Prior to Budget Setup

First, you will get an email notification (known as a routing memo) from the Office of Sponsored Programs that your award has been received. A copy of the award will be attached to the notification, and you will be asked to review the award and confirm that:

• It corresponds to your work plan and budgets
• You agree to the required reporting/deliverables and the time frame for those reports/deliverables
• You understand all agency restrictions and guidelines

Once OSP receives this confirmation, then any contract review and negotiations can begin. If there are any items in the routing memo with which you disagree or are unsure about, include those items in your response to OSP.

Contract negotiations only occur on non-grant awards. The Office of Sponsored Programs Contract Review Unit will work with the sponsoring agency to negotiate any issues identified by you in the routing memo, or any other issues that put the university at risk or run counter to university policy. Once any issues have been resolved and the fully executed (signed by both parties) agreement is on file, you can set up your budget and begin work, unless there are compliance protocol or any other issues.

If you indicated on your proposal, or it was subsequently determined, that the scope of work would involve high-risk items such as use of vertebrate animals, work with human subjects, biohazards or recombinant DNA, access to a BSL-3 lab, or potential export control issues, protocols or assurances need to be in place before your work can begin in order to comply with federal and university regulations.

Contacts for assistance with compliance protocols are:

• Animal Care and Use Committee
• Institutional Review Board (human subjects)
• Biohazard Safety Office (biohazards/BSL-3/recombinant DNA)
• Export Control Officer

Any needed compliance protocol information will be identified in your routing memo.

If you need the Office of Sponsored Programs to set up a preliminary budget pending the official agency award receipt or review and acceptance, you can request an early setup in VERAS.

The rules on early setup requests are as follows:

• Any required compliance protocols or assurances must be in place before the accounting can be released.
• You will be requested to provide the anticipated start date. Agencies who issue contracts or agreements effective with the date of the final signature are not eligible for early setup.
• If the early setup is not eligible for a VPRED guarantee, a guarantee index number is required in addition to Chair and Dean signatures. The Post Award team will route your early setup request form for Chair/Dean approvals if the project is not VPRED eligible.
• Standard procedure is to set up the early setup index for 25% of the first increment of funding and for 90 days from the start date. Other dollar amounts and time frames must be requested in the form and will be evaluated by the Office of Sponsored Programs.