What is the issue?

Salaries,
wages, and employee benefit costs make up the majority of expenses for
sponsored activities. It is critical that institutions are able to document
these costs much the same way they are able to demonstrate equipment purchases
or travel expenses.

Research news aggregated from agency and university news feeds.

• Sponsors often need to make their own reports,
  and they need your information to do it properly. Large sponsors with multiple programs use
  final reports to monitor and improve individual programs and fine tune
  solicitations. Many have measures that
  they must report, which are gathered from your final report.

• Some sponsors have enforcement mechanisms to
  prevent consideration of further proposals until reports are submitted.

Cost-sharing may come from department and/or deans' offices, grants, tuition, salaries, equipment, and several other sources. To complicate matters further, sponsors sometimes make locating the funds more difficult by limiting the source of cost-share to a few possibilities (thus the test of commitment!). As such, when the PI needs to identify and get funds approved, few grant activities aggravate people more than cost-sharing.

Depending upon the agency from which you are seeking funds, there are a variety of individuals who are willing to help you on your way to successful projects. Large federal agencies, such as the National Science Foundation, provide potential grant writers with one or two lead contacts and several other co-leads. Others, like the Department of Defense, may offer a technical lead and an administrative lead.

How SRS can help
When a new award is received, SRS will contact the PI about scheduling a Project Initiation Meeting (PIM).  At the PIM, SRS will go over the terms and conditions of the sponsored project, including any reporting deadlines, format, and submission method.  SRS will also offer the use of its database to remind the PI via email when reporting deadlines are approaching.

Things to remember