GCA Staff Roles and Responsibilities

The GCA has several teams to assist research personnel throughout the proposal process.

Pre-Award

The pre-award team coordinates the proposal submission and award acceptance from external funding agencies. This team helps with the grant application process, reviews materials that the PI provides the office, and submits the final proposal to the funding agency.

Early in the pre-award process, PIs should fill out the online form to request a grants and contracts specialist/analyst.

Role of a Grants and Contracts Administration (GCA) Specialist

The GCA Specialist will provide professional, efficient, and effective service to all faculty interested in submitting proposals for funding from external sponsors. Assistance will be provided to PIs prior to the six-day deadline on a “first come, first served” basis as workload allows. In addition, during the six-day review period before the sponsor submission deadline, GCA will check the proposal package for all required elements and for compliance with UNT and sponsor requirements, provided that a complete proposal package was received by the GCA Internal deadline.

The pre-award team will provide:

• Proposal review: Review the proposal documents for accuracy and compliance with applicable guidelines and regulations (institutional, local, state, federal, etc.) pertinent to the specific submission.

• Budget review: Review the budget for alignment with funding agency requirements.  Translate the budget items into sponsor budget forms. Require that any variance from the standard indirect cost recovery (F&A) be approved in writing. Review the Cost Share Approval Form for cost share at required level and required approval/s.

  • Note that for cost share approval the PI must work with their department chair, Dean, VPRI office and other necessary administrative units well in advance to discuss cost share approvals from the academic and research units.

• Proposal submission: Facilitate the final submission of the proposal to the sponsor according to the agency requirements. If the proposal submission is through a sponsor portal (e.g. NSF Fastlane, Research.gov, etc.) the pre-award team will ensure UNT is registered with the sponsor to submit proposals online.

  • Late proposals will not receive priority over proposals complying with the required lead times. Proposals and documents received after the GCA Internal deadline will receive a modified level of review.

GCA does not guarantee the submission of proposals that do not allow for sufficient time to complete the necessary review and navigate an appropriate sponsor submission. UNT reserves the right to review and request changes prior to acceptance of an award or to decline an award if the budget or other commitments contained in the proposal do not conform to UNT specifications or requirements.

Post-Award

The post-award team coordinates the administration of externally sponsored project awards. This includes working with the PI to submit annual updates to the funding agency and to close-out grant awards. The awards are set up in PeopleSoft, and the PI and administrative support team within the academic units can monitor the expenditures, invoices, financial reporting, and award close-out.

Contact Information

To contact the GCA team, visit the GCA homepage or browse the DRI directory.