Award Acceptance/JIT

Making it official

Congratulations! Your proposal has been deemed eligible for award. There may be additional considerations to address before the Authorized Official may accept the award.

DHHS: National Institutes of Health "Just in Time"

The National Institutes of Health have a special pre-award phase called "Just in Time" to gather final documents prior to releasing an award notice and funding authorization. Specific items will be requested, namely:

Negotiating the Scope and Terms of Award

While most federal assistance comes with standard award terms and conditions, federal flow-through agreements where William & Mary is a sub-recipient, federal contracts (acquisition), Interagency Personnel Agreements and non-federal agreements may contain terms that need to be adjusted in order to accept the award. Even in the case of federal assistance agreements there may be items that require additional attention, especially in the case of significant budget reduction. Some agencies require a budget impact statement to address the reduction in funds.

Note: If a budget has been reduced, the PI must work with the Sponsored Programs Administrator to submit a revised budget. If sub-recipients are involved, their budgets and scopes of work will need to be revisited as well. In the case of significant reduction (more than 10%), the PI should also consider if the proposed scope remains feasible given the change of limited financial support.

Signing the Agreement

Many federal assistance awards are issued unilaterally, meaning the agency releases the funds under the assumption that by spending the funds, the recipient accepts the terms and conditions provided. Federal contracts may also be issued unilaterally. This underscores the importance of putting together a sound proposal- there may be no opportunity to negotiate after the fact.

Who signs an agreement? The Director of Sponsored Programs is authorized to bind William & Mary to sponsored programs. In some cases, such as Jeffress Memorial Trust awards, the PI must also sign the agreement to convey acceptance of the scientific scope. Additionally, the Director of Sponsored Programs must sign any lower-tier agreements, i.e. subcontracts or sub-awards.

Need to record expenditures during the negotiation period? For most federal awards, universities may incur pre-award costs up to 90 days before the start date of the award. Be forewarned - costs are incurred at the PI's Department own risk. If you need an advance account established, please work with your Sponsored Programs Administrator to set up the account for you. Establishing an advance account can pre-empt the headache of salary redistributions and Journal Vouchers when hiring help or acquiring goods needed to begin work on a project.

Issuing a Sub-award

Once the university has received and executed its award, the Sponsored Programs Administrator will work with the PI to issue any lower-tier awards. All subagreements (any lower-tier contract, grant, or cooperative agreement) must be signed by an Authorized Official of the university. PIs do not have signature authority on behalf of the university. If the intended sub-recipient has never worked with the William & Mary before, a W-9 and Vendor Registration Form will be needed to set up the recipient institution in Banner.

Did you receive a check from the agency? Use this Check Deposit Form (doc) to have the funds credited to your grant account.