New Business Process for Closing Out Federal Awards

New Federal Award (Non-Financial) Closeout Process Launches January 2023

Dear Colleagues,

As part of continuous improvement, and our effort to streamline business processes, we are happy to announce upcoming changes to the Federal Sponsor Award Non-Financial Closeout process. Launching in January 2023, departments and central offices will start following a uniform business process to manage closeout activities and meet sponsor reporting requirements. This will include utilizing additional Kuali Research Award Module functionality and an enhanced version of the existing Research Administration Activity Dashboard - Awards Ending or Ended Report. The new process will focus on the non-financial closeout requirements and will improve efficiencies and allow department and central office users to work together to satisfy all closeout requirements for federal sponsors.

A project team made up of various subject matter experts from across the central offices and departments (Academic Affairs, Health Sciences & Marine Sciences) were assembled to review the existing process for Federal Sponsor Award Closeout and to design the new future state for efficiently managing federal closeouts. To prepare for the transition, please see the following:

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT
While federal sponsors have had policies in place to withhold funding from PIs (and/or institutions) with delinquent awards missing required closeout documentation, they have recently started increasing the level of communication around these policies, thereby making enforcement of these policies more likely. This significantly increases the risks associated with not properly closing out awards. These notices and warnings are coming from major federal sponsors such as NSF and NIH, further increasing the potential risk to UC San Diego's research portfolio.

ANTICIPATED CHANGES
For Department Research Administrators: Department Research Administrators will be requested to closely monitor the Research Activity Dashboard - Awards Ending or Ended Report. This report will allow them to view their Awards that are nearing completion, as well as the list of final reports that need to be submitted for each Award.

Department Research Administrators will work closely with their PIs and the respective Central Office to get the final reports completed and submitted to the sponsoring agency by their due dates. Note: Financial reports will still be submitted to Sponsored Projects Finance (SPF).

For Faculty: Faculty will be able to utilize the Research Activity Dashboard - Awards Ending or Ended Report to monitor their ending Awards, as well as obtain the list of final reports due for that Award.

Faculty will be expected to complete the final reporting requirements as set forth by the sponsoring agency for their Awards.

For Central Offices: Central offices will collaboratively work with Department Research Administrators and Faculty to meet the sponsor reporting requirements for the awards that are ending.

REPORT ACCESS
An enhanced version of the Research Administration Activity Dashboard - Awards Ending or Ended Report will be available in January 2023. All UC San Diego users will be able to access the report by going to the Business Analytics Hub (BAH) > Research > RA Dashboard (Active Directory login required).

WHAT’S NEXT
Over the next couple of months additional details about the new process will be provided and the report enhancements will be made. In the meantime, for any questions, please contact researchadmin@ucsd.edu.

Best regards,

Corinne Peek-Asa
Vice Chancellor for Research