This document contains guidance for completing Other/Current and Pending Support documents. Many federal agencies are revising their instructions regarding Other Support. They request similar, though not uniform, information and provide somewhat ambiguous instructions. Given these factors, we offer below some clarifying statements to standardize and set expectations on what to include in Other/Current and Pending Support documents submitted by Vanderbilt University. Please be sure to carefully read and follow the guidance provided by individual sponsors on how to prepare Other Support documents.
**It is the investigator's responsibility to ensure the accuracy of Other/Current and Pending Support documents, in accord with the application guidelines or the sponsor's instructions.**
Generally Include
Additional Information Available here
Any activity conducted within the scope of an Investigator's Vanderbilt University appointment that provides funding or requires a commitment of time must be reported.
Commitments are regular obligations of time (part of an investigator's regular activities), not short-term obligations, such as attending a meeting and making a presentation.
If an investigator has a commitment for an activity but is receiving no salary support from the activity (salary is cost shared by the University), that activity must be reported.
Typically, activities that provide funding or have a quantifiable commitment of time are Federal or Non-Federal sponsored projects.
Even if a research project does not involve a quantifiable commitment of time, if the PI/senior key personnel is spending time on the project, the project should be included.
Awards resulting from internally-funded competitions should be included.
All collaborations and affiliations that provide funding or require a commitment of time must be reported, whether foreign or domestic.
Start-up funding provided by an organization other than Vanderbilt University must be reported.
Consulting agreements where the PI or senior/key personnel will be conducting research as part of the consulting activities must be reported. If the agreement will result in a co-authored publication, it may be considered research.
For subawards to Vanderbilt, include the total amount specific to the subaward requested or received by Vanderbilt.
For NIH Other Support documents, an Investigator's VA-funded activities should be included. More guidance is included in the NIH section.
As appropriate, please:
- Include the proposal being submitted as a pending proposal.
- Address potential overlap or over-commitments. As this is a primary concern of Federal agencies, please be clear in your explanations.
- List projects with no-cost extensions.
- Update information as much as possible, e.g., remove outdated proposals or expired awards, unless specifically requested by sponsor, such as NIH or DoD.
Generally Exclude
Certain information does not need to be included in Other Support. You do not need to include:
- Start-up funding from Vanderbilt University
- Consulting agreements that involve non-research consulting activities
- Training awards, prizes, or gifts.
- Gifts are resources provided where there is no expectation of anything in return. Care must be taken to ensure that funds are appropriately categorized. (This does not include those sponsored projects that are being administered by DAR.)
What follows are examples of Federal sponsor-specific guidance on what they request in their Other Support documents. Because sponsor guidance may change, SPA recommends that the investigator/department pay close attention to the sponsor's instructions in the request for proposal, policy guide, etc. on how to prepare these documents. Each sponsor may request slightly different information or require that it be provided following their own format.
Investigators and departments should be prepared to respond to a sponsor's questions about the information provided in Other Support.