BMC Signatory of Sponsored Programs Awards
Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA) serves as BMC's authorized designee team to submit proposals for and to accept sponsored program funding and to oversee multiple administrative post-award management tasks. For industry research contract negotiation, the Clinical Trial Office (CTO) is the authorized team.
Below we outline SPA's responsibilities.
Proposals and Post-Submission
SPA supports BMC and the principal investigator/program director/department administrator (PI/PD/DA) by:
- Reviewing proposals for completeness and conformity with sponsor and BMC administrative requirements and policies
- Endorsing and submitting proposals to sponsors on behalf of BMC
- Managing InfoEd, BMC's grant management system of record for proposal submission, and
- Reviewing and submitting Post-Submission documents and Just-In-Time (JIT) requests.
Award Acceptance and Setup
See also the SPA page on Award Acceptance and Setup.
SPA supports BMC and its PI/PD/DAs by:
- Negotiating favorable agreement terms and conditions, such as publication rights, intellectual property rights, rights in data, indemnification, and payment terms
- Accepting awards on behalf of BMC
- Maintaining SP records in InfoEd, BMC’s grant management system of record
- Processing administrative post-award requests for subaward issuance, non-competing continuation proposals, progress reporting, re-budgeting, carryforward of unspent funds, change of key personnel, and subrecipient monitoring
- Collaborating with the CTO or Sponsored Program Finance (SPF) to confirm financial obligations are met
- Confirming, in tandem with SPF and/or CTO, that all closeout requirements are met, including Final Invention and Record Retention requirements
- Assisting with policy interpretation and meeting sponsor requirements, and
- Serving as BMC’s point of contact to address sponsor questions and communications on grants policy, terms and conditions, and reporting requirements.
Outgoing Subawards
See also the SPA page on Basics of Subawards.
To meet the requirements of BMC in its role as a federal pass-through entity, SPA:
- Conducts risk assessment and adjusts subaward agreement terms and conditions accordingly
- Negotiates terms and conditions in accordance with BMC policies and execute subawards on behalf of BMC
- Requests purchase orders in BMC’s financial system of record
- Partners with departments in monitoring subrecipient performance, and
- Captures and reports subaward and executive compensation data per Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA) requirements.
Data and Material Agreements
To safeguard BMC's interests, SPA:
- Confirms processes for transferring biomaterials, compounds, and data to and from external collaborators
- Utilizes standard agreements whenever possible, as provided by BMC research counsel, Federal Demonstration Partnership, University-Industry Demonstration Partnership and others, and
- Reviews, negotiates, and endorses incoming Material Transfer Agreements (MTA), and Data Transfer and Use Agreements (DTUA, also known as DUA).
Additional Activities
As applicable, SPA:
- Monitors sponsors and research administration in general, prepares for changes, and communicates updates to the BMC SP community
- Maintains BMC registration on various external pre- and post-award administrative systems
- Ensures that, in collaboration with BMC's Research Compliance Officer, export control and foreign influence requirements are observed and managed
- Collaborates on BMC policies necessary to promote the SP enterprise
- Maintains and communicates processes that reflect departmental and SPA collaboration
- Monitors and analyzes emerging governmental regulatory requirements, audit plans, and positions BMC to minimize their impact
- Collaborates on BMC training related to SP requirements and systems, and
- Facilitates SP transfers to, from, and within BMC, in collaboration with PI/PD/DAs, SPF, and the CTO.