Administering an Award

The Office of Research Services (ORS) is the point of entry for all incoming awards and will negotiate the terms of the award as needed. Once a grant has been awarded and ORS has negotiated the terms and conditions of the award with the sponsor, the PI/PD, in conjunction with both departmental and grant administrators, is responsible for managing the award. This management must follow the rules and regulations set forth in federal guidance as well as institutional policies and procedures published by Georgetown University.

The Principal Investigator (PI) must conduct his or her project during the period of performance specified by the sponsor. The PI may charge against the project’s AWD and GR accounts all reasonable, allowable and allocable expenses incurred while conducting the project. At any point, if the PI determines that his or her expenditures are differing from those in the original budget, he or she should contact ORS to determine if the sponsor must approve a revised budget. In general, the federal government tends to allow 25% of total costs rebudgeting threshold, but foundation and coporate sponsors tend to allow only a 10% total costs threshold.

During the course of the award, the University is required to submit technical (programmatic) and financial reports in accordance with the schedule indicated by the sponsor. The PI is responsible for preparing and submitting technical reports to the sponsor and must notify ORS when these are submitted.  ORS must record the submission dates into the financial system for audit purposes. The Sponsored Projects Financial Operations (SPFO) prepares a draft of financial worksheets and sends these to the department administrator or grant adnministrator for review and approval. 

If the worksheets are acceptable, SPFO submits the financial reports to the sponsor. If the PI requires additional time to complete the original aims of the project, he or she can request a no-cost extension. Requests for no-cost extensions are submitted to ORS by the PI and ORS notifies the sponsor.  Generally, the university is permitted to automatically implement a one-year no-cost extension on federal awards.  Extensions on foundation and corporate awards require the prior written approval of the sponsor. ORS is responsible for obtaining prior approval when necessary and for reviewing these requests for allowability and supporting documentation.