Looking for guidance? Feel free to take a look at our Glossary or FAQ pages, or contact us at ogrd@ewu.edu or ext. 6567
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Grants Office Basics
Although our official title is the Office of Grant and Research Development (OGRD), we are a full service sponsored programs office. In addition to assisting with all stages of pre-award grant development and submission, the office is also responsible for regulatory compliance requirements (approvals for human subjects in research, animal care and use, use of recombinant or synthetic nucleic acids and biologicals, development of intellectual property, etc.), and post-award administration. The services of the office also extend to facilitating contracts that constitute “works for hire” with the university, assistance with sub-award or sub-recipient agreements and non-disclosure and materials transfer agreements if they are necessary for either a grant or a contract.
An award is made to the university not an individual. Therefore, the university assumes the ultimate responsibility for all external funding. The Grants Office has the legal and fiduciary responsibility to ensure that all university, sponsor, state and federal regulations, laws and policies are met. In addition, the OGRD strives to ensure that the best quality proposal is submitted to the funder.
Contact the office as soon as you know that you will be submitting a proposal.
If you are considering a proposal, you may contact the OGRD for help with deciding whether or not your project is a good fit with a particular funding source or opportunity.
Because the actual proposal development process can take weeks, months, even up to a year, we recommend that the prospective PD or PI contact the Grants Office very early in the proposal process, so that a member of the Pre-Award team can help facilitate the overall process.
The OGRD requires that all draft proposal documents be submitted to your Pre-Award contact at least 10 working days prior to the agency’s deadline.
The primary reason for requesting 10 working days for OGRD to review all proposal documents is to assist the principal investigator in creating and submitting a proposal that is within sponsor guidelines. This includes the development of an appropriate and accurate budget, assistance with proposal editing and formatting and final submission to ensure that the proposal is complete and submitted on time.
Yes. All proposals must be approved, prior to submission, by your academic dean or program head. If others are committing resources to your project they must provide an approval as well. Approvals are documented by a signature on an Institutional Approvals for Proposal Submission Form.
Awards
When a sponsor issues and award (or declination), official notification may be made by phone, mail or email. Recipients may include the PD/PI and the OGRD. The PD/PI may be the only one to receive notification. It is important to forward all documents to the Grants Office as soon as you receive them.
ONLY the university can accept an award. If awarded, the official notification or agreement must be fully executed by the Grants Office. After a review of terms and conditions, all agreements are approved by the ORGD and are signed by the Associate Vice President for Business and Finance. This process commits the institution to the terms and conditions as outlined in the award notification or agreement.
When a PD/PI plans to leave an institution during the course of a grant project, the institution to which the grant was awarded has the responsibility to either transfer the grant with the PD/PI or keep the grant project at the institution under the direction of a new PD/P depending on the scope of the project. Negotiation must occur between all parties and often times a tripartite agreement will need to be agreed upon. Please contact the Grants Office at (509) 359-6567 or ogrd@ewu.edu for more information.
