Research Administrator II

Classification Title:

Research Administrator II

Job Description:

Pre-Award Administration:
Administration for pre-award activities for an assigned portfolio of Principal Investigators (PIs) within the Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA) team using knowledge of grant and contract management rules and regulations, technical expertise, and analytical skills.
Pre-award activities include, but are not limited to:
• Supports departmental faculty/PI in the development, preparation, and submission of proposals to federal, state, and private funding agencies.
• Reviews requests for proposals (i.e., RFP, RFA, FOA, PA) and identifies the specific funding agency’s requirements while ensuring the policies are within or consistent with those of the sponsor, federal, state, UF and IFAS guidelines.
• Ensures all proposal submissions meet published timelines and deadlines and are entered and routed in a timely manner for further review.
• Assists the PI in the development of budgets and budget justification which includes proofing the budget for inconsistencies and ensuring accuracy.
• Reviews budgets for consistency with sponsor, monitors compliance with agency and University regulations regarding submission; verifies all financial information to include application of the appropriate overhead rate for the project.
• Advises the PI on administrative requirements in preparing proposal submissions and on budget adjustments and revisions necessary to meet the sponsor requirements.
• Coordinates and reviews certain proposal elements (biosketches and facilities & resources) for consistency, accuracy, and completeness.
• Reviews proposals for consistency with sponsor guidelines on budget, format, font size, page limits excluding narrative content (obtain and review sponsor guidelines).
• Confers with PI and Pre-award support staff at collaborating institutions to secure necessary sub-awards documents for proposals.
• Obtains signatures as needed.
• Monitors proposal status and advises PI on requirements and deadlines associated with research protection protocols.
• Facilitates processing of post-submission updates, agreements, and award release.
• Liaises as necessary with DSP, IFAS Core Offices, or other central university departments.

Post Award Administration:
Responsible for post-award activities in support of an assigned portfolio of grants and contracts within one or more units (i.e., school, department, division, institute, or center) using knowledge of grant and contract management rules and regulations, technical expertise, and analytical skills.
Conducts routine, careful, and detailed fiscal analysis to forecast each award’s financial trajectory in the assigned portfolio. Financial analysis and projections should be reviewed with PIs on a consistent basis (a minimum of once per semester) to ensure accuracy and budget adherence.
Post award activities include, but are not limited to:
• Review award documents for acceptance and processing
• Reviews grant and contract award terms and conditions while using and interpreting award documents to determine the budget, restrictions, and other pertinent information and communicating that information to pertinent key personnel.
• Completes award setup and budget reconciliation in UFIRST and sets up projection and tracking tools necessary for award management.
• Provides comprehensive award management and monitoring of post award activities including payroll distributions, commitments, cost share, Effort, FARs, budget transfers, budget modifications, incremental and supplemental budget requests, subaward monitoring, no cost extensions, and cost transfers.
• Processes payroll distributions and effort for the assigned PIs and all employees paid on sponsored programs funding.
• Ensure project effort commitments on Faculty Assignment Reports (FARs) are accurate, understanding current federal and university Effort Reporting policies, reviewing and distributing effort for sponsored programs in effort reports in myUFL per faculty input, notifying PI or key personnel specifically named in the notice of award if effort is reduced by 25 percent or more from the level that was approved at the time of award and facilitating requests to sponsor to reduce effort level, ensuring the reports are completed in a timely manner and certified by the appropriate individual, identifying and troubleshooting effort report issues, and ensuring committed cost sharing is captured on the effort report.
• Reconciles expenditures to ensure costs are allowable, allocated, reasonable and consistent with funding agency regulations.
• As required, reviews/monitors grant spending and works with the appropriate parties to manage and/or resolve any issues or concerns.
• Assists PI in their subrecipient monitoring responsibilities,