UGA’s Sponsored Projects Administration has made the following process and policy changes to enhance its service regarding setup and management of sponsored projects.
- Reduced award modification burden: SPA no longer requires a copy of continuation determinations/approvals for human subjects, animal, or biosafety compliance with award modifications; compliance offices will monitor directly with PIs/units. These improvements are expected to save more than 1,000 hours per year institution wide.
- Updated policy and guidelines related to graduate assistant tuition: The revised Student Compensation, Tuition & Fees Policy clarifies graduate tuition expectations and Dean/VP approval authority for exemptions.
- Improved Grants Portal tracking: New WHO:WHAT statuses in the Grants Portal clarify who owns each action and what action is pending, enabling better processing-time reporting and bottleneck analysis.
These changes streamline processing, clarify accountability, reduce unnecessary documentation, and improve data quality. SPA is grateful to the UGA community for its partnership and guidance in helping to identify, prioritize, and implement improvements.
Recent and upcoming process and system improvements will continue to be shared in the Office of Research’s Research Improvements and Service Enhancements (RISE) tracker.