What You Need to Know About Award Management

Award Management is a process that encompasses Sponsor and University policies and procedures pertinent to a project/award (often referred to as a sponsored project or grant). This process is also referred to as the “post award” phase of the life cycle of an award. This phase is critical for maintaining compliance with Uniform Guidance, funding agency regulations, managing budgets, and achieving the objectives outlined in the proposal.

Now that you have been awarded funding for your project, here is what you need to know r to manage it successfully! This article will highlight key fiscal elements and responsibilities related to overall award management during the post award phase.

• Budget Monitoring and Control: Review your award budget in OBI at the outset of the project and immediately notify the Office of Research and Sponsored Projects (ORSP) if changes are required. Review of ongoing expenditures should occur at least monthly to ensure proper allocation of funds in accordance with the approved budget and budget justification (as an R1 institution external sponsors expect things to be reviewed monthly). Please do not wait until the annual report or close out to examine your account balance. For compliance purposes it is important to stay informed and up to date on any changes in regulations that could have an impact on requirements set by the funding agency. To mitigate financial risks be sure to develop controls and strategies to leverage uncertainties.
• Direct Charging/Cost Transfers In accepting federal funds for sponsored projects Ohio University agrees to abide by government regulations regarding the use of those funds. Direct costs are those costs that can be identified specifically with a particular sponsored project, or that can be directly assigned to such activity easily with a high degree of accuracy. In general, these costs fall into broad categories such as effort (salaries/wages and benefits), materials, travel, equipment, etc. Direct cost items should be necessary, and essential for project success. The Principal Investigator is responsible for ensuring any direct charges are allowable and allocable to the project.

A cost transfer (aka accounting correction) is defined as an expense that is transferred from one account to another after the expense was initially recorded in the financial accounting system. The Principal Investigator and their department are responsible for initiating and processing cost transfers and ensuring that cost transfers are completed in compliance with Uniform Guidance, University guidelines and the sponsored award.

Cost Sharing: The University must ensure that cost sharing requirements of sponsored agreements are proposed, approved, accounted for, and reported in a manner consistent with the requirements of the sponsor and the University. Cost sharing can be of the following types: Mandatory (required by the sponsor), Voluntary committed (not required by sponsor but is in proposal/budget), Voluntary uncommitted (any effort or resources contributed to the sponsored project beyond that which is committed and budgeted for in a sponsored agreement). Mandatory/Committed cost sharing must be identified, administered, and accounted for consistently throughout the University within the financial system through the creation of a cost share award within the university financial system.

• Time and Effort Reporting: The Office of Management and Budgets’ (OMB) Uniform Guidance: Cost Principles, Audit, and Administrative Requirements for Federal Awards includes regulatory requirements for the planning, confirmation, and certification of effort associated with organized research projects and other activities. Effort directly charged to sponsored projects and any mandatory cost share effort (i.e., committed effort that is not directly charged to the award) must be identified in the University’s effort distribution/reporting system. The principles that govern how the University must document time and effort on federal awards are in
  OMB Uniform Guidance 2 CFR 200.430.

The following categories of OU employees are effort certified on university generated reports:

1. All salaried faculty, graduate students, administrative and professional employees paid on sponsored projects (Frequency – Semesterly).

2. Hourly Non-exempt support staff, undergraduate students, and limited duration employees paid on sponsored projects (Frequency - Monthly), if applicable. Wages for administrative and clerical staff are not normally allowed to be charged to sponsored projects as those costs are part of the University overall recovery of indirect costs from external sponsors.

    

• NIH Salary Cap: As part of the budget appropriations of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the US Congress legislatively mandates a salary cap. The salary cap applies to grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts (except for those that are clearly defined to be exempt from the cap). Click HERE to view the salary cap for current and previous years. The salary cap limits the rate of academic and summer salary that may be charged to NIH, SAMHSA, and AHRQ awards. Ohio University must comply with all salary cap requirements of sponsors making awards to the University in support of research or other activities.
• Sponsored Travel Guidance: There are specific rules relating to travel charged to the Federal Award(s). This guidance is an extension of the University Travel Policy. This provides information to ensure the University and the traveler are in compliance with the regulations and restrictions placed on the use of the funds by the sponsor and the Fly America Act.
• Reporting and Closeout: Most sponsors require various financial, progress and technical reporting to determine the use of sponsored funds on either a monthly, quarterly, annual, or other reporting basis. The Grant Accounting team is responsible for ensuring that the deadlines for any financial reporting are met and in compliance with the federal, state, sponsor specific and/or Ohio University’s policies and procedures. The PI is responsible for the submission of any final technical/progress reports required under the terms of an award in the form required by the sponsor. PIs should consult their award terms to determine what reports are required as well as when and how the sponsor expects to receive these reports.

More in-depth guidance for managing sponsored activity can be found here.

The University expects the Sponsored Projects community to perform the necessary tasks associated with the timely submission of final deliverables and the prompt closeout of expired sponsored projects.

Effective post-award management requires collaboration between the finance, project management, and administrative teams. It is important to maintain transparent communications with all stakeholders regarding financial aspects of the project. We must also maintain a state of audit readiness with well organized documentation for all financial transactions that support the use of funds. This aids external reviewers and stakeholders with ease of access for any desk reviews or audits that are required.

For questions, please contact financecustomercare@ohio.edu.