In the Access section, the preparer and other owners (contacts and PI) are listed. One person may hold more than one of these roles. Owners have edit access.
With edit access, you can give other individuals read-only or read/write access to the application. Review Assign Access for how-to steps.
When you connect a SAGE budget to an eGC1, then the Budget Preparer is listed in addition to the eGC1 Preparer, and the two items have a shared access page.
If you create an Advance Budget Request for the eGC1 (with or without a connected budget), the Advance Preparer(s) and any others assigned access to the Advance will also be listed in the Access section of the eGC1’s page.
The Details page of the eGC1 includes basic information about the proposed research, such as the proposal dates, the organization code receiving funding and the sponsor.
The System to Administer Grants Electronically (SAGE) is an internal UW web-based compliance and approval routing system for sponsored grant applications and Non-Award Agreements (NAA). Review details on when an eGC1 is required.
In the University of Washington’s grant lifecycle, you would use SAGE during the Application phase, and to manage subawards.
The eGC1 (electronic Grant and Contract form) is a required online UW form. It summarizes information about your grant application and routes it electronically for review and approval before submission to the sponsor.
There are 4 stages to an eGC1 application:
The PI and/or Research Administrator on the research team prepare the eGC1.
The application routes to campus reviewers to review and approve.
The application is Ready to Submit and reaches a status of In OSP at least 3 business days prior to the sponsor’s deadline. This allows sufficient time for OSP to review and approve application.
OSP approves the application and submits it to the sponsor.
The following articles in this guide explain how to access SAGE with the appropriate ASTRA (Access to Systems, Tools, Resources and Applications) roles, and how to complete your eGC1 and route it for approval.
The Certify & Route page includes the final compliance questions, a place to add information for the UW reviewers, and the ability to check for any remaining errors. Select Route to Reviewers to send your application to the reviewers. Once routed, you will see a Withdraw button. Use it to withdraw your application for editing. You would then re-route it with the changes.
The sections on the page vary depending on the application’s status and whether the person editing is the PI or not.
When a preparer completes an eGC1 and submits it into routing, SAGE automatically sends an email notification to the Principal Investigator (PI). The notification email specifies the action required of the reviewer and includes a direct link to the approval graph.
Note: If the person initially routing the eGC1 for approval is the PI, then the system assumes PI approval of the eGC1 at that time.
Once the PI has approved, SAGE automatically notifies the next set of reviewers on the approval flow. Each authorized reviewer for a unit receives a notification, but only one reviewer is required to review and approve the eGC1. Once a reviewer approves the eGC1, the status of the node on the approval graph changes to “Approved by” followed by that reviewer’s name. The node also changes color from Waiting Approval (purple) to Approved (light green).
The following image shows an example graph. After the PI approved the eGC1, SAGE would have notified the Department Reviewers for Bioengineering and the Dean Reviewers for the College of Engineering. One of the reviewers for Bioengineering has approved, while the eGC1 is still “Waiting Approval” for the College of Engineering. The eGC1 is “En Route” to the remaining reviewers.
As the preceding nodes in the graph move to “approved” statue, the system notifies the next node(s) and they change status (and color) from En Route to Waiting Approval. For the example in the image above, when a College of Engineering Dean Reviewer approves, the School of Medicine Dean Reviewers receive notifications, since by following the thread (connecting lines), you can see that the college node is earlier in the flow.
Note: Any campus reviewer may approve the application prior to receiving their notification. The system does not impose any specific order on the approvals.
Once all of the campus reviewers have approved the eGC1, it moves to In OSP status, and the system sends an email to the eGC1 Preparer, PI, Application PI (if any), Administrative Contact, and Pre-Award Budget Contact notifying them of the status change.
You can view the list of email notifications sent to reviewers, and preparers and contacts for a specific application by clicking Email Notifications from the left-navigation menu.
The information displayed includes:
Field
Description
Name:
The person receiving the notification.
Rule Type (and Organization)
The reason for the email notification. This is based on the role listed on the approval graph.
Action Taken
The action that caused the email notification to be sent.
Date
The date and time the notification was sent.
Email Address
The email address where the notification was sent. SAGE generally sends email to the “UW NetID” email address.
To search for eligible grant opportunities, go to the Grants.gov Search Grants page. When you find a relevant NIH opportunity, be sure to make a note of the funding opportunity number. You will need this when you complete the Grant Runner wizard.
Register with eRA Commons
PIs (Principal Investigators) applying for grants from the NIH must have an account on the electronic Research Administration Commons (eRA Commons) website. eRA Commons serves as a virtual meeting place where the NIH exchanges information with its grantees and applicants can track their applications.
Please note the following:
Registration produces an ID, which you must enter in the credential field on the RR Senior/Key Profile Component. NIH will reject your application without the PD/PI Commons ID.
This is a one-time registration. Once a PI creates an account, be sure to enter the same PD/PI Commons ID each time that PI applies for NIH funds.
Make a note of the information used to register at eRA Commons. The PI information within the grant application should match this information as closely as possible.
SAGE (System to Administer Grants Electronically) is the UW system through which you submit your grant materials to the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP). In order to use SAGE, you have must have access. SAGE uses the UW Access to Systems, Tools, Resources and Applications (ASTRA) tool.
If you have difficulty logging in, contact your unit’s ASTRA administrator to ensure you have a role.
Create a Grant Runner Application in SAGE
You will use the Grant Runner Wizard to create your application. The wizard will step you through a series of questions to verify if your application is eligible to use the automated submission process. You will need to provide the Funding Opportunity ID to complete the wizard. This ID is listed in the synopsis for each grant opportunity on Grants.gov.
The Grant Runner Wizard provides tools for you to look up UW organizational codes, sponsors, and Principal Investigators. The Wizard data will automatically populate parts of your eGC1 and SF424 forms, so you do not have to enter the same information more than once.
Helpful Reminders
The Sponsor’s Application Instructions document and Program Announcement (PA) should always be the primary source of information regarding important criteria, such as page count, file size, and document types required by the sponsoring agency.
All documents that are attached to the SF424 (R&R) form must be in PDF format.
Grant Runner enables you to complete grants.gov applications for certain National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding opportunities from directly within SAGE. It integrates the standard government grant application forms (also known as the SF424 Forms) with the UW electronic grants and contract (eGC1) application. With the click of a button, the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) can electronically submit your application via Grants.gov to the sponsor.
What are the Benefits of Grant Runner?
You can complete the SF424 form set directly in SAGE.
Grant Runner pre-populates your SF424 forms with UW institutional codes, OSP contact information, and other standard material.
Grant Runner automatically checks for common SF424 errors. It alerts you when you need to complete a required field or adjust an entry to meet NIH standards.
You can view the Grants.gov tracking number and NIH status directly from the History and Comments section of your eGC1.
The Grant Runner Wizard will step you through a series of questions to verify if your application is eligible to use the automated submission process to Grants.gov. To complete the wizard, you must provide the funding opportunity number. Be sure to note this number when you search for funding opportunities on Grants.gov.
If your funding opportunity does not meet the Grant Runner eligibility criteria, you may begin a standard (non-Grant Runner) eGC1 form. You will then need to complete an application via NIH’s Application Submission System & Interface for Submission Tracking (ASSIST) system.
If you’re new to Grant Runner, you might want to read Before You Begin for information on preliminary steps (account setup, SAGE access, etc.).
For help with specific Grant Runner forms, see the corresponding user guide article.
SAGE creates the approval flow (graphical and text) based on data in the eGC1 and the routing rules for each school/college. The flow displays which personnel and unit or compliance reviewers should review the eGC1 and its attachments.
Once you enter an organization code receiving funding and a PI for your eGC1, the system can generate a draft version of the approval flow. This can be viewed from either the PI, Personnel, & Organizations page or the Certify & Route page of the eGC1. As you add other research personnel, other data such as cost sharing, or responses to compliance questions to your eGC1, this draft version of the graph will reflect those changes.
When you route the eGC1 for approval, SAGE creates a final flow and sends out the initial approval notifications. If you withdraw the application, or a reviewer returns it, when you re-completed it, the system re-generates the approval flow to adjust for any changes you make to the eGC1. Any approvals that had already occurred will not change after the eGC1 is re-routed, unless affected by the data changes made to the eGC1.
The approval graph appears the same for all reviewers, with the exception of the bold border that indicates your approval node on the graph and the Reason for your review information in the Approval Status Data section. Most people only have one role, so the border will always appear around the same approval node.
If you have more than one approval role, you may see an application listed more than once on your My Approvals page. You will need to approve for each role separately.
