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This information is designed to assist departmental research administrators — professionals who work with researchers in their unit and with contract-and-grant experts in the Research Office in establishing, maintaining, and closing out research awards. If you are seeking guidance on developing a proposal and its budget, please see the Proposal Guide.
- Getting Started
- Maintaining the Award
- Closing the Award
UD Financials reporting (FIRPT)
Automated Closeout Report (ACR) webform login
Automated Closeout Report (ACR) Job Aid
UD Financials Systems Information
Fly America Act pdf
NSF Proposal and Awards Policies & Procedures Guide (HTML) (PDF)
Department of Energy Grant Rules, Regulations, and Guidance
NASA Grant and Cooperative Agreement Handbook
Office of Naval Research Grants Terms and Conditions
Education Department General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR)
Congratulations on receiving research funding! These guidelines are designed to help you efficiently manage your award in compliance with University and sponsor policies and procedures.
As a first step, please verify that the award has been reviewed by the Research Office. It is important to remember that only Research Office staff, as the authorized representatives of the University, can sign agreements, contracts, and grants. If you do not know your department's Research Office representative, see our Staff Directory. Then follow these guidelines:
Research Administration Roles and Responsibilities Matrix
Read the award documents. This is an important step in maintaining the award. These are some items you should check on:
- Are there special terms or conditions?
- Is the award incrementally funded? (e.g., an NIH award subject to SNAP, the Streamlined Non-Competing Award Process)
- Note any deliverables (reports, products), and make the PI aware of them.
- GMQ_MILESTONES will return all milestones for an award.
- Additional milestones not returned in this query can be added by contacting Research Office.
Compare the awarded budget to the final proposed budget. Contact Research Office if there are discrepancies. Note cost-share requirements (see Cost-Share section below).
Hint: To check the proposal budget, run these queries:
GMQ_PROP_PROJS_BUD (shows what was in the proposal)
GMQ_BUDS_BY_CONTRACT (shows every project budget that has been funded in an award)
Setting up your files at the beginning of an award will help to keep you organized throughout the life of the award and make close-outs and audits a much simpler task. You may find it useful to set up a PROJECT ID folder to track transactions. Subfolders for each budget category or type of transaction allow you to further organize your transaction backup documentation.
When a new purpose is set up by the Research Office for a new project, a copy of the Research Office Chart of Accounts Notification is sent to the PI and department account administrator or department representative (this varies by department). This document is a valuable resource for you to retain to help you in administering your award. The Purpose, Project, Contract, and Proposal IDs are all listed. You will need these IDs to run queries and track your transactions. Validate the accuracy of this report and discuss any discrepancies with the Research Office.
Cost-share is defined as funds committed for the project that are not budgeted from grant funds. Some examples include equipment, personnel effort, and tuition. If there are cost-share commitments, contact the departments or colleges that have committed funds. Some cost-share will require companion Purposes; others may be tracked using cost-share Speedtypes or UD Userfields. We will go into more detail on different ways to track cost-share transactions in the section on Maintaining Your Award. The cost share policy can be found here: Cost Share Policy
If the cost-share is from a third party, contact
the source and outline requirements for documentation so that you can report
these transactions along with the internal cost-share expenses. Specific guidance
on cost-sharing in relation to federal grants is in the OMB
Circular A-110, Subpart C.23.
Subcontracts will be coordinated with the Research Office in the following way. Research Office notifies the department to:
1) Initiate a purchase requisition for the funds.
2) Identify any special reporting requirements requested by the PI.
3) Revise the statement of work, budget, and budget justification as applicable.
4) Sub-recipient documents, including:
- Subrecipient Commitment Form (PDF)
- Attachment 3B Subrecipient Contact (PDF)
- Attachment 3B page 2
- Revised Budget, revised budget justification (If needed)
- Revised Statement of Work (if funds were reduced)
- Subs F&A agreement
- Provider Category Determination Worksheet
Department Administrator will establish a seperate file within their main award file to aid in tracking the activity associated with the subcontract . More detail on subcontracts is included in Maintaining Your Award.
A consultant is defined as an individual (not a company) contributing his or her expertise to a research project for a determined fee. For consulting agreements >$25,000, the Research Office will include a copy of the Debarment Statement with the notification of award, according to OMB Circular A-133 guidelines.This will allow the Consultant to sign the statement when the Consulting Agreement is signed.
Program income means gross income earned by the recipient that is directly generated by a supported activity or earned as a result of the award (see exclusions in Subpart C.24 (e) and (h) of OMB Circular A-110).
Program income includes, but is not limited to, income from fees for services performed, the use or rental of real or personal property acquired under federally funded projects, the sale of commodities or items fabricated under an award, license fees and royalties on patents and copyrights, and interest on loans made with award funds.
Interest earned on advances of federal funds is not program income. Except as otherwise provided in federal awarding agency regulations or the terms and conditions of the award, program income does not include the receipt of principal on loans, rebates, credits, discounts, etc., or interest earned on any of them.
If there is program income, determine which type of program income is applicable. Refer to OMB Circular A-110, Subpart C.24, for additional information.
For information on Sponsored Research Program Income Procedures follow this link.
Equipment fabrication is the building of a new stand-alone piece of equipment. If the expectation is that the equipment being fabricated will exceed $5,000 in total cost, this will be budgeted as equipment. If there are fabrications needed as part of the project, transactions should be tracked from the beginning of the award. See the Capitalizing Fabrications section in Maintaining Your Award for details on how to track and capitalize fabrications.
If personnel are supported on an award, the charges must be coded to appear on the correct Speedtype. (See the LAM training document for an explanation of Speedtype vs. Purpose.) In addition to direct charges for personnel, there may be related effort commitments which are tracked as cost-share. The Labor Allocation Module (LAM), which you'll read about next, is a system used at the University of Delaware to track both types of personnel effort. Payroll charges are processed by HR and are distributed either directly (based on the JED) or on the distributions in the LAM. Distribution of pay impacts Effort Certification, as well as the direct charges to the grant. If you are unsure which method to utilize, contact your college's financial officer.
It is important to note that the Budget Office requires that all 100% grant-funded Professionals and Salaried Staff (includes Limited Term Researchers) be funded in HR on the departmental supplemental funds Purpose. The actual funding source would appear in the LAM. When checking Webviews, if an employee shows their funding source as the department supplemental funds, it should be a trigger for you to check the LAM for the actual funding.
The University of Delaware has a Labor Allocation Module (LAM), whereby administrators can assign accurate funding distribution to each pay per employee. Details on the LAM can be found in the LAM training document. LAM users can log on to use the module at www.udel.edu/LAM. Payroll charges are processed by HR and are distributed either directly (based on the JED) or on the distributions in the LAM. Distribution of pay impacts Effort Certification as well as the direct charges to the grant. A LAM Calculator is available for users to accurately determine percentages for the LAM entries as they relate to sponsored research projects. To learn more about LAM and effort and how to use the LAM calculator view this LAM Presentation. If you are unsure which method to utilize (the JED or the LAM), contact your college's financial officer.
UD's research enterprise depends on funding from federal and state agencies, private foundations, organizations, and industry. The University's electronic Effort Certification System is the principal means of verifying that salaries and wages charged to or contributed to a sponsored project are fulfilled in a manner consistent with the award documentation and compliant with the federal regulations for which the University is held accountable.
If you need assistance in identifying your effort administrator, please see the Department Administrator Directory within our Staff Directory. To learn more about administering the effort certification process in your department, check out these training opportunities.
Two training sessions are available to employees who will either certify to, or administer the Effort Certification Process for a given department:
Policies Overview Training
(1MB ppt)
Administrative Detail Training
(3MB ppt)
There often exists a question over whether funds from a foundation or other (non-federal) organization are to be treated as gifts or sponsored awards. The two are very much intertwined. Awards may be received as either a gift or in the form of a sponsored agreement. In certain situations, a gift may be administered out of the Office of Sponsored Programs Administration, located in the Research Office, or jointly with the Development Office; these determinations are made at the time of the solicitation/proposal.
Automated Closeout Report (ACR) webform login
Automated Closeout Report (ACR) Job Aid
UD Financials
Systems Information
UD Financials reporting (FIRPT)
Fly America Act pdf
NASA Grant & Cooperative
Agreement Handbook
NSF Proposal and Awards Policies & Procedures Guide (HTML) (PDF)
Department of Energy Grant Rules, Regulations, and Guidance
NASA Grant and Cooperative Agreement Handbook
Office of Naval Research Grants Terms and Conditions
Education Department General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR)
During the life of an award, there is no substitute for good practices in
tracking and reconciling your transactions. If you keep good records, are proactive
in reconciling your transactions, and prompt in making corrections, your close-out
audit should be trouble-free. Knowing the financials data and how to get it
is the key to success.
There are several tools that will prove invaluable to this process.
UD at a Glance
This application allows University personnel to view University financial data for which they are authorized. This tool may be used for daily review of budget and expenditures and monthly reconciliation of purpose codes via the monthly statement view. You may access UDataGlance here.
The PeopleSoft Query tool allows you to extract financial data. The Query tool can be used to do the following:
• Preview query data within Query Manager and Query Viewer, displaying
the results set in a table format;
• Write new or modify existing queries (be sure to *SAVE AS* rather than overwrite the original query) to extract new data sets; and
•Download query results to an Excel spreadsheet.
Query training introduces you to some of the basic functions of the PeopleSoft (PS) Query tool as they are used at the University of Delaware. Many pre-written queries also are available for use. A PowerPoint presentation explaining Grants Reporting is available here. Also included is a list of public, pre-written queries. Public queries may be added or deleted, so check in Query Viewer or Query Manager to see an updated list. Several acronyms have been designated for pre-written queries. Here are a few:
GMQ — Maintained by the Research Office; provides Proposal, Project, and CASH information.
Samples include:
EZQ_BAL_PROJ queries — Maintained by General Accounting; provides Balances and Transaction information for a specific project to date purpose, not by specific project ID.
PIQ — Maintained by Research Office; provides curriculum vitae information from the Employee Demographic Data (EDD), as well as F and A by PI.
UDQ — Maintained by the Treasurer's Office; various useful types of information dealing with Purpose details such as Authorized signers, Titles, Speedtypes, etc.
OBQ — Maintained by the Budget Office; provides information related to Obligations.
There are several types of cost-share that can be part of an award. The type of cost-share determines how it is tracked. Effort cost-share will be discussed later in this section under "Reconciling Transactions." The cost share policy can be found here: Cost Share Policy
Research Office Equipment Cost-Share — A separate Purpose is established to track this type of cost-share. All transactions using these Purposes should automatically be populated with the ProjectID. However, it is possible that some transactions may appear in Financials without the Project ID. If this should happen, it is important to contact the responsible department to correct the transaction (i.e., if a Purchase requisition, contact Procurement, JV-initiating department) or the expense will not be reflected as cost- share related to the grant.
Other Equipment Cost-Share — Match funds from UD sources other than Research Office may not have a separate Purpose. There are several different ways to track these transactions.
Populate the Project ID in the Project ID field when a transaction is initiated. For example, in a purchase requisition, you would fill in this information at the time the Requisition is submitted. If you are using your departmental supplemental funds Purpose (such as CHEM17S000), the Project ID field is normally blank. By filling in the Project ID, you can run queries to pull all cost-share transactions together, regardless of funding source.
Useful queries for tracking cost-share are:
GMQ_CS_COMMITTED_EXPENDED_V — Shows cost-share (match) committed and spent amounts by project.
GMQ_PO_W_CS_BY_PROJECT — Returns PO data by Project ID and PO and cost-share (details).
Cost-share must be verifiable or it may be disallowed. If the department is not able to document that the committed cost-share was provided, a percentage of the awarded funds may be returned to the sponsoring agency.
When a sponsor awards funds to the University in support of specific programs and projects, it requires the University to manage those funds prudently to ensure that any costs incurred directly benefit the project accounts being charged.
The Federal Government is the largest sponsor of externally funded activity at the University. The cost principles relating to expenditures on federal awards are contained in the Office of Management and Budgets (OMB) Circular A-21 "The Cost Principles for Institutions of Higher Education". These cost principles require that any expense charged to a federally sponsored project be reasonable and necessary, allocable, consistently treated, and conform to any limits or exclusions set forth in A-21 or the terms and conditions of the award.
Anyone approving or processing the expenditure of federal funds must have a clear understanding of Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) and apply consistent application of these fundamental cost principles. In addition, individual awards may include special terms and conditions which must be considered when incurring costs. Terms and Conditions in an award which specifically address costs override all related comments in the CAS guidelines document. Consult with the appropriate Contract and Grant Administrator in the Research Office for more details.
NIH restricts the amount of direct salary of an individual under an NIH grant or cooperative agreement or applicable contract to Executive Level I of the Federal Executive Pay scale. For the purposes of the salary limitation, the terms "direct salary," "salary," and "institutional base salary" have the same meaning and are exclusive of fringe benefits and facilities and administrative (F anD A) expenses. Please see the salary cap summary and the time frames associated with existing salary caps at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/salcap_summary.htm. An individual's base salary, per se, is NOT constrained by the legislative provision for a limitation of salary. The rate limitation simply limits the amount that may be awarded and charged to NIH grants and contracts. An institution may pay an individual's salary amount in excess of the salary cap with non-federal funds. The amount of funding above the salary cap is cost share.
Reconciling transactions on a monthly basis is important to grants management. Cost transfers should be completed within 90 days of the original charge. As with other aspects of grants management, several methods can be used to reconcile your transactions.
UD at a Glance
This application allows University personnel to view University financial data for which they are authorized. This tool may be used for daily review of budget and expenditures and monthly reconciliation of purpose codes via the monthly statement view. You may access UDataGlance here.
Web-enabled statements are provided by General Accounting. This report provides the user with a view of summed and detailed transactions and balances for Purposes/Projects which they are permitted to view. You may access instructions via UDataGlance here.
Useful Queries for reconciling transactions are:
EZQ_TRANS_NONBUDGETQUERY — Non Budget Transactions
EZQ_TRANS_NONBUDGETACCT — Non Budget Transactions- for a specific Account
EZQ_TRANS_NONBUDGETPURP — Non Budget Transactions- for a specific Purpose
EZQ_TRANS_BUDGET_QUERY — Budget Only Transactions
Checking Balances
Running a query in UD Financials is the most common method for checking a balance on an award. You can find a list of some pre-written grants queries and their uses here.
GMQ — Maintained by the Research Office; provides Proposal, Project, and CASH information
Samples include:
Here are some specific balance queries for project to date purposes:
EZQ_BAL_PROJ_QUERY — Project-to-date balance summarized by account
EZQ_BAL_PROJ_SUMMARY — Project-to-date balance summarized by acct category
EZQ_BAL_PROJ_TOTAL — Project-to-date balance: one line "bottom line" amount
Journal Vouchers and Corrections
Cost transfers should be completed within 90 days of the original charge. Journal Voucher instructions and rules are listed on the General Accounting Web page.
Note: Refer to the Cost Transfer section for details on the University's procedure on cost transfers related to sponsored research projects.
Billing to sponsors and cash received from sponsors is handled by the Research Office. Cash and Billing transactions can be viewed in the Financials queries. It is important to note that cash received prior to the Grants and Billing modules going live in July 2004 is reflected differently than cash that has been received after 7/1/2004. To view all cash received for a Project, it may be necessary to run all three cash queries to get a total.
GMQ_CASH_NOT_PS_BILL Cash received outside of PS Billing — This query gives all
Cash received outside of the Billing module.
GMQ_CASH_PS_BILLED Sum of PS billing activity — This query gives you all Cash received as a result of a Billing in PS module.
GMQ_CASH_THRU_2002 Total Cash as of 7/1/02 — This query gives you a total of all cash received prior to 7/1/02 (prior to Financials go-live date).
Equipment fabrication expenses should be allocated to PS account 153100, which does not incur F and A costs. If more than one piece of equipment is being fabricated on a particular PS purpose, or if a piece of equipment is being charged to multiple purposes, it is best to track the expenses as they occur so that you can identify the individual charges for a particular fabrication. Keeping an updated spreadsheet or tagging transactions in UD AT A Glance are good tracking methods.
When a fabrication is complete, all charges must be transferred by a journal voucher from PS account 153100 to 167900 for capital equipment. Equipment must have an initial value of at least $5K. After capitalization, cost adjustments (also done via JV) will only be allowed by General Accounting if the added value is at least $2K. See University Policy 5-10 in the Procurement and Auxiliary Services section for more details on what qualifies as capital equipment.
To capitalize equipment:
1) Send a list of all applicable charges to General Accounting (Karen Brown).
2) The list should include these items:
- The property tag number (if assigned)
- The name of the equipment (currently limited to 26 characters)
- Whether the piece is federally or University owned
- Which faculty member built the piece
- The location of the piece (building and room)
- A short description of what the equipment does
All the charges to be included in the capitalization must be transferred from PS account 153100 to 167900.
Throughout the life of the award, scientific and technical reporting is the responsibility of the PI. Most financial reports required by the sponsor will be prepared and signed by Research Office as the authorized official of the University of Delaware. Milestones are used to track the due date of these reports and can be queried at GMQ_MILESTONES.
A cost transfer is any adjustment or transfer of expenditures to/from an externally funded contract or grant purpose/project by means of a journal voucher. Diligent review of financial records and timely communication between principal investigators and departmental administrators should prevent the necessity for transfers; however, under certain circumstances transfers may be appropriate.
To comply with the requirements of OMB Circular A-21, the policy of NIH, our largest source of federal research funding, and the requirements of other federal sponsors, University of Delaware has established the following procedures for the processing of cost transfer .
According to OMB Circular A-21 (2 CFR Part 220):
Section C4b: "Any cost allocable to a particular sponsored agreement...may not be shifted to other sponsored agreements in order to meet deficiencies caused by overruns or other fund considerations, to avoid restrictions imposed by law or by terms of the sponsored agreement, or for other reasons of convenience."
Section C4c: "Any costs allocable to activities sponsored by industry, foreign governments or other sponsors may not be shifted to federally-sponsored agreements."
Note: The revised cost transfer procedure is effective March 31, 2008.
Unallowable costs are defined as those expenses which are not reimbursable under the terms and conditions of federally sponsored agreements and/or those specifically identified as unallowable in Section J of OMB Circular A-21 (2 CFR Part 220). In the event a discrepancy exists between the provisions of OMB Circular A-21 and those specified within the sponsored agreement, the agreement provisions will prevail.
An expense must meet all of the following criteria to be considered an allowable cost:
- The cost is reasonable: A prudent person would have purchased this item and paid this price.
- The cost is necessary: The expense is required to fulfill the terms and needs of the sponsored agreement.
- The cost is allocable: The expense benefits the sponsored agreement or, when the expense benefits more than one activity, an appropriate share can be allocated to individual agreements.
- The cost is consistently treated: Expenses for the same purpose are treated and classified the same way under like circumstances.
- The cost is not prohibited: The expense is not specifically prohibited by OMB Circular A-21, the terms of the sponsored agreement or other regulations.
If an activity/expense does not meet the above criteria, it cannot be charged directly to a federal award nor can it be included in the indirect cost base regardless of its purpose. In addition, it cannot be used to meet a cost share commitment.
Unallowable costs are identified and segregated by a combination of the following methods:
- Separate PS account code
- Review of expenses conducted as part of a monthly reconciliation of expenditures by Research Administrator (GMQ_TRANS_UNALLOWABLE)
- Review of expenses conducted by Research Office personnel during closeout
If there is a subcontract, you will receive invoices from the subcontractor via the Research Office. The PI and the account administrator should review and approve the invoices. It is important for the PI to review and approve each invoice as confirmation that the subcontractor is performing work as indicated in the Scope of Work. GMQ_PO_ACTIVITY_SUM query is available to view what has been committed and expended for purchase orders by PS Account. If there are additional funds for the award in subsequent budget years, the subcontract purchase order must be increased to reflect the additional funds. Payment of the final invoice on any subcontract is contingent upon receipt of the closeout reports required in the subcontract agreement.
Instructions for the use of the Grants Budget Revision Web Form to process budget revisions may be found here.
While sponsors expect Principal Investigators (PI) to complete projects by the stipulated end date, occasionally extra time is needed. A no-cost extension (NCE) gives the PI extra time to complete the scope and objectives of the project without additional funds being provided by the sponsor. Although requests may not be made for the sole purpose of spending remaining funds, you may expend remaining funds during the no-cost extension period. In the event your request is not approved, costs incurred after the end date would be considered unallowable and should be removed from the award via web journal voucher.
The following should be considered when requesting a no cost extension:
- Additional time beyond the established expiration date is required to ensure adequate completion of the originally approved project.
- Continuity of Sponsor grant support is required while a competing continuation application is under review.
- The extension is necessary to permit an orderly phase out of a project that will not receive continued support.
The Research Office recommends a review of your program at least 90 days prior to the end date to assess if a no-cost extension will be required to complete the project objective. No-cost extension requests should be made according to the sponsor guidelines and should be forwarded to your Contract and Grant Administrator in the Research Office. Some funding agencies have awarded The University of Delaware 'Expanded Authority' which allows the Research Office to approve the request; however, this is on a case-by-case circumstance.
The Research Office must receive the following information before proceeding with the request for a no cost extension:
- Purpose or Project Code
- Current Expiration Date
- Length of Extension
- Scientific/Programmatic Justification explaining the need for the extension of time. This narrative should be written as if you were writing your Program Officer requesting an extension. As needed this justification will be forwarded to the sponsor by the Research Office.
- If subawards have been issued under the prime award and require an extension please indicate and provide the necessary information and justification similar to above.
(Please remember an NCE request cannot be simply for expenditure of excess funds. An NCE is granted to complete work that was delayed for a specific reason)
Sponsor Requirements:
Department of Defense (DOD) - Change in Performance Period. The recipient may make a one-time "no cost" extension to the expiration date of the award for a period up to 12 months. The recipient shall notify the Grants Officer, in writing, at least 10 days prior to the expiration date of the award. Go to http://www.usamraa.army.mil/pages/index.cfm; in the site search box type no cost extension; click on url:pdf/ASSTPKG (DEC 2001).pdf and the needed information is on page 4 under 4. APPROVALS AND OTHER AUTHORIZATIONS
National Institutes of Health (NIH) - First no-cost extension is automatic under "Expanded Authority"; Second no-cost extension or extension greater than 12 months must have prior approval (All instances). (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/nihgps_2003/NIHGPS_part7.htm)
National Science Foundation (NSF) - Grantees may authorize a one-time extension of the expiration date of the grant of up to 12 months. The grantee shall notify NSF, providing supporting reasons for the extension and the revised expiration date, at least ten days prior to the expiration date specified in the grant to ensure accuracy of NSF's grant data. All grantee-authorized extension notifications must be submitted via the FastLane system. (http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2004/nsf042/5.htm
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - Recipients with Expanded Authorities are requested to notify the Grants Management Division when they choose to use their authority to give themselves a one-time unfunded extension of up to one year. A letter which provides the NOAA Grants Management Division with the grant number, new expiration date, and reason for extension must be submitted by an authorized official of your institution.
Department of Energy (DOE) - A request for a no-cost extension to extend the performance period of a grant must be sent in writing to the appropriate Contracting Officer at least 30 days prior to the expiration date of the grant.
Non Federal Awards No Cost Extension Requests — It is imperative to read the terms and conditions of the sponsor's award to determine the parameters under which a no-cost extension is permissible. For these types of requests the PI should prepare a letter to the sponsor that includes the length of the extension being requested and the justification for the extension. The PI should forward two signed originals to their Contract and Grant Administrator for review and signature.
It is always important to refer to the award document and/or check sponsor specific guidelines for clarification on no-cost extension requirements. If you have further questions contact your Research Office Contract and Grant Administrator for assistance.
Effort Certification is defined as the reporting and confirmation of an employee's time spent conducting any University activity that typically is expressed as a percentage of the total institutional compensated based time — Institutional Based Salary (IBS). The University of Delaware has an online Effort Certification System. Training documents related to Effort and the Effort Certification system are available here.
Principal investigators must review, and if correct, certify their total effort on all federal projects for each effort-reporting period. Effort committed to a sponsored activity (even if not budgeted) must be accounted for. Effort not funded from the grant is considered cost share. A LAM Calculator is available to aid you managing committed effort for PI's and others working on sponsored research projects. Instructions on how to use the LAM Calculator can be found here.
To further assist you procedures and routing information for effort certification can be found here.
Content to come
Please see the attached document regarding the allowability of meals (non-travel) on grants and contracts.
(Click on subject to expand or collapse it's contents.)
- Assume overall responsibility for programmatic aspects and financial stewardship of an award
- Complete and submit technical reports in a timely manner (interim and final)
- Initiate proposal submission
- Initiate request for budget revision
- Initiate request for no-cost extension
- Initiate request for cost transfers (JV) in accordance with University and federal policy and procedures
(OMB circular A-21)
- Review and accept subaward terms and conditions
- Review and approve subaward invoices
- Manage subaward performance
- Review and approve effort certification
- Assist with collection efforts on past due invoices as needed
- Act as a liaison between the principal investigator and the Research Office
- Assist principal investigator with proposal preparation
- Monitor and reconcile expenditures to ensure allowability, allocability and reasonableness
- Monitor and reconcile balances to ensure spending within budget and to prevent over-expenditures
- Maintain backup documentation related to expenditures within terms and conditions of the award (record retention)
- Monitor, track and document cost share commitments
- Manage and verify effort certification submissions
- Assist principal investigator with request for budget revision
- Process cost transfers (JV) in a timely manner, in accordance with University and federal policy and procedures (OMB circular A-21)
- Initiate purchase order request for approved subaward agreements
- Review subaward invoices to verify funding availability
- Assist with collection efforts on past due invoices as needed
- Review, complete and submit closeout checklist in a timely manner
(Contract & Grant Administrator)
- Provide guidance and interpretation of federal regulations, agency specific requirements, and University policies and procedures
- Coordinate the proposal process to ensure timely, compliant and accurate submission
- Negotiate and accept awards on behalf of the University, including modifications to existing awards
- Prepare and distribute the notice of award to the Principal Investigator and the Research Administrator
- Establish speedtype and chartfield setup for projects
- Prepare, negotiate and initiate subaward agreements
- Review, approve and submit subaward invoices for payment
- Process no-cost extensions in accordance with University and sponsor guidelines
- Assist with award monitoring
- Initiate semi-annual effort certification process
- Provide training as needed
- Prepare and submit billing for all sponsored research awards
- Initiate collection activity on past due invoices
- Audit expenditure balance and award activity to verify financial compliance with University and sponsor regulations and to ensure allowability, allocability and reasonableness
- Verify and audit cost share in accordance with award terms and conditions
- Verify data within effort certification submissions in accordance with University policies and procedures
- Provide guidance and interpretation of federal regulations, agency specific requirements, and University policies and procedures
- Prepare and submit financial, patent and equipment inventory reports (interim and final)
- Prepare and approve cost transfers (JV) to remove unallowable costs and over expenditures
- Close and inactivate awards/projects in the University financial system
- Respond to ad hoc audit requests (internal and external)
- Work with external auditors to complete the A-133 audit process
- Create and maintain central grants management queries used to monitor award activity
- Provide training as needed
- Approves project PI eligibility
responsible party - Dean/Chair
- Prepares and submits protocols for research involving human subjects, animals, and biosafety hazards
responsible party - PI
- Verifies submission of protocol to appropriate oversight regulatory committees
responsible party - Dean/Chair
- Discloses existence of research-staff conflict of interest and/or use of controlled technology or select agents for subject research effort
responsible party - PI
- Develops and submits conflict of interest mitigating management plan(s), and/or technology control plan(s) or export controls licensing-application background-materials
responsible party - PI and Dean/Chair
- Reviews, approves, and submits to federal agencies, as required, conflict of interest management plans, technology control plans, and export control licensing applications to assure compliance with federal regulations
responsible party - Research Office
- Establishes and maintains regulatory committees to assure compliance with federal requirements regarding the responsible conduct of research (human subjects, animal care, export controls and trade sanctions, research misconduct, and conflict of interest
responsible party - Research Office
- Works in conjunction with UD Office of Occupational Health and Safety with respect to research material use, storage, transportation, and disposition to assure compliance with federal requirements in biochemical, environmental, and radiation safety (302.831.8475; http://www.udel.edu/OHS/)
responsible party - Research Office
- Works in conjunction with UD Office of Economic Innovation and Partnership to assure compliance with federal intellectual property requirements (302.831.7260)
responsible party - Research Office
Automated Closeout Report (ACR) webform login
Automated Closeout Report (ACR) Job Aid
UD Financials
Systems Information
UD Financials reporting (FIRPT)
Fly America Act pdf
NASA Grant & Cooperative
Agreement Handbook
NSF Proposal and Awards Policies & Procedures Guide (HTML) (PDF)
Department of Energy Grant Rules, Regulations, and Guidance
NASA Grant and Cooperative Agreement Handbook
Office of Naval Research Grants Terms and Conditions
Education Department General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR)
To ensure full payment of awards, the Research Office needs all departments to adhere to the following timeline for completing close-outs:
- Research Office REPORT — Ninety days prior to the project end date, the department receives notice from the Research Office of the impending close-out. This notification includes a checklist of all the steps and responsibilities required to complete the close-out. The balance on the purpose should be reviewed to determine if a no-cost extension is needed and allowable under the terms and conditions of the award. All no-cost extensions must be countersigned by the Research Office.
- UNALLOWABLE CHARGES — All unallowable charges should be removed from the award by 60 days after the project end date.
- AFTER END-DATE CHARGES — If backup documentation for allowable after end-date charges is not produced within 60 days after the project end date, all after end-date charges will be charged to the unit's Supplemental Funds Purpose.
- CAPITALIZING — If there has been a fabrication on this award, it must be capitalized within 60 days after the project end date. Please review the section on capitalizing fabrications for instructions.
- UNEXPENDED FUNDS — The close-out will be completed based on the balance on the account, 60 days after the end date. Any remaining funds will be returned to the agency.
- COST-SHARE DOCUMENTATION — Documentation is required at the time of close-out for cost-share charges related to the award. If the department cannot provide documentation by 60 days after the end date, the corresponding percentage of the award amount will be returned to the sponsor.
By 60 days after the project end date, departments must complete all project close-out activities including, but not limited to, journal vouchers, match documentation, effort-certification revisions, property reports, etc.
Between 60 and 90 days after the end date, the Research Office will do all final account
cleanup, and prepare final financial, property, and intellectual property reports
to ensure that reports are complete and submitted on or before 90 days after
the end date. Departments should provide the Research Office with a copy of any non-financial
reports required in the award document.
- ACR webform login: Please login to Automated Closeout Report (ACR) / http://www.udel.edu/projectcloseout for managing project status and preparing for closeout
- Automated Closeout Report (ACR) Job Aid
- Questions?
Please contact Cindy Panchisin (firstname.lastname@example.com) at the Research Office
Purpose Number:
Award Number:
Principal Investigator's Name:
Is there an extension or renewal pending for this project? (If the sponsor has agreed to an extension of the project, please send the official document approving it to the Research Office.)
Yes _________ No ________
If no, please complete the following and return it to the Research Office:
1. Technical Report
Review the reporting obligations and submit all required technical or program reports by the sponsor's due date. Send a copy of the transmittal letter or other proof of submission to the Research Office.
2. Cost-Share/Match
If applicable, provide total amounts by budget line. Attach backup documentation, when appropriate, showing original transactions including purpose codes. Verify that effort reports accurately reflect salary match.
3. After End-Date Charges
Verify and provide documentation for ALL allowable after end-date charges. Remove ALL unallowable after end-date charges.
4. Over-Expenditures
Remove all over-expenditures.
5. Unallowable Charges
Verify and provide documentation for all potential unallowable costs based on OMB Circular A-21 and the applicable sponsor regulations (including but not limited to food, foreign travel, telephone equipment, line charges, general office supplies, and office furniture). If you need clarification, please contact the Research Office.
6. Outstanding Transactions
Attach a list of any pending transactions and unresolved items that are not reflected in the general ledger. Provide a status for each item. Please make every attempt to get these items finalized prior to the Research Office closeout.
7. Equipment Inventory
If required by sponsor, prepare and attach equipment inventory. Verify that any fabrication charges (15310) have been capitalized (16770).
8. Subcontracts
If there are subcontracts, coordinate with the Research Office to obtain final invoice and reports as itemized in agreement from subcontractors.
9. Salary JV's
Verify that all applicable salary JV's have been reflected on the corresponding Sponsored Activity Report (SAR) for salary transactions prior to 9/1/04. Attach a list of each salary JV and the action taken (i.e., #45278 reviewed, SAR revised on ____ date).
10. F anD A
Verify appropriate Facilities and Administrative costs and determine if any adjustments are needed.
11. Potential Inventions or Other Intellectual Properties
If any inventions or IP issues have resulted from this award, verify that appropriate paperwork has been sent to Research Office.
12. Purpose and Project
Verify that all transactions have hit both the correct purpose and project. The total expenditures for each should be the same. Double check any pro-card re-allocations made prior to March 2006.
13. Confirm Final Expenditure Total for This Purpose:
14. Labor Allocations Module (LAM)
Remove project ID(s) associated with award from the Labor
Allocations Module (LAM). LAM users can log on to use the module at
www.udel.edu/LAM. More information
on the LAM and training is available here.
Please note: Outstanding over-expenditures and remaining encumbrances will be transferred to departmental funds if corrective action is not taken by the unit staff responsible for the account.