Award Initiation & Setup

Extenuating circumstances may require a department or Principal Investigator to obtain a project number for a proposed project before OSP has received the formal award. Principal investigators may submit a Risk Project Approval form before the sponsor has given formal award notification. Due to the risk involved, the request must include the documentation and approvals as specified in the Division of Research policy for advance risk accounts.

There are some  federal sponsors (DoD, NIH, NSF and USDA, as examples) and other non-federal sponsors that allow up to 90 days of pre-award costs (i.e. prior to the official start date) on projects where funding is imminent, but the award notice has not yet been processed.  Though some federal agencies do permit 90-day pre-award costs, there are several that do not and almost all non-federal agencies do not permit pre-award expenses to be incurred before the official start date of the award. CPAC are to submit to the Director of GCA for setup and approval.

The sponsor will inform the University when a proposal has been funded by providing an award notice or letter. The award notice must be received by Grants and Contracts Administration (GCA) through the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) before a University project number (expenditure, budget, revenue, etc.) will be assigned.

OSP will review to ensure all regulatory and compliance checks are complete prior to forwarding to GCA for award setup. 

• IRB/IACUC protocols must be approved, or a developmental plan must be approved by the Office of Research Compliance.
• Conflicts of Interest must be updated and in good standing.

OSP will forward the following documents and information to GCA via email to the Grants Administrator and CUSPAA@clemson.edu noting the Infoed PPN#, subclass, and NEW or MOD in the subject line.  The listed documents below aid in the efficient and effective setup of the sponsored project in the Peoplesoft (CUBS) financial system:

• Final submitted proposal
• Notice of award
• An internal budget form that matches the awarded amount
• Any accompanying sponsor guidelines, and
• Resolution of, or exception variances provided for, regulatory/compliance check items noted above

GCA performs the following actions when setting up an award:

• Reviews Award Terms and Conditions
• Verifies Regulatory Checks (i.e. Animal/Human subjects and COI) have been completed
• Setup the Project (Fund 20) in the financial system:
  • Establishing Project number(s) and chartfield string
  • Verifying Budget Information and Entry into the system
  • Ensuring F&A is properly assigned or documented
  • Verifies Cost Share project(s) are assigned
  • Establishes Program Income project, when necessary

Once the sponsored record is entered into the Peoplesoft (CUBS) grants panels, the project is then added to the appropriate F&A (FACADM) Tree node, and the budget is entered into the budget journal panels according to the internal budget provided with the award documents and setup request. Once all steps have been completed, GCA will send an electronic notification to the principal investigator, college/budget center contacts (CPACs), and the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) notifying them of the award and assigned project number. Setups typically take 3 to 5 business days except in peak periods.

At the time the project is setup in the system, the record is set to “Inactive”, which means that the project cannot yet incur expenses or be used.  For the project to be activated, GCA will send a notification to the PI, CPAC’s, OSP, COI, BuyWays, that provides the project number and chartfield string, the award document, as well as a list of the Award Terms and Conditions that was provided by the sponsor. The PI will be asked to confirm receipt of this documentation, acknowledging the details of the documentation and acceptance of the award terms and conditions. Once the PI responds to the email that they have reviewed the sponsors’ terms and conditions and acknowledge acceptance, the GCA Grants Administrator will set the project to “active” allowing expenses to be incurred.