Research Administrator II

Classification Title:

Research Administrator II

Job Description:

Post-Award Management:

Manages post-award activities in support of an assigned portfolio of grants and contracts for IRREC faculty by using knowledge of grant and contract management rules and regulations, technical expertise, and analytical skills.

Post-award management requires routine, careful, and detailed fiscal analysis to forecast each award's financial trajectory in the assigned portfolio. Financial analysis and projections should be reviewed with PIs on a consistent basis (a minimum of once per semester) to ensure accuracy and budget adherence.

Post-award activities include, but are not limited to:

• Reviewing award documents for acceptance and processing

• Reviewing grant and contract award terms and conditions while using and interpreting award documents to determine the budget, restrictions, and other pertinent information and communicating that information to pertinent key personnel.

• Completing award setup and budget reconciliation in UFIRST and setting up projection and tracking tools necessary for award management.

• Providing comprehensive award management and monitoring of post-award activities including payroll distributions, commitments, cost share, certification, Faculty Accomplishment Reports, budget transfers, budget modifications, incremental and supplemental budget requests, subaward monitoring, and no-cost extensions.

• Managing payroll distributions and effort certification and Faculty Accomplishment Reports (FARs) for the assigned PIs and all employees paid on sponsored program funding. Ensuring project effort commitments on FARs are accurate, understanding current federal and university Effort Reporting policies, reviewing and distributing effort for sponsored programs in effort reports per faculty input, notifying PI or key personnel specifically named in the notice of award if effort is reduced by 25% or more from the level that was approved at the time of award and facilitating requests to sponsor to reduce effort level. Ensuring the reports are completed in a timely manner and certified by the appropriate individual, identifying and troubleshooting effort report issues, and ensuring committed cost sharing is captured on the effort report.

• Reconciles expenditures to ensure costs are allowable, allocated, reasonable and consistent with funding agency regulations.

• As required, reviewing/monitoring grant spending and working with the appropriate parties to manage and/or resolve any issues or concerns.

• Assisting PI in their subrecipient monitoring responsibilities, including reviewing subrecipient invoices to ensure invoices are within the parameters of the subaward budget and questioning expenditures. if necessary. Ensuring subrecipient invoices are approved by the PI and returned to C&G in a timely manner and requesting clarification from the subrecipient regarding any unusual or excessive charges invoiced by the subrecipient.

• Advising PIs and IRREC administrators on university, state, and federal guidelines governing expenditures and other award activities.

• Working closely with C&G to close-out projects, including transfer of residual accounts.

Pre-Award Management

Manages pre-award activities for an assigned portfolio of PIs by using knowledge of grant and contract management rules and regulations, technical expertise, and analytical skills.

Pre-award activities include, but are not limited to:

• Assisting departmental faculty/PI in the development, preparation, and submission of proposals to federal, state, and private funding agencies.

• Reviewing requests for proposals (i.e., RFP, RFA, FOA, PA) and identifying the specific funding agency's requirements while ensuring the policies are all compliant within or consistent with those of the sponsor, federal, state, UF, and IFAS guidelines.

• Ensuring all proposal submissions meet published timelines and deadlines and are entered and routed in a timely manner for further review.

• Assisting the PI in the development of budgets and budget justification, which includes proofing the budget for inconsistencies and ensuring accuracy.

• Reviewing budgets for consistency with sponsor, monitoring compliance with agency and University regulations regarding submission; verifying all financial information to include application of the appropriate overhead rate for the project.

• Advising the PI on administrative requirements in preparing proposal submissions and on budget adjustments and revisions necessary to meet the sponsor requirements.

• Coordinating and reviewing certain proposal elements (biosketches and facilities & resources, conflicts of interest) for consistency, accuracy, and completeness.

• Reviewing proposals for consistency with sponsor guidelines on budget, format, font size, page limits excluding narrative content (obtain and review sponsor guidelines).

• Conferring with PI and Pre-award support staff at collaborating institutions to secure necessary sub-award documents for proposals.

• Obtaining signatures as needed.

• Monitoring proposal status and advising PI on requirements and deadlines associated with research protection protocols.

• Facilitating the processing of post-submission updates, agreements, and award release.

• Liaising as necessary with DSP, IFAS Core Offices, or other central university departments.

• Assisting PIs with the submission and monitoring of documents related to all activities that route to DSP through the UFIRST Agreements module. The employee will be a point of contact between the PI and DSP to ensure consistent communication and progress on agreement negotiations.

Research Compliance:

• The employee must develop an understanding of the OMB Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (2 CFR 200) to effectively manage sponsored awards.

• In addition, familiarity with a variety of other aspects of sponsored research administration will be required, including cost accounting standards (CAS), Institutional Review Board (IRB) for human subjects in research, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) for animal subjects in research, financial conflict of interest (FCOI), export control, and other specific UF policies. The employee will ensure a proper understanding of the award parameters and any special requirements of the award that need to be brought to the faculty member's attention due to programmatic and/or compliance restraints.

• In the event of a sponsored award(s) review or audit, this position would assist the Director and Core Offices in response to requested documentation. For this reason, it is imperative that the incumbent maintain sufficient documentation for all expenses of sponsored awards under their management. Documentation should justify the benefit, appropriateness, and allowability of expenditures to a sponsored award.

Process physical information for attractive property. Interact with faculty and UF Asset Management to provide reports and meet deadlines. Be familiar with the full asset life cycle and tracking systems.

Agreement Support and Management. The employee will assist PIs with the submission and monitoring of documents related to all activities that route to DSP through the UFIRST Agreements module. The employee will be a point of contact between the PI and DSP to ensure consistent communication and progress on agreement negotiations.

Assist faculty with Hatch project submission and reporting by alerting them to procedures and deadlines.

Other duties as assigned.