The Grant and Contract Initiative

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is SAGE?
A. System to Administer Grants Electronically - the online grant administration system being developed at the UW. SAGE will provide tools for proposal development and electronic routing and approval, as well as serve as the new grants management system.

Q.What is authorization?
A. Authorization is the granting of official permission to work with specific applications, resources, and services. Authorization information will be used to 1) access the Electronic GC1 or GCS Internal Office Systems, and 2) determine who can approve proposals during electronic routing and approval. See Authorization for more details.

Q. Who determines who is authorized to use the system and approve proposals on the system?
A. Dean's level and Department level administrators are determining who has access to the system and who is able to approve proposals for their unit. See Authorization for more details. This information is being collected via spreadsheet and batch loaded into the authorization system. When ASTRA is deployed, unit administrators will be able to log onto the system and directly update authorization information.

Q. How is the authorization process going to work?
A. The combination of authentication, authorization, roles and span of control defines what operations an individual can perform with the applications they have access to. Authorization information will be used to 1) access the Electronic GC1 or GCS Internal Office Systems, and 2) determine who can approve proposals during electronic routing and approval.

Q. What are the benefits of an Electronic GC1 with Routing and Approval Capabilities?
A. Streamlining the routing and approval process is the feature most requested by campus members. The Electronic GC1 will make electronic routing and approval available to all researchers, saving valuable time, effort, and paper for both researchers and approvers. Researchers at remote locations such as Harborview Medical Center and the VA will benefit from not needing to travel to the UW main campus to route their proposals. All researchers will be able to benefit from the convenience and accuracy of the SAGE Database as well. The increase in accuracy afforded to researchers by using a web form with built-in business rules will speed the approval process and reduce the various phone calls and email to clarify proposal information. The Electronic GC1 with Automatic Routing and Approval will be a flexible solution for routing and approving all proposal types and provide an interim solution for those sponsor forms that can not be addressed immediately.

Q. How is the new Electronic GC1 different from the current GC1 form?
A. The GC1 form will continue to collect PI, proposal, limited budget, abstract, approval and concurrence questions, cost sharing information. Some of these sections will be more user friendly (i.e. drop down boxes with correct choices listed, help menu). The new GC1 form will also request the names of all Key Personnel in order to track conflict of interest and cost sharing, in addition to using this information to determine the Approval Chart.

Q. Why is a UW system for NSF not included in the current scope?
A. Fastlane became a reality after the GCI proposal received UIF funding. Fastlane has provided a technical solution for researchers who use NSF, although it does not provide a single, enter data once, UW system that includes GC1 data. Due to limited resources and the need to capture GC1 data, the electronic GC1 will be used until a single NSF/UW module which integrates with Fastlane can be built. This new module (yet to be developed) will allow NSF researchers to enter data only once.

Q. When will electronic proposals for human subjects and animal care be developed?
A. The Office of Research has received a NIH grant which will support the development effort of a human subjects protocol system and other ERA solutions to support the Human Subjects Division and its campus users. Funding is scheduled to start in Fall 2002. Analysis for an animal care system has been completed and a separate development effort is scheduled.

Q. Where can I find more information on the UW Organization Code process?
A. Organizations at the UW are represented by an organization code that is divided into six levels. The organization code works as a security measure. Each usercode is bound to one organization code level. Also, each budget number is linked with one organization code level. See the Admin Gateway website on org codes for further reference.

Q. What is Data Warehousing?
A. Data Warehousing's purpose is to facilitate end-user analysis of data by providing information to distinct communities of interest. See the Data Warehousing website for more information.