In the past five years, we have assisted College of Education faculty in securing an average of $8 million annually to focus on a wide range of research projects, contributing to the university’s classification as a Carnegie Research 1 institution.

The office is responsible for ensuring all College of Education grant and contract proposals adhere to university, state, federal, and funder guidelines. The office is also responsible for confirming adherence to the rules that govern operations and expenditures associated with awarded grants and contracts.

 

Liaison Role

The Director of the Office of Grants and Contracts works as the college’s official contact for the University offices of Sponsored Awards Management and Contract and Grant Accounting. Communications from these offices regarding specific projects should be routed to the Director.

 

Funding Opportunities and Proposal Development

The Office of Grants and Contracts provides assistance with identifying funding opportunities and preparing proposals for submission. All funding proposals should be submitted to this Office as soon as possible, but no later than one week prior to the funder’s proposal deadline.

The Director of the Office of Grants and Contracts will work with the principal investigator on revisions, if needed, to enhance the chances for proposal success. The extent that the office can help with these revisions is dependent on how much time is available prior to final submission, so it is important for the principal investigator to contact the office early in the proposal stage.

The office will be responsible for routing the proposal to college administrators and ascertaining that these administrators have forwarded the proposal to Sponsored Awards Management in a timely fashion.

 

Post‐Award Support

The Office of Grants and Contracts helps secure administrative support for all awards. The office will work with department chairs to identify personnel who will be responsible for grant expenditure paperwork and other project‐related logistics. Identification of this support will be made in the award notification letter to be distributed by the office upon receipt of each grant award. When possible, especially for larger projects, funding for this purpose will be included in the proposal budget. Options would include temporary grant‐funded personnel, or paying for part of the salary of permanent staff.

For proposals that will lead to smaller projects, administrative assistance will be identified by the office in conjunction with the department chair. All financial and personnel requests must be routed through the office for approval.

The Director of the office serves as a proxy for department chairs and office directors in the role of signatory responsibility for financial matters associated with funded grants and contracts.

The Director communicates regularly with chairs and directors about funded projects and seeks direct approval when there are questions about proposed expenses. In addition, the Finance Manager sends regular reports to principal investigators with a copy to the respective chair or director.