You have been awarded a sponsored program award. Award management is vital to the students you serve and the UVU community. Awards create new and exciting programs and services for UVU students, faculty, and staff.
The primary purpose of award management is to oversee the funding that is awarded in a sponsored program. It begins at the signing of an agreement or accepting funds for a program. Award management is ensuring that activities are carried out within the scope outlined, on time, and within budget. As a Principal Investigator/Program Director (PI/PD) you are responsible for the following activities throughout the course of the award:All award notices must be reviewed by OSP. Any award notice sent directly to the PI should be forwarded immediately to Alex Hartvigsen ([email protected]) OSP Director of Post-Award Services to ensure that the award is appropriately handled. Once a notice of award (NOA) is issued, OSP will review it and work with the principal investigator (PI) and his/her department to set up a project.
Principal Investigators, Department Chairs, Deans, or other University employees should never sign or submit a sponsored program agreement or award. If a sponsored program proposal or award is NOT signed by the Senior Director of OSP or an authorized individual designated by Policy 247, the contract or grant is void and unenforceable against the University.
Any Principal Investigator/Project Director(PI/PD) or other unauthorized University
employee who signs a grant proposal, contract or agreement that s/he is not authorized
to sign is acting outside the scope of his/her employment and may be personally liable
for any resulting liability or obligation, and may be subject to disciplinary action,
including termination of employment.
All PI/PDs must contact OSP([email protected]) when they receive notification that an award has been approved for funding by the
sponsor. All PI/PDs and Co-PI/PDs (as appropriate) involved with newly awarded projects
or sponsors are required to attend a new award orientation and complete all required
documents with the OSP Director of Post-Award Services (or designee) and other OSP
staff as necessary before a funding index will be created and awarded funds may be
made available to spend.
Effective January 1, 2021, all faculty involved in sponsored research must complete the following: Conflict of Interest (COI) Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) online training which will require an additional online refresher course to be completed every 4 years.
In addition, those faculty and students involved in sponsored research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) with the following programs: D43, D71, F05, F30, F31, F32, F33, F34, F37, F38, K01, K02, K05, K07, K08, K12, K18, K22, K23, K24, K25, K26, K30, K99/R00, KL1, KL2, R25, R36, T15, T32, T34, T35, T36, T37, T90/R90, TL1, TU2, and U2R must complete both the online RCR training AND an in-class course. Please contact OSP for instructions on how to register for the in-class portion of this course. Completing a refresher course will be required at each stage of training (e.g., graduate, postdoc, etc.) or every 4 years, whichever comes sooner.
The online COI and RCR courses are offered through CITI which can be accessed by faculty and students at the following URL:Citiprogram.org. Please see the attached page for registration instructions.
The online training is now available. Faculty and students are encouraged to complete
their applicable training prior to January 2021 to ensure sponsored research funding
will not be withheld.
Your sponsored program has specific rules and regulations that must be followed. Your
sponsored program must follow all applicable laws, regulations, contracts, policies,
and procedures. The presence of grant funds does not preclude you or your staff from
following UVU policies. There may be times when the sponsor's rules are more flexible
than UVU policy. The most restrictive rule always applies.
The notice of award (NOA) is a legally binding document that contains or references
all terms and conditions of the award, and documents the obligation of funds. PI’s
and his/her administering departments should understand and comply with all award
terms and conditions.
If the PI wants to change or revise the terms of the award, he/she must contact OSP for guidance and approval. In some cases, prior approval of the sponsor is required and in other cases it can be done without explicit approval by "expanded authority". For information on common post-award actions and revisions such asre-budgetingand no-cost extensions, please contact Alex Hartvigsen ( [email protected])
If the University is issued a subcontract under a federal award, any changes (such as project period, re-budgeting, adding funds, or other changes) must be agreed to in writing between the University and the collaborating institution acting as our sponsor.
International Travel Foreign travel requires post-award review by OSP even when the travel has been included in the initially approved budget. Foreign travel must be consistent with the provisions of the Fly America Act and federalexport control regulations.PI/PDs shall consult with OSP for guidance on foreign travel prior to incurring any travel expenses.The PI is the primary individual in charge of a research grant, cooperative agreement, training or public service project, contract or other sponsored project for which the university is the grantee or the contractor.
The University is, ultimately, legally and financially responsible and accountable to the sponsor for the performance of the project and the proper use of funds but without the full cooperation and vigilance of the PI, the university would fail in its stewardship role.
If your project involves multiple PI's or Co-PI's, each PI is responsible and accountable to the grantee organization, or, as appropriate, to a collaborating organization, for the proper conduct of the project or program, including the preparation and submission of required reports and ensuring that expenditures are made consistent with the planned budget. All PI's should be fully engaged in any decisions to change budget priorities and personnel.
Good grants management has many elements, including:
Sponsors often require PI's to request prior approval for significant changes.
Although many sponsors allow flexibility in areas such as re-budgeting, carry-forward of unobligated balances from year to year, and pre-award costs, sponsors expect expenditures to be reasonably consistent with the proposed scope of work and budget.
Under expanded authorities, many federal agencies have chosen to waive the normally-required
sponsor prior approval for specific actions. The PI should refer to the sponsored
award terms to determine the authorizations that apply to each award.
Reconciling accounts on a regular basis will help you to manage your sponsored funds to ensure that expenditures and revenues are within appropriate limits and guidelines.
After a grant or contract has been awarded, the PI may determine that the approved budget allocations are not consistent with actual project needs. S/he may request the formal reallocation of funds from one spending category to another category that better reflects the project requirements. This process is called re-budgeting or budget revision.
All re-budgeting should be reviewed by OSP and under expanded authorities re-budgeting may or may not require formal approval from the sponsor. To initiate a re-budget, please complete a Budget Revision Request Form and forward it to The Director of Post Award Services ([email protected]) for review.
In many instances, an unobligated balance on a grant may be carried over into the next budget period without sponsor approval. If this is permitted, it will be indicated as such in the notice of award (NOA).
Where carryover requires sponsor approval and/or when it exceeds 25% of the award,
or when it exceeds $250,000, the request should be mentioned by the PI in the progress
report. In the justification section, and in the progress report itself, the PI should
mention that a formal request will be submitted under separate cover.
The PI is responsible for submitting programmatic reports by the deadlines established in the award agreement or contract, providing an explanation of the research progress, a summary of results, any publications stemming from the research, and other pertinent information, including analysis and explanation of cost overruns or high unit costs.
PIs and departmental administrators must establish reliable departmental accounting practices for day-to-day financial monitoring of sponsored research projects in compliance to federal regulations established in OMB Uniform Guidance The award document terms and conditions detail the financial data that must be reported.
The departmental administrator is usually responsible for performing comparisons of the department's records to the University's financial records and monitoring items that are not reflected in Management Reports. Learn more in Manage Your Budget.
Because the data in Management Reports serves as the basis for financial reporting to the sponsor, it is critical that the department maintain current and accurate records. As a general rule, expenses should be incurred immediately and on a regular basis once an account number is assigned to a project. This practice helps to ensure that expenses align with the progress of the project, therefore providing an accurate report to the sponsor.
PIs and departmental administrators are also responsible for tracking cost sharing commitments as well as effort reporting. They also oversee sub-recipient accounts and activities to ensure compliance and timely reporting as established in the award terms and conditions.
Information on final reports can be found in Close-out. For NIH reporting, review
theRPPR preparation instructions.
The closeout is a critical piece in the life cycle of a grant. Preparation for closeout should begin six months prior to the end date of the grant in order to accurately forecast expenses and any adjusting financial entries that need to be made. It is also a point where many PI’s realize the need to apply for no-cost extensions from the sponsor.
No Cost Extensions ( NCE) The PI/PD shall complete all work under sponsored agreements within the period specified in the award contract. However, if the PI/PD requires additional time to complete the approved scope of work using existing funds, the sponsor may consider a request to extend the expiration date of the award at no additional cost or with additional funding subject to re-negotiation of the existing contract. THe PI/PD must initiate all NCE notifications and requests at least three months before the end of the performance period. NCE must be reviewed and approved by OSP prior to submission. The PI/PD's annual conflict of interest disclosure must also be up to date for OSP to process the NCE.
If your grant is from the NIH, your grant may be subject to Streamlined Noncompeting Award Procedures (SNAP). Grants that are subject to SNAP can be identified by looking at the grant notice of award (NOA). See specific details about closing a grant from the NIH.
OSP shall close sponsored projects within 30 days at the end of the performance period unless otherwise designated by the awarding sponsor. Closeout requires that all reports and drawdown requests ave been satisfactorily complied as determined by the sponsor and the OSP.
The PI/PDs shall ensure that all expenditures for a sponsored project are incurred prior to the end date of the award performance period. Multi-year awards may be divided by the sponsor into multiple periods with specific start and end dates or budget periods. The sponsor may restrict the spending of funds to a specific budget period.
The terms and conditions should specify if automatic carry-forward is allowed for muti0year awards or if prior approval is necessary. The PI/PD shall obtain prior approval from the sponsor to retain the unspent funds from one funding period and use them in a subsequent budget period. OSP must be consulted for all prior- approval requests for unspent funding. Awards that do not allow fund carry-forward will require unspent funding to be returned to the sponsor at the end of a budget period.
Post-Performance Period Expenditures All expenditures shall be incurred prior to the end date of the award performance period. The only exceptions are federal grants that use publication and printing costs for professional journal publications, and only if the cost is approved in the award budget and the funds are set aside in an account for this purpose prior to the closeout of the award. Any funds set aside for publication and printing costs that are not expended for this purpose must be returned to the sponsor after one year from grant closeout if the PI is ready to close the award, the PI will need to ensure that all costs are appropriate and all transactions have been properly recorded. This includes:
