Req #: 229176 Department: SCHOOL OF AQUATIC & FISHERY SCIENCES Job Location: Seattle Campus Job Location Detail: Telework Eligible (1-2 days / week) Posting Date: 12/08/2023 Closing Info: Open Until Filled Salary: $5449 - $7,500 per month Other Compensation: Shift: First Shift Benefits: As a UW employee, you will enjoy generous benefits and work/life programs. For a complete description of our benefits for this position, please visit our website, click here.
As a UW employee, you have a unique opportunity to change lives on our campuses, in our state and around the world. UW employees offer their boundless energy, creative problem-solving skills and dedication to build stronger minds and a healthier world.
UW faculty and staff also enjoy outstanding benefits, professional growth opportunities and unique resources in an environment noted for diversity, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits and natural beauty.
The Program Operations Specialist / Grants Specialist provides critical grants and contract management support to a group of faculty principal investigators (PI) who runs various freshwater and marine sciences programs and initiatives. This position is responsible for providing effective, timely, and compliant analysis and administration of research grants and contracts connected to the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (SAFS), by working closely with stakeholders such as, principal investigators, research staff, research partners, graduate students, College central services team (eFAST), sponsors, and University research support offices (e.g. Office of Sponsored Programs, OSP, and Grants and Contracts Accounting, GCA) to manage the full lifecycle of grants and contracts. Under the direction of the Sponsored Research Assistant Director, the position will also be responsible for pre- and post-award procedures, record keeping, analysis, monitoring and reporting systems.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
Pre-Award Proposal Analysis and Support
Support the Assistant Director in the preparation of competitive and non-competitive sponsored proposals for submission to sponsoring agencies. Provide review and analysis of proposals to ensure complete and successful submissions. Responsibilities and areas of management include:
• Manage preparation and submission of complex proposal budgets, including cost sharing documentation.
• Manage preparation and submission of all other administrative and compliance components, including those related to narrative portions of proposals.
• Advise researchers on sponsor guidelines and University and funding agency policies and procedures.
• Establish timelines for and administer submission of grant and contract proposals in accordance with school, UW, and sponsor requirements and deadlines.
• Act on behalf of investigators in communicating with research partners, sponsors, and UW offices of research administration.
• Initiate Award Setup Requests upon receipt of award or assist in the completion of an Award Setup Request prepared by the UW Authorized Official
Post-Award Analysis and Support
Independently and by direction of the Assistant Director, assist in the management of sponsored awards for ensuring compliance with budget and fiscal policies, procedures, monitoring, reconciliation, tracking and reporting. Responsibilities and areas of management (sometimes in collaboration with or on behalf of principle investigators) include:
• Upon notification of award setup in Workday, ensure correct setup of award data (e.g. funding amount, award lines (primary and any non-primary such as for participant support costs, cost share, subrecipients, etc.) and where necessary, work with central offices for revisions
• Research, interpret, and implement funding agency fiscal guidelines and rules.
• Track Progress / Technical Report due-dates and where necessary, assist Principal Investigators with the submission of the reports to a sponsor and/or routing of to the UW Authorized Official for approval/submission when required.
• Initiate and monitor non-primary award lines for subrecipient accounts coordinating with other UW departments and external partners as necessary
• Initiate and track other post-award activities such as no-cost extensions (internal and sponsor-approved), re-budgeting (internal and sponsor approved), prior-approval requests such as foreign travel.
• Monitor, track, and document cost share commitments. Assist in the management of cost-share maintenance by gathering third-party contribution letters, subrecipient invoicing for allocation of cost-share met, adjustment to commitment when needed involving various systems for tracking. Assist and communicate with GCA regarding invoicing requiring supporting documentation.
• Monitor financial activity on grants and contracts, gifts, and internal funding allocations; provide regular budget projections; determine the need for revision of fiscal plans; respond to budget variances.
• Perform complicated expenditure transactions; review UW systems used to track award activity for compliance and accuracy. Troubleshoot and prepare expenditure corrections as necessary.
• Assist with salary and non-salary expense transfers within the requisite timeframe and ensure proper and complete justification is provided when necessary.
• Communicate and coordinate with Finance staff on internal reporting, policy and procedure development, travel expenditures, and internal budget transfers.
Program Compliance
• Prepare, analyze, and distribute monthly budget management and compliance monitoring reports for research grants, contracts, and gifts - including review and reconciliation of monthly transactions and actual expenditures in comparison to budget plans.
• Provide financial planning and administration support, including complex budget reporting.
• Maintain a list of Principal Investigator approved animal and human subjects research protocols and track renewal periods to communicate with Principal Investigators for updates.
• Monitor required Grants Management for Investigators (GMI) workshop to ensure new PIs have taken the initial workshop and that PIs have renewed their training as required.
• Analyze, verify, and coordinate salary certification report approvals for non-faculty Project Statements and faculty Effort Statements (via ECC) to ensure certification is completed by deadline. Work with supervisors to ensure re-certification of impacted project and effort statements is completed.
• Support the development of internal tracking for unique activities such as proposals and awards routed/funded under other units (e.g. CICOES, WSG, FHL, EarthLab) and SAFS internal support commitments (cost share) in response to Washington Sea Grant funding opportunities.
• Provide oversight of non-sponsored PI budgets that are involved in supporting their research activities such as Research Cost Recovery (RCR), internally-funded research (e.g. Royalty Research Fund (RRF), Global Innovation Fund (GIF), EarthLab Innovation Grants, etc.)
• Provide assistance to update of existing and creation of new templates supporting sponsored programs such as sponsor-specific proposal form examples, SAFS preparation and guidance documents, etc.
• Respond to compliance and other fiscal information requests from Office of the Dean, UW central administration, internal and external auditors, and other external partners.
• Collaborate as needed with other members of the SAFS administrative team, including the Assistant Director of Student Services to ensure correct set-up of students when participating in sponsored activities/
• Ensure electronic filing of all relevant documents related to sponsored programs or other areas of SAFS business.
• Attend trainings and meetings on system changes (internal and sponsor-related) and non-system meetings that provide updates and training on the ever-changing landscape of sponsored programs (e.g. Monthly Research Administrators Meeting)
• Participate in UW trainings and sponsor trainings that relate to SAFS sponsored projects. Proactively and in consultation with Assistant Director, attend trainings that contribute to professional growth.
• Assist the Assistant Director in other activities that develop over time and be willing to share ideas for enhancing SAFS research administration such as streamlining existing processes and practices, developing and revising, policies and procedures for grant and contract financial management, record keeping, audit reporting, monitoring and reporting.
MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:
Bachelor’s degree in Business, related field, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
Two to three years’ experience in research administration and/or pre- and post-award grants and contracts management.
Equivalent education/experience will substitute for all minimum qualifications except when there are legal requirements, such as a license/certification/registration.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:
• Proficient with complex budget development, analysis, and reporting.
• Skilled in using MS Office, including creating and using complex MS Excel spreadsheets and workbooks.
• Experience and commitment to providing accurate, detailed work products.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently, problem solve, take initiative and set priorities.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Ability to work quickly and handle stressful situations.
• Ability to work effectively with faculty, researchers, and staff.
DESIRED:
• Knowledge of University of Washington fiscal policies and procedures, including those related to grants and contracts.
• Experience with federal grants and contracts policies and procedures.
• In-depth knowledge of the rules/regulations for state, federal and other agency grants and contracts.
• Working knowledge of UW Systems, particularly SAGE eGC1, Award Portal, Workday FDM , Employee Effort Compensation Compliance (ECC)
• Working knowledge of other sponsor systems such as Research.gov, eRA Commons
Application Process:
The application process for UW positions may include completion of a variety of online assessments to obtain additional information that will be used in the evaluation process. These assessments may include Work Authorization, Cover Letter and/or others. Any assessments that you need to complete will appear on your screen as soon as you select “Apply to this position”. Once you begin an assessment, it must be completed at that time; if you do not complete the assessment you will be prompted to do so the next time you access your “My Jobs” page. If you select to take it later, it will appear on your "My Jobs" page to take when you are ready.Please note that your application will not be reviewed, and you will not be considered for this position until all required assessments have been completed.