Grants Management Comes of Age
by Mike Lieberman and Debi Galloway
In conjunction with the upgrade to its financial system, the University is upgrading grants management and administration. UCit and the Office of Research, in collaboration with grants administrators and faculty, have decided that Coeus, originally developed at MIT, would best meet the needs of UC faculty and staff involved in grant submission.
Historically, east and west campuses developed different systems to track grant submission and award data. As the University has merged these two groups under the umbrella of the Office of Research, it is only logical that we use one system for such procedures. Coeus offers more functionality than either of the current systems.
MIT created the Coeus system to assist its Office of Sponsored Programs, departments, and laboratories in proposal development and pre- and post-award management. MIT stated, "The purpose of the system is to simplify, and make more efficient, award acquisition and administration for all offices within the Institute." With its comprehensive proposal development module and post award functionality, Coeus is one of the first cradle-to-grave award management tools in the nation. Using this software, one can prepare proposals, route them internally to obtain proper approvals, and electronically submit them to sponsors.
The main modules in Coeus are: Proposal Development, Proposals, Awards, Subcontracts, Negotiations, Person, Conflict of Interest and Report Tracking. You can read more about the MIT Coeus implementation at http://web.mit.edu/coeus/www/coeus_description.htm.
We will roll out Coeus in stages at UC. Initially, only central, sponsored administrators will have access to the system, as they analyze institutional data, manage external awards, and disseminate sponsor regulations for the University community. After we have integrated Coeus with the SAP financial system, and developed a seamless web interface, department managers and faculty will be able to use the system to obtain standard boilerplate information and personnel data for electronic grant preparation and submission.
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