Well, well, well. THERE'S a can of worms ;) What you're sort of asking is, "what are Chairs and Deans approving when we route?" We know that they approve without REALLY looking at least half the time. And yet, they could well be committing thousands of dollars of their precious budgets to cost-share. And we're going to hold them to it. That's fun (not so much) when it goes awry.
What we do is this. Yes, we include cost-share approvals as part of the standard routing. The budget page in the Cayuse record indicates that there is cost-share, but we also attach out detailed Excel spreadsheet - the one we used to arrive at the budget in the first place. We also indicate the source of the cost-share. Sometimes the cost-share comes from a source that would not ordinarily be part of the routing chain for that particular PI; perhaps the Provost is coughing up some money, or the VPR. We do, then, manually include those people in the chain on a one-time basis. But I also give the Chairs and Deans a quick email heads-up, even on regular proposals that include cost-share, that they should pay particular attention to the proposal I'm about to route. Without being patronizing (I hope), I say things like, "look on this page, half-way down, you'll see that you've committed to.... Be sure that's still ok with you." That works ok. I'm not sure, though, that all the Grants and Contracts Officers do that, and I wish the email could come directly from Cayuse, so it would become part of the record.
What I think you might be alluding to as well is how to address the reality that Chairs and Deans are super-busy, and they do the same thing we all do - check boxes, sign things, do pretty much ANYTHING to get the email to go away. Rarely do they dig in to a proposal to get a real feel for it. I don't want them to meddle where they don't belong. Routing is way too late in the game for them to be evaluating the science. I've seen questions from Chairs such as "tell me about your power analysis..." Holy cripes. Not now!!! And let's assume that between the well-trained PIs and the Research Development Officers we've got that covered. Rather, I need them to affirm their commitment to the project and the resources outlined in it - protected time, access to students and equipment, cost-share..... whatever it is. I don't have a great plan here. When there's a new Dean or Chair, there's a nice opening to do some causual orientation to what routing means and what it's for. Other than that.... I'm open to ideas from the brain trust!
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Andrea Buford
Director, Office of Sponsored Programs
Oakland University
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-07-2021 05:36
From: Sarah Pratt
Subject: Cost share approval
Hello all,
I would be interested in hearing how people handle cost share approvals. Are you using a separate form outside of Cayuse? Is it part of the Cayuse Proposal Form in SP? If part of Cayuse Proposal Form, is cost share approved at the same time as the full proposal is approved? What is working or not working about the current process you are using?
Thanks,
Sarah
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Sarah Pratt
Associate Director, Research and Sponsored Programs
Western Michigan University
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