What’s the Difference Between Pre-award and Post-award Research Administration?

Pre- and post-award are two equally important stages of any research project’s lifecycle. To help explain the difference between pre- and post-award research administration, this blog discusses the duties and responsibilities that each typically covers.

Each organization might define “pre-award” and “post-award” differently. For simplicity’s sake, this blog classifies pre-award activity as anything leading up to setting up an account to manage funding, while everything after that is considered a post-award activity.

Pre-Award Research Administration

Pre-award research administration responsibilities typically cover the following tasks and lifecycle stages:

Finding funding

Teams can find funding via search engines such as Pivot-RP, Grants.gov, Foundation Center, individual funding agency websites, or even Google. Curated funding databases like Cayuse Fund Finder can help automate and expedite the funding search by matching research to the most relevant funding opportunities, diversifying potential funding sources, and

Budget creation

Administrators help build budgets by working with the principal investigator(s) to determine their budgetary needs, as well as incorporating and taking into consideration other factors such as organization and funding agency limitations or set rates (fringe benefits, indirect costs, etc.).

Filling out proposal forms

Depending on the funding agency involved, the process of completing proposal forms can be as simple as creating a cover page or more involved, like filling out a grants.gov package. Software like Cayuse Proposals (S2S) can help users complete even complicated forms faster and with greater accuracy, thanks to autofill and error-flagging features.

Submitting the proposal

Once a proposal is completed, it must be internally approved and submitted to the funding agency for consideration.

Award negotiation and acceptance

Securing an award often involves negotiating final details with the funding agency and the award’s formal acceptance by your organization. It is important to centralize these processes with software like Cayuse Agreements for easier contract management and future reference.

Compliance considerations

When an award is secured, research administration teams are responsible for ensuring a project maintains compliance with institutional, federal, and funder-specific requirements, including human subject, animal subject, financial conflict of interest, and hazardous materials regulations. Typically, this is completed by a research compliance office, but most pre-award offices still need to verify that the appropriate documents are completed and approved prior to turning the project over to the post-award group. Compliance management software can help ensure the proper guardrails are in place and that projects undergo ongoing compliance monitoring well past the initial pre-award setup.

Post-Award Research Administration

With pre-award responsibilities covered, what does it mean to work in a post-award office? While this, too, can vary by organization, post-award processes usually include the following tasks:

Award and account setup

The first post-award step involves establishing a central general ledger number to which the principal investigator(s) can charge project expenses. While many teams use general accounting software for this stage and the following finance management, research-specific solutions like Cayuse Fund Manager are designed for easier use by research professionals.

Award modifications

Inevitably, administrators often need to make changes to the initial award that stop short of requiring a new proposal. Examples include no-cost extensions, changes in personnel, scope revisions, and budget reallocation.

Financial compliance monitoring

Because award finances are subject to specific conditions and limitations, post-award teams must ensure expenses charged to a project meet standards set forth by your organization, the government, and the funding agency.

Monitoring, reporting, and billing

As a project progresses, administrators will need to generate invoices for use of research facilities or charge back centers, tracking those funds, monitoring and tracking space and equipment usage, preparing and submitting interim and final financial reports, and invoicing or completing funding agency drawdowns. When animal research subjects are involved, this process overlaps significantly with Vivarium Management responsibilities.

Project reporting

Funders, leadership, and other stakeholders will want to be kept up to date with a project’s status to ensure progress and compliance. This requires generating and submitting progress reports and deliverable reports as defined and required by the award document and institutional, state, and federal regulations. Centralizing data management across the research lifecycle on a platform like Cayuse helps ensure accuracy and easy data access, while reporting tools like Cayuse Insights reduce the time needed to compile and visualize data for report building.

Project close-out

Once a project reaches completion, research administrators on the post-award team are responsible for completing all of the paperwork, both internal and external, to close out the project and address items such as unused funds, equipment disposition, and intellectual property generation in accordance with the award document.

Solutions to Help with Pre- and Post-Award Administration

Whether your office manages pre-award, post-award, or both, software can make your job dramatically easier. Cayuse’s award management solutions are innovative, easy to use, and well-supported by staff with research administration experience who have been in your shoes and understand your specific needs.

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