Award Management

Spectrum Health Office of Research and Education supports successful stewardship and compliance of grants, clinical trials and other sponsored program funds. Every award supported by the Spectrum Health Office of Research and Education is assigned a team of cross-functional experts whose roles are to provide support and guidance to the Principal Investigator/Project Director. Below is a brief overview of selected post award services, processes and requirements.

Principal Investigator/Project Director

Principal Investigator/Project Directors are the primary individuals responsible for the conduct, administration and managing the day-to-day operations of their sponsored project in compliance with applicable laws and regulations and institutional policy governing the conduct of sponsored programs. To fulfill this responsibility, the Principal Investigator/Project Director must be aware of all award/contract terms and conditions and should give special attention to those terms and conditions regarding budget limitations, patents, copyrights, publications, inventions, confidential information, safety and security and required reports. The Principal Investigator/Project Director is responsible to monitor all project expenses and to ensure that all project goals and objectives are achieved in accordance with the sponsored project.

Spectrum Health Office of Research and Education

The role of the Spectrum Health Office of Research and Education in this process is to ensure the proper stewardship of sponsor funds by offering support and guidance to Principal Investigator/Project Directors. The Spectrum Health Office of Research and Education provides ongoing education and support in award management and closely monitor sponsored programs to mitigate risk and to ensure compliance with internal and external policies and regulations. Active monitoring occurs through review of financial reports, contract terms and conditions, audit and accounting regulatory compliance, financial controls to safeguard assets, interpretation of sponsor’s policies and procedures and conflict of interest disclosures.

Spectrum Health partners with various entities to facilitate research and awards to benefit our patients and community. Partnerships are formalized through legal agreements, award letters and other mechanisms that detail the terms and conditions, period of performance and award amount. The Office of Sponsored Programs will facilitate contract negotiations in partnership with the Principal Investigator/Project Directors and Spectrum Health’s Legal Department. Following negotiations, the Office of Sponsored Programs will route the agreement for signature with an Authorized Official of Spectrum Health and archive a fully executed copy in Spectrum Health’s contract database, SMART.

Subrecipient, Consultant, and Vendor Agreements

All subrecipient, consultant and vendor agreements are generated through the Office of Sponsored Programs in accordance with the Subaward Management Policy. The Office of Sponsored Programs will work with the Principal Investigator/Project Directors to determine if any subrecipients or contracted work is necessary to complete the project. The Office of Sponsored Programs and Research Finance will complete a Risk Assessment for all prospective subrecipients in accordance with 2 CRF 200 Subpart D.

If you have questions regarding research and sponsored program agreements, contact the Office of Sponsored Programs at osp@spectrumhealth.org.

Award Setup

The Office of Sponsored Programs will submit a request to Research Finance to set-up a unique Grant ID in the Spectrum Health accounting system to track all project related expenses and income. The Principal Investigator/Project Directors and the Spectrum Health Office of Research and Education share responsibility for monitoring periodic progress reports and invoices for compliance with the terms of the subrecipient, consultant and vendor agreements. Together the Principal Investigator/Project Directors and the Spectrum Health Office of Research and Education review progress reports and performance, as well as invoices to ensure that expenses are appropriate and aligned with technical progress.

Supplies, equipment and services charged to a sponsored project need to be purchased in accordance with Spectrum Health’s Purchasing Policy to ensure that supplies, equipment and services purchased for the performance of a sponsored program are obtained in a cost-effective manner, are expensed to the appropriate grant account and in compliance with federal regulations. All supplies should be purchased through the Spectrum Health accounting system unless an exception is noted otherwise.

Travel and mileage reimbursements are expensed to award accounts through appropriate coding. Travel and mileage reimbursement requests must adhere to the sponsors and/or Spectrum Health System’s Travel and Expense Reimbursement Policy.

For awards involving patients, with visits that are either routine care or for research only purposes, it is required that Principal Investigator/Project Directors and/or coordinators enter these visits into SignalPath within 24 hours of the patient visit and ensure that the patient is flagged as enrolled in the study in EPIC. The Finance-Research team will locate these patient charges and put a hold on them before they are released to insurance. The Finance-Research team ensures proper research specific codes and modifiers are put on research claims if they are intended for payment by the patients’ insurance or will apply these charges to the Grant ID, so they are not sent to patients’ insurance provider for payment if the charges are done for research only.

Every award will have unique reporting requirements that could include financial, progress and performance reports. The Spectrum Health Office of Research and Education will highlight these requirements during the award kick-off meeting.

The Principal Investigator/Project Director can review their award financial reports directly in the Spectrum Health accounting system. Expenses charged to the Grant ID will appear on reports once the business process is complete, providing real-time expense to date and remaining balance reporting. The Spectrum Health Office of Research and Education will assist the Principal Investigator/Project Director in completion and submission of all financial and technical progress reports.

It is the responsibility of the Principal Investigator/Project Director and study team to notify the Office of Sponsored Programs and the Spectrum Health Institutional Review Board (if applicable) that an award is closing. The Office of Sponsored Programs will review the award agreement and notify the Principal Investigator/Project Director of any final reports/deliverables that need to be completed. The Office of Sponsored Programs will notify the sponsor that the study is closing and if needed, terminate the corresponding agreement.

Research finance will work with the Principal Investigator/Project Director and the Office of Sponsored Programs to reconcile any outstanding study expenses and submit a final invoice and expense report to the sponsor. When an award is closed, the Residual Balance policy will be in effect to determine what happens with any life to date profit or loss from an award. If a service line’s Sponsored Programs cost center has a calculated net residual gain (per policy calculation), the cost center will be allowed to utilize this residual gain to cover any excess spending on future Sponsored Program awards.