Post-Award: Grants Management Information
You got the grant! Congratulations!
Our office will help you manage your grant award. Specifically, we:
- Set up and manage grant accounts
- Process reimbursements and reconcile charges to grants
- Track and report monthly spending
- Send PI monthly reports of expenditures for review
- Ensure compliance with grant guidelines and federal regulations (e.g., financial conflict of interest, responsible conduct of research)
- Draw down federal funds
- Assist in completing financial and narrative reports
Once you have received your award notice, please make an appointment with our office for a required Grants Management meeting. At this meeting, we will go over the grant requirements and how we work together with you to ensure that we follow all College, funding agency, and federal rules relating to the grant. You will be asked to sign a Grants Management and Compliance memo, which outlines your responsibilities in carrying out the obligations of the grant (including required compliance and training, if necessary).
Grant Accounts and Spending Guidelines
Upon receiving the award notice, the Sponsored Program Office will have a new grant account set up through the Business Office. If this is a federal grant with salaries and wages, an Indirect Cost account for the faculty will be created at the same time. These account numbers are sent to the appropriate administrative assistants to be used as needed. We encourage faculty to use their JP Morgan credit cards for all charges following Division procedures; if not, invoices should be submitted to the Sponsored Program office for processing. Proper signatures/approvals and title of grant must be included with all receipts.
Managing your Federal Grant
The Office of Management and Budget's Uniform Guidance is a set of federal regulations that governs the administration of federal grants; our office's federal grants preparation and management guidelines are based on these regulations. This includes the following requirements:
Time and Effort Reporting - Each employee whose time is committed to a federally sponsored project shall complete a time and effort report. These reports must be completed monthly. The Sponsored Program Office is responsible for the distribution, collection, and retention of all employee effort reports. The Time and Effort report must represent, in percentages totaling 100%, a reasonable estimate of an employee's effort for the period being reported. Compensated effort includes all research, teaching, administration, service, and any other activity for which an individual received compensation from the College.
Expenditure of Funds - Any charges made against a grant must be valid, accurate and meet the requirements of the Uniform Guidance (UG) Federal Regulations 2 CFR 200, Subpart D- 200.300, Subpart E 200.400 and Subpart F 200.500-521 as well as the guidelines and the stipulations appearing in the award letter from the funder. All expenditures against a grant account must be made before the closing date of the grant. No vendor, whose name appears on the U. S. Government's Vendor Exclusion list may be paid from a federal grant. No payment may be made to any organization or individual listed on the U. S. Government's Terrorist Exclusion list. It will be the responsibility of the Sponsored Program Coordinator to ensure all such searches for exclusion have been conducted. After signoff by the Sponsored Program Coordinator, payment requests must then be approved by the Provost Dean of Faculty prior to submission to the Controller. Based on the letter of award, any costs deemed unallowable by the Provost Dean of Faculty or the Controller's Office will be rejected and will become the responsibility of the Principal Investigator.
Subcontracts - All subcontractors must state in writing that they will abide by the federal regulations governing grants. A subcontract agreement will be drawn up by the Principal Investigator's institution and a signature of a cognizant subcontracting official must be affixed to the agreement. Subcontractors submit invoices to the Principal Investigator who then routes the statements through the Office of Sponsored Research. Subcontracts may not be issued to anyone or any organization on the U. S. Government Exclusion Lists cited above.
Fly America Act- In accordance with the Fly America Act (49 USC 40118), any air transportation to, from, between, or within a country other than the US of persons or property, the expense of which will be assisted by federal funding, must be performed by or under a code-sharing arrangement with a US-flag air carrier if service provided by such a carrier is available (see Comptroller General Decision B-240956, dated September 25, 1991). Tickets (or documentation for electronic tickets) must identify the US flag air carrier's designator code and flight number.