RFP FAQ

1. What information is required for the Letter of Intent?
2. What constitutes “indirect cost” as referred to in the RFP?
3. What are the reporting requirements?
4. What program at Mellon is sponsoring Workset Creation for Scholarly Analysis: Prototyping Project (WCSA)?
5. The guidelines request a “Transmittal cover letter on institutional letterhead from the proposed project PI or other appropriate officer of the Respondent institution.” Is this a letter from the institution confirming the institution supports the research?
6. Where WCSA’s Full Text RFP guidelines vary from Mellon’s proposal guidelines, which document should take precedence?
7. When submitting the transmittal letter, is it better for it to come from/be signed by the PI or from the head of the institution?
8. To whom is the proposal being submitted — Mellon or the University of Illinois? Which name goes on the cover sheet?
9. How should the budget for the proposed project be calculated? For instance team members of our project have annual salaries payed across nine months and are not payed during the summer months but the project takes place across the summer months. On what basis should their time commitment be calculated? Should the effort of each participant be calculated based on the total spent on the project, and have nothing to do with salary information?

What information is required for the Letter of Intent?

The Letter of Intent is free‐form and it need not be very long. In a paragraph or two, it should give us a sense of the planned proposal and include the name of the institutions involved, as well as the names affiliations, and email addresses of participants involved. The content of the letter may be incorporated into the formal proposal as appropriate. Please include links to content and/or project information related to your plans. You can expect to receive an acknowledgement of your letter of intent. But, no reply to the substance of your letter should be expected unless the reviewers have questions about your letter.

What constitutes “indirect cost” as referred to in the RFP?

For a complete definition of indirect cost for the purposes of this project, please visit the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation website at the following URL: http://www.mellon.org/grant_programs/programs/scit

What are the reporting requirements?

End of project reports can be relatively brief. In general, they should contain the same kinds of information described in the Mellon reporting guidelines. Please see the following URL: http://msc.mellon.org/guidelines/reporting-instructions

What program at Mellon is sponsoring Workset Creation for Scholarly Analysis: Prototyping Project (WCSA)?

Workset Creation for Scholarly Analysis: Prototyping Project is made possible by a grant from the Scholarly Communications and Information Technology Program of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Program Officer: Don Waters, Associate Program Officer: Helen Cullyer. For more information see: http://msc.mellon.org/

The guidelines request a “Transmittal cover letter on institutional letterhead from the proposed project PI or other appropriate officer of the Respondent institution.” Is this a letter from the institution confirming the institution supports the research?

Yes. As this RFP is funded through the Mellon Foundation, all proposals for this RFP must be made in accordance to the Foundation’s Proposal Guidelines. For more information see: http://msc.mellon.org/guidelines/proposal-guidelines

Where WCSA’s Full Text RFP guidelines vary from Mellon’s proposal guidelines, which document should take precedence?

In instances where the Mellon proposal guidelines vary from Open Annotation’s RFP guidelines, the WCSA guidelines take precedence. The Foundation’s guidelines are meant to be a reference regarding the overall style and nature of proposals submitted for this RFP. In particular, each proposal submitted in response to WCSA’s RFP should include an executive summary which will be shared with project’s Advisory Board.

When submitting the transmittal letter, is it better for it to come from/be signed by the PI or from the head of the institution?

The project’s principle investigator is the preferred signer for the transmittal letter. Barring that person’s availability then an appropriate person from the institution, such as its head, should sign the transmittal letter.

To whom is the proposal being submitted — Mellon or the University of Illinois? Which name goes on the cover sheet?

he University of Illinois should be used on the cover sheet as each sub-award contract will be through the University of Illinois.

How should the budget for the proposed project be calculated? For instance team members of our project have annual salaries payed across nine months and are not payed during the summer months but the project takes place across the summer months. On what basis should their time commitment be calculated? Should the effort of each participant be calculated based on the total spent on the project, and have nothing to do with salary information?

Budget requested for personnel salary and benefits should be calculated and shown in budget submitted as percentages of FTE (Full-Time Equivalents) over some period of time. For example, “10% of FTE for 6 months.” To translate these FTE percentages into dollars, you should use the normal budgetary calculating procedures of your institution — the same as would be used if submitting salary requested direct cost figures to NSF or NEH, but please be sure to explain how salary requested is calculated (e.g., for faculty paid on 10 month basis whether monthly salary used for calculations in proposal is calculated from annual salary by dividing by 10 or by 12). Please do include annual salary figures (or equivalent) for all personnel who will be working on the project. Be sure to breakout as separate columns personnel salary and personnel benefit expenses and do not include any tuition remission or indirect cost recovery (overhead expenses). It is acceptable for budgeted FTE percentage to vary over the course of the project — e.g. you could show a higher percentage of your time during the summer months, just be sure to be clear so we understand how you got to your final numbers. See: http://msc.mellon.org/guidelines/proposal-guidelines for additional guidance and suggestions.