Uniform Guidance Policy

Overview

Please note:

Effective July 1, 2018, new Uniform Guidance procurement regulations will consolidate federal guidelines impacting research administration including the former A-110 (Grants and Agreements with Institutions of Higher Education), the former A-21 (Cost Principles for Educational Institutions), and the former A-133 (Audit Requirements). Please refer to the Rutgers Procurement policy.

Compliance and Audit related questions relating to our Single Audit under OMB Circular A-133 or 2 CFR 200 subpart F should be directed to Research Financial Services Compliance Department at complrfs@research.rutgers.edu

On December 26, 2013, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a new grant management policy, Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards, otherwise referred to as Uniform Guidance (UG). The UG policy consolidates, streamlines and supersedes eight existing OMB Circulars, including Circulars A-21, A-110 and A-133.

The UG administrative requirements and cost principles apply to new and incremental funding awarded after December 26, 2014. Existing Federal awards will continue to be governed by the terms and conditions under which they were awarded. The UG audit requirements will apply to Rutgers effective July 1, 2015 for Fiscal Year 2015-2016.

Implementation of OMB Uniform Guidance

Rutgers established a Uniform Guidance Steering Committee in order to coordinate the implementation of Uniform Guidance. Among the steering committee’s goals is to keep the Rutgers research community informed about changes that will affect the work of principal investigators (PIs), researchers, administrators and others involved in sponsored programs.

The table below summarizes the university's implementation of Uniform Guidance to date.

Uniform Guidance University Resource
Award Closeout (§ 200.343)

RFS Award Closeout

Conflict of Interest (§ 200.112) University Policy 90.2.5, Conflict of Interest
Cost Share (§ 200.306) RSP Cost Share
Direct Charging of Administrative & Clerical Salaries (§ 200.413) RSP Administrative & Clerical Salaries
Direct Charging of Computer Devices (§ 200.453) RSP Computing Devices
Effort Reporting (§ 200.430) RFS Effort Reporting
Internal Controls (§ 200.303) University Policy 40.5.1, Internal Audit
Prior Approval (§ 200.407) RSP Prior Approval
Procurement Standards (§ 200.317-326) University Procurement Services
Records Retention (§ 200.333) Records Managements Department
Subrecipient Issuance and Modification (§ 200.330, § 200.332) RSP Subaward Processing
Subrecipient Monitoring (§ 200.331) RSP Subaward Processing

Navigating the Uniform Guidance Policy

Information can be found more easily by understanding that the Uniform Guidance is broken down into subparts. The preamble provides a useful framework and discussion of how certain guidelines were ultimately determined. 

The Uniform Guidance Policy is separated into subparts.