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Award Acceptance ​

The University accepts both grants and contracts on behalf of the Principal Investigator (PI) or Project Director (PD), placing thelegal liability on the institution. The President, as Chief Executive Officer, has delegated to the Provost and Vice President forAcademic Affairs, as the Senior Research Officer, the authority to accept grants or contracts on behalf of the University. Thisformal acceptance must occur before any project activities can begin. Award notification is normally sent to ORSP but may besent directly to the PI. If the notice is sent to the PI, the PI must notify ORSP immediately. ​

On receipt of award notification, ORSP will review the award documents, negotiate any terms of the award, and obtain theappropriate signatures as necessary to formally accept the award. ORSP will notify the PI when the award has been acceptedand will arrange an award kick-off meeting. The PI should notify his/her Dean and Director/Chair or other appropriate supervisorregarding the success of an application. 

Public Announcements

Certain funders or programs have restrictions or specific requirements with regard to public announcements and the timing of announcements. Public announcements about sponsored projects must be reviewed by ORSP before being submitted to University Relations. 

Required RCR Training

For NSF Grants, all faculty, staff, graduate, and undergraduate students supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to conduct research at Kean University must complete CITI training. No new award accounts will be established without documentation of CITI training completion for all principal investigators, co-investigators, and senior personnel included within an NSF proposal/award. No payments will be approved for researchers or students on an NSF award until the CITI training is complete and certification has been provided to ORSP. 

​Establishing The Cost Center and Budget Line Items

Procedure in ORSP: ​

  1. Once an award is made by the funding agency, the original application is pulled from the pending file.​
  2. The amount of the award is reconciled to the budget that was submitted to the funding agency. ​
  3. Once the budget is reconciled with the award amount, ORSP prepares a Request to Establish a Cost Center form based on the approved budget and created a Project ID. Budgets will be allocated only to cost categories that are allocable and allowable to the grant or contract under the funding agency guidelines. ​
  4. The Request to Establish a Cost Center form, along with the award notice, internal budget, and the funding agency budget form, is forwarded to the Grant Accountant for review, and then the Grant Accountant will create the cost center and booking of the budget to Ellucian Project Accounting with the Project ID and cost center. ​
  5. The Grant Account informs the PI and Post-Award that the cost center has been established for the grant or contract. 

Initial Award Meeting

Once the grant or contract has been formally accepted on behalf of the university, the Post-Award team contacts the PI/PD for an award kick-off meeting to discuss the terms of the award, budget line items, and personnel using the award kick-off checklist (see additional topics below). ​

After the award kick-off meeting, the approved budget has been reconciled with the award amount, the cost center has been established,; the budget line items have been booked, and access to KeanWise Financial Management and Ellucian Colleague Project Accounting for the PI/PD has been established or requested. ​

The Post-Award team sends the PI/PD a copy of the checklist containing important ORSP contacts, reporting schedule, and cost center (see sample checklist). The PI/PD is required to sign the checklist and send it back to Post-Award for record-keeping.

Topics covered at the initial award meeting include:

  • Terms of the award
  • Summary of grant objectives and activities
  • Budget items and related procedures
  • Personnel supported by the grant
  • Hiring Part-time or full-time grant personnel
  • Hiring Student Assistants
  • Graduate Assistants
  • Equipment and Supplies
  • Travel
  • Allowable and unallowable costs
  • Procedure for requesting budget modifications
  • Roles and responsibilities ​

​Post-Award will work closely with the PI/PD to ensure that he/she understands the award budget, the sponsor’s requirements, and allowable expenses. Once established, expenditures within each line item category cannot exceed the budget unless a budget revision is made (see budget revisions). Although ORSP monitors grant activity, each PI must monitor his/her project through reports available in the Colleague Project Accounting section of the Ellucian system. ​