CPI Project Planning & Execution 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A PI needs to rebudget $15,000 from personnel to equipment costs. Under most federal grants, this requires prior sponsor approval when the rebudget exceeds what threshold?
- 5% or $5,000 of the award
- 10% or $25,000 of the award (Correct answer)
- 25% or $50,000 of the award
- No threshold; all rebudgeting requires approval
Correct answer: 10% or $25,000 of the award
NIH and most federal agencies require prior approval when rebudgeting exceeds 25% of the total award or $250,000; however, many institutional policies set a stricter internal threshold around 10% or $25,000.
Question 2: Which cost is considered 'unallowable' under the Uniform Guidance (2 CFR 200) for federally funded research?
- Graduate student tuition remission
- Publication charges in an open-access journal
- Alcoholic beverages purchased for a laboratory celebration (Correct answer)
- Subcontract indirect costs up to the negotiated rate
Correct answer: Alcoholic beverages purchased for a laboratory celebration
Alcoholic beverages are explicitly listed as unallowable costs under 2 CFR 200 and cannot be charged to a federal grant under any circumstances.
Question 3: A no-cost extension (NCE) is used primarily to:
- Increase the total budget of a grant award
- Allow additional time to complete research objectives without additional funds (Correct answer)
- Add a new specific aim not included in the original proposal
- Transfer the grant to a new institution
Correct answer: Allow additional time to complete research objectives without additional funds
A no-cost extension provides extra time beyond the original project period to finish work using already-awarded funds, without requesting more money.
Question 4: When building a research project timeline, the 'critical path' refers to:
- The fastest possible completion route ignoring dependencies
- The sequence of tasks that determines the minimum project duration (Correct answer)
- The list of highest-budget line items in the project
- The regulatory submission pathway for FDA approval
Correct answer: The sequence of tasks that determines the minimum project duration
The critical path is the longest chain of dependent tasks; any delay in a critical-path task directly delays the entire project's completion date.
Question 5: A PI is preparing a budget justification. Personnel effort must be expressed in terms of:
- Dollars per hour billed to the grant
- Percent effort (person-months) dedicated to the project (Correct answer)
- Number of publications expected from each team member
- Hourly rate multiplied by 40-hour work weeks
Correct answer: Percent effort (person-months) dedicated to the project
Federal sponsors require effort to be reported as a percentage of total professional effort, often converted to person-months for clarity.
Question 6: Which risk management strategy involves deliberately accepting a risk because the cost of mitigation outweighs the potential impact?
- Risk transfer
- Risk avoidance
- Risk acceptance (Correct answer)
- Risk mitigation
Correct answer: Risk acceptance
Risk acceptance is a planned decision to tolerate a risk when its probability or impact is low enough that mitigation efforts are not cost-effective.
Question 7: A sponsor requires that all original source documents be retained for at least 15 years after study completion. This is an example of which project planning element?
- Data sharing agreement
- Records retention policy (Correct answer)
- Audit trail procedure
- Regulatory compliance checklist
Correct answer: Records retention policy
Records retention policies specify how long study documents must be kept after completion to support regulatory inspection and data verification.
CPI Project Planning & Execution 3
A PI needs to rebudget $15,000 from personnel to equipment costs.
Under most federal grants, this requires prior sponsor approval when the rebudget exceeds what threshold?