Top Ten Reasons to Befriend Your Sponsored Program Administration Office

1. Top Ten Reasons to Befriend Your Sponsored Program Administration Office PAD Seminar February 2009

2. Top Ten Reasons to Befriend Your Sponsored Program Administration Office • SPA is the institutional office responsible for administrative oversight of WSU’s externally sponsored research • SPA combines the administrative and accounting functions in a single office • SPA can assist you through some of pitfalls that occur in the conduct of externally sponsored research • Or, ……

3. Is this just a David Letterman bit to wrap up the week? • But, what we really want to do ……

4. Today’s Objectives • Discuss some of the critical, tricky, complex aspects of sponsored program work • Place a face with the name of a couple of SPA personnel. Our panelists: Karen Watkins-Hollowell Tim Foley Patty Yuhas-Kieleszewski Jim Barbret • Have you tell/ask us about issues which you have encountered • Open a very necessary dialogue if we are to be successful in our initiatives!

5. The Sponsored Program Lifecycle • The Lifecycle: • The idea/hypothesis • Find someone who will “pay for it” • Develop a proposal • Submit the proposal • Get selected – YEAH! • Execute an award • Execute the project • Close-out and wrap-up • Problem areas can arise in any of these “phases”

6. Today’s Selected “Problem Zones” • Budget Development: What costs do I include? • Developing a Proposal: What does it look like? • Submitting a Proposal: Who does what? • Award Execution: The Award Documents • Account Set-up: When do I get my account? • Financial Management: Who and how do we manage the finances? • Subcontractors • Cost Sharing

7. Budget Development: What costs do I include? • Salaries and Wages – time and effort of people who will be working on the grant, normally expressed in a percentage of their time • Fringe Benefits – varying rates for the individuals named above • Materials and Supplies – necessary to conduct the project • Travel – related to conduct and disseminate the research • Equipment – necessary to conduct the project • Facilities & Administrative Costs – indirect costs, overhead, etc.

8. Developing a Proposal: What does it look like? • Sponsor will define, in most cases, what the proposal must cover • Federal agencies are pretty standard, RR424 • State agencies have their own format • Foundations and associations are unique, Proposal Central • Industry is … whatever they like • KEY CONCEPT – read and follow the instructions

9. Submitting a Proposal: Who does what? • The final “packet” is developed by the PI and their staff • Specific approvals must be obtained prior to submission • “Internal” approvals – Chairs, Deans, IRB’s • “Proposal” approvals – Business official, Institutional Official • SPA, as institutional official, is last in the approval process • Who presses the button? Drops it in the mailbox? Hands off to FedEx? – Differs based sponsor requirements • KEY CONCEPT – Timing, timing, timing

10. Award Execution: The Award Documents • Varied award vehicles: • Grant – unilateral vs. accepted • Contract – legal document requiring review, formal execution • Memorandum of Understanding – looks a lot like a contract • The Vice President of Research, delegated to SPA, has signature authority • SPA is the official University repository • KEY CONCEPT - SPA needs to receive and process the award

11. Account Set-up: When do I get my account? • When award is processed, SPA will establish an account with budget • PI’s are notified via e-mail of their index/fund number – GFA • Indexes are open for the period of the authorization • Multiple indexes may be requested to indentify separate budget components, ie phases or tasks • KEY CONCEPT – Indexes can be requested prior to receipt of award if work is going to begin

12. Financial Management: Who and how do we manage the finances? • Most awards have some level of budget restriction – this is not a gift • A budget will be established that defines a baseline plan • Changes and deviations are allowable • Depending on the level of change, sponsor approval may be required – coordinate with SPA • Department and PI are primarily responsible for processing if all expense documents • SPA handles the revenue side • KEY CONCEPT – Financial management begins Day One, not at closeout

13. Cost Sharing • Whenever there is a cost that the sponsor does not pay for, there is cost sharing • Cost sharing may be mandated by sponsor/program guidelines • When cost sharing is required, you should be careful to meet, not exceed, the requirement • Common Forms of Costs– Personnel, equipment • “In-Kind – comes from a third party, a non-WSU source • Watch out for the terminology, “leverage”, “matching” etc.

14. Cost Sharing • During Proposal Development, identify cost sharing items • Think about how the cost can be documented • Determine how these will be funded, and get approval • When awarded, a second account gets established to capture cost share transactions • Cost share costs are real • KEY CONCEPT - Construct a full budget, then determine what should be cost shared

15. Subcontractors • Not all collaborators are subcontractors • A sub-contractor (an entity WSU will pay) needs top treat us as their sponsor • They should submit to WSU just as they would submit to an agency • Components – budget, statement of work, institutional authorization • Upon award to WSU, SPA will generate an agreement with subcontractor • Invoices should go to SPA, who processes payments • SPA coordinates with PI/staff

16. Questions & Answers • About the topics we covered … • Any topics … • Thank you