Sponsored Projects Administration

Under HOOP 64, the Sponsored Projects Administration is responsible for the review and acceptance of grants, contracts & subawards for sponsored activities at UTHealth.

This internal review process is necessary to ensure that all sponsored project documentation concurs with the mission of the University and adheres to federal, state, sponsor and institutional policies and guidelines. The review process allows the Grants and Award Management team to assure potential sponsors that time and cost commitments are appropriate and all compliance issues (e.g., human subjects, animal use, export controls, conflicts of interest) are adequately addressed.

PROPOSAL REVIEW SUMMARY

In order to review and process grant applications, the Grants & Award Management (GAM) team requires all of the administrative and financial portions and attachments of all applications ten (10) days prior to sponsor deadline. The GAM team will not accept proposals that are incomplete or in draft form.

Documents must be routed to the GAM team using UTSTART. The GAM team does not accept administrative and financial documents via email. Once the proposal enters SPA Review or Final Review in UTHealth START, the process as outlined below is initiated.

  • The UTHealth START proposal record is assigned for review to a Sponsored Projects Administrator.
  • The Sponsored Projects Administrator (SPA) reviews administrative and financial portions for institutional and sponsor compliance and communicates with the departmental administrator or Principal Investigator (PI) about any additional information that is required.
  • The Sponsored Projects Administrator provides guidance regarding needed budget revisions and sponsor guideline interpretation.
  • Once the department uploads the completed science for proposals that have been approved for SPA Review, the departments/PIs will route via UTSTART for Final Review. Final Review requires PI (and MPI) approval
  • For proposals that are System to System (S2S) (Ex. NIH, DoD, CDC, and others that go through Grants.gov), the Sponsored Projects Administrator will route them via UTHealth START to a UTHealth Authorized Official for S2S submission once approved.
  • The GAM team will submit all approved non-S2S electronic submissions (Research.gov, CPRIT, Komen, AHA, THECB) via external portals only if the PI is unable to submit the proposal.
  • The department is responsible for uploading a complete application into the UTHealth Start proposal.
  • At Just In Time (JIT) or when any request is made from sponsor prior to award, the GAM team serves as liaison and officially responds to all correspondence (budget revisions, other support documents, IRB/IACUC approvals, etc.). The GAM team works with the PI to obtain and submit any information needed by the sponsor, including revised budgets, compliance committee protocol approvals and University representations and certifications.
  • The sponsor completes proposal review and informs the PI or the GAM team of the funding decision.
  • If an award is made, the sponsor sends the GAM team the notice of grant award (NOGA or NOA) document. If the PI receives the NOGA, it should be sent to the SPA Preaward Intake email at [email protected] for processing.

PROPOSAL DEVELOPMENT MODULE OF UTSTART

The Proposal Development (PD) Module collects all the documents related to the administrative and financial portions of a grant or contract application. In order to review and process a grant or contract application, the Proposal Development packet should be routed to SPA via UTHealth Start at least ten (10) days prior to the sponsor deadline. Applications that are submitted less than ten (10) working days prior to the sponsor deadline will be reviewed in the order in which they are received and are not guaranteed a thorough review for submission. Once the GAM team completes the review and provides the approval, the Department/PI should route the final grant application including the final science to the GAM team in UTHealth START at least (3) business days prior to the deadline.

The Grants & Award Management Team will not review proposals that are in Budget Review status or Under Development. Contact GAM team for solutions for any University or sponsor deadline requirements.

Letter of Intent approvals should also be routed via UTStart and include the applicable subaward documents: Scope of Work, Budget, Budget Justification, etc. LOIs should use the UTHealth LOI Template on the Forms and Templates page.