Grants and Contracts Specialist, Applied Health Sciences

Experience Champaign Urbana; Urbana (IL); On-site; USD 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Experience Champaign Urbana is seeking a qualified professional to manage pre-award and post-award activities for research proposals in Illinois. The role involves reviewing sponsor guidelines, developing submission plans, and liaising with faculty PIs and SPaRC to gather required documents.

Responsibilities include coordinating budgets and budget justifications, monitoring expenditures against awards, and ensuring compliance with SPaRC policies.

Qualifications

• Experience developing grant proposals and budgets with faculty.
• Ability to coordinate sponsor submissions and maintain records.
• Familiarity with university/SPaRC policies and CRA designation.

Responsibilities

• Review sponsor statements and funding announcements to ensure compliance.
• Develop proposal submission plans, timelines, and required documents.
• Assist with post-award financial management, including rebudgets and spend reviews.
• Maintain records and support close-out activities.
• Stay current with SPaRC policies and maintain CRA designation through ongoing education.

Job description

Pre-Award

Carefully review all relevant sponsor statements and announcements regarding proposal submissions to ensure adherence to sponsor guidelines and procedures; interpret funding announcements and submission instructions. Develop proposal submission plans and timelines for faculty. Act as a liaison between faculty PIs, co-PIS, investigators, collaborators, and subaward institutions to gather and develop required proposal documents and information for submission. Coordinate proposal submissions to the sponsor with Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA) Act as a liaison between the investigator and sponsor contacts as it pertains to instructions for submitting proposal (non-scientific inquiries only) Development of the budget and budget justification for grant proposal submissions in consultation with PI Complete online proposal forms and upload all proposal documents to federal sponsor agencies or assist in the finalization of submissions for faculty to upload for non-federal submissions. Maintain records of complete grant submissions in electronic repositories.

Post-Award Financial Management

Assist faculty/PIs with the management of their funded research programs, including preparing financial information and rebudgets. Review and approve use of grant funds for expenses such as employee appointments, purchases, and travel reimbursements. Review expenditures to awarded budget to ensure allowability. Take appropriate action to move unallowable/questionable charges to an appropriate funding source. Liaison with Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA) with regard to grant fund setup, management, budgets, billing, multi-year grant needs, and close-out activities. Request and monitor anticipation accounts, subaward agreements, no-cost extensions, and other contract extensions as necessary. Assist with the completion of sponsored project close-out reviews and work with SPA to ensure completed projects are closed in a timely manner. Assist PIs with the semi-annual expenditure confirmation process to obtain certifications on time. Maintain complete award documents and post award work in electronic repositories. Other duties related to post-award as assigned.

Training

Remain current with university and sponsoring agency policies, regulations, and procedures and ensure compliance by attending various meetings and trainings offered by Sponsored Programs and Research Compliance (SPaRC) and the University/campus Office of Business and Financial Services. Maintain active Illinois Certified Research Administration (CRA) designation once certified.