How to Manage Issues Requiring Administrative Oversight

A lack of pre-award administrative oversight can cause post-award grant and research administrators to be caught off guard by situations that pose a risk to the successful completion of a project. These situations often arise several months after the project has started and administrators are left scrambling to remedy the situation. In many cases, these situations do not arise from standard compliance issues surrounding human subjects, animal subjects, biosafety, etc., but instead are due to the uniqueness of the research projects and the environment in which it is being conducted.

Situations that could have been prevented with proper administrative oversight

Over the past 25 years, we’e seen a variety of situations at research organizations that required special administrative oversight. Here are a few examples:

#1. Not enough space

Many research grants require the use of large specialized equipment. Most pre-award administrators quickly identify capital equipment purchases requirements in a grant proposal and quickly ascertain its effect on indirect cost recovery. However, the impact on space requirements typically necessitates closer examination. When missed, the consequences can affect departmental budgets as well as other research labs.

#2. Freezer on the 7th floor

Another issue with respect to large equipment and space involves more than the physical dimensions of the space housing the equipment. This issues involves the ability to transport and place the equipment in the space. When the space is above the first floor, can it fit in an elevator or be moved through a window? If not, things can get expensive and disruptive.

#3. Securing the goods

When research projects require rare or valuable commodities such as alcohol, diamonds, gun powder, etc., does the grant provide the budget needed to cover security issues? Furthermore, are the proper control mechanisms and audit procedures in place to verify the proper use of the commodity?

#4. Problems that travel

Most research organizations have committees that verify procedures for the safe use of hazardous materials. However, when a research project uses the facilities at more than one campus and the hazardous materials must be moved between locations, administrative oversight is needed to ensure additional procedures and special travel arrangements are in place.

#5. If only someone had told me

Scenarios #3 and #4 may also require training for students, fellows, staff, and faculty involved with the research to help prevent accidents or harm to individuals. In this case, the specialized training and documentation that each person has been trained must be completed.

#6. Special cases

The examples listed above are just a few of the situations we have observed. Other examples include the use of equipment with special needs (such as lasers that impact radiation safety in surrounding areas) or projects that involve time-sensitive experiments or long-term storage that require guaranteed power.

How to implement administrative oversight procedures to identify potential problems

Pre-award administrative oversight is key to ensuring the adequate budget and preparation needed to prevent situations, such as the examples presented above, from adversely impacting a research project. Oversight starts with advanced warning and includes three basic steps:

1. Identify potential issues before a proposal is submitted for funding. Review each research proposal and compare its requirements with a known list of previously identified or potential issues.
2. Verify that the proper procedures or infrastructure are in place to handle the situation before a proposal is submitted. It’s not enough to know about the issue–you might need to do a physical walk-through of the facility.
3. Notify the appropriate parties after receiving notification of funding. This is especially important when new procedures must be implemented.

We recommend attending conferences such as NCURA and SRA to meet administrators from other organizations that share similar experiences. These conferences offer presentations that are great sources of information about administrative oversight.

Software to help with administrative oversight

Grant management software solutions can help with administrative oversight. Many pre-award systems include user-definable variables or lists you can configure to meet unique organizational requirements to complete the identification and verification steps. After a notice of award is received and entered in the same system, you can use it to aid in notifying post-award staff who will manage the research project.

Our grant management solution includes functionality to help with administrative oversight. Plus, members of our implementation team have personally dealt with some of the previous examples and are a great resource for helping implement the policies, procedures, and systems needed to improve administrative oversight. Reach out today to learn more about improving oversight!