DDRF = Director's Discretionary Research Fund
- Income is from performance award fee on prime contract with NASA for HST (~$700k in FY10 and decreasing as HST contract value goes down)
- Expenditures against DDRF do not carry overheads except for F&A (1.3%) and fringe benefits on STScI staff labor (31%)
- $1,000 of labor costs DDRF $1,330
JDF = JWST Discretionary Fund
- Income is from performance award fee on prime contract with NASA for JWST (~$400k in FY10 and increasing(!?) as JWST contract value goes up)
- Expenditures against JDF carry all STScI overhead charges: fringe benefits (31%), G&A (14.4%), F&A (1.3%), and general overhead on labor (79%)
- $1,000 of labor costs JDF $2,439, e.g., 144% compounded overall overhead rate
DDRF and JDF have standing accounts that cover research-related expenses that are not covered by other grants or contracts
- Domestic and foreign travel
- International visitors and short-term collaborators
- Page charges
- Engineering colloquia
- Joint STScI/JHU seminar series
- Giacconi fellows, stipends, and relocation expenses
- Davis (post-doc), Davidsen (1stt-year grad student) fellowships (joint with JHU)
- LSST membership
- Summer student program
~80% of DDRF funds are allocated to cover standing accounts
~45% of JDF funds are allocated to cover standing accounts
DDRF and JDF provide start-up stipends for new scientific staff and support stipends for emeritus staff (latter must be applied for and are subject to peer review)
- Start-up stipends for astronomers are $45k over three years, for scientists are $25k over three years. Intent is that you distribute spending over the three years, not spend all at once! But you can spend ahead a bit or save for something bigger next year.
- All new start-up accounts are being set up on JDF because DDRF is oversubscribed; use for research computing needs, page charges, conferences, travel, JHU students. G&A and F&A assessed, ~16% total.
Fall and Spring RFPs for research funds
- Proposals reviewed by RSAC—Research Support Advisory Committee
- Ranked recommendations reviewed by the Director
- Total funding available recently has been ~$150k per RFP, but is likely to be more constrained this year
- Programs that help staff establish a new research program, develop promising but not-yet-proven approaches, provide access or capabilities for the STScI staff generally, or that are otherwise not good candidates for HST or external programs tend to be favored
- Typical budgets for selected programs: ~$15k-$40k for one year
- Occasionally multi-year, larger programs are approved, but normally these are one-year use-lose programs
- Overheads are applied; proposal must request burdened, total amount. We provide guidelines in the RFP. If your program is selected we will confirm that funds are allocated including the appropriate overheads.
- Do not submit proposal for routine travel, page charges; ~2 trips per year ok if you need to use DDRF instead of other grant funds
Travel
- Submit standard Travel Authorization (TA), using account D0001.82413 for foreign travel and D0001.82414 for domestic travel. Bob will reassign to JDF travel accounts as necessary/appropriate to balance expenditures.
- Submit standard Travel Expense Report (TER) upon return, noting account that is shown on your approved TA.
Page charges
Requests for visitor support
- See Collaborative Visitor Program
- Submit request via web form; following approval your visitor will be asked to provide more detailed information on schedule, accommodation, etc.
- Colloquium speakers, seminar speakers, etc., are coordinated by the leads of those programs (David Soderblom; Jason Kalirai and Jason Tumlinson)
DDRF/JDF contacts
- Bob Hanisch, Rm. 415, x4910, hanisch@stsci.edu
- Alisa Meizlish, x4580, meizlish@stsci.edu
DDRF/JDF account status
- Flory Hill, x1081, hill@stsci.edu
Page charges
TAs and TERs
Bob Hanisch, SMO, DDRF/JDF Coordinator