TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATION ADMINISTRATION2

National AES History

Useful Links

MU AES Administrative Contacts and Responsibilities

MU AES Faculty Appointments

MU AES Annual Spending Goals

Non-CAFNR Projects

hatch, McIntire-Stennis and Animal Health Project Initiation6

Project Initiation

Project Leader Responsibilities

Joining an Existing project

Multi-State Project Initiation8

Multi-State Project Types

Multi-State NIMSS Initiation

Multi-State Project Member Responsibilities

Multi-State Incentives

Project Management13

Allowable Expenses

Expenditure Procedures

Annual Accomplishments Reports

Additional Annual Requirements15

Program of Research

Animal Health Capacity Report

Annual REEport Project Financial Report

Appendices16

Appendix A – AES Guidelines

Appendix B – Project Financial Report Summary

Appendix C – AES Project Accomplishments Report

Station Administration

National AES History

The Morrill Acts of 1862 established the University of Missouri as a land-grant institution (among others), declaring agriculture and technological research and education the focus of these institutions. In 1887 the Hatch Act established Agricultural Experiment Stations (AES) at each of these institutions to direct agriculture and veterinary research. This was followed by the formal creation of Cooperative Extension under the Smith-Lever Act of 1914.

The initial allotment to each AES was an even $15,000 each to establish an AES and disseminate new information learned by the scientists, faculty, staff and administrators to the public. In 1955 the Hatch Act was amended to change this funding allotment to a formula, which calculates an appropriation for each AES based on the activities of the population in the state as outlined in Section 3 [7 USC. 361c] (c).

Currently funds distributed and administered under this federal program (currently called the Capacity Grants) are divided into four program types according to research areas – Hatch for general agriculture research, Hatch Multi-State for regional agriculture research, McIntire-Stennis for forestry research and Animal Health for animal disease research.

As established in federal legislation, the AES is charged with establishing and managing specific projects. Though they are distributed using a formula and not via competition, it is expected and required that all projects funded show adequate progress and that all expenditures are appropriate and related.

Useful Links

NIFA REEport User Information

CRIS Manual of Classification

REEport Portal

NIMSS

MU AESAdministrative Contacts and Responsibilities

The University of Missouri’s Agricultural Experiment Station (MU AES) Administration is made up of individuals on all Divisionlevels with varying responsibilities accordingly. See Figure 1 for a walk-through of project initiation responsibilities.

Director of the MU Agricultural Experiment Station – Dr. Tom Payne

  • Signature authority on scopes of work and accomplishments reports

Sr. Associate Director of the MU Agricultural Experiment Station – Dr. Marc Linit

  • Signature authority on scopes of work and accomplishments reports.
  • Reviewer/approver of MU AES Capacity Grant narratives.

Fiscal Administratorof the MU Agricultural Experiment Station – Kathy Haynes

  • Signature authority on financial reports.
  • Reviewer/approver of MU AES monthly expenditures and financial reports.

REEPort (and NIMSS) Administrator of the Agricultural Experiment Station – Liz Bent

  • Submitter of MU AES accomplishments reports (NIMSS and REEport)
  • Submitter of MU AES project initiations (NIMSS and REEport)
  • Submitter of MU AES annual financial report (REEport)
  • Submitter of monthly MU AES expenditure reports
  • Keeper of MU AES project data

Division Director– Varies

  • Reviewer/approver of MU AES Capacity Grant narratives
  • Works in tandem with Divisional Fiscal Appointee to ensure that station projects are written and up-to-date within their Division

Division Fiscal Appointee– Varies

  • Works in tandem with Divisional Director to ensure that station projects are written and up-to-date within their Division
  • Works in tandem with the Fiscal Administratorto ensure that expenditures are appropriate and Division goals are met


  • Coordinates station project initiation with the REEPort and NIMSS Administrator

MU AES Faculty Appointments

At the time a faculty member is hired, their funding allocation determines whether or not they have an MU AES faculty appointment. This designation is noted in their letter of offer – they are required to submit a proposal for a station project before the beginning of the second semester of their employment.

An MU AES faculty appointment is defined as a tenured or tenure track faculty title with a20% MU AES appointment, IE, 0.20 FTE is dedicated to and paid using MU AES Capacity Grant funds.The Division Director and Division Fiscal Appointee shall collaborate with the MU AESFiscal Administrator to determine what type of project best suits the faculty member and designate an appropriate funding source (Hatch, McIntire-Stennis, etc.).

To be clear, faculty do not have to be an MU AES faculty member to be paid using MU AES funds if they are actively participating on an MU AES faculty member’s project. Affiliation with an approved station project is required before anyone can be paid using Capacity Grant funds and all effort must be appropriate for the level of effort being exerted on the project itself.

It is recognized that over the course of a faculty member’s career, interests, foci and trajectories may change. In order to accommodate this shift in activities, the Division Director and Divisional Fiscal Appointee should maintain the flexibility of funds to accommodate such shifts in effort gradually over time or for temporary adjustments due to extenuating circumstances. For example, adjusting faculty from 50/50 research/teaching to 40/60 if their teaching load increases or adjusting a faculty member’s Hatch effort down to accommodate time being spent on a large NSF project that is newly awarded. Such adjustments are to be within the spending goal, however, it should never result in a Division not meeting its goal.

MU AES Annual Spending Goals

In September of each year annual spending goals are established based on the proportion of MU AES faculty appointments (proportion of rate allocations) within each Division. These are divided by funding sources (Hatch, Multi-State, McIntire-Stennis, and Animal Health) available to that Division, which are based on federal award notices (if received prior to September) or federal estimates within annual RFPs issued by NIFA.

As it is known that not all funding types may be spent across all divisions, adjustments are made to the other funding sources so as to alleviate burden on any one division required to spend the entirety of a program’s allocation. For example, as the McIntire-Stennis program requires research to be 100% forestry focused, it is the primary responsibility of the School of Natural Resources to spend a majority of this allocation on federally approved forestry projects. To alleviate the burden, it is presumed that the School of Natural Resources will have a smaller federal portion of other funding sources (IE, Hatch) to accommodate this other responsibility. Adjustments for such accommodations are made prior to spending allocations being divided proportionally.

In order to assure that appropriate match and federal funds are spent by project, each allocation is added to the required match and Non-CAFNR AES allocations are subtracted before the totals are divided proportionally by division. An exampleof a hypothetical calculation is seen below.

Federal / Match / Total
MU AES Hatch / $5,000,000 / $5,000,000 / $10,000,000
Non-CAFNR Hatch (Minus) / $250,000 / $250,000 / $9,500,000
Division Goal Distribution (Adjusted) / $4,750,000 / $4,750,000 / $9,500,000
Division / Proportion of Hatch Rate / Calculation / Hatch Goal (Includes Federal and Match Portion)
Plant Sciences / 27.87% / 0.2787*9,500,000 / $2,647,650
Animal Sciences / 29.80% / 0.2980*9,500,000 / $2,831,000
School of Natural Resources / 3.71% / 0.0371*9,500,000 / $352,450
Biochemistry / 15.13% / 0.1513*9,500,000 / $1,437,350
Food Systems and Bioengineering / 7.24% / 0.0724*9,500,000 / $687,800
Applied Social Sciences / 16.25% / $1,543,750

EmeritusMUAES faculty appointments who remain in a partial capacity may still choose to maintain a station project and therefore would be eligible to continue to receive MU AES faculty appointment benefits such as incentives, etc.

If a Division is in danger of not meeting its goal, the Division Fiscal Appointee should work with the MU AES Fiscal Administrator as early in the federal fiscal year as possible to address the issue promptly and avoid impacting the station’s overall ability to meet spending goals.

Non-CAFNR Projects

Historically the College of Veterinary Medicine and College of Human Environmental Sciences were considered a part of the MU AES system. As such, the MU AES still supports a small number of projects within each of these Divisions.

In the College of Veterinary Medicine, four faculty members are selected by the College to participate in five year Hatch projects and receive salary support as long as those projects stay in good standing. Except for REEPort administration these projects are entirely managed by the College of Veterinary Medicine, however, they should be reported on the MU AES Financial report since they are Hatch projects.

The College of Veterinary Medicine also maintains two official participants on Multi-State projects. These are administered the same way as the Hatch projects mentioned above.

In the College of Human Environmental Sciences, five faculty members are selected by the College to participate in five year Hatch projects and receive salary support as long as those projects stay in good standing. Except for REEPort administration these projects are entirely managed by the College of Human Environmental Sciences, however, they should be reported on the MU AES Financial report since they are Hatch projects.

Hatch, McIntire-Stennis and Animal Health Project Initiation

The Project Leader should use the AES Guidelines (Appendix A) to complete project initiation, naming all project collaborators as indicated in the guidelines. Using input from all team members, the lead Project Leader should only need to answer all relevant questions within the guidelines document and complete the forms included. Once completed and approved by all team members, the proposal narrative is submitted to the Division Director for review and approval followed by review and approval by the Associate Dean for Research and Extension.

Currently funds distributed and administered under this federal program (currently called the Capacity Grants) are divided into four program types according to research areas – Hatch for general agriculture research, McIntire-Stennis for forestry research, Animal Health for animal disease research and Hatch Multi-State for regional agriculture research.

Project Initiation

Each project shall be written for a term of five years with begin dates staggered by Division.

It is strongly encouraged that faculty with similar research interests collaborate on single projects. This collaboration serves to enhance the research being performed while distributing the administrative burden for all. Further, it is suggested that new faculty who join the MU AES during a five year cycle, join an existing project so that they may be mentored by the existing faculty on how to manage an MU AES project.

Project initiation and project termination shall happen in the same calendar year, within 30 days of one another. See below for a calendar of the project life cycle by Division.

Table 1.Hatch, McIntire-Stennis and Animal Health Project Initiation Dates by 5-Year Cycle

Division Name / Begin Date (in 1st Year) / Renewal Coordination Begin Date (in 4th Year) / Project Termination Date (in 5th Year)
Ag Biochemistry / February 1 / February 1 / January 31
Animal Sciences / March 1 / March 1 / February 28
Applied Social Sciences / April 1 / April 1 / March 30
Food SystemsBioengineering / September 1 / September 1 / August 31
Plant Sciences / October 1 / October 1 / September 30
School of Natural Resources / November 1 / November 1 / October 31

Project Leader Responsibilities

The Project Leader of each team project is expected to manage and coordinate his team within the Division and CAFNR administration as well as with NIFA. It is expected that responses to inquiries and requests for information will be handled promptly and due dates met.

Responsibilities and expectationsinclude:

  • Six months prior to the expected project initiation date, write proposal narrative with input from team members and following the AES Guidelines (Appendix A).
  • Three months prior to the expected project initiation date, submit proposal narrative to Division Director for approval.
  • Respond in a timely manner (within 2 weeks) to requests from NIFA for revisions.
  • Each year by January 1, the Project Leader is expected to coordinate team input and submit a REEPort accomplishments report (Appendix C).
  • In the fifth year of the project by January 1, the Project Leader is expected to coordinate team input and submit a REEPort final report (Appendix C). (Note, NIFA requires both an annual and termination report).

Joining an ExistingProject

In the event that a newMU AES facultyappointment joins a Division and wishes to join an established project already in progress, the Division Director shall work with the faculty member to determine if the project is appropriate considering the faculty member’s research interests and activities.

Questions to be considered:

  1. Does this faculty member’s research align with the group’s primary objectives?
  2. Can this faculty member make a valuable contribution to the project objectives within the time remaining in the life of this project?
  3. Would adding this faculty member necessitate dramatically impact the primary objectives of the project and/or changing the project’s direction?
  4. Is this project the best fit for the faculty member’s interests and goals?

If an appropriate project is identified and the Project Leader is amenable to the addition, then the new faculty member must work with the REEport Administrator for the MU AES to submit a change request to NIFA for their approval.

Once the request has been approved by NIFA, then the faculty member should work with the DivisionFiscal Appointee to allocate appropriate effort to the project.

Multi-State Project Initiation and Management

Once a faculty member has selected a Multi-State project to participate on and NIMSS sign up is complete, faculty should use the REEPort Project Initiation form combined with the project’s established and approved project narrative to complete the sign up process for funded projects. Unfunded projects only require NIMSS sign up.

Multi-State Project Types

Funded projects are those projects whose project number is precipitated only by the abbreviation for the region in which it was initiated (NC, S, W & NE). Funded projects are typically initiated with a primary objective based in either basic or applied research activities.

The goals/objectives of a funded project are to increase the knowledge base. Such a collaboration should result in several outcomes and outputs including publications, collaborations on other research projects, creation of data sets, revision of scientific methods, etc.

Since the expectations for involvement and outcomes are greater with a funded project, a greater level of commitment is associated with participation on such a project. Participation on a funded Multi-State project will require project initiation in NIMSS, REEPort and subsequent annual accomplishments reports to be filed both via REEPort and to project administrators.

With the expectation of greater involvement and outputs, comes a larger incentive for participation. Incentives are limited and never guaranteed. Please see the details under Multi-State Incentives.

Unfunded projects are those projects whose project number is precipitated by any more letters than the regional designation, IE, region+CC, region+DC or region+ERA. These projects either have an exploratory focus as in the CC or DC designation and are meant to be temporary or they have a primary focus on Extension/Outreach activities.

The goals/objectives of a funded project are to promote collaboration. Such a project does not typically result in reportable/measurable outcomes or outputs.

Since the expectations for involvement and outcomes are unmeasurable, the commitment to such a project is variable and the incentive provided for participation is minimal – covering travel expenses to annual meetings only. Please see details under Multi-State Incentives.

Multi-State NIMSS Initiation

While any faculty may join Multi-State projects, not all may qualify for incentives so it is vital that the Division Director and faculty member work closely together to identify the project(s) most closely related to their research interests.

Once project(s) participation has been deemed desirable by both the Division Director and faculty member, the faculty should contact the REEport and NIMSS Administrator for the MU AES for NIMSS initiation paperwork. This is the first step in joining a funded project and the only step for applying to join an unfunded project.

Project initiation in NIMSS will require that the faculty member has carefully read the project homepage and selected which objective(s) to participate on as well as considering how their individual expertise will add value to the project. As a part of this initiation, faculty will select from a list of knowledge areas, subjects of investigation and fields of science, which should reflect both their personal research goals and what they will add to the existing Multi-State group (

The second step for joining a funded project is to complete project initiation in REEPort, but this step requires NIFA approval of project participation prior to initiation. Faculty should use either the REEPort portal or PDF version of the project initiation forms provided by the REEPort Administrator(Appendix C).

When completing project initiation, faculty should focus their writing of the project on the outline already written by the group using their homepage, but also make sure to include specific details about how they will contribute to the group’s overall objectives.

Multi-State Project Member Responsibilities

Every Multi-State project member is expected to actively participate in the larger group by attending meetings, facilitating group activities, collaborating with group members, etc. It is expected that responses to inquiries and requests for information will be handled promptly and due dates met. The expectations are higher for those participating on funded projects.

For project members on fundedprojects additional responsibilities and expectations include:

  • Confirm participation on intended project with Division Director.
  • Three months prior to the expected project initiation date, initiate NIMSS and NIFA paperwork following the Project Initiation Forms (Appendix C).
  • Respond in a timely manner (within 2 weeks) to requests from NIFA for revisions.
  • If awarded an incentive, assure that this is expended in full during the federal fiscal year in which it was awarded, on approved expenses directly related to the Multi-State project activities.
  • Attend annual project meeting.
  • Each year by January 1, the Project Leader is expected to submit a REEPort accomplishments report (Appendix C).
  • In the fifth year of the project by January 1 submit a REEPort final report (Appendix C). (Note, NIFA requires both an annual and termination report).

Multi-State Incentives