Sponsored Projects Administration

The Research and Innovation Office's Sponsored Projects Administration (SPA) holds institutional authority to submit grant and contract proposals to external sponsors and to accept resulting awards. 

Proposals

  • Review proposals for completeness and compliance with agency and university requirements (nontechnical)
  • Approve and endorse proposals on behalf of the University
  • Submit proposals to agencies
  • Manage electronic systems for proposal preparation, institutional approval, and submission to agencies

Awards

  • Negotiate favorable terms on behalf of the principal investigator (PI) and the University (e.g., publication rights, intellectual property rights, rights in data, indemnification, payment terms, etc.)
  • Accept awards on behalf of the University
  • Establish and maintain project accounts in the financial system
  • Create and distribute internal “Notice of Grant Award” synopsizing award terms and conditions
  • Resolve post-award issues (rebudgeting requests, change of PI, disputes with subrecipients, questions about allowability of costs, etc.)
  • Serve as institutional point of contact for questions raised by agencies (e.g., adherence to terms and conditions, compliance with reporting requirements, etc.)

Subawards

  • Assess potential subrecipients for risk
  • Negotiate and execute subawards after ensuring compliance with sponsor requirements
  • Create purchase orders in University financial system
  • Monitor subrecipients 
  • Approve subaward invoices for payment (after PI review and approval)

Unfunded research agreements

  • Assist faculty with obtaining a sponsor's confidential information, securing research materials, sharing proprietary datasets, and facilitating other non-funded research agreement matters
  • Negotiate and endorse incoming Material Transfer Agreements (MTA), Confidential Disclosure Agreements (CDA), Data Use Agreements (DUA), and Research Collaboration Agreements (RCA)

Associated fees and funding for services

There is no service fee for investigators or study teams for this central University unit. Learn more on the Research and Innovation Office's Sponsored Projects Administration (SPA) website.

Office hours

Contact us to coordinate access to office hours:

  • By appointment only

Contact

[email protected]
612-625-4000