OSP’s Responsibilities

To fulfill our mission and help ensure that applications comply with sponsor’s requirements and that award’s conditions are adhered to:

Proposal development and Submission 

  • Assist with identification of possible funding opportunities
  • Facilitate development of current and pending reports
  • Confirm PI/co-PI eligibility
  • Review and approve budgets:
    • University and sponsor rates are appropriately and properly used
    • Budgets are arithmetically correct
    • Costs presented are allowable, reasonable, allocable and consistently treated
    • Effort of key personnel properly included
    • Inadvertent or unnecessary cost sharing
    • Equipment requests adequately justified
    • Rate-based costs properly authorized
  • Ensure commitments from external collaborators are properly documented
  • Review proposals for adherence to sponsor’s requirements; e.g. page limits, font type and size, margins, mandatory components, etc.
  • Review named personnel/institutions for debarment/suspension
  • Confirm currency of annual disclosures of financial interests
  • Confirm provision of fully signed Internal Routing & Review form and certain data elements
  • Confirm inclusion research involving human or animal subjects or biosafety considerations
  • Maintain online certifications and representations
  • Ensure that award terms and conditions are acceptable to the University and consistent with our fundamental principles
  • Negotiate and execute teaming agreements required for project collaboration
  • Authorize proposals submitted and certify and assure that SU will adhere to terms and conditions of award

Award Negotiation and Set-up

  • Submit revised budgets and modified work plans
  • Ensure that all compliance requirements for the awarded project are obtained, e.g., human or animal research subject approvals in place and congruence evaluations completed; all training or licenses in place for environment safety requirements, etc.
  • Negotiate terms and conditions to align with faculty and University interests
  • Collaborate with Office of Sponsored Accounting to ensure efficient and proper creation of award and chartstring in University’s financial system
  • Review, approve and process forward funding or pre-award expenditure requests

Award Management and Close-out

  • Evaluate subrecipient’s for performance risk to determine proper award mechanism
  • Negotiate and execute subaward and consultant agreements
  • Monitor subrecipient adherence to award terms and conditions
  • Monitor PI adherence to programmatic reporting requirements
  • Authorize expenditures requiring OSP prior approval
  • Review and process prior-approvals required by award, e.g.,
    • Change in scope
    • Change in PI
    • Reductions in effort > 25% or more
    • Absences from campus for period of 90 days or more
    • Budget modifications between budget lines or between direct and indirect costs
    • Costs ordinarily unallowable as direct costs
    • Equipment acquisition
    • Extra service requests
    • Subawards
    • Carry forward  requests
    • Foreign travel
    • No cost extensions
    • Conduct close-out reviews to ensure that programmatic, technical and financial obligations have been met by SU and all subawards
    • Notify PI’s and support staff of record retention requirements

 Other related activities

  • Negotiate and execute Materials Transfer Agreements, Non-Disclosure Agreements and other legal instruments associated with sponsored programs