Huron Grants and Agreements

Huron’s integrated modules for Grants and Agreements support research administration at BU. These tools provide a single system for faculty, PIs, and department staff to initiate, manage, and track research submissions and contracts throughout the entire project life cycle.

What is Huron Grants and Agreements?

  • Centralized platform for end-to-end management of research administration
  • Streamlines workflows for proposals, awards, and agreements
  • Facilitates collaboration among principal investigators, departments, and Sponsored Programs
  • Ensures regulatory compliance, process integrity, and transparency across all activities
  • Provides secure, role-based access to research data and records
  • Supports institutional effectiveness through configurable processes and scalable solutions

What each module does

Proposal

  • Create and manage grant proposals, including required personnel, institutional, compliance, sponsor, and budget data
  • Route proposals for multi-level internal review and submit directly to sponsors
  • Manage updates after submission

Award

  • Track awarded projects, funding milestones, and status changes
  • Manage sponsor communications, data corrections, and all post-award updates

Agreement

  • Create, review, and track all research-related contracts (clinical trials, data use agreements, NDAs, sponsored research, subawards, etc.)
  • Route agreements for internal and external review, negotiate terms, and execute signatures electronically

Benefits for BU Researchers and Administrators

  • Department users and PIs can create, edit, and submit records in Huron
    • Email is no longer required for initiating proposals or agreements
  • Each record has a workspace for all data, documents, statuses, and communication history
  • Automated workflows ensure all required steps are completed and connected
  • Task notifications and assignments are generated by the system
  • Full audit trail is maintained for compliance and recordkeeping
  • Amendments are project changes are handled directly in the system
  • Future integration with IRB and IACUC Huron modules

How does the System Work?  A Simple Guide to your Workflow

Step-by-step Guidance: HRS organizes administrative tasks into logical workflows that guide users from project creation through review, approval, and completion

Project Records: Each initiative, whether a proposal, award, or research agreement, is structured as an individual record, consolidating all associate data, documents, and correspondence

Relationship Mapping: Projects, proposals, awards, and agreements can be linked, providing holistic visibility across the research lifecycle

Smart Forms: Configurable Smart Forms capture required information efficiently and ensure compliance with institutional requirements

Automatic Reminders: Integrated task and notification features prompt users about pending actions or milestone, minimizing delays and missed steps

Collaboration: Role-based access allows teams to collaborate effectively, with defined responsibilities and notification pathways for approvals

Automated Document Generation: The system provides template-driven creation of proposals and agreements, auto-populating standard forms and reducing manual data entry

Electronic Signature Integration: DocuSign enables secure, rapid execution of agreements from with HRS

Audit Trail & Version Control:  All actions, document versions, and approvals are logged for reference and compliance reporting

Real-Time Status Tracking: Visual workflow maps show where you are, from pre-submission to final award or agreement activation

Comprehensive Audit Trail: Every action, edit, comment, and approval is logged for transparency and institutional reporting

Linkages & Relationships: Easily connect related projects, proposals, awards, and agreements for full project context

Project Updates

Sign up to receive notifications of project updates or review the archives of prior updates.

List of Project Participants

Have questions about the Huron project?  Direct questions to rosamail@bu.edu or to one of the participants on the project.

Project Onboarding

The BU community is welcome to view recordings of the Huron Onboarding sessions.  These recordings provide a walkthrough of the software for the project participants and are segmented into two-hour sessions.

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