Getting Started with Grant Management

Throughout the lifecycle of your externally funded award, these are key resources and concepts that you may find yourself coming back to. We recommend familiarizing yourself with these ideas, bookmarking these pages, and taking these actions as they pertain to your role in grants management.

Key Resources and Information

Here are a few key resources you may find useful throughout your project’s lifecycle, from proposal development to award closeout.

First Steps

• Do you work at BUMC? Identify your home institution to streamline your grant submission process.
• If you are seeking information for awards funded by Boston University, contact your school’s administrative offices or the budget and planning office.
• Find your Sponsored Programs administrators for pre- and post-award actions. Your Sponsored Programs contact for pre-award can advise you on proposal and submission related queries as well as account set up and progress reports. Your Sponsored Programs contact for post-award can advise you on financial reporting, billing, cost transfers, and F&A rates.
• Subscribe to the Research Administration Blog for BU and sponsor announcements, news, and training opportunities.
• Set up a user account in sponsor systems (if required for your grant), like eRA Commons, FastLane, or NSPIRES.
• If there has been a change in staffing for your department administrator, make sure we have your contact information with the Department Admin Change Form.

Important Reference Information

• Understand your Roles and Responsibilities to ensure seamless completion of proposals and maintenance of your awards, whether you are a PI, department administrator or central staff.
• Institutional Numbers and Rates contains all the numbers you need to complete your award proposals, including F&A and fringe rates.
• Review BU’s Best Practices for Grants Management for recommendations and tips on the grant management processes, including subawards, hiring, carryover, salary cost transfers, and much more
• Grant Management FAQs will answer common questions that PIs and administrators may have throughout the grants management process.
• Familiarize yourself with common BU Research Administration Acronyms.
• The Forms & Policies Library will contain all the BU-specific procedures and paperwork you need for each stage of your project’s lifecycle.

Training Options

The following trainings give a broad overview of topics and situations you are likely to encounter during your project’s lifecycle:

• Fundamentals of Research Administration (login required): Training modules that provide an overview of each step of the project life cycle, BU’s policies pertaining to them, and actions that administrators and SP takes to facilitate grant management. This training is online, self-paced, and each module can be completed in about 20 minutes.
• Grants Management Training Webpage: Additional trainings and webinars on important topics that may pertain to your role, such as subawards, effort reporting, and cost sharing.
• DA Training Events: RSVP for upcoming events and training opportunities.
• BU Works: These technical trainings will walk you through Business Warehouse Reporting, Human Capital Management, Concur, and other tools you will use to manage your award.

Proposal Development and Submission

This section of the Getting Started with Grant Management Guide will point you to steps and resources you will need to take as soon as you (or your PI) have decided to pursue a funding opportunity.

Action Items

1. Contact Sponsored Programs: Your Sponsored Programs research administrator can assist you with any questions you may have during the proposal preparation process. As far in advance as possible, even before you have started preparing your grant, notify Sponsored Programs of your plans to apply, and provide a copy of the sponsor’s program guidelines and the RFP for reference.
2. Initiate contact with the sponsor: A key element of successful proposal writing is establishing a relationship with the potential sponsor early on in the process to confirm that the proposal is worth pursuing. The PI can initiate contact with the sponsoring organization to confirm research interests via a telephone call, office visit, letter of intent, or preliminary proposal.
3. Register with federal agency
   • Many federal agencies, including NSF, NIH, and NASA, require principal investigators, project directors, and other personnel participating on a research project to be registered with the agency.
   • The NIH registration process must be coordinated through a central Sponsored Programs representative who is authorized to request registration credentials. Since affiliations are typically institution-specific, faculty are reminded that—even if registered via one institution—an additional institutional affiliation or change of institution requires a new registration.
   • For all other federal agencies, investigators and research personnel can create their own account. Please reach out to rosamail@bu.edu if you need assistance or have questions.

     Register with eRA Commons

4. Review program guidelines: If a sponsor has published a solicitation, RFP, program announcement, or any other request for proposals, the PI/PD should read it carefully prior to beginning proposal preparation. In addition, the PI/PD should review any application preparation instructions and forms published by the sponsor.
5. Explore the Proposal Library: The Proposal Library is an access-restricted repository of successful letters of intent, applications/proposals, and related materials recently submitted by BU faculty to external funders.
6. Mark your calendar with your internal deadlines. Grant materials are due to Sponsored Programs up to 10 days earlier than your sponsor deadline. Review the section below to learn more and mark these dates in your calendar early.

Know Your Internal Deadlines & Requirements

To ensure that BU meets sponsor requirements, proposals for external funding must be reviewed and submitted by Sponsored Programs. To ensure that your proposal is submitted on time and without error, please adhere to the Proposal Submission Policy and the following deadlines:

Your proposal must include the Proposal Summary Form signed by the BU Principal Investigators and all appropriate school approvals. For full information on what you should include in your proposal, review Preparing Proposal Submission Documents.

Managing your Award

Congratulations on your proposal’s success! This section of the Getting Started with Grant Management Guide points you to key actions and resources you will engage with after you receive a Notice of Award.

Account Set Up and Monitoring

• Track your award’s account set-up using the Award Set-Up Tracker (login required). There you will find the latest information regarding your account set-up, including missing documentation and reasons for delays.
• If your award includes subawards, use the Outgoing Subaward Tracker to see status updates regarding your outgoing subawards. This will detail any missing requirements that may be delaying subaward setup.
• After your account has been set up, you will review your award details in the Business Warehouse. This platform is where most of your grant management will occur. Boston University’s IS&T regularly hosts training sessions regarding SAP and BW Reporting, with upcoming dates provided on their website.

Expenditure and Salary

• Become familiar with the terminology and numbering systems within SAP
• You’re ready to process expenditures on your award! Start spending!
  • Processing Payroll: IS&T’s HCM (Human Capital Management) trainings will introduce you to processing payroll.
  • Purchase Orders: Sourcing & Procurement guides you through making purchases for your sponsored project.
  • Travel Expenses: Travel Services provides several how-to guides to help you navigate using Concur for your travel expenses.
  • Disbursement Requests: Accounts Payable hosts the forms you need for disbursement requests, including those for subrecipients.
  • Keep an eye out for emails regarding personnel activity report (PAR) deadlines! There are two PAR periods each year: January-June and July-December. Effort certification is required by federal guidelines, and any late or incomplete PARs run the risk of disallowance. Prepare for upcoming PARs by reviewing the Effort Reporting Periods.
  • After the Fact Review: These Comptroller resources help department administrators review account transactions without error.