Grants Management Team

Team Description

The Grants Management Team (GMT) will focus on the following:

Assist with Pre- and Post-Award needs for sponsored (externally funded) awards including interfacing with or translating requests from Sponsored Projects Services (SPS) as needed.
- Assistance for non-sponsored and start-up accounts will remain with departmental support staff.
Provide faculty with guidance and support, specifically for available funds, compliance and allowability, navigation of university systems and processes, and facilitating solutions to issues on an ad hoc basis.
Rollout to departments is to be based on a phased approach.
GMT is here to provide supplemental assistance. Faculty who are successfully working directly with SPS, ORA, and CAS Shared Service should continue to do so.

Department Roll-out

The Grants Management team supports pre- and post- award workflow and the following departments during the pilot phase:

Phase 1 March 2023: Communicative Disorders and Sciences, Geography, Geology, Physics
Phase 2 May 2023: Biological Sciences
Phase 3 July 2023: Anthropology, Chemistry, Environment and Sustainability
Phase 4 September 2023: Communication, Linguistics, Mathematics, Sociology
Phase 5 Fall 2023: all remaining departments

Tasks and Responsibilities

Pre-Award Activities

Faculty are welcome to request support for the following pre-award support activities:

Review/Advise on the funding announcement and sponsor guidelines, notify SPS of proposal submission.
Create a UB Box shared folder and provide standard templates for required supplemental documents.
Create proposal submission checklist and timeline (to be compliant with UB and CAS proposal deadlines).
Review/alert PI to required compliance training/disclosures necessary for submission (CITI COI training/FCOI disclosure).
Develop initial budget drafts. Send budget to SPS for review and upload.
Advise on/record necessary pre-approvals prior to submission, such as:
- Summer salary > 2 months
- Cost share approval
Identify and collect relevant supplemental and budget documents.
Initiate CLICK form.
Review proposal documents for formatting (font, chronological order, etc.) as time allows.
Ensure administrative portions of the application package are complete and upload final versions into the sponsor portal.
Notify SPS once proposal is ready for review / submission.
Maintain a copy of the final submitted documents.

Faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences may also leverage university resources for pre-award service offered by the Office of Research Advancement (ORA). Therefore, the GMT may refer faculty in the following circumstances to ORA:

Faculty submitting award-related federal proposals (e.g. NSF CAREER, NIH R35, DoE Young Investigator Award etc.)
Any faculty submitting a large proposal (proposals involving 4 or more UB faculty / proposals involving non-UB PIs / proposals involving sub-awards to other institutions)
Proposals to the Department of Defense / Department of Energy

Post-Award Support

Activity	Grants Management Role	Where to Start
At-Risk / Backstop Requests	Assist PI to complete the At-Risk/Backstop request form. Route to SPS and Associate Dean for Research (ADR) for: Review > Risk Assessment > Approval	Reach out to GMT contact if assistance is needed
Budget Revision / Reallocation Requests	Assist PI with revised budget draft and/or facilitate direct request /referral to SPS, Sponsor, or ADR, as the situation requires.	Reach out to GMT contact if assistance is needed
No Cost Extension	Provide general guidance on the NCE process. Refer PI to the SPS Agreement Administrator or SPS online request form. Note: PIs should reach to Request NCE 90 days prior to award end date.	Reach out to GMT contact if assistance is needed
General Guidance	General guidance on allowability, allocability, reasonableness of expenditures. Facilitate questions to SPS or other university contacts for policy or process guidance, as needed.	Reach out to GMT contact if assistance is needed
HR Appointment Requests	Provide confirmation of: Budget funds availability Allowability Project Start/End dates Note: GMT will only have access to ePTFs the CAS HR team submits to assist with resolving account issues GMT cannot resolve sponsored account charges for appointments without this info	Appointment requests can be made directly to CAS HR, unless PI has budget, allowability, or account questions. Email: casappointment@buffalo.edu
Procurement / Reimbursement Requests	Provide confirmation of: Budget funds availability Allowability Project Start/End dates	Procurement/reimbursement requests should be made directly to CAS Reimbursement Procurement Team, unless PI has budget, allowability, or account questions Email: cas-reimbursement-procurement@buffalo.edu
Tuition Requests	Provide confirmation of: Budget funds availability Allowability Project Start/End dates	Tuition requests should be made directly to department graduate coordinator or current departmental contact, unless PI has budget, allowability, or account questions.

Timeline

Best Practice

Initiate GMT support request a minimum of 90 days prior to submission deadline.

Intent to Submit

3-6 months, no less than 30 days

Initiate Budget

1 month, no less than 14 days

Submit CLICK

No less than 7 business days

Less than 30 days' notice, support will be determined by capacity and may be limited.

5 business days before deadline - Final budget and administrative documents must be uploaded
2 business days before deadline – Technical documents must be uploaded

Contact Us

Department	Staff Contact
Geography Geology Physics CLICK approval workflow	Barb Catalano bac6@buffalo.edu 716-645-4858
Anthropology Chemistry Communicative Disorders and Sciences Environment and Sustainability	Vickie Dymock vldymock@buffalo.edu 716-645-2592
Biological Sciences Communication Linguistics Mathematics Sociology	Daronda Savage dasavage@buffalo.edu 716-645-0296
All other departments	cas-grantsmanagement@buffalo.edu
Suspense accounts RF tuition 45- and 90-day reports	Robyn Wagner rlwagner@buffalo.edu 716-645-4857

If you have an issue that needs escalation, please reach out to Murthy Ganapathy, associate dean for research.