Post-award grant administration
The research support team and the Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP) assist the PI with co-management of externally funded grants. Co-management includes regular meetings between the PI and the grants manager to review the PI’s active grants and regular guidance from the SPO. These roles are outlined below.
Co-management role: OSP and SPO
OSP partners with faculty and staff to provide research administration at all stages of sponsored projects.
OSP reviews all grant awards and negotiates contract terms in accordance with the policies of the university and the laws of the State of Ohio as a land grant institution.
1 The SPO issues the NOA in Workday to the PI
The research support team does not automatically receive notification of new notice of award (NOA) or subsequent years of funding awarded to the PI. Thus, it is important that PIs share the NOA information with their grants manager upon its receipt.
Once an award is fully executed, the sponsored program officer (SPO) sets up a grant number for the PI to begin expensing payroll and non-payroll expenditures (see “expensing to grant funds” below). Project spending for expenses directly related to activities in the protocol cannot occur until any required approval from the Institutional Review Board is obtained.
OSP provides financial accounting reports and billing to sponsors for the activity funded, which are subject to federal audit.
2 All sponsored projects are considered restricted funds
All charges to sponsored projects must be:
- Reasonable, allowable, and allocable to the project
- In accordance with program plans and objectives
- Clearly required for the project
- Consistent with the budget established for the project (in total, by category, or by line item, depending on sponsor requirements)
- Incurred within the grant contract dates
- In accordance with sponsor regulations, university policy, and OSP procedures for implementing those regulations and policies.
3 Any deviation from the above requires justification and possibly additional sponsor approval
The grants manager can provide information and guidance on what may or may not be charged to a sponsored project and they can assist in seeking required approvals. To do this, they may consult with the SPO.
OSP offers extensive information, and PIs are encouraged to review appropriate spending of externally sponsored funds.
Co-management role: PI
The term PI refers to the lead researcher on a grant project or award. In the case of a subaward, the Ohio State PI is the lead researcher on the subaward grant. The PI has primary responsibility for achieving the technical success of the project while also complying with the financial and administrative policies and regulations associated with the award.
Required annual post-award meetings typically take place in November. This meeting is required for faculty with active projects and optional for those without active projects. In these discussions, the PI and grants manager review active projects and make plans to keep projects operationally and fiscally on track. PIs may request more frequent meetings with their grants manager throughout the year as desired to keep projects running smoothly.
The CPH central support team serves at the initial point of contact for division-based faculty and staff for the following areas of expertise: administrative and events support, faculty effort support, purchase and travel support and temporary hire support (including temporary research staff, graduate research associates, fellows, and hourly students). To initiate a request, college faculty, staff and students email CPH-Support@osu.edu or complete a web form based on the request type.
University policies allow a maximum of two months off-duty salary from internal sources and a maximum of two-and-a-half months from external sources. Faculty with access to both internal and external sources of funding may fund up to three months of off-duty salary. Examples of sources of internal funds that could potentially be used for off-duty funding if budgeted and approved include the following: MOUs with other university units, seed grants, pilot programs and gift funds.
Per CPH policy: Faculty who have earned two-and-a-half months of off-duty salary from external sources, and who have sufficient funds in a discretionary account, may elect to receive up to half a month of off-duty salary by using funds from that account.
PIs consult with their grants manager if they have questions about the grant budget plan or sponsor budget compliance.
PIs are responsible for frequently checking their Workday inbox for notifications and reviewing and approving transactions in a timely manner. PIs work with the central support team to initiate purchasing (goods and services including consultant and vendor setups), travel, hiring and payroll transactions for staff and students. Note: if a PI does not act on an item in their Workday inbox, it will become “stuck,” and progress will be stalled until the PI completes the action.
PIs are responsible for reviewing payroll and non-payroll expenses in Workday and/or PI Portal, alerting their grants manager if anything looks incorrect, and working with their grants manager to problem solve and take appropriate action to request corrections based on guidance from the grants manager. The PI’s frequent review of grant financials allows corrections to be made in real time rather than being delayed. It is recommended that PIs review project financials on at least a monthly basis. Regular review of financials and taking advantage of requesting standing post award meetings throughout the year will reduce turnaround time of any needed corrections.
PIs are responsible for reviewing award restrictions, required reporting, effort certifications and financial reports. If the PI has questions, they consult with their grants manager for guidance or set up a post-award meeting.
Investigators complete effort certification to confirm that payroll expenses (salary, stipend, effort) to the sponsor are reasonable in relation to the work performed, and the effort provided to the sponsor is at least as great as the effort promised to the sponsor.
Effort certification reports are generated when someone receives any portion of their payroll expense (salary, stipend, effort) from a sponsored project (i.e., external funding that is contractually administered through OSP).
Effort certification reports are generated and sent in Workday to the individual’s Workday inbox in January, June and September for the prior semester’s effort. They also are generated anytime a payroll correction is made. Data in the effort certification report is obtained from payroll data in Workday.
Investigators review and certify if the effort certification reports reasonably represent how effort was expended on a monthly basis. Expended effort is reported as a percentage of time spent working on a grant during each month. This percentage should reasonably reflect the average number of hours actually worked by the investigator on the grant during the month assuming a standard 40 hour work week. For example, if an investigator worked four hours per week on a grant for the entire month, the effort associated with that grant would be 10% for that month (four hours/40 hours per week).
In the circumstance where the investigator needs to begin working on a grant before the agreement can be fully executed, the investigator requests a preliminary GR# by completing the OGC-005 form (“Authorization for Expenditures/Commitments”). Effort allocated to preliminary GR#s does not need to be corrected and can be certified.
Investigators never certify incorrect effort. If an investigator determines that an administrative error has occurred or that their reported effort is not reflective of the average actual effort expended on the grant during time period, the investigator consults with their grants manager for guidance in resolving this. After consulting with their grants manager for guidance, if corrections to effort are needed, the investigator submits a request to the central support team. Effort corrections must be requested within 90 days. PIs are responsible for reporting and verifying their effort on grants and for responding to any audit inquiries regarding it from sponsors or the university’s audit team.
Effort corrections (called PAAs in Workday) are limited to uncertified effort only and must be processed within 90 days of the payroll expense. Effort change percentages are limited to whole numbers.
Expenditure allocations listed for each cost center on the ePA-005 are used to allocate the financial responsibility for any overruns or disallowed costs on an awarded proposal. OSP transfers overruns and disallowed costs to CPH automatically. The CPH business manager reviews the cost centers and the percentages listed in the ePA-005 and identifies the CPH investigator on the award. The business manager then transfers the overruns and/or disallowed costs to the faculty’s discretionary funds account automatically. If the faculty member determines that the overrun should be paid by another funding source, the faculty member works with the CPH business manager to discuss and resolve this issue.
Fixed-price contracts occasionally may have small residual funds after the completion of the agreed upon scope. Residuals less than 25% of the overall total budget will be returned automatically to the college unit based on the ePA-005 form. The CPH business manager reviews cost centers and PI associated with the residual transfer and automatically transfers the residuals to the faculty member’s discretionary account. If the residual is greater than 25%, the PI works with their grants manager to determine whether a no cost extension is needed or whether the scope is completed to the sponsor’s satisfaction. If the residual of greater than 25% is valid, the grants manager will assist the PI in filling out a request for an exception to have the residuals returned to the college unit. Note: OSP scrutinizes residuals of greater than 25% as intentionally underspending is unacceptable.
University policy requires researchers complete the e-COI disclosure form annually or when they have a new item to disclose and the outside activities form before engaging in any outside activity. The ADR reviews the disclosed conflicts to identify those that might need further consideration and possibly the creation of a conflict management plan.
The PI is responsible for all technical reporting, compliance updates, publications, any justifications for changes in the scope of work, changes in collaborators and major budget changes. The grants manager and the SPO guide the PI on reporting requirements and the process for submitting reports. The PI notifies the grants manager in advance of any required reports.
The PI is responsible for tracking publications related to their sponsored research grants and making sure all publications are compliant with the sponsor’s award publication terms. PIs can request guidance on publication compliance from the CPH health science librarian.
Ohio State has entered into agreements with some large academic publishers to cover the open access fees for publishing.
In the case of a possible invention to disclose, the PI refers to the guidance of the Office of Corporate Engagement.
Researchers are responsible for completing required research trainings:
- Institutional data policy (renew annually)
Those with access to S4 data must complete university-approved institutional data training annually. All others must complete institutional data awareness training annually. - Human subjects protection training
All investigators and key personnel at Ohio State who participate in research must be trained in the protection of human subjects. The university uses the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) for this requirement. CITI training can take four to eight hours to complete.
The following research trainings are highly recommended for all investigators:
- Being a principal investigator: Roles, responsibilities, and resources
This BuckeyeLearn training provides an overview of PI responsibilities and how to work with OSP and the college’s grants managers. - Workday: The grant management dashboard for principal investigators (Recorded session)
This one-hour BuckeyeLearn training orients PIs on how to effectively use the Workday Grant Management Dashboard, providing examples of commonly encountered situations. - Federal time and effort reporting
OSP created a short BuckeyeLearn video to explain effort reporting at Ohio State.
Co-management role: CPH research support team
Liaison between the PI and the SPO
The research support team serves as a liaison between the PI and the SPO. PIs do not contact the SPO directly, instead, PIs work with their grants manager, who involves the SPO as needed. The research support team works with the PI to help them complete their research project successfully, while remaining in compliance with the specific requirements of a given project. The team helps to ensure the project is compliant with purchasing, payroll/ personnel appointments, faculty effort management, travel, subawards, cost share, reporting, export controls, human subjects, animals and any conflicts of interest.
Workday
The grants manager initiates and submits the requests to set up new subawards and subaward amendments in Workday. These actions workflow to the PI for approval and then on to the SPO to review and initiate the contract to be sent to the other entity. The grants manager monitors progress, following up with the SPO as needed, until the contracts are fully executed.
Grant reporting
The grants manager provides guidance to the PI on reporting requirements of the sponsor and assists with any financial and effort reporting that is not automatically submitted by OSP in relation to a grant contract.
Project closeout
The grants manager provides guidance to the PI based on sponsor and OSP requirements for project closeout. The PI consults with their grants manager three to six months before the end of an award to discuss a spend down plan, review any questions or issues about project closeout and, if needed, plan for a project extension.