Post-Award: Managing an Award and Reporting
If you are awarded funds from an external sponsor, several administrative steps are taken immediately and during the course of the award, from the university’s accepting or negotiating the award terms, to having a unique restricted account assigned to the award. These steps enable the PI/PD, with operations support from the Dean’s Office and budget staff, to carry out the funded project by making expenditures against the approved budget throughout the period of performance stipulated in the proposal or award.
Award Set-Up
If a proposal is funded, the PI is encouraged to communicate the good news to their department chair, Dean's Office, and Office of Research Support (ORS). The next phase involves the university's accepting the award terms, establishing a unique restricted Fund account for the award, and enabling the PI to carry out the funded project and make expenditures against that account.
Certain projects have more than one grant or contract supporting them, but in most instances, a unique account will be set up for each individual award for reporting and compliance purposes.
Often, before an official award notice or letter is sent to the PI or the university, the sponsoring organization may request a revised or reduced budget as a condition of the award.
Subaward Set-up: Whether The New School serves as a subrecipient of an award, or the pass-through entity (lead applicant on the grant), ORS coordinates the process for establishing a formal subrecipient agreement between The New School and the other institution. The subaward must be fully agreed upon between The New School and the other organization, and must be executed before a restricted Fund account is established at the university and prior to expenditures being made.
Once you have reviewed the details of your award, a letter is emailed to the PI with important award details based on the unique terms and conditions of a grant or contract, including any applicable research compliance requirements.
Fund Account Set-up and Spending
After ORS finalizes any required award documentation from the sponsor, in coordination with the Budget and Operations staff in the school, ORS proceeds to request a unique Fund account for the award from Grant Accounting in Finance. Grant Accounting staff reviews and creates a new Fund, much like a charge account, for each specific project or award. This Fund, against which all expenditures for any personnel or non-personnel cost items under the awarded budget are expensed, is referred to internally at The New School as a Fund or FOAP.
Reporting, Compliance and Unexpected Changes
The PI/PD is responsible pragmatically and financially for the activities of the award, its outcomes and on-time submission of reports and deliverables to external sponsors. School and central staff involved in research administration support the PI to ensure these requirements are met on time, typically based on deadlines set by the sponsor.
The PI/PD is responsible for the following:
Technical, progress, interim or annual (narrative) reports to the sponsor (in coordination with ORS)
Financial reports and invoices (with support from the Budget Officer and Grant Accounting staff)
Proposed budget change requests on an existing award (in coordination with ORS)
No-cost extension and key personnel change requests (in coordination with ORS)
Certifying time and effort (with support from the Budget Officer and Grant Accounting staff)
When applicable, the PI/PD must comply with research compliance requirements related to the project. See the Research Integrity and Compliance section of the website for detailed information, policies, and procedures.
Closeout of Awards
The end date specified in the award documentation obligates the university to close out and end all expenditure activity on a Fund by this date.
No additional charges or expenses can be incurred after this date, so it is very important that the PI plan ahead with their Budget Officer and spend down any remaining balance prior to the end date. Once a Fund is closed, the PI and relevant staff are notified by Grants Accounting and internal systems are updated.