faculty handbook
Office of Sponsored Programs
The University maintains an Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) on the Charles River Campus to help faculty secure and administer external grants and contracts for their research and training projects. Located at 25 Buick Street, OSP offers extensive resources and services to faculty who are identifying outside sponsors, preparing grant proposals, and managing externally-funded projects.
Faculty in the preliminary stages of developing a grant proposal may turn to OSP Proposal Development staff to discuss project ideas, identify potential sponsors, establish contact with appropriate agency personnel, comment on proposal drafts, and coordinate efforts with other University fundraising offices. These staff members also help to develop project budgets, provide technical advice in completing application forms, and work to resolve potential conflicts among agency funding constraints, project needs, and University policies regarding sponsored activities. They review all grant and contract proposals for compliance with agency guidelines and University policies.
To keep the University community informed about funding opportunities and other grant-related developments, OSP provides detailed descriptions of individual programs via e-mail or campus mail to appropriate deans, directors, department chairs, and interested faculty via "Funding Opportunity" announcements. Each week, federal contract opportunities are announced to all interested faculty via the OSP website in OSP Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOps) Highlights. The Office also maintains a substantial resource library of reference materials on funding sources and proposal development, as well as files with detailed information about individual grant programs not readily available on the web. The reference library is open to the University community during normal business hours.
When a grant or contract is awarded to a Charles River Campus faculty member, Award Administration staff review any proposed agreement associated with the award and seek to negotiate terms and conditions which are both acceptable to the project director and satisfy University policy concerns. After an award has been accepted by the University, these staff are involved in the general administration of the award throughout its life. They establish award accounts; issue subawards; clarify regulations, procedures, and sponsor policies for investigators as needed; consult on such matters as cost allowability and patents and copyrights; communicate with sponsors regarding all award management issues; ensure that institutional reporting requirements are met; and help resolve administrative problems which arise during the course of the project.
The OSP website provides electronic access to current information about funding opportunities, proposal development, and grant administration. The web site contains on-line versions of all "Funding Opportunity" announcements sent to faculty as well as a listing of upcoming funding deadlines. For the latest information on grant and contract opportunities and related agency announcements, faculty are encouraged to visit the What's New section of the web site. In addition to these postings, the site contains links to Federal and nonfederal agency home pages, downloadable forms, Federal Publications, and many other sites related to grants and contracts. The site also provides access to the Community of Science (COS), a commercial database service to which OSP subscribes. COS includes two related databases: the Funding Opportunity database, which permits users to execute comprehensive funding searches, and the Expertise Database, into which faculty can enter their research profiles. Faculty who have published profiles in the COS Expertise Database can design automated funding searches with ease and identify opportunities for collaboration with other researchers around the world.
In addition to its other responsibilities, OSP provides administrative support to the Charles River Campus Institutional Review Board (IRB). All research involving the use of human subjects must be reviewed by the IRB prior to implementation. IRB staff are available to help faculty interpret federal regulations governing the protection of human research subjects, determine whether or not their research requires IRB review and approval, and, if IRB review is needed, provide appropriate documentation about their research to the Board.
