Several offices support your sponsored project at different points. Expand to see who does what.
Your Grants & Contracts Manager (GCM), in ORSP — your day-to-day partner: helps build budgets, routes proposals in Cayuse, processes expenses and reimbursements, and answers most questions across the lifecycle.
Office of Research & Sponsored Programs (ORSP) — submits proposals on the University’s behalf, negotiates and accepts awards, interprets sponsor terms, prepares subawards and agreements, and advises on prior approvals and compliance. The IRB is also part of ORSP.
Financial Services / Post-Award () — sets up the award account, manages financial post-award, and handles final financial reporting and closeout.
Wake Forest Innovations — technology transfer: invention disclosure, patents, licensing, startups, and agreements tied to intellectual property.
EHS — Environmental Health & Safety — the office overseeing lab, biosafety, and radiation safety.
Expanded Authorities — Sponsor-delegated authority that lets WFU approve certain changes (such as a one-time no-cost extension) without prior sponsor approval.
F&A — Facilities & Administrative costs — also called indirect costs or overhead.
FDAAA — Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act — the law behind clinical-trial registration.
GCM — Grants & Contracts Manager. GCMs assist in the preparation and maintenance of proposals/grants. The GCMs primarily assist with budget preparation and ensure that all required components described in the federal agency guidance or foundation guidance are included in the final proposal. GCMs are assigned to all academic departments in the College of Arts and Sciences. Some GCM’s may support the faculty in more than one department. To find the GCM assigned to your department, please see this website.
GCP — Good Clinical Practice.
HPC — High-Performance Computing — large-scale computing resources; at WFU, the DEAC cluster.
IBC — Institutional Biosafety Committee.
ID account — Institutional Discretionary account.
IDC — Indirect Costs — another name for F&A (overhead); see F&A.
JIT — Just-in-Time — a sponsor’s request for added information before making an award.
MTA — Material Transfer Agreement.
MTDC — Modified Total Direct Costs — the base on which F&A is calculated.
NCE — No-cost extension — added time to complete the project without added funds; request through ORSP at least 10 days before the end date (in practice, 30–60 days ahead).
NIH — National Institutes of Health.
NoA — Notice of Award — the sponsor’s official document making the award and setting its terms.
NSF — National Science Foundation.
ORCID — Open Researcher and Contributor ID — a persistent identifier that distinguishes you from other researchers; increasingly required on federal proposals.
ORSP — Office of Research & Sponsored Programs.
Other Support / Current & Pending — a disclosure of your active and pending research support, required with many proposals and at Just-in-Time.
PI — Principal Investigator.
PRG — Pilot Research Grant — ORSP internal seed funding to generate preliminary data for external proposals.
RCR — Responsible Conduct of Research.
RFA / RFP — Request for Applications / Request for Proposals — a sponsor’s announcement soliciting proposals for a defined opportunity.
RPPR — Research Performance Progress Report — the standard federal progress report.
SAM.gov — Federal entity registration system / Unique Entity Identifier.
SciENcv — Federal system for compiling biosketches and current & pending (other) support.
Single Audit — an annual organization-wide audit required of entities that spend above a federal threshold; used to confirm a subrecipient’s financial reliability.
SNAP — Streamlined Non-Competing Award Process — an NIH process for certain awards that simplifies annual reporting and lets unspent funds carry over automatically between budget periods.
UEI — Unique Entity Identifier.
Uniform Guidance — the federal rules governing sponsored awards (2 CFR Part 200), covering cost principles and administrative requirements.
WFUHS — Wake Forest University Health Sciences (the medical campus).
