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Fundamental information, resources, and tools you will need to manage your award after it has been awarded.
Principal investigators and research administrators can access easy-to-understand account reports on all active sponsored projects via the Web Department Financial System (Web DFS).
WebDFS provides up-to-date information about all of a PI’s sponsored projects. Reports include summary budget and expenditure data for the life of the project; current period expenditures, including detail for payroll; encumbrances (salary and operating); and pending transactions.
Note: Because the new report queries the Web Department Financial System (Web DFS), pending transactions are only available if they have been entered through Web DFS. The new reports do not reflect accounting data that are tracked by department-specific accounting systems.
Researchers enter the new site through the UGA self-service page, which is accessed with MyID: https://employee.uga.edu/FacStaff/index.jsp.
Departmental grants administrators enter the site through the Web DFS Accounting web site: http://www.dfs.uga.edu/.
For further information about WebDFS, please see the training materials provided here.
If you cannot complete your project aims within the specified project period, many sponsors will allow you to extend your project. We refer to this as a no-cost extension (NCE). A NCE extends the original project period, allowing the completion of project aims without additional funds being provided by the Sponsor. You must have a scientific, project-related reason to extend your project end date. Extensions may not be obtained for the sole purpose of spending remaining funds.
Your award document should indicate the process for obtaining a NCE. If your award does not provide a NCE option, please contact your OSP Representative who will guide you through the process. Sponsors have different procedures for implementing a NCE.
If your request for a NCE is under Expanded Authorities (meaning that your award specifically mentions Expanded Authorities or is under Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP) terms (FDP matrix) or Federal Research Terms and Conditions (RTC)), please complete the No-Cost Extension Request Form and forward it to your OSP Representative.
If your request for a NCE is not under Expanded Authorities, the No-Cost Extension Request form and letter to Sponsor (page 3 of the form) are required. As you complete the form, the letter will be generated for you. Please complete the form, sign the letter, and forward to your OSP Representative to be countersigned by an Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR). The letter will then be forwarded to the Sponsor for review and approval.
There is wide variability among projects regarding a PI’s ability to rebudget without prior sponsor approval. If prior sponsor approval is required, please route all revised budgets through your OSP Representative.
Your OSP Representative will work with you and the project sponsor to obtain and document approved budget revisions.
A change in scope almost always requires prior sponsor approval, unless special permission is given within the award agreement. Any modification of project aims or deliverables constitutes a scope change. Frequently, budget changes cause changes in project scope, so OSP or C & G will likely raise the question in such a situation.
Please work with your OSP Representative to secure and document the necessary sponsor approvals.
If a UGA PI transfers to another institution, OSP requires a letter signed by the PI and the Department Chair authorizing the transfer of any awards. This letter must include a list of current awards and pending proposals, agency name, grant or proposal number, agency contact name, address, phone number, e-mail address, and amount of current budget period for any award. This letter should also include any relevant information on award cost sharing and/or subcontracts.
The University of Georgia will then authorize the relinquishment of the award and the funds are returned to the sponsor. Next, the sponsor will transfer the award to the PI's new institution and the new institution will assume administration. The general process is similar for all grant transfers, but agency-specific instructions and requirements must be considered. Issues related to equipment purchased on an award should first be addressed to department heads, as equipment is considered property of the State of Georgia.
If a PI can’t or won’t continue in this role for a funded project, prior approval will be required from the sponsor before another PI can be substituted.
Please work with your OSP Representative to obtain and document approval for a change in PI. OSP will then initiate the status change within the UGA project accounting system.
If a project is incrementally funded (typically one year at a time), it is generally the case that the funds from a previous increment can be utilized within all subsequent increment periods.
However, this is not universal. Some project increments are mandated to be discrete units, tracked and accounted for separately. The funds from these previous increments will not be available during successive increments. In these cases it is sometimes possible to acquire approval for carry-forward, to allow one or more increments to remain available for more than one funding period.
Please work with your OSP Representative to request, document, and process these carry-forward requests.
Occasionally, under very special circumstances, costs that are typically considered indirect costs may be treated as direct costs. Examples of these types of costs include project administration, computers, telecommunications (i.e., cell phone or monthly phone line changes), etc. The regulations governing when these indirect cost items may be charged as a direct cost as very rigorous.
CASB Exceptions, also known as OMB A-21 Exceptions, refer to the direct changing of costs typically considered indirect costs. Justification and approval of these cost types are typically handled during the proposal budget development stage. However, unexpected project changes may occur post-award; these will require a post-award CASB Exception approval.
Please review the CASB Administrative Exception Policy and the CASB Non-administrative Exception Policy for more information. If you feel that your specific costs meet these conditions, in order to obtain approval to charge an indirect cost as a direct cost, complete the CASB Exception Approval Form and return it to your OSP Representative.
Project sponsors often require that interim and final progress reports be submitted to them on a specific schedule. This reporting schedule is typically defined within the project's award documents. The PI is responsible for adhering to this reporting schedule and maintaining records of all reports.
To assure compliance with sponsor requirements, OSP requires evidence on file that the final progress report was submitted to the sponsor; see OSP Final Report Policy for Funded Projects and Procedures on Sponsored Projects Financial Reporting and Financial Closeout.