Setting-up & Managing Awards

Setting Up & Managing Awards

Now that your proposal was approved by the funding agency, begin working with the Center for Nursing Research — who will be the liaison with the Office of Sponsored Programs, Grants Accounting and others — to correctly set-up and manage your award.

Applicable to:

Faculty

Important: All award administration for College of Nursing researchers must go through the Center for Nursing Research. Whenever the investigator(s) are instructed to work with an outside department (i.e. Sponsored Programs) in the documents below, the investigator(s) should instead contact the CNR Senior Grants Administrator, Denise Karshner, at 330-672-8836 or dkarshne@kent.edu.

Award Documents and Forms

Form	Description
Proposal and Award Workflow (PDF)	Document that provides an overview of proposal submission and award management workflows at Kent State University for Sponsored Programs, Foundation Relations, and Corporate Relations.
Cost Transfer Guidance (PDF)	Reference document to ensure cost transfers on sponsored projects are requested in a timely manner, adequately documented, sufficiently reviewed and approved, and in compliance with federal, agency, and university regulations.
Fixed Price Award Procedures (PDF)	This document explains special guidelines that pertain to the financial management and close out of Fixed Price Agreements.
Fly America Act Exception Form (PDF)	Form to request that international airfare on a non-US flag air carrier be charged to a federally sponsored program.
Institutional Prior Approval Form	Form to request changes to an award such as no-cost extension, budget revisions, personnel time. Clicking the link on the left will initiate a request in Dynamic Forms. IPAF Instructions.
Other Grants Accounting Forms	Link to the Grants Accounting site where other forms and workflows needed for Sponsored Projects may be located (e.g. Cost Transfer Request, Salary Distribution Revision)

Grants Management Manual

Section	Description
Award Initiation	Overview of award processes at Kent State, from award notification to generation of an account index to budget revision requests.
Compliance	Overview of compliance and management issues relevant to sponsored projects.
Compliance - Fly America Act (PDF)	Regulations for international travel on federal funds. Includes copy of Fly America Act Exception Form.
Cost Sharing	Overview of Cost-Sharing: categories, types and processes at Kent State for documenting these expenses.
Direct Costs	Overview of Direct Costs: definition, determining allowability, and examples of allowable and non-allowable costs.
Direct vs. Indirect Costs Matrix	Examples of costs that may generally be charged as direct costs vs. those covered by Facilities & Administrative Costs and not generally charged to the Sponsored Agreement.
Monitoring Expenditures	An overview of how to monitor grant expenditures and account index balance using Banner reports.
Roles & Responsibilities	Defines roles and responsibilities of Grants Accounting, Sponsored Programs, the department, the PI, and the Office of Internal Audit in award administration.
Roles & Responsibilities Post-Award Matrix (PDF)	A list of grant-related post-award activities and who is responsible for them.
Staffing the Project	Principles governing payment of project personnel and procedures for charging personnel time to a sponsored project.
Subawards	Overview of procedures involving subaward agreements including initiation, monitoring, modifications and closeout.

Project Administration

Upon acceptance of a grant or contract, the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) requests a new account from Grants Accounting in Business & Finance. Throughout the life of a funded project, OSP and Grants Accounting work together to manage the award.

OSP prepares a spending plan for the principal investigator that translates the approved budget into codes from the university’s accounting system, Banner. A grant budget summary report showing the charges against a particular grant fund for a selected time period is available to run from FlashLine > "My Action Items" in the Finance Reports box. Download instructions for running the report (PDF).

Post-Award Management and Responsibilities

Principal Investigators are responsible for the day-to-day direction and administration of their project and must comply with all university and agency policies and regulations. OSP staff members are available to advise and assist. The OSP staff has expertise in the areas of cost principles, agency regulations and compliance issues.

Principal Investigators are also responsible for monitoring all expenditures charged to the grant account and ensuring that charged expenditures are allowable. To ensure the effective allocation of resources, the OSP staff can assist in interpreting month-end financial reports and in projecting expenditures to the end of the grant period.

Reporting Requirements

Requirements for project technical and financial reports are set by the funding agency. These types of reports are typically required.

Technical reports – Most agencies require an annual progress report and a final technical report. Principal Investigators are responsible for preparing these reports. OSP staff will transmit them to the funding agency on the investigator’s behalf. As part of the requisite official grant record, the Principal Investigator must file a copy of all reports with OSP. These records are reviewed as part of our annual audit.
Financial reports - The grant accountant assigned to the project prepares the financial report based on the expenditures recorded in the account. Principal Investigators have the opportunity to review the financial report prior to submission to the funding agency.
Project closeout – After the project’s termination date, no additional expenditures may be incurred. Funding agencies normally require the final technical and financial report 90 days after the project ends. The 90-day period permits sufficient time for expenditures incurred before the end of the project to be liquidated and gives the principal investigator time to prepare the technical report. Patent disclosure, equipment disposition, and other required reports may be submitted after the termination date or with the final report. Grant/contract records are subject to annual audit; they must be retained for a minimum of six years from the date the final reports are filed.

Changes to Funded Sponsored Programs

Certain changes to a funded sponsored project must receive prior approval from the sponsoring agency, while other revisions may be approved institutionally through ‘expanded authorities’ granted to Kent State. Any desired changes to an existing sponsored project should be requested by submitting a completed Institutional Prior Approval Form to OSP. Click here to initiate a request in Dynamic Forms. The requested modifications will be reviewed and any necessary agency approval received. Completing this process before implementing changes will ensure that incurred costs are allowable.