About the Job

The Pre-Award Grant Coordinator supports the development of funding for faculty sponsored research projects and programmatic initiatives in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering (CS&E). This position is responsible for managing 100 proposals annually and supporting the research of 51 department faculty through pre-award coordination. This position reports to the Senior Research Accountant and allows for hybrid work. 
This position can be filled at the Grants & Contracts Professional 2 level or Grants & Contracts Professional 3 level based on applicant experience.

Job Duties

Grant proposal preparation and submission (65%):

• Manage and oversee all CS&E proposals by providing guidance, interpretation, and advisement during the pre-award and award initiation processes for federal, state, non-profit, corporate UMF, and internal funding opportunities.
• Review sponsor guidelines, policies, and procedures to ensure compliance and provide expert advice to faculty. Use in-depth knowledge of the pre-award process to ensure proposal document compliance.
• Communicate with funding agencies, as needed, to clarify policies, procedures, and interpretations of application instructions. 
• Assist in proposal budget development, ensuring compliance with sponsor and University financial policies regarding personnel categories, effort, cost-sharing, direct and indirect costs, justifications, etc.  Revise budgets as needed, and provide budget set up details to Sponsored Projects Office (SPA).
• Coordinate subaward proposals with other institutions. Submit subaward initiation documents to SPA and assist with subaward set-up.
• Prepare, submit, and track proposals using in-depth knowledge of sponsor submission systems (e.g., grants.gov, research.gov, eRA Commons, NIH/ASSIST, etc).
• Track proposal status and communication with faculty; maintain internal department records of pending and active awards and other support documents. 
• Compile and develop templates for common applications, maintain faculty current and pending support records, and ensure proposal document formats meet current requirements and update as needed (e.g., biosketches, other support, etc.)
• Review award notices from sponsor and the Notice of Grant Award for accuracy against proposal details to assist accountants in establishing the grant in the department and to provide expert advice to PIs and accounting staff on terms and conditions.

Pre-Award Process Management (25%):

• Maintain and update the department records for tracking faculty proposal information to assist the department in measuring annual targets.
• Regularly review and interpret updated regulations, guidelines and procedures to ensure continuous adherence to proposal terms. Provide expert advice to Principal Investigators and other department staff regarding regulations and changes.
• Prepare and/or review any requests to sponsors and work with SPA to ensure requests are submitted and results are communicated.
• Review faculty effort obligations and provide effort and award information to accounting staff for initial setup purposes.
• Assist PIs with progress reports and additional documentation requested by sponsors.
• Assist accountants in monitoring projects to ensure subaward setups, incremental funding or continuation awards are received and processed.
• Assist PIs with compliance approval. Use knowledge of various compliance issues to assure that all appropriate approvals are in place before proposal submission or beginning research as needed, assist faculty with issues, and house approval documentation in grant files.

Research Development (5%):

• Perform strategic analysis of pre-award activities in the department and provide reporting on annual research proposal activity, especially as it relates to the 2030 CS&E Strategic Plan and departmental goals of increasing research activity.
• Provide regular updates to faculty on upcoming proposal deadlines, opportunities, and important changes to funding agency policies and submission details.
• Develop and maintain proposal development resources, such as database, job guides, sample proposals, document lists, links to other relevant resources, etc., and distribute to PIs via intranet site and personal communication.
• Promote proposal readiness among faculty, particularly junior faculty.

Additional CS&EStaff Responsibilities (5%):

• Actively participate on committees, as assigned, and pursue training related to DEI initiatives (e.g., college/departmental DEI alliance, OED training, etc).
• Assist with special projects and activities, as assigned, in collaboration with faculty and staff colleagues, and in consultation with the Department Head or Finance Manager.
• Attend regular meetings related to the finance team and the broader staff. 
• Serve as subject matter expert with research accounting colleagues. 

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree AND at least four (4) years of job-related experience or a combination of related education and work experience to equal at least eight (8) years.

Preferred Qualifications:

• At least one year of experience with pre-award preparation in a higher education setting. 
• High level of attention to detail and ability to handle multiple tasks with overlapping deadlines; can re-prioritize tasks as needed.
• Demonstrated experience in tracking short and long-term tasks, including proactive follow-up communication.
• Experience delivering high-level customer service, including proactive communication and the ability to troubleshoot and resolve issues.
• Experience with budget development.
• Experience working with faculty on proposal submissions from a variety of funding sources. Examples: National Science Foundation (NSF), National Health Institute (NIH), Department of Defense (DoD), etc.
• Familiarity with the University of Minnesota proposal submission system (MN-GEMS), Grants.gov, research.gov, eResearch support systems, and other financial and human resources University of Minnesota systems.