Top of page

ORSP Central Staff Roles & Responsibilities

Overall Role & Responsibility

The role of the staff in the Central Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP) is to support the research mission at Wake Forest University. ORSP is responsible for: (i) Pre-Award activities including proposal development assistance, proposal review and approval, and proposal submission, (ii) Post-Award Administration including award negotiation and acceptance, grant management support, and subcontracting, (iii) Compliance and Oversight. The roles and responsibilities for managing human subjects research are not listed below and can be found here. Essentially, ORSP serves as a central point of contact and expertise for all things related to securing and managing external funding for research and other sponsored activities, ensuring both the success of individual projects and the institution’s overall research mission.

For detailed lists of specific responsibilities, please click to expand the sections below.

General Administrative
  • Policy Development: Develop and implement institutional policies and procedures related to research administration and sponsored projects.
  • Participate in institutional policy/procedure/practice updates and changes
  • Enhance communication with the campus about changes in sponsor guidelines
  • Reporting and Analysis: Provide data and reports related to research activities and sponsored funding to analyze institutional investments and guide management decisions.
  • Work closely with the Chief Research Security Officer, the Chief Compliance officer and the Vice Provost for Research, Scholarly Inquiry and Creative Activity to develop policies and training materials, and track training, to ensure compliance across the university
  • Training and Education: Offer workshops and training to the research community on various aspects of sponsored programs, including those related to compliance. 
  • Create user accounts in eRA Commons, Research.gov, Cayuse
  • Act as liaison between WFU and sponsors and other institutions (subawardees, primary organizations)
  • Collect FCOI forms for NIH and co-PI forms
  • Mentor and assist in GCM training related to pre-award
  • Maintain ORSP website
  • Compile content and format research newsletter 2-3 times per AY
  • Coordinate office events such as the annual reception
  • Communicate external award information to UMC for InsideWFU
Proposals and Awards

Identification of Suitable Funding Opportunities

  • Search for suitable sponsors and advise on approach
  • Help to locate and obtain sample proposals, if possible

Proposal Preparation

  • Point of contact for GCM pre-award questions
  • Advise on correct interpretation and use of guidelines; at the researcher’s request, we can meet to discuss proposal requirements in advance
  • Assure budgets are adequate for proposed project
  • Assure compliance with RFA or RFP, sponsoring agency and university
  • Assists GCM and PI in determining, based on federal OMB criteria, if the entity will be performing work as a vendor or subrecipient.
  • For collaborative proposals, obtain the budget, necessary forms and authorization from the collaborator, if WFU is the lead institution; if WFU is not the lead, obtain specific requirements from the lead institution
  • Provide training and assistance in the use of electronic proposal submission systems
  • Assure that forms contain the most current and applicable information
  • Prepares, reviews, signs additional documentation as needed (ex. subrecipient forms, LOI)
  • Coordinate editing services for proposal drafts if requested

Proposal Routing and Review

  • Cayuse proposal pre-review (Prior to Dean and Provost)
  • Prior to submission, when possible, reviews for reasonableness of the budget and identifies divisional/departmental commitments or liabilities
  • Adds budget, justification, and other documents (ex. bios) in 424 or agency platform

Administrative Approval and Submission Process

  • Obtain proper administrative signatures/authorizations (researchers are not authorized to sign their own proposals)
  • Ensure the proposal is reviewed and approved internally via the online system Cayuse prior to submission
  • Submit the proposal to the sponsor

Non-Competing Continuation Proposals

  • Review and submit continuation proposal or progress report.
Setting Up a New Award

Award Notification

  • Complete Cayuse award records, upload final budget and award documents, and distribute notification to the PI and appropriate campus units.
  • Send award packet to Grants Accounting
  • Check awards for compliance concerns – ex. IRB, export controls
  • Obtain IRB Attestation from PI if needed

Pre-Award Spending

  • Review and approve requests for preaward spending; obtain sponsor prior approval if needed Note: department approvals on preaward spending request indicates the department agrees to cover any unfunded expenses (unless alternate back-up funding is identified).

Issuing Subawards

  • Review, prepare and issue subawards after award has been received and set up
  • Contact, negotiate, and receive necessary signed documents from the subrecipient
  • Conduct subrecipient risk assessment before issuing subaward; modify the award terms as needed based on the monitoring results
Post-Award Management

Award Management

  • Liaise between GCM, PI and funding agency regarding matters affecting the award’s terms and conditions
  • Interpret award terms and conditions, allowability, and other relevant policies
  • May contact sponsor for guidance and/or consult with Grants Accounting
  • Review/assist/submit RPPR and ASSIST applications
  • Rebudget requests – review form and approve or modify budget and create request

Changes to the Award

  • Negotiates any changes with sponsor
  • Request prior approvals from sponsors

No-Cost Extension

  • Receives request and financial information from the PI (or PI through the GCM)
  • Submits request for sponsor prior approval as needed; once approved, processes extension.
  • Reviews and approves no-cost extension if no  sponsor approval is required.
Contracts

Review of Terms and Conditions

  • Review award document’s terms & conditions; propose alternative language for terms conflicting with university’s policies and practices
  • Review and negotiate incoming agreements (DUA, MOU, NDA/CDA, subcontracts, other)
  • Inform PI of possible policy conflicts or changes affecting scope of work, funding, and/or period of performance
  • Accept award, or negotiate changes in the award’s terms and conditions
  • Draft and negotiate outgoing agreements (MOU, NDA/CDA, subcontracts, consulting, other)
  • Prepare amendments/modifications
  • Collect subrecipient commitment forms
  • Search Descartes/Visual Compliance for subcontractor organizations and sub PI
  • Liaison with Legal and WF Innovations regarding nonstandard terms
  • Liaison with Departments issuing RFPs
  • Prepare cross campus forms for WFUHS
  • Provide data on outgoing subcontracts under federal awards (FFATA) to Grants Accounting
  • Liaison with Grants Accounting re: balance of outgoing subcontracts
  • Authorized signer for all contracts up to $750,000
  • Coordinate signatures on contracts over $750,000

Intellectual Property

  • Identify intellectual property issues, propose alternative language into award documents for terms conflicting with university’s policies and practices.

Internal Awards

  • Maintain webpages for ORSP internal award programs including updating the deadlines annually; changes to guidelines
  • Submit deadline reminders for inclusion in Dean’s Digest and other communications
  • Point-of-Contact for Internal Awards and Proposals: Support VPRSICA and RAC in review process for internal awards
  • Receive internal proposals and enter proposal information in internal database; update upon award/decline
  • Generate and send official award letter with start date, amount awarded, and attach terms and conditions to awardee(s) and GCM
  • Check awarded proposals for human subjects research and ensure IRB-approval is received before fund set up
  • Request new internal account (DM-fund) for awarded proposals from Financial Services and prepare journal entry to fund new internal awards
  • Notify Associate Director of new subcontracts or extensions
  • Draft/negotiate/issue subcontracts and amendment for internal awards
  • Point of Contact for post award questions (ex. Rebudget or No Cost Extensions)
  • Closeout all expiring internal awards (collect final report and upload to share drive)
Find Your Grants & Contracts Manager »
Who do I contact?
« Roles & Responsibilities