Written by Roger Rainwater.
Welcome to the Office of Contracts and Grants. Contracts and Grants functions as the university-level office responsible for all matters related to post-award financial for contracts, grants, cooperative agreements and other award mechanisms that fund research and other sponsored activity performed by NC State faculty.
The process for C&G begins long before our direct involvement. Faculty submit proposals to external sponsors, usually federal, state, profit and non-profit organizations, in an effort to secure funding. Those proposals are submitted through either the Office of Sponsored Programs and Regulatory Compliance Services (SPARCS) or college-level research offices, all of which are critical process partners for C&G.
Once awards are issued based on those proposals, C&G’s work begins. The first stop is with one member of the fiscal assistant team. They are responsible for intake, set up in PeopleSoft and assignment to a fiscal manager. From there, a fiscal manager is responsible for that project for its life, typically 3-5 years. Fiscal managers are responsible for billing, invoicing, development and submission of financial reports and for reviewing modification requests. Additionally, they partner with the PI and the college on project closeout.
At many points in the process, C&G’s Systems and compliance team assists with annual effort reporting, subrecipient monitoring and audit representation/response. This team is also responsible for working with campus stakeholders and the Office of Information Technology on internal systems maintenance, enhancement, development and testing.
The Office of Contracts and Grants is staffed by 29 professionals with varied experience and backgrounds. Many have finance and accounting backgrounds and some have experience with sponsored projects, award management, contract negotiations, compliance and project management. They bring experience from other state agencies, institutions of higher education, and the federal government to the betterment of research activity at NC State University.