Grants and Contracts

The Pre-Award office reviews and submits all proposals for the School of Medicine.

A Funding Proposal (FP) is required in SPARTA with each grant submission, discretionary and special project account request, research or service agreement, and NIH RPPR continuations. Principal Investigators should work with their Department Administrators in the preparation of the proposal and FP. Only FINAL versions of the proposal should be routed for signatures prior to submission to the Office of Grants & Contracts for review/submission via SPARTA.

• Research Administration Commonly Requested Information
• SPARTA
• Office of Grants & Contracts Pre-Award Policy for Proposals
• FAQs - Pre Award

The following links are resources for use in preparing federal funding applications for the National Institutes of Health & Centers.

• NIH Grants Home
• Parent R01s
• Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA
• NIH Institutes & Centers
• NIH Salary Cap
• NIH Forms & Applications
• NIH Standard Deadlines
• eRA Commons
• NIH Weekly (subscribe to the email listserv here)

Post Award is responsible for entering and revising speedtypes and contracts within the PeopleSoft system for the School of Medicine.

All invoicing, journals and financial reporting are handled by Central Sponsored Projects Accounting. The School of Medicine's Internal Month End Close for Grants & Contracts occurs prior to the end of the month. Please refer to the OG&C Month End Close page for the specific deadline date each month. Departments are to provide any post-award items to be processed for the month end close by the indicated deadline date each month. Any items received after the specified date will be processed as time allows or the following month.

The IPAS form is to be utilized for setting up and modifying existing speedtypes, including no-cost extensions, preliminary accounts, budget revisions, and new sub-accounts. For information on no-cost extensions, see the Post-Award FAQs.  

Preliminary accounts are used for requesting creation of a zero budget account to allow for appropriate expensing to be charged to the speedtype. This account holds the department financially responsible if  the award/contract is not eventually executed. On the IPAS form in SPARTA, the following statement is required: “the Department will be financially responsible for any expenses if the award/contract is not executed.”

Once set up, the preliminary account is active from the start date of the agreement until three months after the set up month. The month it is set up being month number one of the three months following setup. 

Budget revisions are to be utilized if transferring an IDC-bearing expense account to a non-IDC bearing expense account. This can also be utilized for transferring from one speedtype to another speedtype. Please refer to your NOGA/award for specific re-budgeting requirements.

New sub-accounts are to be utilized when requesting creation of sub-accounts within a program that is already set up in the system and already has a CON number (i.e. CON123456). Along with the IPAS form, please provide any supporting documentation if applicable.

The Petition form will allow a speedtype within the PeopleSoft system to remain open but  will not extend the end date of the program. This should be  utilized for the following purposes:

• If awaiting additional funding
• If an extension to the end date is pending
• To keep a preliminary account open for additional time as the agreement/contract is still pending

Please complete the appropriate section of the Petition in SPARTA and attach the relevant supporting documentation, including current income & expense statement. The petition will keep the account open for three months from the beginning of the month when the petition was approved. To confirm the petition has been processed by Central Sponsored Projects Administration, the department should run the income & expense statement and see “P” as the status. A revised internal NOA will not be issued to the department. A speedtype will remain open for the following time periods/circumstances:

• Once a speedtype has ended, the account will remain open for 30 days, then expenses will go to cost share.
• If a speedtype goes into a deficit, the account will remain open for 60 days, then expenses will go to cost share.

• Internal budget form to be included in SPARTA with FP
• NIH Grant Closeout: Use to help process NIH closeout items in eRA Commons.
• Post Award FAQs

In addition, all faculty are required to submit the Faculty Departure Title Page and Checklist at the time when a faculty member is ending his/her employment with the University. In particular, Appendix A relates to the Office of Grants & Contracts.

If you have questions, please contact the Office of Grants and Contracts.

For those who were unable to attend this session on March 23, 2022, please see the meeting recording: 

The Office of Grants & Contracts is responsible for the process of both incoming and outgoing subcontracts to the School of Medicine.

• Either the Department, our office, or the Principal Investigator will receive an unexecuted subcontract agreement
• The Department provides appropriate documentation, i.e budgets, IACUC, IRB, etc.
• A SPARTA Funding Proposal (FP) must be completed by the Department and routed for review and approval. Eventually, the FP will be routed to SOM OG&C
• Our office will review the agreement and contact the Department  with any questions.
• Once questions are answered and review is complete, the partially executed agreement (SOM signature only) is then returned to the Prime Institution for execution.

(CWRU is the Prime Recipient or Pass-Thru-Entity)

• CWRU SOM receives the award
• A speedtype is set up for each subcontract site
• Grants & Contracts then generates the subcontract agreement and provides to the Department for approval and completion of any missing information
• Once approved by the Department and all needed documents are provided, the unexecuted agreement is then sent to the subcontracted site for signatures
• A partially executed agreement is then provided back to our office
• If all parts of the agreement have been signed/completed, the agreement is executed

These are requested for each subcontract that is part of your NIH proposals at the time the proposal is submitted. The forms can be downloaded from NIH's PHS 398 website

• PHS 398 Face Page: should be signed by the subcontract institution
• PHS 398 Initial Budget Period
• PHS 398 Entire Budget Period
• PHS 398 Checklist

Additionally, a Statement of Work is also required. The Statement of Work (similar to a budget justification) should provide information as to what work will be performed and by whom at the subcontracted site. There is no standard template as each subcontract is different.

Read the Sub-Contract FAQ for more information.

The Office of Grants and Contracts helps with processing Sponsored Research Agreements, Sponsored Service Agreements, and Core Service Agreements. See the process for Sponsored Industry Agreements.

Before discussing details of any agreement with an external industry sponsor, please contact the Office of Grants & Contracts. We will work with you to determine several important aspects of the project, including:

• Whether the Statement of Work is a sponsored research agreement, a sponsored service agreement, or a core facilities service agreement
• Template forms to be sent to the sponsor
• How to prepare a budget for external sponsors
• Other considerations that are unique to sponsored agreements (ex: confidentiality)

If you are unfamiliar with the process of developing an industry partnership, please contact Anne DeChant in the Office of Innovation & Entrepreneurship. She can walk you through the process and provide information to start planning before you are ready to talk to the Office of Grants and Contracts.

Faculty, staff, and students should not be negotiating with external sponsors about agreement terms and conditions. The Office Grants & Contracts (Judy McBride, 216-368-4432) manages the negotiations and works closely with several other departments across campus to complete contracts.
 
Faculty SHOULD work with their Department administrator and the sponsor to develop the Statement of Work (SOW) and Budget. As soon as a statement of work and budget has been developed, a Funding Proposal can be started in SPARTA. Please remember, the completion and routing of the FP notifies us that the agreement is ready for Office of Grants and Contracts involvement.

The SOW will be used to determine which type of agreement is appropriate. Sponsored Research Agreements are used for projects that include hypothesis-driven and analytical work. This comes with the expectation that the PI may use the data to publish, or that intellectual property may be developed. Sponsored Service Agreements are used for projects that include task-oriented work. Publishing and intellectual property issues are unlikely to arise.

Core facilities service agreements are specialized agreements that involve core facilities with established pricing and permission to use the form (for more details contact: 216-368-1266).