Externally-Sponsored Projects

The purpose of this section of the Office of Research Development and Administration (ORDA) website is to provide information about proposal development, application submission, award management, and reporting aspects of externally sponsored projects. In addition, it provides information that is important to know when writing a grant, including the current rate sheet and budget template, as well as university and federal policies that apply to externally sponsored projects.

Research FAQs

Glossary

Grant Writing Program

Awards

Budget Management

Research Opportunities

Administrative and Financial Policies and Regulations for Externally Sponsored Projects

These administrative policies and procedures provide information pertaining to pursuing and managing grants, contracts, and other externally sponsored activity.

The Office of Research Compliance provides assistance to faculty and oversight of research to ensure that all research at EMU is conducted responsibly, ethically, and within the current regulatory framework.

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The Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) is responsible for ethical and regulatory oversight of animal research on campus. All animal research must be approved by the IACUC before research activities begin.
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Project Director’s Handbook

Writing a proposal that will be competitive for funding takes time and effort and requires the involvement of many people across campus.

It requires that:

The project is based on a clearly conceived idea that meets the sponsors interests;
All resources and supports necessary are identified and an initial budget that can be shared internally is prepared and shared;
Commitments to utilize EMU resources are obtained;
A well-written, easy-to-read, concise project narrative is drafted, and if possible, provided to others for review and comment;
An application packet that complies with the sponsor’s guidelines is prepared;
The draft proposal and all of its ancillary parts (i.e., biographical sketches, other support forms, reference section, letters of support, etc.) are entered into Cayuse for routing, review, and approvals by the department head/school director, dean, and all other parties providing resources to the project;
The proposal, budget, budget narrative, and application package is finalized and prepared for submission; and
The application package is submitted on time and error free.

The ORDA Handbook for Proposal Writers and Project Directors provides helpful and useful information about the process for writing competitive funding proposals, including an explanation of the major components of a typical proposal, and the preparation of budgets, and evaluation sections. It also explains the various review processes used by Sponsors and how that may affect your strategy for writing a proposal.

Cayuse

EMU uses Cayuse Research Suite , a web-based system that supports the management of proposal and award information, as well as, provides an S2S capability for submitting federal funding proposals:

Cayuse SP module is Cayuse SP is available to all PIs and Co-PIs, department heads, deans, and other administrative personnel. ORDA uses Cayuse SP to route all proposals for review and approval prior to submission.
Cayuse 424, which ORDA uses to apply for federal funding; it will help ensure a successful submission the first time, without the warnings and errors that often arise with the federal grants.gov system.

The budget is the proposal expressed in terms of the dollars that you require to bring your project to a successful conclusion. It indicates the total expenses of the project as you have carefully anticipated them. It is important to provide a reasonable budget for your project that provides accurate cost estimates that tie to your project plan and activities.

It is important to engage with ORDA and your department head or school director about the budget early in the process:

Work with the ORDA Project Officer to develop a budget, several iterations will be required.
Notify your department head of intention to submit and discuss any need for cost sharing or release time - share your DRAFT budget
Finish the budget and budget justification narrative before getting official internal approvals especially regarding cost-sharing

Links

Award Management is a team effort between the Project Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI), the Post-Award Manager in the Office of Research Development and Administration (ORDA), and Grants Accounting. When a PD/PI receives an award, an introductory meeting will be scheduled between the PD/PI, the Post-Award Manager assigned to the award, and the Pre-Award Officer. This introductory meeting will include discussions regarding:

Budget Review
Terms and Conditions
Reporting Requirements
Roles and Responsibilities of the PD/PI, the Post-Award Manager, and Grants Accounting
Expense processing (Employment needs, subcontracts, Concur, P-Card, Purchase Orders, Direct Pays and more)
Indirect Costs (sometimes referred to as "IDC" or "F&A")

The Post-Award Manager's role is to provide as much administrative support as possible to the PD/PI, so they can focus on programmatic or research goals of the award. Our goal as Post-Award Managers is to assist the PD/PI spend all of the awarded funds in a fiscally responsible and appropriate manner. The Post-Award Manager can originate/initiate the administrative processes from the time the award is received through the end of the project.