General Discussions

For any institutions that have made the move to splitting your pre- and post-award management teams, how did you make that transition?  Any pros/cons you can share?

Thanks!

------------------------------
Jennifer Mills
Senior Grants and Contract Specialist/ERA Administrator
University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 4/20/2022 5:34:00 PM
From: Jennifer Mills
Subject: Pre-award vs. Post-award

For any institutions that have made the move to splitting your pre- and post-award management teams, how did you make that transition?  Any pros/cons you can share?

Thanks!

------------------------------
Jennifer Mills
Senior Grants and Contract Specialist/ERA Administrator
University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa
------------------------------

While we're not "splitting" (they've always been separate), we are finally expanding post-award and hiring actual people who understand research administration.  And by expand I mean we have someone who works on post-award grants part-time.  Bits and pieces of post-award came to my door.  It comes as a relief to me as things like internal prior approval forms and re-budgeting are no longer my responsibility.  Trying to do things like asking the PI to print out their most recent PeopleSoft so we could handle post-award matters was nerve-wracking.  I had no access to PeopleSoft so there was a lot of back and forth with the PI and our finance office.

I'm a true pre-award person.  I'm all for budget development, but I don't want to get into the weeds of expenditures and all that comes with that.  I'm not an accountant.  That being said, I could see the benefit of being "housed" near each other to facilitate communication to discuss or maybe even avoid post-award potential problems and solutions.  Not sure if that helps, but that's my 2 cents.

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Audrey Wineglass Foster
Assistant Dean for OSP + Research Svcs
Gallaudet University
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 04-20-2022 14:33
From: Jennifer Mills
Subject: Pre-award vs. Post-award

For any institutions that have made the move to splitting your pre- and post-award management teams, how did you make that transition?  Any pros/cons you can share?

Thanks!

------------------------------
Jennifer Mills
Senior Grants and Contract Specialist/ERA Administrator
University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa
------------------------------

We did split these services -  mostly for reasons of quality control.  When I got to OU, it was a "cradle to grave" shop, but I was quite uncomfortable with there only been one set of eyes on a project from proposal to closeout.  The staff was well-trained and experienced.  It wasn't that.  But after literally years of staring at a project's data, errors can propogate and you don't even see them any more.   So, quality improved, pretty quickly.

That said, we did this at a time when we were also in the process of significantly growing the research portfolio here - as in doubling it.  So, we needed maybe 1 additional employment line to maintain operational levels - but then we were suddenly managing twice as many awards and more than that on the proposal side.  Yikes.  THAT has not been easy - to put it mildly.

I talked about this and talked about this and plotted and fretted.  So the staff knew it was coming.  But there was just a day when we had to pull the trigger.   Some people became strictly pre-award, assigned to disciplines within the University.  So, from a faculty member's perspective, they always work with Person X for their proposals.  At post-award, there is a similar assignment.  While we really really need to grow post-award, the goal is a similar disciplinary (as opposed to sponsor or task) alignment.

Does that help?

A

------------------------------
Andrea Buford
Director, Office of Sponsored Programs
Oakland University
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 04-20-2022 14:33
From: Jennifer Mills
Subject: Pre-award vs. Post-award

For any institutions that have made the move to splitting your pre- and post-award management teams, how did you make that transition?  Any pros/cons you can share?

Thanks!

------------------------------
Jennifer Mills
Senior Grants and Contract Specialist/ERA Administrator
University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa
------------------------------

Thank you for the feedback!  We are also growing rapidly and the need for quality control is of concern.  The worry is that Specialists that are currently cradle-to-grave will feel like they are losing opportunities to grow in Research Administration.  One idea is to switch pre and post every 6 months or once a year so each side has a chance to work on the other side and better appreciate what is needed for each.

------------------------------
Jennifer Mills
Senior Grants and Contract Specialist/ERA Administrator
University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 04-22-2022 10:52
From: Andrea Buford
Subject: Pre-award vs. Post-award

We did split these services -  mostly for reasons of quality control.  When I got to OU, it was a "cradle to grave" shop, but I was quite uncomfortable with there only been one set of eyes on a project from proposal to closeout.  The staff was well-trained and experienced.  It wasn't that.  But after literally years of staring at a project's data, errors can propogate and you don't even see them any more.   So, quality improved, pretty quickly.

That said, we did this at a time when we were also in the process of significantly growing the research portfolio here - as in doubling it.  So, we needed maybe 1 additional employment line to maintain operational levels - but then we were suddenly managing twice as many awards and more than that on the proposal side.  Yikes.  THAT has not been easy - to put it mildly.

I talked about this and talked about this and plotted and fretted.  So the staff knew it was coming.  But there was just a day when we had to pull the trigger.   Some people became strictly pre-award, assigned to disciplines within the University.  So, from a faculty member's perspective, they always work with Person X for their proposals.  At post-award, there is a similar assignment.  While we really really need to grow post-award, the goal is a similar disciplinary (as opposed to sponsor or task) alignment.

Does that help?

A

------------------------------
Andrea Buford
Director, Office of Sponsored Programs
Oakland University

Original Message:
Sent: 04-20-2022 14:33
From: Jennifer Mills
Subject: Pre-award vs. Post-award

For any institutions that have made the move to splitting your pre- and post-award management teams, how did you make that transition?  Any pros/cons you can share?

Thanks!

------------------------------
Jennifer Mills
Senior Grants and Contract Specialist/ERA Administrator
University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa
------------------------------

Jennifer,

I would suggest stressing that while they may not have the same type of broad knowledge, they will grow with the in-depth knowledge in the area where they focus.  And they will be extremely valuable resources, having some hands-on knowledge of the "other side," even if their experience is not super current.  I can't stress enough how valuable that has been for me.


------------------------------
Pamela Vargas
Director, Research & Grant Development
Southeast Missouri State University
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 04-25-2022 20:03
From: Jennifer Mills
Subject: Pre-award vs. Post-award

Thank you for the feedback!  We are also growing rapidly and the need for quality control is of concern.  The worry is that Specialists that are currently cradle-to-grave will feel like they are losing opportunities to grow in Research Administration.  One idea is to switch pre and post every 6 months or once a year so each side has a chance to work on the other side and better appreciate what is needed for each.

------------------------------
Jennifer Mills
Senior Grants and Contract Specialist/ERA Administrator
University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa

Original Message:
Sent: 04-22-2022 10:52
From: Andrea Buford
Subject: Pre-award vs. Post-award

We did split these services -  mostly for reasons of quality control.  When I got to OU, it was a "cradle to grave" shop, but I was quite uncomfortable with there only been one set of eyes on a project from proposal to closeout.  The staff was well-trained and experienced.  It wasn't that.  But after literally years of staring at a project's data, errors can propogate and you don't even see them any more.   So, quality improved, pretty quickly.

That said, we did this at a time when we were also in the process of significantly growing the research portfolio here - as in doubling it.  So, we needed maybe 1 additional employment line to maintain operational levels - but then we were suddenly managing twice as many awards and more than that on the proposal side.  Yikes.  THAT has not been easy - to put it mildly.

I talked about this and talked about this and plotted and fretted.  So the staff knew it was coming.  But there was just a day when we had to pull the trigger.   Some people became strictly pre-award, assigned to disciplines within the University.  So, from a faculty member's perspective, they always work with Person X for their proposals.  At post-award, there is a similar assignment.  While we really really need to grow post-award, the goal is a similar disciplinary (as opposed to sponsor or task) alignment.

Does that help?

A

------------------------------
Andrea Buford
Director, Office of Sponsored Programs
Oakland University

Original Message:
Sent: 04-20-2022 14:33
From: Jennifer Mills
Subject: Pre-award vs. Post-award

For any institutions that have made the move to splitting your pre- and post-award management teams, how did you make that transition?  Any pros/cons you can share?

Thanks!

------------------------------
Jennifer Mills
Senior Grants and Contract Specialist/ERA Administrator
University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa
------------------------------

My experience is that people gravitate to one side of the house or the other.  I respect the heck out of post-award, but in my heart I'll always be a pre-award person.  (and weirdly, I was a quantitative researcher back in the day, so it's not fear of numbers that turns me away from post-award).  So, at least here it was pretty easy to assign people (mostly let them choose) their roles, when we split pre- and post-award.

But I take your point about growing in their roles.  That merits consideration.  FWIW, my current efforts there are getting everybody on staff certified and out onto the campus and into the world offering trainings and workshops.  But skill-building is always a thing, too.

A

------------------------------
Andrea Buford
Director, Office of Sponsored Programs
Oakland University
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 04-25-2022 20:03
From: Jennifer Mills
Subject: Pre-award vs. Post-award

Thank you for the feedback!  We are also growing rapidly and the need for quality control is of concern.  The worry is that Specialists that are currently cradle-to-grave will feel like they are losing opportunities to grow in Research Administration.  One idea is to switch pre and post every 6 months or once a year so each side has a chance to work on the other side and better appreciate what is needed for each.

------------------------------
Jennifer Mills
Senior Grants and Contract Specialist/ERA Administrator
University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa

Original Message:
Sent: 04-22-2022 10:52
From: Andrea Buford
Subject: Pre-award vs. Post-award

We did split these services -  mostly for reasons of quality control.  When I got to OU, it was a "cradle to grave" shop, but I was quite uncomfortable with there only been one set of eyes on a project from proposal to closeout.  The staff was well-trained and experienced.  It wasn't that.  But after literally years of staring at a project's data, errors can propogate and you don't even see them any more.   So, quality improved, pretty quickly.

That said, we did this at a time when we were also in the process of significantly growing the research portfolio here - as in doubling it.  So, we needed maybe 1 additional employment line to maintain operational levels - but then we were suddenly managing twice as many awards and more than that on the proposal side.  Yikes.  THAT has not been easy - to put it mildly.

I talked about this and talked about this and plotted and fretted.  So the staff knew it was coming.  But there was just a day when we had to pull the trigger.   Some people became strictly pre-award, assigned to disciplines within the University.  So, from a faculty member's perspective, they always work with Person X for their proposals.  At post-award, there is a similar assignment.  While we really really need to grow post-award, the goal is a similar disciplinary (as opposed to sponsor or task) alignment.

Does that help?

A

------------------------------
Andrea Buford
Director, Office of Sponsored Programs
Oakland University

Original Message:
Sent: 04-20-2022 14:33
From: Jennifer Mills
Subject: Pre-award vs. Post-award

For any institutions that have made the move to splitting your pre- and post-award management teams, how did you make that transition?  Any pros/cons you can share?

Thanks!

------------------------------
Jennifer Mills
Senior Grants and Contract Specialist/ERA Administrator
University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa
------------------------------

When I first started in research administration, our office was cradle to grave, soup to nuts, or however else you'd like to put it.... except for the actual accounting. We of course worked closely with the accountants on the post-award management.

After I was there for a couple of years, we split into pre-award and (non-financial) post-award.  Accounting was still a separate function and reported to another division.  The split allowed us to specialize more, rather than having to be a jack of way too many trades.  It worked well, and that office is still split, although they've grown incredibly and added more services.

Although I prefer pre-award, I have never regretted knowing both sides.  I think more about the post-award implications of what we are submitting.  I think it is beneficial to have at least a bit of overlap or cross-training, just to know what the other side deals with.

------------------------------
Pamela Vargas
Director, Research & Grant Development
Southeast Missouri State University
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 04-20-2022 14:33
From: Jennifer Mills
Subject: Pre-award vs. Post-award

For any institutions that have made the move to splitting your pre- and post-award management teams, how did you make that transition?  Any pros/cons you can share?

Thanks!

------------------------------
Jennifer Mills
Senior Grants and Contract Specialist/ERA Administrator
University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa
------------------------------

We used to be separate - pre-award reported to Academic Affairs, post-award reported to Business Affairs. In 2015 we combined offices under Academic Affairs. It's not been an easy process and we are still learning to work together, but overall it's a better model that when we were separated. Under the current iteration of our office, we have two directors (PreAward Strategy and Outreach & PostAward Compliance and Operations) that work well together and report to the VP for Research.

------------------------------
Augusta Isley
Senior Proposal Manager
Ball State University
amwray@bsu.edu
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 04-20-2022 14:33
From: Jennifer Mills
Subject: Pre-award vs. Post-award

For any institutions that have made the move to splitting your pre- and post-award management teams, how did you make that transition?  Any pros/cons you can share?

Thanks!

------------------------------
Jennifer Mills
Senior Grants and Contract Specialist/ERA Administrator
University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa
------------------------------