Sponsored Awards

Sponsored Awards can help you use funding databases to set up grant alerts. Please book a Finding Funding meeting to take advantage of this resource.

USC Columbia’s office of Research and Development also sends a weekly grants announcement list to faculty and staff. To sign up for Grant announcements use this link.

Sponsored Awards has assembled an extensive list of grant-related web sites that provide excellent searching and researching capabilities.

Faculty and staff can run their own grant opportunity searches—based on key word, funding agency, etc.— by using the links below:

• Pivot
• USC Columbia Research and Grant Development
• Grants.gov
• Grants Resource Center
• National Science Foundation (NSF)
• National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• SC Department of Education
• US Department of Education

1. Verify that you can meet the deadline and all other requirements.

2. Talk to your dean or department chair to ensure approval of your project.

3. When you decide to pursue any grant or contract opportunity. Book a Proposal Preparation meeting and include an electronic copy of your program guidelines.

4. Prepare a grant narrative and budget. Book a Budgeting meeting for detailed help with the process.

5. Access USCeRA to complete the required forms, upload your proposal documents, and route for approvals. For help with this, book an Online Portals meeting.

6. USC Columbia’s Sponsored Awards Management office is the only official university signatory for grants. Only SAM can submit legal grant applications. SAM contact information should be included on the proposal cover page, as well as on certifications and assurances.

7. Sponsored Awards requests a budgetary rough draft no later than 7 days prior to proposal deadline. SAM requires a completed proposal no later than 3 working days prior to the deadline.

8. SAM must receive the original award document from the grantor. They will establish a separate university project number for each grant awarded.

9. Awards are not legal until approved through SAM. You cannot get a project number or spend any grant money until you have SAM’s approval.

• USC VPR research assistance
• Logic model templates
• Proposal submission
• USCeRA
• SAM business info sheet

• SAM budget templates
• Fringe Benefits
• Indirect costs

1. When you receive a grant, you will receive an email from USCeRA listing your project number. Log into USCeRA to access the complete award documents so that you can familiarize yourself with the terms & conditions specific to your project. Review these documents carefully. Check for award dates, budget amounts & categories, and due dates for reporting (mark these on your calendar).

2. Book a Grant Management meeting for help with reviewing these documents and planning the management of your grant.

3. Talk to your department chair, administrative assistant, or to Sponsored Awards to find out who can help you complete standard university forms, such as HR or Purchasing forms, so that you can spend grant funds.

4. If the grant provides any salary money, please work with SA, as well as Ryan Boggs in Academic Affairs, to report grant time and effort correctly.

5. Grants funds are actually more restricted than departmental funds, not less! Follow normal Purchasing procedures in expending all grant funds.

6. Book a Grant Management meeting to make any changes to the budget, scope of work, or project personnel.

7. Create an excel file to track all your expenditures and compare them with those posted in Finance Intranet. You will receive a monthly email from the Controller’s office linking to your Grant Dashboard. Book a quarterly Budgeting meeting to review:
   • Total budget, revenue and expenditures
   • Payroll charges
   • JEs (journal entries), TAs (Travel Authorizations’), ROs (internal charges and transfers) and POs (purchase orders)
   • Visa charges-have they been reallocated correctly?
   • Printing, postage, phones, etc.

8. Beware common problem areas:
   • Overspending in salary and/or fringe lines (check that payroll documents are correct).
   • Cost share- strive to meet cost share at the appropriate rate. For example, if you are required to meet a 50% match you should have roughly the same amount of cost share and grant expenses throughout the project (you should not spend out all grant funds and then spend shared money).
   • Visa purchases that are not correctly reallocated
   • Charges that are incorrectly posted to your account
   • Late or excessive cost transfers (moving items between accounts)
   • Insufficient backup for charges and explanation for corrections

9. Closing accounts: 90 days before the grant ends, thoroughly check the account. Make any remaining purchases ASAP. Cancel any outstanding TAs and POs. Processing account changes through the University system can take up to several months, so please don’t wait until the grant has ended. Click here for the checklists from Grants and Funds Management.
10. Once the grant ends, Grants & Funds Management (GFM) will be finalizing the billing on the account to submit to the sponsor. Work with SA and GFM to make sure all charges are accounted for and that final billing is correct. While GFM will complete financial reporting, PIs are responsible for submitting the programmatic reports to sponsors by the deadline listed in your award documentation (often 30 or 90 days after the end date).

• peoplesoft

HR, payroll, and finance system.

• Finance Intranet

Grant dashboard and account statements.

• Grant closeout policy

Procedures for closing out a grant.