Project Lifecycle

Aids with the preparation and submission of proposals; review of award details prior to acceptance; and assists with some non-financial post-award prior approvals.

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• Proposal Development
  • Your assigned sponsored programs officer (SPO) assists with searches for potential grant funding, providing sponsor guidelines, and gives general assistance and guidance with preparing a grant application. 
• Proposal Review & Submission
  • Electronic Research Administration (eRA) describes the philosophy of conducting Research Administration in an integrated and paperless environment. The University of North Carolina at Wilmington utilizes InfoEd (OSPREY) to manage all extramurally funded proposals and contracts along with unfunded research agreements. 
  • Required Routing 
    • For any proposal submission seeking extramural funding, SPARC requires a complete routing package (all pages completed in OSPREY, in addition to an uploaded scope of work and budget justification) before the proposal or agreement can be submitted to the sponsor or prime site. For questions related to required routing, please contact your assigned SPO.
  • Budget Preparation
    • Developing budgets for sponsored projects requires understanding the dynamics of the project, the activities to be performed, and how to determine and allocate the correct costs and fees for research activities. Visit our researcher's toolbox and speak further with your SPO for additional guidance and resources.
• Post-Submission (Prior to Award)
  • Depending on potential funding source, you may be required to provide the sponsor with updated information prior to award issuance. Just-in-time (JIT) processing affords the sponsor an opportunity to review budgets, other support, and compliance related actions prior to issuing an award. Working alongside your SPO ensures rapid response times to sponsor related requests an intake of awards.
• Award Review (Prior to Acceptance of Award)
  • SPARC assists in bringing proposal and contract negotiations to award status. Award notifications and corresponding documents should always be sent to AOR@uncw.edu.
  • Once SPARC receives notice of an award in the AOR@uncw.edu box, your assigned SPO will update the projects status in OSPREY and will begin reviewing the documents for compliance and ensure dates, personnel, and budget amounts in the award document match the submitted proposal documents. Should any changes be required (award amount increases, decreases, etc.) your SPO will reach out to you directly to work together on updating. Not all changes require OSPREY being re-routed for approval, but some do. Please ensure you work with your SPO to remain compliant.
  • Once the budget, personnel, and dates are confirmed, your assigned SPO will update your OSPREY project status to "award under review," and move it to the assistant director, Dana Brinkley Bell, for terms & conditions review.
  • The assistant director will review the terms & conditions of the award and will engage in negotiation, if necessary. Please allow for 10-14 business days for such review. Should it appear that negotiation or review may take longer than this typical timeline, the assistant director will let you know. Furthermore, you (as principal investigator) should be included as a cc on all email communications regarding your award negotiation. For any questions, please email sparcnegotiations@uncw.edu.

SPARC assists in bringing proposal and contract negotiations to award status. Award notifications and corresponding documents should always immediately be sent to AOR@uncw.edu. Please list this email address on your grant submission applications.

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• Award Review (Prior to Acceptance of Award)
  
  • Once SPARC receives notice of an award in the AOR@uncw.edu box, your assigned SPO will update the projects status in OSPREY and will begin reviewing the documents for compliance and ensure dates, personnel, and budget amounts in the award document match the submitted proposal documents. Should any changes be required (award amount increases, decreases, etc.) your SPO will reach out to you directly to work together on updating. Not all changes require OSPREY being re-routed for approval, but some do. Please ensure you work with your SPO to remain compliant.
• Avoid Delays
  • Be sure you have routed a proposal through OSPREY.
  • If you receive the award notice from the sponsor, please do not send it to your assigned SPO, but rather to the AOR@uncw.edu email box for further processing. This step is integral in the award review process and is the step that initiates the award review and negotiation process.
  • Awards that are not routed and approved through OSPREY prior to sponsor award issuance will experience delays in processing and award setup. If appropriate approvals are not obtained prior to the receipt of an award, the institution is not contractually bound to accept an award on behalf of the PI. In all instances, when routing is not completed prior to issuance and receipt of an award, review and acceptance consideration will not be given priority over others in the OSPREY queue.

Once the budget, personnel, and dates are confirmed by your assigned SPO, they will update your OSPREY project status to "award under review" and move it to the assistant director, Dana Brinkley Bell, for terms and conditions review. Please email sparcnegotiations@uncw.edu for any questions related to award negotiation.

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• Once an award is received, any terms and conditions associated with the award are reviewed by the assistant director.
• Please allow 10-14 business days for such review. Should it appear that negotiation or review may take longer than this typical timeline, the assistant director will reach out to you.
• As the principal investigator, you should be included on all email communications regarding your award negotiation.
• If your grant or contract is not unilateral and requires signature from an authorized organizational official (AOR), please know that SPARC is the only office on campus with authority to sign such agreements in that capacity. 
• For any questions, please email sparcnegotiations@uncw.edu.

Once the award is fully executed (signed by all parties, if necessary) the assistant director will update the OSPREY status of the project from "award under review" to "award setup." At this point, your assigned grants & contracts officer (GCO) will begin the award setup process in GEARS and Banner and a fund for your project will be created. 

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• Should the negotiation process take longer than anticipated and you need to begin spending on your project, please discuss having a RISK fund initiated with your GCO and your department leadership. This fund does not speed up the fund setup process, rather, it allows for a fund to be set up prior to a fully executed award, at the risk of your department. Please see UNCW's RISK fund policy for further information and for completion of the RISK form to be signed by your department and submitted to SPARC.
• The award setup process must route through various departments on campus (the research integrity office, controller's office, etc.). Please allow 10-14 business days for this process to be completed. Your GCO will manage the progress of the GEARS route and will be in touch with any updates. Please feel free to reach out to your assigned GCO for any questions.
• Once the GEARS file is fully routed, a fund number is established and your project status in OSPREY will be updated to "active." You will receive an automated email message from OSPREY with award details - fund number, your assigned GCO, etc. Please pay attention to emails from OSPREY, as they contain pertinent information for your grant management.

Your assigned grants and contracts officer (GCO) is responsible for stewarding sponsored funding in accordance with regulatory requirements for projects funded by all extramural sources.

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• Award Management
• Award Closeout
  • The last step in a grant or contract’s life cycle is project closeout. Closeout is the process of documenting and assuring the fulfillment of the terms and conditions of the award or contract and making final report of all study by-products.
  • The closeout process involves submission of all technical, financial, and other reports as required to the sponsoring agency on time. A thorough knowledge of the terms and conditions of each award is necessary for a full understanding of the closeout process.