Campus research teams and related central offices use the SAGE Suite electronic research administration system to manage application proposals and related items. The suite consists of three components that access the shared SAGE Suite database.
In addition, FIDS: Financial Interest Disclosure System is used by researchers designated as investigators; it integrates with SAGE
The following set of tables gives a high-level overview of who uses each of the different components, and describes the possible actions and the why and/or when.
WHO: Campus research administrators, Principal Investigators, campus reviewers, compliance reviewers
| ACTION | WHY / WHEN |
|---|---|
| Create SAGE Budgets | Centralizes data gathering for salaries, benefits, F&A rates. It can be connected to an application, which automatically populates the eGC1 budget data on the Budget & Fiscal Compliance page. Any changes to the budget will update in real time when the eGC1 Budget & Fiscal Compliance page is viewed.
In addition, if your eGC1 is a Grant Runner application using the RR Detailed Budget form, your budget data will appear in the form. |
| Create applications (standard or Grant Runner) | Required for all sponsored research. The standard eGC1 pages of the application are, in effect, an approvals routing cover letter for the proposal. Only the UW uses the eGC1. It does not go to the sponsor.
A Grant Runner application includes, in addition to the standard eGC1 pages, the sponsor forms for NIH. OSP submits the application “system-to-system”. |
| Approve routing applications | The Principal Investigator, Multiple-PI, Application PI, academic reviewers (division, department, dean) and compliance reviewers (human subjects, animal use, EH&S, etc.) view and approve the application. At each approval, SAGE captures a PDF snapshot of the application and attaches it to the eGC1’s Approvals History & Comments page. Copies of the attachments are also captured.
Administrators and reviewers have the option to return the application to the research team for changes. They can also add other reviewers (as individuals or a group) to the approval flow as needed. These are referred to as “ad hoc” reviewers (approvers or watchers). |
| Request an advance budget number for awards | Used when the research proposal is being awarded by the sponsor, but the actual award has not yet arrived. It requests GCA to set up a budget account in the financial system so the research team can start spending the anticipated award money. The preparer completes the request in SAGE, then GCA processes it in SERA. |
| Create subaward requests for awarded applications | Used when a research proposal has been awarded and part of the award needs to go to the subrecipients (subcontractors) that are the UW research team’s collaborators. For a new award, a “new” subaward request (SA) is created along with its parent subaward (SC). For an ongoing award, a “modification” request would be created within the existing subaward (SC). |
WHO: Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP)
| ACTION | WHY / WHEN |
|---|---|
| Review and approve applications | OSP reviews the information on the eGC1, such as the sponsor proposal information and compliance questions, after all campus reviewers have approved. When OSP approves the application, they place it into a new or existing Cycle. |
| Add Approved applications to a Cycle | A Cycle holds a “competing segment” for a research team/project/sponsor combination. It’s a container to keep applications, their related advances, funding actions, admin actions, and subawards together. One cycle can be “related” to another, so that more than one segment is associated.
A Cycle is automatically deleted when the last item in it is removed. |
| Create various types of Administrative Actions as needed | Administrative Actions document various related agreements, adjustments and/or changes, and the finalization of a research project. These actions all appear in the project’s cycle, associated to their appropriate parent item.
Note that all actions (including Funding Actions) start as “unidentified” ones, with a prefix of AA. They are then converted to the specific type needed.
|
| Create Funding Actions (FA) for awards | When the sponsor awards an application, OSP creates a Funding Action as a child of the application. Depending on answers to certain compliance questions, the system may apply one or more automatic “holds”.
Once OSP completes the FA (and all holds are cleared), they transmit it to SERA for GCA to establish a budget in the financial system (if not already done via Advance Request). |
| Process subawards | OSP reviews the subaward requests, and negotiates the contract with the subrecipient. The request moves through several statuses until, when the agreement is “fully executed” the request becomes Active. It is automatically “Expired” once the End Date is passed.
SCs and FAs can have a many-to-many relationship. The system enforces that all related FAs and SCs must be within the same cycle. |
WHO: Grant & Contract Accounting (GCA)
| ACTION | WHY / WHEN |
|---|---|
| Process Advance Budget Number Requests | Received from the research team, an advance allows the team to spend award money before the actual award arrives. GCA adds a budget number to the ADV and sets up that budget in the financial system. As part of completing the ADV, the system sends a notification to the requesters. |
| Process Funding Actions | Received from OSP. GCA adds a budget number, if needed, and sets up the budget in UW financial system. As part of completing the FA, the system sends a notification to the requesters, and the first-level reviewers for the organization code receiving funding. |
| Process Post-Award Changes | Received from OSP. Not all types of PACs are sent on to GCA. As part of completing the PAC, the system sends a notification to the requesters. |
| Create “Other” items | Created as needed for various budgetary processes. These items only appear in SERA. |
WHO: Any research personnel designated as an “Investigator” on the PI, Personnel, & Organizations page of the eGC1.
| ACTION | WHY / WHEN |
|---|---|
| Create a Financial Interest Disclosure for an eGC1
or A disclosure for a CoMotion tech transfer agreement or IRB approval or Complete an Annual Update disclosure |
Investigators are required to disclose any significant financial interests (SFI) such as salary, equity, sponsored travel, etc., that might, or might appear to, bias their research.
An investigator must complete a disclosure for each eGC1, whether or not there are SFI that apply, before the proposal can be marked as Ready-to-Submit = Yes. The disclosures are reviewed by the SFI Reviewer, in the central Office of Research, who determines if there is a potential for a Financial Conflict of Interest (FCOI). The review occurs at the time of award (just-in-time). Annual Updates: All investigators are required to review and update their SFI at least once a year. The “year” is calculated from the date of the last disclosure created in FIDS. Investigators are notified by email 45 days prior, and again at 15 days prior, to the end of that year’s time. Full details on using FIDS can be found in its User Guide. Note: only a UW NetID is needed to access FIDS. |
Depending on your association with an eGC1 application or advance budget request as it is approved, and possibly awarded, you may receive a number of different email notifications.
Email notifications are sent from various parts of the SAGE Suite. Use the links below to review charts of who receives what, when, and why.
