One of the most common questions I receive about our services isn't related to the price or the availability, but whether we can accept federal funds as payment. In fact, we can accept federal funds to pay for IT services, as long as the grant or contract permits it.

Suzanne Sutton, our Director of Research Administration, and Karen Lauritzen, our Business Office Manager, were kind enough to put together some guidelines for when IT services can be provided on a federal grant.

The OMB A-21 Cost Principles for Educational Institutions dictates which expenses may be a direct charge on federal grant sources. As recipients of National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Defense (DOD), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and other federal grant funding, UCSF and the Department must comply with the A-21 standards. The standards define that any expense that is a direct charge on a federal award must be permissible per the awarding agency, allocable, reasonable, and consistently applied across the institution. These four measures must be applied when determining whether a Department's IT services may be a direct charge on a federal source.
 
To determine whether an IT service may be a direct charge on a federal source, documentation and verification is required to not only justify the expense before it occurs but to provide a source of reference during a federal or internal audit. Documentation includes 1) a budget justification that describes how the IT service is required to fulfill the specific aims of the research project and 2) IT operational information that can demonstrate that the work and end result solely benefit the project. In other words, that the expense can in no way benefit any other purpose on campus and can be allocated specifically. The standards by which the expense is allocated to a particular fund must then be replicated and applied consistently across all projects.

In order to charge IT services to a federal fund, please follow this procedure:

1. Talk to DOM IT Services about the work to be performed, so that we can provide an estimate.
2. Ask your RSA to review the grant or contract to determine if the charge is permissible. If it is, the RSA should write up a justification which will be attached to the journal entry when the recharge is processed.
3. Submit the documentation to Suzanne Sutton for approval.

Generally speaking, monthly desktop support charges are not allocable, and therefore are not permissible. Depending on the terms of the grant or contract, project work and even monthly support for a server may be permissible.

So, if you're interested in having us do some work on your lab computers, or write an application to help you with your research, please let us know!

The Department of Medicine maintains a list of recommended Dell computer bundles, consisting of 2 desktop models (Optiplex 755 mini tower & 755 small form factor) and 3 laptop models (Latitude E6500, E6400 & E4300).

These new bundles should be posted to the UCSF Technology Store's online store by the first week in November.

The difference between the 2 desktops is that the mini tower has a more powerful CPU, more memory and a slightly larger case than the small form factor model.

Our Latitude E Series laptop Bundles offer several improvements over the previous D Series laptops. They offer a longer-lasting battery, built in webcam, and a faster encrypted hard disk. The differences between the 3 laptop bundles we recommend are mostly related to screen size and weight. The E6500 is the largest laptop with a 15.4" widescreen display. The E6400 has a 14.1" widescreen display and the 4300 has a 13.3" widescreen display.

These bundles will work well with most UCSF applications and would probably be sufficient for all of your office needs, but if you think you need something different we can custom configure something for your particular needs. Please let us know if you have questions.