Cycle 4 funding: uncertainties, masks, quantities, other types of arrays (Marten)

[aaryapatil]

Issue to track progress of Cycle 4 funding request which was approved in PR#380.

Project Description
Awarded Amount: $54,000.00 (US)
Period of Performance: 2024-05-01 through 2025-04-31 (TBD)
Finance Committee Contact: @aaryapatil
COTR: TBD

[AnaGabela]

Hey Marten,
Let's get you started on getting a new contract with NumFocus because I think that's gonna take them a little while. Here are the instructions:

Go to https://numfocus.org/rocket
Click on Independent Contractor Registration
Form fields
Project: Astropy
Grant: NASA
Full Name
Email address
Street Address
Street Address
City
State
Postal Code
Country
Start Date: 2024-05-01 through 2025-04-31
Description: uncertainties, masks, quantities, other types of arrays
Project Contact name: Astropy Finance Committee
Project Contact email: [email protected]
Payment method: ACH, Wire Transfer, PayPal
Bank Information
Comments about payment
Upload W9 or W8
Please let me know that you have submitted the form so we can keep track of it.

[mhvk]

@AnaGabela - thanks, I'm so happy to hear this worked. In the meantime, I've set the wheels in motion to officially reduce my workload at the university of toronto, and will get myself registered soon!

[mhvk]

@AnaGabela - sorry for the delay, I've now submitted the relevant information to numfocus. If I understand correctly, just listing that I'm in Canada should ensure no taxes have to be withheld - would be nice to have that confirmed!

Maybe more importantly: I moved the start date to July 1st, to align it with the UofT academic year (and because I will not have much time before that date). I hope that is not a problem.

[AnaGabela]

@mhvk- no problem
For the taxes thing all should be ok as long as you send them a W-8Ben (not a W-9)
The start date change is find the only thing is the end date can't change as we need those funds spent to close out the grants.
Let me know if you have any other question

[mhvk]

Thanks! For the time, I think the money is for a total number of hours, right, so it will just mean I'll spend a bit more time per week before April 30, 2025.

[mhvk]

@AnaGabela - sorry for another question: my university's admin people have looked into various options, and there are two: I work a reduced load (with reduced pay, benefits, pension) and get compensated for that directly by numfocus, or I get "bought out", i.e., the university of toronto bills numfocus for my time (with zero impact on my pay, benefits, pension). We've started on the former route, but for me the latter would be nicer in that I just don't have to worry about changing how I do my taxes, worry about pensions, etc. Is being billed by the university possible from the numfocus side? (Note: the cost will definitely not be any higher)

[AnaGabela]

@mhvk I think that will work. Instead of submitting invoices to Open Collective, UToronto will. I think that’s still a Independent Contractor form but it’s with U Toronto rather than Marten. So UToronto needs to register with the steps above... let me know how it goes so I can track it ([email protected])

[mhvk]

Thanks, that sounds like something that is either going to be very easy (UofT has done it before), or very difficult (they have not, and US tax forms are impossible). I'll ask!

[AnaGabela]

For taxes.. it should be form W8Ben and that is simple.. of course being a university maybe not... but that would be the form to start with when they get to that step.

[mhvk]

I have asked the administration people about this. I think UofT surely has had more faculty receiving US funding, so hopefully they know what to do. In the worst case, it will still have to go to me directly.

[mhvk]

@AnaGabela - UofT seems to expect some form of MoU. That seems reasonable, but I don't know at all if that is possible with NumFocus - is it? (Or if you don't know, do you know who to ask?)

[mhvk]

For a MoU, I seem to need the address, e-mail address of the responsible people at NumFocus. Or does this all go through you?

Note that @kelle in earlier discussion wrote that she had had a contract via Barnard (I think); the difference would be that UofT apparently does not charge overhead.

[kelle]

In order to start this process, y'all (probably someone at UofT) should complete the ICA registration form.  It asks for the payment details -- how does UofT want to get paid?

If it turns out an MoU makes more sense instead of a "contract", that's between UofT and the NumFocus folks. Completing the ICA registration from starts this whole process.

[mhvk]

@kelle - do you mean the Independent Contractor Registration on https://numfocus.org/rocket? Is there someone specific on the numfocus side that my department administrator can contact? Likely easier without us in the middle!

[kelle]

Let me chat with the NumFOCUS folks and get back to you.

[mhvk]

@kelle, @AnaGabela - in the meantime, I got an e-mail from Janay Warner about my initial submission as an independent contractor. Would that be the right person to ask details about how one would go about funding via UofT?

On the UofT side, the preferred way forward seems to be an MOU, and then UofT invoicing NumFocus three times, at US$18000 each (i.e., no extra costs). Was that kind of process similar to what was done for you, @kelle? Thanks!!!

[kelle]

Yes, Janay is the correct person to discuss the MOU with. You may put the UofT people directly in contact with them.

[mhvk]

Yes, Janay is the correct person to discuss the MOU with. You may put the UofT people directly in contact with them.

OK, thanks. I've sent an inquiry...

[eteq]

@mhvk - to jump in here a bit: it looks like it may turn out the direct contractor is the only way to go due to NASA requiring a rebudget for the UofT award approach, which we can't do because we just recently did one. NF is still working on this to be sure, but I wanted to let you know that may be the way we have to go.

In the future, I think we want to make this easier as far as not requiring lots of rebudgets to do this kind of sub-awarding. But my guess is that's not something we can make happen on the timescale you want to get started. (It will probably be a lot easier if we get the second ROSES award that we've just applied for, but of course we have no idea where that stands and won't for some time yet.)

[jdswinbank]

Hey @aaryapatil , @AnaGabela — we've now received an invoice from U. Toronto, but I don't see a (documented) resolution to the discussion above, and I don't think we have an agreement on file (under https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VrNzVNGoa0xHGrgk2h5JjD43_pmUiawT). Do you know what the outcome was here? I don't want to approve the invoice until we're sure everybody landed on the same page.

[AnaGabela]

oops.. not sure I know.. I was just following the contact part making it through numfocus.. @kelle or @eteq probably know.

[jdswinbank]

Thanks Ana!

If whatever contract NumFOCUS have agreed ends up in the Google Drive linked above, that would probably answer my questions...

[AnaGabela]

contact.pdf
This is what I have.

[kelle]

Looks like we've got a "services agreement" instead of a subcontract between UT and NumFocus. Great!

[aaryapatil]

I signed the service agreement and was waiting for it to go through NumFocus/U Toronto. Looks like everything is set on that end, but I am not sure if anything else is still needed.

[mhvk]

Yes, it took a bit of time on both sides, but the service agreement ended up being possible -- which I'm very happy with since that means no hassle with taxes and pensions on my side.

More importantly, the first part -- masked representations and coordinates -- will be in 7.0. And we just had a nice meeting at flatiron which set a good way forward for Quantity 2.0.