Top 10 Things that Can and Do Go Wrong at the Department Level CReATE CReATE ver. 04/08 © 2008 Florida State University. All rights reserved

Number One Failure to submit proposal to SRS for review and approval prior to submission to sponsor

Number Two Principal Investigators, Chairs and/or Deans sign and accept award on behalf of FSU

Number Three Failure to obtain Chair and Dean approval for cost sharing/matching commitments or requests for indirect costs waivers prior to submitting to SRS

Number Four Applying wrong indirect cost rate in a proposal (i.e., using main campus rate when work will be performed at NHMFL; using off-campus rate when work will be performed on campus; using OSA rate for a research project)

Number Five Treating FSU faculty in proposal as a consultant

Number Six Expectation of receiving a salary increase simply because proposal included funds to cover an increase

Number Seven Performing work and/or delivering the results to a sponsor prior to receiving an award

Number Eight Authorizing personnel without an appointment to work on a project

Number Nine Subcontracting out more than 50% of an award

Number Ten Making inappropriate charges to projects and untimely initiation of cost transfers

Number Eleven Documenting or certifying an effort report without “a suitable means of verification” (i.e., first-hand knowledge) of work performance

Number Twelve Failure to satisfy and/or properly document cost sharing commitments

Number Thirteen Nepotism – PI employing relatives on a project

Number Fourteen Relying on a program officer’s authorization for prior approvals required by terms of award

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