New to UW Research

Welcome!

The UW is one of the world’s preeminent public universities with a research funding profile that has tripled over the last twenty years. We are one of the few universities in the U.S. with total research funding over $1B. Our research funding continues to grow which is a testament to the quality of our students, faculty, and their research teams. We expect faculty to be successful in procuring research funding and carrying out a successful research program with support from a well-developed infrastructure mapped to every stage of the research project lifecycle. Whether you are starting out in your first position as a primary investigator, or are an experienced investigator new to the UW, the resources listed on this page will help you get started on your research program at the UW.

 Research Administration at the UW

The University of Washington is a multi-campus university in Seattle, Tacoma, and Bothell.  We have a breadth of research across ten schools and colleges that require support in research administration activities distributed across multiple central units.

The Office of Research has five units that support research activities:

• Human Subjects Division (HSD): Supports and facilitates review by the Institutional Review Board (IRB), required before starting research involving human subjects.
• Office of Animal Welfare (OAW): Supports the humane use of animals in research.
• Office of Research Central (ORC): Supports University of Washington researchers, is responsible for export controls, financial conflict of interest, outside work, internal funding, limited submissions, research administration education (CORE), and oversight of our units, HSD, OSP, and ORIS.
• Office of Research Information Services (ORIS): Provides system to procure research grants and contracts and build proposal budgets.
• Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP): Supports the research community in securing external support for sponsored projects and collaborations.

Other partner units that support research:

• Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S)
• Grant and Contract Accounting (GCA)
• Post Award Fiscal Compliance (PAFC)
• Management Accounting and Analysis (MAA)
• CoMotion
• Corporate and Foundation Relations (CFR)
• Global Affairs
• Institute of Translational Health Sciences (ITHS)
• School of Medicine

What is MyResearch Project Lifecycle?

This website is organized using MyResearch Project Lifecycle to help you navigate research activities and support you through all phases of the project lifecycle from proposal submission to closeout. Each lifecycle page provides you with essential forms and tools, resources, links, training, policy, guidance, and announcements related to administrative activities for each stage of the research project lifecycle: Plan and Propose, Setup, Manage, and Closeout. All you need to know is where you are in the lifecycle and you will have resources at your fingertips. You don’t need to know where you are going, just where you are!

Systems that Support the Grant Administration Process

UW Systems

• SAGE (System to Administer Grants Electronically) is UW’s electronic research administration system.
• Zipline (HSD IRB review tool): Researchers use Zipline to apply to the Human Subjects Division (HSD) for review of research that includes human subjects.
• Hoverboard: Electronic IACUC protocol management system.
• MyResearch: MyResearch provides a personalized, cross-cutting view of various research related activities.
• GrantTracker: GrantTracker provides up-to-date grant and contract information to UW researchers and staff.
• My Financial desktop (MyFD): MyFD provides users a convenient means for monitoring budget balances and reconciling transactions.

Sponsor Systems

• Grants.gov
• NSF FastLane
• NIH eRA Commons

 Getting Started: Checklist

• Locate possible funding opportunities – see our Funding Opportunities webpage. It is important faculty discuss funding opportunities with their department administrator, they are a valuable resource!
• Get Access to Systems (UW and Sponsor)
• Assess Training Needs
  • Collaborative for Research Education (CORE): Instructor-led, eLearning focused on research administration).
  • Zipline: The on-line Institutional Review Board (IRB) application submission system.
  • Hoverboard: Electronic IACUC protocol management system.
  • Required Training: The required training site has a searchable catalog of required trainings when working with animals, human subjects, clinical trials, HIPPA, controlled substances and specific sponsors.
  • Grants Management for Investigators (formerly Faculty Grants Management) workshop: Faculty and non-faculty who submit a proposal as UW Principal Investigator for the first time must attend an in-person workshop within twelve months of submitting the proposal via SAGE, if they have not attended one previously. First-time PIs are strongly encouraged to attend a workshop before submitting the proposal. The GMI workshop provides an overview of the grants management process, from preparation of proposals to fiscal report preparation through final audit. It includes the PI roles and responsibilities for administering sponsored agreements, then explains the established policies and procedures, and finishes with an overview of the central support services available. All faculty and staff are welcome to participate in the workshop. Note: due to the pandemic we will be offering this course via Zoom for an indeterminate period of time, making it more accessible to a wider audience (captioned, on-demand, sound and size of visuals are more customizable by the user).
  • Financial Interest Disclosure System (FIDS): All UW Investigators must disclose Significant Financial Interests (SFIs) for Sponsored Research proposals via the Financial Interest Disclosure System (FIDS).