Award Management » Pediatric Research » College of Medicine

Grant Administration Flow

Research management does not require a village but it certainly requires a team. The process of administering grants is complex and definitely cannot be simply split in two clean-cut pieces. As one of us described it, it is like an interwoven spider web. For us it means that someone has to be in charge of the grants management process every step. But what are the steps?

Each project is unique but there are some similar stages and activities for each proposal and award.

Idea

A project starts with a PI’s idea and with finding a potential sponsor for it.

The Grants office has started identifying opportunities for the PI and accumulates information to come up with comprehensive database of sponsor programs and contacts. The Grants office will continue being in charge of this activity but inform the Divisional Administrators once a specific opportunity is identified for a divisional faculty and involve the Divisional Administrators in helping the faculty to make a decision whether to apply or to reject an opportunity. The Divisional Administrators need to let the Grants office know if a funding opportunity is a go or a no go for their faculty.

Proposal Processing

Once a sponsor is known, the PI needs to present an idea in a format that is familiar to the sponsor. The Grants office has the knowledge of forms and requirements and will continue to take the lead here.

Many sponsors require supplying general information about the institution or the group that applies (for example, general information about facilities, general financial statements, etc). We are working on creating a Grants office position to help with this. Below are some proposal questions as an example. Mission statement

History and accomplishments of the institution or the research team
Board of Directors / Advisory Committee
Annual Operating budget or the organization
Top 10 Donors / Funders

Also, every proposal needs to have a budget. Again, the Grants office has knowledge of forms and principles that apply to each proposed budget and will take the lead. However, a proposal budget may have implications on the divisional budget once awarded. As such, the Grants office will ensure that the Divisional Administrators review and Chiefs sign off on the budgets before submission to ensure proper allocation of divisional assignments and budgets. Further, the Divisional Administrators will take the lead on the items that will have influence on the actual budgets that they are overseeing. Some examples are planning for cost- sharing and CAS exemptions.
Most of the projects are negotiated by the DSR but budgets and payment terms for clinical trials and a few other contracts are negotiated by the Grants office. Grants office will notify the Divisional Administrators once budget for the trial is final to allow for proactive planning.

Award set-up

Once a decision to fund an award is made by the sponsor, the Grants office will be the primary contact to set up the award and the Divisional Administrators will be in charge of anything that relates to spending as now their budget will start to be affected.

Project management

Over the course of the award, Divisional Administrators will take lead on budgets and any internal management issues related to the award: initiating cost transfers, ensuring CAS exemptions are in place, verifying that spending is done correctly, funds are available to cover expenses and budgets are active to do so.

Spending is not the only activity required for a successful administration of a grant. Many agencies require periodic reports. Grants office will take charge here collaborating closely with the Divisional Administrators.

Although clinical trials do not get budget releases, they are no different than any other award to the things discussed above. Once a contract a signed and decision to award a trial is made, the Grants office will initiate invoicing to get the funds. However, planning for administration of the award needs to start before the check gets to us. The Divisional Administrators will take charge of the internal administrative planning (purchasing, payroll, coordinator hires) and will work closely with the Grants office on planning and tracking of expected revenue.

Close out

And finally, as the project ends, we together need to make sure awards are closed properly. The Grants office will review external issues: reports to the agencies, invoices to sponsors. Grants office will get the close memo and send to the Divisional Administrators for review and signatures. While the Divisional Administrators will take charge of the internal closures and verify proper spending of the funds (including the clinical trials) and ensure PIs are ready to close the awards and sign off on the close memo.

A separate note on the regular PI meetings. Again, grants administration is a complex process and involves multiple parties. All these parties need some dedicated time when they can meet and review information about pending proposals as well as progress on the current awards. Both, Grants office and the Divisional Administrators have to be involved.

The Grants office will take charge in scheduling quarterly meetings with each PI who has individual direct awards over $50,000 or has two and more projects. A list of such PIs will be periodically reviewed with the Divisional Administrators (DAs) for completeness. To remain consistent with the service we provide to the faculty, a minimal set of reports that will be presented at every meeting. Certainly, additional custom reports will be pulled and prepared at a request of a PI.

Grant Summary, Payroll Projection, Payroll Detail, PI summary, Transaction Detail (DAs)
Expiring Grants (DAs)
Faculty Grant Effort (Grants office)
Pending Proposals (Grants office)
Funding Opportunities (Grants office)

Division of Sponsored Research (DSR) Guidelines:

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