Where to Start
Congratulations on your award!
ORP’s Post Award staff will assist you with managing your project.
Please remember that funds are almost always awarded to the SIU Board of Trustees, not to you, and they must be expended according to the approved budget within the approved timeline and scope of work.
Review the Roles and Responsibilities and the PI/FO Guide to determine your role and ORP’s role in the successful execution of your project. ORP’s responsibilities include the following.
- Negotiate (if necessary) and execute awards.
- Prepare, negotiate (if necessary), and issue all subawards.
- Set up an SIUE account for award funds.
- Check for Financial and Ethical Compliance.
- Input project budgets into SIUE accounting system.
- Review all expenditures, including personnel expenses.
- Prepare and submit all financial reports on time.
- Ensure SIUE is reimbursed on time.
- Ensure review of Federal Compensation Compliance, if relevant.
- Contact sponsor for items that require approval.
- Provide support and guidance to PI on fiscal and compliance matters.
- Close-out the account at the end of the award.
Review our PI Checklist for a listing of tasks to complete with your project.
PI Training
If this is the first time you are a PI or it’s been a while, complete the PI Training to learn the ins and outs of being a PI on a sponsored project. The training reviews everything you need to know, including negotiations, Post Award services, account and budget setup, and other financial information.
Notice of Award
Once a proposal is selected by the sponsor to fund, they will issue the Notice of Award (NOA). The NOA is the official document to inform the PI and University (ORP) that their funding application has been approved. However, the project does not begin when the NOA is received.
Only the Associate Provost for Research can sign agreements for externally-sponsored funds! Signing an agreement yourself would make you personally liable.
All agreements for external funding must be reviewed and in some cases negotiated to ensure SIUE is protected. Once any negotiations are completed and a fully executed agreement is obtained, then the project can begin. See the section below on negotiations.
To prevent delays in your project, submit any agreements you receive to [email protected] for review as soon as possible. Never create your own agreement; General Counsel provides ORP with approved agreements.
The NOA also includes important information for the successful completion of the project, such as:
- grant-specific information (Number, FAIN, contact people, budget, budget period, etc.)
- reporting requirements (programmatic, financial, annual/final)
- awarded budget vs. proposed budget
- awarded project period vs. proposed project period
- reporting requirements
- data management requirements
- confidentiality restrictions
- publication restrictions
- publicity requirements
- hiring restrictions
- re-budgeting requirements.
If you have received notification directly from the sponsor, forward the notice to the Post-Award Grants Administrator.
Negotiation
The project must meet the sponsor’s requirements; it must also meet the requirements of the University. If needed, a Negotiation will be created in Kuali Research. You can access the Negotiation via Medusa.
In the Negotiation stage of your project, ORP and SIUE’s General Counsel will review the proposed contract to ensure the needs of the University are met and negotiate the contract with the sponsor. This process can be very quick but it can also take weeks or months.
PIs will be made aware of negotiations happening and status updates periodically. If your proposed contract is in negotiation and you have questions, please reach out to the Post Award Grants Administrator.
Note that you are not to work on the project until a fully executed contract is in place.
Account Creation
An Award is created in Kuali Research after negotiations are complete and a fully executed contract is in place. The last step in the Award creation is the account creation.
The Post Award Grants Administrator will work with Administrative Accounting to set up your grant account and the budget. As the PI of a project, you are also the fiscal officer (FO). If you would like to add a Fiscal Officer Delegate to your account, let the Grants Administrator know at [email protected].
Watch for an email from Kuali Research to approve your award. In the KR Award, you will find your account number and who is your grant accountant.
Once your account is created, additional fiscal training will need to be completed to help you manage your account if not already done.
- AIS Training (required as FO)
- This required online training, which takes approximately 45 minutes, will review the AIS system, how to view financial reports, and how to interpret the reports.
- To find AIS Training:
- Login to Blackboard
- In the My Organizations section, click on Administrative Accounting
- Click Training in the menu on the left.
- Choose Fiscal Officer Training
- PCard Training (only required if you need a pcard specifically for the grant - which is unusual)
- This online training will review the pcard policies, processes, and procedures and define the responsibilities and obligations of an authorized University cardholder.
Your Grant Accountant
Your grant accountant’s e-id is listed in KR Award. Your grant accountant will help you fiscally manage your project by reviewing for allowable costs according to sponsor, federal, state, and University guidelines, approving/denying purchases made on the grant, submitting invoices to your sponsor, and completing fiscal reporting on the project. Go to your grant accountant first with questions!
Pre Award Spending Approvals
SIUE as a Subaward
- At times, sponsors will entrust more than one institution to complete a project. In these cases, the grantee who submitted the grant application (and will be performing a significant portion of the project) is generally the main institution/entity. The remaining institutions/entities listed in the agreement are considered subawards.
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- SIUE has to receive the subaward from the main institution for ORP to negotiate the agreement (if needed) and create the KR Award.
- It can be helpful if you send the contact information for the main institution’s sponsored project office to [email protected].
