Author: Edwin Bemmel, AVP, RGC

The Office of Research Grants and Contracts provides financial post award administration support for all sponsored projects at Emory University. During FY23, post award activities have been a priority for the Office of Research Administration and RGC. Our primary focus has been on award closeout processes and activities. Our goal is to streamline the processes and provide more transparency and consistency in award close out and ensure timely and accurate close out, reporting, and invoicing.

Several highlights during FY23 in RGC are:

• The implementation of award ending notifications: system generated notifications are now sent to PI’s and administrators at 90, 60, and 30 days prior to the award end date. These notifications assist with proper award management by sending simple reminders of awards that are expiring to assist the PI to either request a no cost time extension timely or to ramp down research activities. Another notification is also sent upon expiration of the award to indicate that the award has expired and that no new activities may occur.
• The general ledger enforcement requires that financial reports and invoices be based on expenditures that fully posted and are approved in Compass. This is in accordance with federal and other sponsors’ requirements and eliminates proper close out delays due to untimely follow-up on getting projections cleared.
• Created new and improved existing reports and dashboards to highlight awards that are ending and requiring closeout for timely follow-up. We are continuing to identify metrics required to properly manage this.
• Focused on the backlog of awards that are passed the close out dates and created a close out project to properly close out these awards.
• Identified several pain points in the financial award management processes and offered process improvements were possible.
• Drafted numerous policies for better guidance and transparency. Policies are expected to be finalized in FY24.
• Provided additional accessibility to the community by creating monthly meetings with RAS to review and discuss issues and priorities and quarterly Post Award meetings to inform the post award community at Emory.

We continue to identify ways to improve and provide excellent post award administration services to you.