The Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA) serves as the central office for funded research and other sponsored projects here at the University of Kansas Medical Center. SPA assists faculty and departmental research staff to secure external funding and ensure proper management of awarded funding.
This includes an array of services to assist faculty and staff including:
- Proposal review, authorization, and submission
- Negotiation and acceptance of grants, subawards and funding contracts
- Set-up and closeout of awarded funds
- Support investigators in their responsibility to ensure compliance with applicable federal, state, and local laws as well as sponsor regulations.
The Sponsored Programs Administration currently consists of three broad teams:
| SPA Pre-Award | SPA Contracts | SPA Post-Award |
|---|---|---|
| spa@kumc.edu | spacontracts@kumc.edu | spa-post@kumc.edu |
| The pre-award team support investigators with new grant proposal submissions, just-in-time requests and annual progress reports. | The SPA contracts team helps investigators negotiate incoming and outgoing subawards and funding contracts with external sponsors. | The post-award team supports investigators with awarded funding accounts. |
The Grants Process
For new principal investigators, or even for long-time KUMC faculty members, the process of seeking and obtaining an externally funded research or training grant can be challenging. Here is a summary of the process you should follow, along with contact information for the people who can provide immediate assistance as you proceed.
Resources to help your search can be found on the Finding Funding page. Funding opportunities are also posted on Yammer to supplement what PIs may find and discover on their own from other sources.
Please begin your funding proposals in myResearch as early as possible. If the proposal mandates cost-share or matching funds, or voluntary cost share is planned, contact your department, research center or dean. Policy Link: Cost Share and Matching: Allowability and Documentation
If contractual language is involved, this will be reviewed internally prior to submission.
- If the research will involve intellectual property or technology transfer issues, contact KU Center for Technology and Commercialization at kuctc@ku.edu or 785-864-6401.
- If the research will involve animals, contact the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) at iacuc@kumc.edu.
- If the research will involve humans, contact the Human Research Protection Program at IRBhelp@kumc.edu.
The SPA Pre-Award team provides assistance to administrators, faculty and staff in preparing, reviewing, approving and submitting competitive proposals for all funding agencies. All proposals and any pre-proposal/letters of intent containing any type of budgetary information must be reviewed and approved by the authorized signatory before submission to a funding agency. SPA Pre-Award will assist with all hard copy and electronic submissions.
The SPA support team prepares for award set up in Workday. Prior to award set-up, all other compliance conditions must be met. Please be sure to contact the appropriate office(s) for approvals, as noted below, if your project includes:
- Stem cells and/or fetal/embryonic tissue or body fluids: stemcell@kumc.edu
- Select Agents: ehs@kumc.edu AND ibc@kumc.edu
- Recombinant DNA: ibc@kumc.edu
- Radioisotopes or radiation producing equipment: rso@kumc.edu
- Biohazards or hazardous materials: ehs@kumc.edu
- Clinical trials should be registered at ClinicalTrials.gov.
Contracts and agreements are reviewed and negotiated by the SPA Contracts team. Award documents are signed, if required, to acknowledge and accept award terms and conditions. Acceptance of all sponsored project terms and conditions will be provided by the authorized signatory (Director, Sponsored Programs Administration).
SPA will correspond with funding agencies, as needed. If you are contacted directly by the sponsor for information, please be sure to inform and request support from SPA.
SPA Post-award Team is notified to set up the account in Workday. If there are sub-awards to other outside institutions from the KU Medical Center award, reach out to the SPA Contracts team with budgets and scopes of work for each sub-recipient. The assigned post-award account contacts the PI/department administrator with the applicable Workday award number and/or grant numbers.
- Compliance with guidelines of Uniform Guidance 2 CFR 200, adherence to University policies and compliance with awarding agency rules and regulations.
- Cost-sharing documentation and verification.
- Effort reporting for individuals who are paid on sponsored projects, or who have effort devoted to a sponsored project via any committed cost-shared activity.
Policy Link: KU Medical Center Time and Effort Reporting. - Prior approvals, no-cost extensions, and annual progress reports, as required by the sponsor.
- Invoicing and financial reporting.
Once the project is concluded, there are several reports to complete and submit. For a full list of items, reference the Close Out information.