific, or programmatic aspects of a particular grant, cooperative agreement, or contract. Serving as the counterpart to the principal investigator/project director of the grantee/contractor organization, the program/project officer deals with the grantee/contractor organization staff to assure programmatic progress.
Project	Same as "Sponsored Project"
Project Management	The process of managing specific sponsored projects, which are temporary and unique endeavors, through use of specific knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques on project activities to meet sponsored project requirements.
Project period	The period established in the award document of when the sponsorship begins and ends. The project period may consist of one or more budget periods.
Project Status	Status of a project at a specific period of time. The status of a project could be of the following: S-Pre-Award, O-Open, E-Ended, R-Reporting, C-Closed or H-Hold.
Projections	An estimate of future spending on a project
Property	Tangible personal property which is not permanently fastened to a building and does not lose its identity; the terms "equipment" and "property" are used interchangeably
Proposal Analyst (PA) (OCG)	OCG staff member responsible for reviewing and submitting Proposals as the AOR
Proposal	An application for funding that contains all information necessary to describe project plans, staff capabilities, and funds requested. Formal proposals are officially approved and submitted by an organization in the name of a principal investigator or project director.
Proposal: New	Proposals that are submitted for the first time or ongoing projects that must recompete for funding prior to expiration of the original award
Proposal: Continuation	Applicable to grants and cooperative agreements only. This is for projects approved for multiple-year funding, although funds are typically committed only one year at a time. At the end of the initial budget period, progress on the project is assessed. If satisfactory, an award is made for the next budget period, subject to the availability of funds. Continuation projects do not compete with new project proposals and are not subjected to peer review beyond the initial project approval.
Proposal: Renewal	Applicable to grants and cooperative agreements only. A competitively reviewed proposal requesting additional funds extending the scope of work beyond the current project period.
Proposal: Supplement	Request to the sponsor for additional funds for an ongoing project during the previously approved performance period. Supplemental proposals may result from increased costs, modifications in design, or a desire to add closely related components to the ongoing project.��
PRP	Peer Resource Professional -- current team member assigned to assist a new employee when they have general questions and/or to help familiarize them with office logistics and procedures
PSC	Procurement Services Center -- the office responsible for travel, general purchases, PCard and travel cards, and accounts payable
PSR	Proposal Submission Request – form required for every sponsored project that includes project details and assurances certified by the PI��
PTE	Pass Through Entity
PTO	Patent and Trademark Office
Public Information (CU definition)	Includes any data on university websites to which the data trustee allows access without authentication and data made freely available through university print material. See additional information regarding CU’s .
QA	Quality Assurance
RA	Research Assistant (graduate student), or Research Administration
R&R	Research and Related
RAC	Recombinant DNA Committee
RARC	Research Animal Resource Center
RBM	Research Business Models
RCR	Responsible Conduct of Research (similar to RECR)
RCREC	Responsible Conduct of Research Education Committee
RDC	Research Data Assistant
RDNA	Recombinant DNA Research
RDMS	Relational Database Management System
Reasonable	Costs that do not exceed what a “prudent person” would incur at the time of incurring the cost
Reconciliation	Accounting procedure that compares two sets of records to check that the expenditures are correct and in agreement, and resolving any discrepancies discovered
Records Retention	Retaining research documents designed to meet the requirements of an award’s sponsoring agency and university guidelines
RECR	Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research (similar to RCR)
Revenue	Funds received from an outside source in exchange for providing goods or services
RFA	Request for Applications -- announcements that indicate the availability of funds for a topic of specific interest to a sponsor
RFI	Request for Information
RFP	Request for Proposal -- announcements that specify a topic of research, methods to be used, product to be delivered, and appropriate applicants sought
RFQ	Request for Quotation
RFS	Research Financial Services (formerly SPA)
RIO	Research Integrity Officer
RISQ	Reporting to Improve Safety & Quality��
ROI	Return on Investment��
ROM	Rough Order of Magnitude is a general estimate of a project’s costs and effort
Routing	The sequential movement of an award through OCG and CCO-RFS
Route as a Proposal (RASP)	An award is received for which proposal documents were not facilitated��through OCG.��RASPs require a completed internal proposal prior to award review, acceptance, and financial setup.��
RPC	Research Project Coordinator
RSA	Research Study Assistant
RSO (College)	Research Support Office
RTM	Research and Technology Management
RU	Rockefeller University
SA	Session Assistant
S&W	Salaries and Wages
S&W + B	Salaries and Wages plus Benefits
S2S	System to System
SAMHSA	Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration
SBA	Small Business Administration
SBU	Sensitive But Unclassified
SBIR	Small Business Innovation Research
SCC	Starr Cancer Consortium
SECA	Southeast Conference on College Cost Accounting
Senior/Key Personnel	Designation of senior/key personnel roles is determined by the Principal Investigator based on sponsor definitions of roles and responsibilities and the level of involvement with the activity by project individuals. Many sponsors consider senior/key personnel as those who contribute in a substantive, meaningful way to the scientific or creative development or execution of a project, whether or not their salaries are paid for by a project. Senior/Key Personnel typically possess expertise or responsibilities that are indispensable to the project's success and may include principal investigators, co-principal investigators, co-investigators, project managers, lead researchers, and other key contributors whose involvement is crucial for achieving the project's objectives, meeting sponsor requirements, and ensuring integrity and compliance. Senior/Key personnel are typically identified in sponsored project proposals and awards and are expected to devote a significant portion of their time and effort to the project to ensure its effective implementation and outcomes.
Sensitive Expenses	A-Typical costs posted to a project that may potentially be unallowable based on policy or guidelines of an organization (e.g. alcohol)
SEOG	Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants
Service Agreement	A legally binding contract used for the sale of a good or service (fee for service) from CU Boulder to an external entity
SEVIS	Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (INS for tracking foreign students)
Single Audit	A non-Federal entity that expends $750,000 or more during the non-Federal entity's fiscal year in Federal awards must have a single audit conducted in accordance with 2 CFR 200.514 (2 CFR 200 Subpart F Audit Requirements, formerly referred to as Circular A-133)
SF	Standard Form
SKI	Sloan-Kettering Institute��
SNAP	Streamline Non-Competing Application Process
SOW	Statement of Work or Scope of Work -- submitted as part of the proposal to the sponsor which becomes part of the award. It defines the work that will be completed by the award and how it will be done.
Special Purpose Equipment	Equipment which is used only for research, medical, scientific, or other technical activities. Examples include microscopes, x-ray machines, and spectrometers.
SpeedType�� (ST)	A unique eight-digit number assigned by the PeopleSoft Finance System to each project number that includes the campus code, the fund code (30 or 31), and the number assigned to the project. A subclass is assigned its own unique SpeedType.
SPIN	An online search system for research opportunities developed by the University of New York (SUNY) System
SPO	Standing Purchase Order (replaced by Blanket Purchase Order [BPO] effective October 17, 2024) serves as the payment mechanism for a subagreement. See PSC website for .
Sponsored Project	A financial award from an external source (sponsor) that is governed by specific terms & conditions established in a written agreement between the sponsor and the University of babyֱ��app for the purpose of research, training, fellowships, purchase of specialized research equipment, or clinical trials.
SRA	Society of Research Administrators
SRO	Sponsored Research Office
STEP	Science, Technology, and Economic Policy Board
STP	Science and Technology Policy
Stipend	Refers to type of payment to be received by awardees. Sponsors often use this term loosely to mean any type of payment to individual recipient but UCB restricts this payment type to those individuals from whom no effort will be supplied to the University or to a sponsored project. See the document entitled, "Charging Stipends on Sponsored Projects" on the CCO website for detailed description of what constitutes positions that do not require effort and would therefore receive a stipend instead of a salary.
STTR	Small Business Technology Transfer Program
Subagreement	Legally enforceable agreement between our institution and an external entity (subrecipient) that includes the applicable terms and conditions and the scope of work the subrecipient is expected to perform. A sub-agreement may also be called a subaward or subcontract.
Subcontract	A document written under the authority of, and consistent with the terms and conditions of, a contract that transfers a portion of the research or substantive effort of the prime award to another institution or organization
Subaward	A document written under the authority of, and consistent with the terms and conditions of, a grant or cooperative agreement governed by 2 CFR 200 that transfers a portion of the research or substantive effort of the prime award to another institution or organization
Subrecipient	The legal entity to which a subaward/subcontract is made and is accountable to the University (prime awardee) for the use of the funds provided in carrying out a portion of the University's scope of work under a sponsored project.
T&A	Time and Attendance
T&C	Terms and Conditions
T&M	Time and Materials
TBSR	Total Business Systems Review
TCN	Tri-Institutional Collaboration Network
TDC	Total Direct Costs - F&A classification in which all cost categories are charged F&A expense, including tuition remission, fixed assets, student aid, and all subcontract fees
Tests of Propriety	Test questions to evaluate the appropriateness of an expenditure (refer to APS #4015)
Third Party Cash Cost Share (3PCCS)	Cash dollars that are given to CU from an outside entity in support of a designated main award, and are therefore considered to be Cost Share.
Total Project Costs	The total allowable direct and indirect costs incurred by an organization to carry out an approved project
Tri RCR	Tri-Institutional Responsible Conduct of Research Program: MSKCC, RU, WCMC
Tri-SCI	Tri-Institutional Stem Cell Initiative: SKI, RU, WCMC
U.S.C	United States Code
UBIT	Unrelated Business Income Tax
UCA	Utility Cost Adjustment
UCB	University of babyֱ��app Boulder
UCCS	University of babyֱ��app babyֱ��app Springs
UCD	University of babyֱ��app Denver
UCD/AMC	University of babyֱ��app Denver Anschutz Medical Campus
UEI	Unique Entity ID
UG	Uniform Guidance; see CFR Title 2, Part 200 in this glossary
UIDP	University-Industry Demonstration Partnership
UMS	University Management Systems
USA	United States Army
USAF	United States Air Force
USAID	United States Agency for International Development
USCG	United States Coast Guard
USDA	United States Department of Agriculture
USDE	United States Department of Energy
USGS	United States Geological Survey
USIA	United States Information Agency
USN	United States Navy
VA	Department of Veterans Affairs
VP	Venture Partners, formerly known as the Technology Transfer Office
Warrant (PeopleSoft)	Term commonly used for a check issued by PeopleSoft to pay for an outstanding obligation
WAWF	Wide Area WorkFlow -- Payment system which allows web based funds withdrawal from grant accounts
WBS	Work Breakdown Structure is a project management tool that decomposes the total scope of work into deliverables and work activities
WCMC	Weill Cornell Medical College
WCGSMS	Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences
WECA	Western Conference on College Cost Accounting
WHO	World Health Organization
XML	Extensible Markup Language��
YCC	Youth Conservation Corp

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