Philadelphia Colleges Receive Research Grant Money

money to help further neuroscience studies. The three deserving institutions include Philadelphia’s Monell Chemical Senses Center, University of Pennsylvania, and Drexel University, which will receive $561,097, $7,491,682, and $179,543 respectively.

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania, which is receiving the largest grant award by way of four separate grants from the National Science Foundation, plans to use $3.75 million of the money for a program called, “Collaborative Research: Expeditions in Computer Augmented Program Engineering (ExCAPE): Harnessing Synthesis for Software Design.” The ExCAPE program, according to its website, hopes to, “transform the way programmers develop software by advancing the theory and practice of software synthesis.”

Essentially, according to the program’s website, the program hopes to allow programmers to use various forms of expression, collaboration and analysis algorithms to create tools that users can use to design and program robots. The U of P also plans to use and $3.4 million for another program called “Collaborative Research: An Expedition in Computing for Compiling Printable Programmable Machines.”

Monell Chemical Senses Center

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The Monell Chemical Senses Center plans to use its grant money for furthering its research into the effects of diet types on infant energy, growth and satiety; research that is conducted, “under the Research for Mothers and Children Program of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at HHS.” This study comes just months after Monell released a report on research into an infant’s salt intake, that showed infants of six months of age preferred salty foods when introduced to high starch foods at an early age as compared to infants who had no exposure to the same starchy foods. The study was released in December of 2011.

Drexel University

Drexel University, which is also in University City section of Philadelphia, will use their grant award to help further collaborative research it is conducting with the ASU School of Geographic Sciences and Urban Development. The program, titled “Collaborative Research: Spatial Cluster Detection Based on Contiguity,” hopes to develop the next feasible approach to determine special clustering in regards to geography, epidemiology and criminology.

For informaiton about the software solutions that can help your organization manage its grants in a better, more cost efficient way, contact an IT Works Sales Representative today.

Sources:

“Expeditions in Computer Augmented Program Engineering,” ExCAPE Program Website

“Murray to undertake NSF-funded project on spatial cluster detection,” ASU Abstract

Congressman Fattah Announces More Than $8.2 Million in Science Research Grants for Penn, Drexel and Monell in Philadelphia

Early Dietary Experience Shapes Salt Preference of Infants and Preschoolers,” Monell Chemical Sciences Center

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Texas Children’s Hospital Receives Grant Award

Awarded by the Simmons Family Foundation, the $290,000 research grant will help hospital researchers collaborate in research of different issues including:

• Children’s Heart Research Center’s Dr. Henri Justino and Rice University’s Dr. Jane Grande-Allen and Dr. Daniel Harrington are working on an artificial heart valve that can help infants and juveniles recover from specific congenital heart conditions.
• TCH Cancer Center’s pediatric oncologist Dr. Michele Redell and Rice University’s Dr. Zachary Ball are studying acute myeloid leukemia and formulating new medications that may help children with the condition.
• Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute’s Dr. Marco Sardiello and Rice University’s Dr. Laura Segatori will attempt to find treatments to help cure various lysosomal storage disorders, which are currently incurable. If the research project is successful, the treatments could change the face of the disorders forever, including Alzheimer’s disease, among others.

Valdosta Awards four Research Grants

Four different research proposals were accepted by Valdosta State University’s Center for Applied Social Sciences. Each proposal will receive $900 in grant money. The proposals include:

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Analysis of historical land use: History professor Dr. Christopher Meyers will use the $900 grant to study a specific plot of land in Augusta, GA. The land was owned by Native Americans, but later purchased by Belgium settlers, turned into farms and, most notably, Fruitlands Nursery. The study will attempt to document and determine whether the use was significant or not.

Taphonomic Assessment of Pig Carrion: Professor of Anthropology, Dr. Joyce Chan, will use the $900 grant to create specific timelines that may be able to help law enforcement officials to reconstruct how a person died. The timeline will consist of factors that contributed to the person’s death, while using pigs to stand in for the decomposing corpses.

Study of Senior Georgian Women: Professor of History, Dr. Catherine Oglesby, and professors of marriage and family therapy, Dr. Kate Warner and Dr. Martha Laughlin, will use the $900 research grant to collaborate on a project that reviews the lives of women in the deep south, and more specifically, elderly women in Georgia. The three will consider sociological and historical data about how and when they were raised in the completed oral history report. This project also received grants from other sources including the Leona Hudson Estate, and the Georgia Humanities Council.

Study of Internet Crimes and Technology Relationships: Professor of Criminal Justice, Dr. Wilson Huang, will use the grant money to study the theories surrounding cybercrime and, more specifically, the explanations for the connection between computer and Internet use and phishing, among other things. Dr. Huang hopes to determine these relationships and use them to determine how to stop or begin to control the problems.

For information about grants, visit Grants.gov. For information about grant management software and how it can help, contact an IT Works representative today.

Sources: Valdosta State University News

Ultimate Bellaire: TCH Awarded Research Grants

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Grant Management Software Features

A grants manager should weigh the decisions determining which software the research department and its staff will use and, ultimately, this decision should incorporate the needs of the grant manager, the faculty that will ultimately be using the software system, and the number of, amount of, and type of grants utilized. Additionally, the decision must incorporate various other factors such as ease of use, features offered, cost effectiveness of an offline or online system, and other factors as determined by the needs of the specific type of industry the research department the grant manager works in.

Choosing Grant Management Software

Any grant software system chosen by a grant administrator should consist of every feature needed to complete any given job in the most effective way, allowing the user to get the most out of the software whilst not cluttering the interface – or the manager’s schedule. No system should force grant administrators to learn to use too many unneeded modules or perform too many unneeded tasks. For this reason, ideally, the best grant software will contain all the best features, including the ones mentioned here, and quite possible even more.

Keeping Track of Budget and Project Periods

A project period is the time that is given to complete a specific project, or a part of a project, and coincides with the budget period. A budget period is the time in which the research project periods are scheduled, and typically consist of 12 moth increments. A budget period can have one or multiple project periods, all of which must be completed within the set budget amount for that period. Both budget and project periods can be a single week, month or year.

During the budget period, research efforts and grant money is budgeted to last the entire time, and then tracked at the end of the period. A budget period can consist of multiple project periods having single tasks, a single project with multiple parts, or any combination thereof. Being able to track these items in addition to reporting on the efforts made by the researchers and other faculty within the budget and project periods can be confusing, and time consuming, which is why most all software suites have options for keeping track of these items.

Keeping Track of Grant Proposals and Plans

All grant administrators must either write the grant proposal or hire someone to write the proposal for them, but in either case, the person writing the proposals must keep in mind that it must contain very specific information regarding the research project proposed. More importantly, it must contain a great business plan, good marketing strategy, complete information, visual cues, and a reason for the grantor to fund the projects. Being able to keep track of all these items is time consuming, and can create problems that grant managers do not need.

For more information about how grant management and time and effort reporting and certification software might help your organization keep track of your budget and project periods and help keep track of grant proposals and project plans, contact IT Works today. With multiple software packages available, there is bound to be a solution to fit your specific organization’s needs.

Grants for Businesses

Because many people believe, as does the government, that business grants are a highly important business tool, most small business owners and large corporation heads look to these grants as a funding lifeline for research and other needs. However, even though they are important, they are not the only business resources, but they do allow businesses and organizations that finance research to get a good start. Businesses and non-profits can utilize Grants.gov to find applicable grants, and they can even apply for more than 1000 of them online.

What are Business Grants?

Business grants are called as such because they consist of money issued by the federal government to a business or other organization and nonprofit groups. Every business or organization that receives a grant must do its part in maintaining the funding and its purity. This means that the organizations receiving the funds must work within the guidelines to spend the money. Government grants awarded to businesses is not simply free money, as many believe.

Who Can Receive Grants?

Even though they are called business grants and the government funds thousands of them, not every business or nonprofit qualifies to receive grant money. In fact, each grant program has a strict set of rules the business or organization must adhere to in order to be eligible. However, it is more than likely that a non-profit organization will receive a business grant before a for-profit organization will. Additionally, those businesses that are applying to expand their use of technology are also more likely to be approved for grant funding. Typically, those businesses that do not fall into one of these two types of organizations will not be eligible for funding.

On the other hand, if a business can prove to the government that it plans to make use of the funds for research into specific technologies that will help improve economic development, then it is possible that business could qualify for a grant, despite being a for-profit organization.

What Can Businesses Do with Grants?

The grants can cover everything from purchasing new equipment to finding research, and from paying salaries to buying lunch in some cases. The money can be spent on just about anything as long as that thing is legitimately connected to the research or other activity for which the grant was awarded. Once awarded, the business or nonprofit must keep track of how the money is spent, and the letter the organization receives alerting it to its receipt of funding will tell it how to do this. Typically, if the business has more than 100 cost objects, the grant manager will have to keep time and effort reports.

If your business is receiving multiple government grants, then chances are your organization’s grant administrator must keep time and effort reports. For this reason, utilizing software that makes it easy to do not only helps with making administration tasks more cost-effective, but it using effort administration software can also help increase productivity as well.

For more information about proven cost-effective time and effort certification and reporting technologies, contact IT Works today. Investing in the right software today can mean more grant money to spend where it counts tomorrow.

Source: Grants.gov

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Get Grant Management Right

Applying for and receiving research grant funds is a process that almost every university and college in the United States undertakes, especially if that educational institution teaches graduate students, or participates in various research projects. Knowing exactly what is required to get through the application process smoothly is crucial to whether the funds are awarded an applicant or not, since a botched application can easily disqualify the applicant. Let’s look at the research grant management process both in the application phase and the post-award phase.

Applying for Research Grants

Knowing where to look for funding is the first step to receiving an award. Many large corporations fund research projects, but the most often utilized and applied for grant type is a government grant. Even though the place awarding the funds may be different, oftentimes, the requirements are the same. These requirements can include a properly filled out grant application, also known as a grant proposal.

This proposal should contain the answers to the most likely questions that grant proposal reviewers will ask such as what problem the research will address and what kind of impact it will have; what processes will be used; whether involved personnel are qualified and if not, what training is needed, and other issues. These questions and answers speak to the feasibility of the research and can help determine whether the project itself is viable.

Post Award Process

If after the application is accepted and the institution Is awarded the grant funding, it is time for the grants management process to begin. The letter alerting the grants manager to the awarding of the grant contains the requirements and other stipulations necessary for carrying out the research as well as the general and effort reporting and certification requirements. At this point, the grants manager should begin to schedule personnel, dole out tasks, and familiarize him or herself with the effort reporting systems.

While reporting requirements vary with each grantor, all grant programs have strict reporting procedures that include keeping track of how the organization that received the funding spends the grant money. Whether the money is used for purchasing new equipment, for paying faculty, or for administration costs such as office and equipment rentals or supplies, the exact cost per item is calculated, and then reported. The effort put forth by the researchers is also recorded. This process is continued by the research grants manager for as long as the grant term is open, although once that term is up, the grants manager decides whether the project is viable for another term and applies for another grant accordingly.

If you are a grants administrator and are using software to manage your grant awards and your time and effort reporting and you want information on how to manage those grants more efficiently with Department Manager or Effort Administrator, contact IT Works to see how we can help.

Post Award Process Source

Get Grant Management Right

Applying for and receiving grant funding of any kind can be difficult for any grant seeker and for this reason, having an experienced grants manager on hand who knows what type of effort and administration tasks are necessary to maintain the funding is essential to any grant management process. What is even more difficult is maintaining a first time grant award, not to mention reporting on the efforts made during the award period.

For this reason, understanding what it takes to achieve a successful grant management process and time and effort reporting process is essential to every grant administrator of every institution receiving funding.

Making Effort Reporting Easier

The problem with this process is that it takes a lot of time. In fact, some grant administrators and other faculty find that keeping time and effort reports even more difficult than applying for and receiving funding in the first place. However, the constant advances of technology have become an integral part of society, allowing for an increase in productivity without an increase in expenditures.

For this reason, many grant administrators at numerous research institutions have begun using grant management software to help streamline the entire process.

Each system offers different features.

For example, some software systems offer modules that allow time and effort reporting and certification to be completed within a single webpage. Other systems offer integrated reporting with already present software and web applications.

Yet other programs allow for offline reporting, which also integrates into the complete web application as well. Still other systems allow each member of the research team who has clearance to issue their own reports, and certify them, as well as integrate the system into their existing system, even manual ones already in use.

While the time and effort reporting processes that grant administrators have had to endure over the last few decades has been a time consuming, yet rewarding process, many institutions are switching to automated systems and software because the systems make reporting easier. This easier reporting typically leads to better control over administration costs and productivity.

Overall, not only can software help to save time, but it can also help to save on the administrative costs involved, which leaves more funding available for the projects for which the grant was awarded in the first place.

If, as a grant manager you find yourself in a similar situation in which you and your institution is in need of a better way to control administrative costs and productivity, then check out the systems that IT Works has to offer by contacting a sales representative today. With complete, stand-alone solutions, there is an IT Works grant management system made for everyone.

Federal grant money comes with a lot of strings attached. Not only do recipients need to comply with specific project goals, but they must also meet government performance standards. Any organization or institution that receives federal grant money is required to comply with all federal policies and statutes regarding grant management, which includes time and effort reporting and certification processes.

These rules—not exactly unexpected, are they? Yet, many grant recipients can have problems adhering to each and every government regulation, and this is true even of the most experienced of grant managers.

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Audits find Grant Management Errors

So, what happens if government protocols aren’t followed? What happens when an organization doesn’t fulfill the requirements of the grant?

The Nevada Fire Safe Council, a nonprofit fire safety group, will soon find out. Auditors from the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently found that the council mismanaged grant funding and failed to comply with grant procedures. Indications of fraud have not been found; however, it has been discovered that the council is unable to account for millions in grant money from the U. S. Forest Service and other sources.

Grants were awarded to the Fire Safe Council for fuel reduction projects at Lake Tahoe. But, according to the audit report, funds from the grants were blended with the council’s own funds and then used for unauthorized expenses.

Grant Mismanagement Penalties

Grant recipients who fail to act in accordance with all government rules and procedures may be subject to some very serious consequences. Penalties depend upon the original grant requirements and the severity of the organization’s transgressions. Possible outcomes include economic sanctions, withholding of future grant funding, or even prison for grant administrators who are convicted of theft of public funds.

Federal investigators are recommending that the Nevada Fire Safe Council repay $2.7 million in funds. Auditors are also advising the Forest Service to refrain from awarding additional grant money to the council, at least until acceptable procedures are in place for grant management.

Preventing Future Grant Problems

In order to ensure that government performance standards are met, the Fire Safe Council would do well to find better methods of effort reporting. Grant administrators need to meet all compliance requirements. They must be meticulous about filing reports and accounting for all project expenditures. And they must carry out all of the goals approved for the grant.

Developing solid grant management practices can help make certain that all government guidelines are met. Implementing certain procedures can lead to project success and grant compliance:

• Set up a specific plan to monitor grant projects. Continuously reviewing goal progress works to keep grant administrators in concordance with the stringent government regulations.
• Keep a check on project expenses by having several people examine the allocation and use of grant funding.
• Make sure that all reports are submitted on time by creating a grant calendar on which all administrative tasks are scheduled.

More comprehensive grant compliance efforts may enable the Nevada fire safety group—and other federal grant recipients who have violated government rules—to obtain future grant awards. Keeping track of these efforts is another thing altogether, and may require advanced reporting features, such as those available from the IT Works Effort Administrator suite. For more information on how this and other IT Works systems can help your institution, visit the IT Works request page, or call 919-232-5332.

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Cut Grant Administration Costs with IT Works

The purpose of this VAPG funding? Founded in 2001, the VAPG program awards grants to qualified applicants as a means of assisting producers of agricultural commodities in increasing their income by processing their raw farmed products into marketable goods.

Two Types of Grants

VAPG money must be utilized for one of two functions:

Planning: Recipients may use funding in order to develop business plans, marketing plans, and legal evaluations. They may also conduct feasibility studies to evaluate potential ventures.

Working Capital: Grant recipients can use their money to operate a business venture as well as to pay for normal operating expenses.

Applicants must demonstrate that they have a product that can benefit from value-added activity. Examples of how recipients may use their grant include:

• Marketing products as organic, hormone-free, grass-fed, local, or humane
• Improving profits through changing a product, such as by turning fruit into wine or jam
• Transforming natural resources—biodiesel, wind, solar, or geothermal– into energy for the farm or ranch
• Increasing value by partnering with other supply networks, such as by expanding a farming cooperative into a restaurant

Tracking VAPG Grant Funding

As with any grant, VAPG funding comes with a great many responsibilities. Specific forms must be completed and there are stringent reporting requirements, and grant administrators must heed them to keep compliant. Performance documents that detail the status of the grant project, financial status reports, and other paperwork must be filed with USDA Rural Development. It is essential that all deadlines and requirements be met.

Experienced grant administrators will know that the best way to keep track of all details regarding their VAPG funding is to use a grant accounting system. This software provides administrators with the means to completely—and easily—manage personnel, research, documentation, and more.

Recipients of VAPG money may also be recipients of other grant funding, whether federal, civic, or educational. A grant accounting system allows administrators to track and allocate indirect costs and shared costs. Indirect costs, such as utilities and Internet, must be kept with grant budget limits. And shared costs—expenses which are covered by more than one grant—can be tricky to allocate.

A grant accounting system can provide a comprehensive, structured solution for these issues. If your institution has been awarded a grant then it may be time to reevaluate your grants management system. Contact IT Works for information on how our grant administration and effort reporting software can help.

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Manage Grant Money More Efficiently

Chosen to receive $400,000 in grant money, the village of Randolph, WI, was a successful applicant for a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG). Lucky? Perhaps—after all, only 28 out of the 188 applications were selected to receive a share of $8.2 million in available funds.  The CDBG grant program provides funding based upon proposed projects that help to benefit low- and moderate-income people, eliminate slums, or meet a similar urgent need.

How the Grant will Work

Each resident interested in obtaining grant money will need to complete the application process. As a part of this process, applicants will undergo a housing quality standard inspection. A grant allocation committee reviews each application to decide if funding will be awarded. Recipients of funding can include homeowners who plan to make repairs as well as landlords who commit to rent to lower-income tenants. In addition, individual residents may also be able to receive grant money to help in purchasing a home.

The best part? The grant program essentially pays for itself. Not only is a portion earmarked for the actual grant administration, but the money will also come back to the program in the form of loan repayment. Those who apply for and receive a loan from the grant will eventually repay their loans. However, it will be time-consuming for administrators to review and process applications, not to mention report on the funding disbursed and then recollected. As a result, Randolph residents and grant recipients nationwide will find that obtaining a grant award can be a rather lengthy procedure.

Tracking the Grant Funding

The Randolph committee can certainly use their existing documentation programs and records-keeping methods in order to track the awarded grant money. After all, many grant administrators have their own systems to manage their data, and some of the money will go to paying these costs. However, if Randolph administrators are still using outdated tracking and effort reporting methods, they could be spending more of the grant money than is necessary in extra hours to comply with tracking and reporting regulations.

A Better Grant Management Solution

There is, however, a much better option for Randolph administrators, and administrators everywhere who are in need of a modern, cost-efficient solution. Without grant management software, members of any grant committee could end up spending a great deal of time and effort managing their funding and reporting.

Without an up to date grant management system in place, grant administrators could have difficulty keeping track of everyone who receives funding from the grant. The task will be rather arduous if dealt with using simple word processing software and spreadsheets, as there are likely to be hundreds of grant recipients – and quite possibly hundreds of mistakes.

IT Works Software Solutions

Today’s Technologies

Today’s available technology could enable the grant committee to keep track of every detail of their application and allocation process in a much more efficient way as compared to manual tracking and reporting, or some of the other, outdated solutions available to them. Some software packages could also allow the administrators to oversee loan repayments while issuing individual or combined reports on the data as needed easily.

However, finding the right software package for each situation and organization is essential. It is clear, though, that the village of Randolph, not to mention other towns, research labs, and colleges nationwide could benefit from choosing an up to date, out of the box grant management system such as Department Manager and Effort Administrator, offered by IT Works.

If you would like more information on the various grant administration and effort reporting options available by IT Works, contact a representative today.

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Photo by By Pen Waggener | Source

Researching grant opportunities, applying for grants, and then reporting on them, as per federal and institutional regulations is

Cut Grant Administration Costs with IT Works

essential; however, manually tracking the funds takes a great deal of time and effort. The same is true for actually completing the research and then maintaining records. Many administrators have to wonder, isn’t there a way to streamline the grants management and effort reporting tasks without spending too much of the grant money on administration costs?

There is, and it’s called grant management software. Yet, to date, many organizations have not made the jump to using a complete software package. The reason? An effort to maximize grant funding.

Grant administrators often think that software solutions are not cost-effective. In other words, they believe that it is wiser to direct their spending toward the proposed project for the grant award and not on organization expenses. In many cases until now, this has been true of out-of-the-box grant management solutions – not anymore.

Save with Software

While it makes sense to choose administrative spending carefully, forgoing the use of grant management software is not always the best course of action. Software packages for grant administrators can actually help to save money.

There are many advantages to using grant software. Implementing a comprehensive software package can help grant administrators to do the following:

• Find and review grant opportunities
• Regulate the accounting procedures used by the organization
• Track all grant operations and financial transactions efficiently
• Facilitate document generation and effort reports automatically
• Integrate grant management with Internet-based interfaces
• Ensure that grant fund use is within grantor compliance

Simply put, grant software works to streamline the tasks of the grant administrator. This adds up to saving time – therefore, saving money.

Time is Money

Every grant administrator wants to increase staff efficiency. Productivity, after all, leads to saving money. Using a computer-based system is the best way to achieve this goal.

Many organizations continue to follow the “old” methods of grant management. This typically involves separate systems for dealing with each operation. For instance, many companies use spreadsheets, databases, and word-processed documents to track every grant. Working with each grant operation on an individual basis, however, can be rather inefficient, and leads to spending precious time and even more precious grant money that would be better spent on actual research.

A software package makes the entire process of dealing with grants simpler. Software not only allows administrators to automate grant-related tasks, but it also enables organizations to view all grant procedures for evaluation transparently. Software solutions such as Effort Administrator, Department Manager and Department Accountant include comprehensive and targeted services that address every aspect of the grant process, and it is just this type of efficiency, simplicity and productivity that the powerful yet cost effective grant management solution that institutions need to keep up with the future of grants.

Invest in Grant Management Software

Before choosing a software package, grant administrators need to look at their current problem areas as well as the specific grant procedures required by their organization and the grantor. Understanding these areas is essential find the grant software best suited to an organization.

Grant management software may offer solutions for the entire grant life cycle. Some software choices have a focus on either pre-award or post-award management. Regardless of which type of package best fits an organization’s needs, it is certain that grant software will help to cut costs by boosting efficiency.

If you have not yet switched to software-based grant management, then you should consider how much time and money could be saved should your organization implement one of the many customizable grant management ad effort reporting solutions offered by the IT Works team. There’s a system available for small and large schools, universities and research labs alike.

You’ll be amazed at how time- and cost-efficient our solutions are, leaving you to wonder why you haven’t considered switching before. Contact IT Works today to find out more information on how one of our out-of-the-box solutions can help cut your grant administration costs.