Set Up
What happens when Michigan Tech receives an award?
Sponsored Programs will receive official notification that a proposal has been funded. Sponsored Programs will then email a Notice of Award to the Principal Investigator. The notice will include the sponsor name, project title, Michigan Tech internal proposal number, as well as any special terms and conditions of the award. This document must be reviewed, signed and returned to Sponsored Programs.
Sponsored Programs will work with the principal investigator to review and approve the terms and conditions of the award. A Michigan Tech officer will then review and sign all relevant documents. Sponsored Programs will notify the principal investigator, Sponsored Programs Accounting and the sponsor that the University has accepted and authorized the award.
How do I get my funds?
When Sponsored Programs Accounting receives the award documents they will assign an index number(s) to use in charging expenses to the project. The principal investigator and academic department coordinator will receive an e-mail with the index number(s) and a budget arranged by account code.
Manage
During the course of an award a principal investigator has the following fiscal responsibilities:
Hiring
- Hire and supervise soft-money personnel, as required
- Ensure that all graduate students and post-docs supported by the project receive training in the responsible conduct of research.
- Ensure regulatory compliance in the conduct of the project
- Maintain research records, notebooks, etc., as appropriate
Expenditures
- Ensure appropriateness and reasonableness of expenditures and determine if allowable
- Manage expenditures - ensuring that expenses are within start and end dates, are allowable, not to exceed the award amount
- Initiate requests for re-budgeting, reallocation of non-payroll expenditures and payroll expenditures as well as time extensions
- Each month financial statements are emailed to the principal investigator and department coordinator. It is the principal investigator’s responsibility to review these statements for accuracy and make submit corrections as necessary.
- Approve payment of subcontractor invoices
- Document cost share/matching funds if required (including review and approval of in-kind cost share)
- Maintain research records, notebooks, etc., as appropriate
- Review and approve project payroll certifications
Deliverables
- Prepare technical reports and provide other deliverables
- Maintain research records, notebooks, etc., as appropriate
Close Out
Principal investigators (PIs) are responsible for overseeing the proper close out of sponsored projects, including timely submission of all required reports. The normal close-out period is 90 days, except for federal pass-through and state projects, which vary from 30 to 60 days.
For projects with a positive balance that are not Fixed Price Agreements, the PI is responsible to inform the Sponsored Programs Accounting office (SPA) what action they want taken. If no specific advice has been received within the close-out period of the project, the budget will be reduced and the sponsor will not be billed in full, or funds will be returned to the sponsor.
Fixed Price Agreements are based on the best estimate of the funds needed to complete a project. In some cases, a small residual balance may remain at the end of the project. At the time the project is to be closed, the PI may retain a portion of the balance. The Facilities and Administrative cost portion must be transferred to the central Facilities and Administrative cost index and the remainder can be transferred to the PI’s institutional research and development (IRAD) index. In the case where the University voluntarily waived all or a portion of Facilities and Administrative costs, the full applicable Facilities and Administrative costs will be transferred to the central Facilities and Administrative cost index and any remaining balance will be transferred to the PI’s IRAD index. The PI can request a transfer by sending a memo or an e-mail to the SPA Grant Accountant indicating that the deliverables for the project have been met and the project is complete. Once the transfer request has been approved and SPA has verified that the University has been paid in full, the transfer will be made. If the University has not been paid in full, the PI will be notified and the transfer will be made once payment is obtained.
Projects with a deficit also need to be closed on a timely basis. See Expenditures Exceeding the Award Amount.