The Legacy Research Institute's Grant and Fiscal Management Department consists of a grants specialist and a fiscal coordinator to provide internal administrative and fiscal support relating to federally-funded grants. 

We assist with:

• Reviewing grant Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) announcements to help with proposal development.
• Reviewing/proofing proposal drafts and final applications for submission.
• Assisting with project budget development.
• Communicating with subcontract organizations pre- and post-award.
• Submitting of completed proposals via the ‘ASSIST’ or Grants.gov ‘Workspace’ systems.
• Ongoing compliance with regulatory requirements (Conflict of Interest, financial reporting, progress report completion, etc.).
• Ongoing budget reporting and management.
• Disseminating funding opportunity announcements and information regarding changes or updates from sponsoring agencies (e.g. NIH).

Grant stages:

A grant at LRI goes through three stages: project development, proposal submission, and award management. These stages can be defined briefly as follows:

1. Project development - principal investigator (PI): The PI Identifies relevant funding opportunities, writes the grant and prepares supporting documents (such as resources and facilities, equipment, biosketches, collects letters of support, etc.). Assistance is also available from the Department of Clinical and Outcomes Research for relevant aspects of the project. If needed, the PI can work with the fiscal coordinator to develop the budget, and the grants specialist to interpret the Funding Opportunity Announcement and develop/collect subcontract documents.
   
   
2. Proposal Submission - grants specialist: The specialist receives the completed application documents from the PI, is responsible for reviewing everything to ensure compliance with all internal and external proposal requirements, and for submitting the proposal to the funding agency. Should the grant receive a favorable review the specialist will also submit the required Just-in-Time documents. 
   
   
3. Award Management - fiscal coordinator/grants specialist: The fiscal coordinator is responsible for the financial oversight of active grants and ensuring that the funds are used in accordance with all compliance guidelines, both from external agencies and Legacy’s internal guidelines.  The grants specialist will work with external organizations to set-up any subaward agreements needed, process subsequent invoices, and ensure compliance with aspects such as progress reports, publication public access policy, and conflict of interest disclosures.

Timeline:

The following timeline is designed to allow maximum time for the PI to work on the scientific narrative while also allowing sufficient time for other critical information to be assembled.

• One month in advance (or as early as possible) the PI should send the grants specialist a message of intent to apply for a grant. At minimum, this should include the Funding Opportunity Announcement identification number (NSF, NIH) or a link to the grant proposal guidelines document. If there will be a subaward, the external PI name and administrative contact information should also be provided, and the budget should be sent as soon as possible so external collaborators can be contacted - please note that many institutions have a minimum 2-week lead time to be able to provide this documentation.

• One week before the due date (or earlier) the grants specialist will initiate the application in ‘ASSIST’ or the Grants.gov ‘Workspace’ system. At this point the PI should be able to provide the non-scientific portions of the application (such as the final budget for projects with no subawards, resources and facilities, equipment, biosketches, letters of support, etc.). 

• At least 24 hours prior to the deadline for on-time submission, the PI must release the final version of the proposal to the grants specialist.

Contact Info:

Joanne Couchman, Senior Grants Specialist
503-413-2460
research-grants@lhs.org

Angie Urrutia, Financial Program Manager, Research
503-413-4194
research-grants@lhs.org