Faculty Handbook

Sponsored Programs Administration, Office of Sponsored Programs or Business Connect, and Contract and Grant Administration

Formal agreements/awards by funding organizations to support research and creative projects are normally made between the organization and the University rather than with individual faculty. Sponsored projects must also be compliant with agreement/award terms and conditions, institutional policies, agency policies, and federal and/or state regulations.  The offices of Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA), Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP), Business Connect (BC) for industry funding (when not ultimately from a Federal or State funding source) and Contract and Grant Administration (CGA) provide support and ensure compliance throughout the lifecycle of an award.  Proposals should be reviewed by the OSP or BC before submitting to outside sponsoring entities to ensure conformity with University policies, such as facilities and administrative costs, cost-sharing and compliance issues. 

Institutional approval must be granted before a proposal is submitted to a sponsor. At MSU, institutional approval is obtained through a series of intermediate approvals, beginning with the investigators named in the proposal, and ending with OSP or BC. These approvals are received through a Proposal Development document within the Kuali Coeus (KC) system.  KC also facilitates formal acceptance of an award by the Board of Trustees. When an official award notice/document is received from a funding organization, the award/agreement document is reviewed, negotiated and fully executed by OSP/BC, and passed to CGA to finalize the account setup.


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