This component of SAGE (System to Administer Grants Electronically) is an electronic workflow to route eGC1s and Advance Budget Requests for approval by associated departments, colleges, compliance offices, and the Office of Sponsored Programs.
SAGE – the System to Administer Grants Electronically – is the web-based system used by faculty, researchers, administrators and staff.
You can stay up-to-date on changes in SAGE (and FIDS) by subscribing to our Office of Research Information Services (ORIS) News.
The core SAGE system allows you to carry out several tasks:
- SAGE Budget helps you create an accurate budget for your grant proposal. It auto-populates data from the payroll and financial systems, helps you select proper rates, and calculates totals automatically. You can connect a budget to a standard or Grant Runner eGC1 to populate budget data.
- eGC1 Forms are the electronic Grants and Contracts forms you use to route your grant proposal through the University’s internal compliance process.
- Grant Runner applications combine the eGC1 and sponsor forms for some NIH funding opportunities requiring SF424 R&R forms, including Modular, Detailed and Subaward Budgets. With the click of a button, OSP can electronically submit your application via Grants.gov to the sponsor.
- Approvals is the electronic routing engine that stages eGC1s for approval by associated departments, colleges, compliance offices, and the Office of Sponsored Programs.
- Advances creates an online request form for an advance budget number.
- Subawards submits a request for a new subaward or a modification of an existing one.
The text version of the page has an Approval Flow Details section instead of the graph. It consists of a table listing the units and individuals who need to approve or watch this application.
The table columns are:
- Rule Type: The reviewer, and when applicable, their affiliated unit
- Approval Status: Waiting Approval, En Route, etc. See the Approval Statuses article for more details
- Acted On By: The name of the person who approved or watched the application
- Date: The date and time the approval or watched status changed
- View Reviewers: Click to display the Reviewer Details for this role, which includes the reasons for this reviewer
The following image shows an example of this section.
This is the visual graph of approvers and watchers. The graph begins on the left with the PI and ends on the right with the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP). Directly under the PI node, is a node for the Preparer/Owners.
If there is an Application PI, that node is immediately to the right of the PI. If there are one or more Multiple PIs, they will follow the PI or the Application PI, if there is one. The Multiple PIs are displayed one below the other. Note that if the Multiple PI is a non-UW person, they will not appear on the approval flow.
The top line of nodes on the graphical version generally are the reviewers associated with the organization receiving funding. The order of other nodes is not fixed.
There is a Legend on the page that defines what the colors of the nodes mean:
- You Are Here (thick dark border on a node) indicates your node on the graph
- Watching (color white) indicates that none of the watchers for this “node” has marked it as Watched
- Watched (color light gray) indicates that one of the watchers for this node has marked it as Watched
- En Route (color light purple) indicates that the associated reviewers have not yet been notified
- Waiting Approval (color medium purple)indicates the associated reviewers have been notified
- Approved (color light green) indicates an approver has approved the application
- Returned (color light pink) indicates that a either a campus or OSP approver returned the application to the preparers for changes
Each node lists the person or unit reviewing, the role (for example: Div Reviewer), and the status.
In the example image below, the nodes in green have been approved, and they display the first initial and last name of the approver. The outlined node is the one for this approver and shows a status of “Waiting Approval”. The node for OSP has a status of “En Route”.
- Click on the name of the node’s unit to open the Reviewer Details page which lists persons authorized to review for this role. This data comes from ASTRA.
- Click on the “Owner/Preparer” node to display a list of persons who are owners of the eGC1, or have been assigned access to it. Contact the appropriate owner with questions related to the eGC1.
Status Data
This initial section explains your relationship to this application.
| Field |
Description |
| Current Status |
This approval status is based on you or your role and the current routing status of the eGC1. |
| Your action options |
Based on your status with this eGC1, this field displays what actions you may take. |
| Reason for your review |
This is the reason(s) you or your organization needs to approve this eGC1. |
Approval Options
Approvers (other than the PI) can only approve an eGC1 which is in Routing status. If you do not see the Approve or Return buttons, check the eGC1s status on the My Approvals page. The PI can approve an eGC1 in Composing status by completing it, or in Routing status by using the Approve button.
- Use the Approve button to indicate your approval of this application. You can optionally include a note which will display on the History & Comments page.
- Use the Return button to return the application for modification; the PI and owners will be notified by email of the return, and the email will include your return comments. Comments are required and will display on the History & Comments page.
Graph Options
Use the Add Comment link to include a note, independent of your approval, which will display on the History & Comments page.
Use the Add Approver or Add Watcher link to include an additional approver or watcher in the approval flow. See the Add An Ad Hoc Reviewer article for the steps to do this.
View eGC1 Options
The View eGC1 link opens the application in a new window, in a read-only mode. This allows you to review the details of the application.
The View Attachments link opens a new window and displays a list of all the attachments for this eGC1.
View Printable eGC1
The PDF link opens a new window that displays a printer-friendly copy of the entire application.
This section lists selected fields from the eGC1 to help you confirm that you are viewing the correct item (eGC1 Application Details). The data fields include:
- eGC1 Number
- Full Application Title
- PI Name
- Org Code Receiving Funding
- Sponsor Deadline
- OSP Due Date
- Ready To Submit response
Only the person who has added an ad hoc reviewer node can remove it from the approval flow. However, if the ad-hoc reviewer has already provided approval, the node cannot be removed from the approval graph, as it is part of the approval history.
To remove an ad hoc reviewer, click the Delete link in the graph node, or next to the approver on the text flow page. This opens the Remove Reviewer page in a pop-up window. The pop-up contains two sections: Application Details and Reviewer Details.
The Application Details section lists selected fields from the eGC1 to help you confirm you are viewing the correct item. The data fields include:
- eGC1Number
- Full Application Title
- PI Name
- Org Code Receiving Funding
- OSP Due Date
- Ready To Submit value
The Reviewer Details section lists the Role, Reason, and Status for this reviewer and includes a comments field.
Use the Comments required when deleting an ad hoc reviewer field to enter the reason for removal. Select the Remove button to complete the process or the Cancel link to return to the flow page. The following image show this section.
Details about the removal of an ad hoc reviewer will display on the History & Comments page.
Definition of ad hoc: Formed, arranged, or done for a particular purpose only; from Latin, meaning “for this.”
An owner (PI, preparer, contacts), a person with assigned read/write access, or an approver, can add an ad hoc reviewer to the approval flow. These manually added reviewers can be for a particular role, such as a department reviewer, or can be a specific person.
Note: there is a known issue when the person with read/write access also has a Global Edit role for the corresponding organization code. The links to add an ad hoc reviewer will not appear. Contact the ORIS Support Desk for assistance.
The process to add an ad hoc approver or watcher is the same. The only difference is that the approver needs to take action and approve the eGC1, while the watcher is not required to act. For this section we’ll use the term “reviewer” to refer to either an approver or watcher.
The Add Approver or Add Watcher link allows you to add a person or role (for example: Dept Reviewer) to the Approval Flow. This function may be used when:
- An additional person or role needs to approve.
- An existing approver needs to re-approve.
- A person or role needs access to view (watch) the eGC1.
Note: If a division, department or dean’s reviewer needs to re-approve an application, add the appropriate ROLE (not person) to the graph. The approval history will show the unit name and the name of the person who approved, providing a more complete audit trail.
The eGC1 must be in either Routing or In OSP status for you to add an ad hoc reviewer.
To begin the process, click on either the Add Approver or Add Watcher link to open the corresponding window, as shown in the image below. The following steps are the same for both.
Adding a Person
- The first question asks whether you are adding a person or role. Select Person. A “Person to add” field appears, as shown below.
- Select Look Up Person to open the Personnel Chooser.
- Search by Name or UW NetID for the person you want to add.
- Click the name of the person you want, which returns you to the Add Approver or Add Watcher window.
Adding a Role
- The first question asks whether you are adding a person or role. Select Role.
- Use the Role to add drop-down menu to select the role you want to add.
- For roles that require the specification of an Organization Code:
- Click Look Up Organization Code to open the Org Code Chooser.
- Search for and select the appropriate code, which returns you to the Add Approver or Add Watcher window. Plus sign (+) and Change buttons will appear after the chosen code. Click the Change button to select a different Organizational Code. Use the plus (+) button to see the parent units. The following image shows an added role and code.
Placing the Reviewer in the Flow
The next step is to select a location on the graph for the added reviewer based on an existing reviewer:
- Location on graph where new Approver/Watcher should be added: Use the drop-down list to select an existing reviewer. The drop-down list is unique to each eGC1 approval flow. DO NOT choose the OSP node, as it will cause errors in the flow.
- Add before, in parallel with, or after the selected location? Choose one from before, parallel or after.
The following image shows these fields with example values.
A new node will be added to the approval chart in this location.
An email notification will be sent to the reviewers for the role, or the specific person added, at the appropriate time in the approval flow process.
Provide a Reason
Enter a comment to describe why this role or person needs to review this eGC1. This comment will display on the History & Comments page.
The Updated Graph
As an example, we chose Human Centered Design Engineering as the ad hoc role to add to the flow. The new reviewer was located in parallel with the existing Dept Reviewer for Bioengineering node. The image shows the new node directly above that of Bioengineering on the same thread (line) of the graph.
On the node, the role description is Ad Hoc Reviewer. When the person who added the node views it, they will see a Delete link. Only the person who added the ad hoc reviewer node can remove it. For more details, see Delete an Ad Hoc Reviewer.
When other reviewers see the ad hoc node, they will see the name of the person who added it instead of the Delete link.
Definition of ad hoc: Formed, arranged, or done for a particular purpose only. From Latin, meaning “for this.”
An owner (PI, preparer, contacts), a person with assigned read/write access, or an approver, can add an ad hoc reviewer to the approval flow. These manually-added reviewers can be for a particular role, such as a department reviewer, or can be a specific person.
Be sure, when you add a role, to check that ASTRA has at least one person designated as a reviewer for that node. Otherwise, your application could experience delays in routing.
See Add an Ad Hoc Reviewer and Delete an Ad Hoc Reviewer for more details.
