Start a Project

You have received news of funding from an external sponsor for your grant or contract, so what's next? Here's how you begin your sponsored project.

Accepting an Award

If award materials from the sponsor come to you instead of Sponsored Programs, please forward them immediately to your contact person in Sponsored Programs.
Sometimes grant awards come with contracts or agreements. Your contact person in Sponsored Programs will review the terms and conditions and make sure the University can comply with them—and, if not, will negotiate changes with the sponsor.
Please note: Only authorized representatives can sign grant agreements and contracts on behalf of the University. Individual faculty and staff are not authorized to provide these signatures. Click here for more information on who can provide these signatures.

Once Sponsored Programs has processed your award, you will be contacted about setting up a New Award Meeting.

This meeting will be held with both your contact person in Sponsored Programs and Special Funds Accounting. Your department/office administrative assistant will also be invited.
During the meeting, you will provide Special Funds Accounting with information they need to set up an account (or fund) for your sponsored funds.
Also, everyone will review who is responsible for what (click here to see the Responsibility Matrix - PDF) during the management of your sponsored project, including effort reporting, re-budgeting, sub-recipient monitoring, financial and technical reporting, and closing out your project when it is finished.

Post-award processes, which are handled by Special Funds Accounting (SFA), are triggered by notification from Sponsored Programs that the proposal has been officially awarded and accepted by the University.
SFA establishes a 55XXXX fund number to account for the project's revenues and expenses and sends a Fund Authority Form to you, the Principal Investigator (PI)/Project Director (PD) for signatures.