Set Up Award

Common award types include: 

• Grant: Provides assistance with minimal restrictions. Award document requires minimal negotiation, typically including general terms and conditions.
• Cooperative Agreement: Assistance with substantial sponsor involvement and typically requires negotiation between parties.
• Contract: Provides assistance for tangible goods and/or services with scope of work commonly conceived by Sponsor. Detailed terms and FAR Clauses included. May involve lengthy negotiation process. Restrictive in rebudgeting and changes to contract requiring sponsor approval. Detailed reports required, often monthly. 

Awards may also come in the form of letters, sponsored research agreements, purchase orders, etc.  

Notices of award are typically sent to OSPA, although on occasion a Principal Investigator (PI) may be notified directly. These notices should be forwarded to OSPA for review, negotiation (if applicable), and processing. 

Once the notice of award and related terms and conditions are accepted by the University.

• The award is established in Cayuse and Workday Finance.
• The PI and their departmental representative (i.e., UBM) are notified when this process is completed and asked to review the award information for accuracy, such as:
  • Start and end date
  • Budget
  • Co-PIs
  • Credit and RIF Allocation
  • Department designation 

While waiting for a funding decision to be made, sponsors may require the submission of additional documentation. During the time between proposal submission and the anticipated award date, you will want to begin the process of obtaining and preparing the information that may be required. You may also receive reviews and scoring information that can assist in determining the chances of funding. Please keep in mind that certain components (e.g. IRB, IACUC) may require a submission and review process that, if not completed during the JIT period, could result in a delay of the award being issued. 

Typical items that may be requested for "Just-In-Time" documentation submissions: 

• Updated budget and budget justification
• Updated current and pending other support
• IRB approvals
• UCAW approvals
• Human subjects education verification
• A copy of our institutional NICRA (Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement)

Setting up an award involves both the Cayuse SP and Workday Finance systems, following this general process: 

• OSPA Grants Management Specialist or Contract Specialist reviews the award document and negotiates language, terms, and conditions, as necessary.
• PI reviews and approves the final, negotiated version of award document, verifying start and end dates, amount of funding, scope of work, via Cayuse SP.
• Award established in Workday and PI and designated contacts notified.
• PI and departmental contact reviews the award information and approves or requests changes.
• Approved budget is available for spending. 

If the project includes a subaward: 

• OSPA prepares the subaward per information submitted at the time of proposal.
• Subaward sent via e-mail to PI for review and approval.
• Subaward sent to subrecipient institution for review, negotiation (if needed), and signature of authorized official, and then returned to UofL OSPA for final signature.
• Subaward set-up in Workday for payment of invoices when received. 

An infographic of the Cayuse Routing Pathways for Proposals, Awards, and Award Modifications is available here. 

Principal Investigators may request for an award to be set-up based upon a guarantee of funds, pending receipt of the award. 

When a Principal Investigator (PI) or Program Director (PD) is anticipating the issuance of an award from an external sponsor, he/she with the support of his/her College/School/Unit (CSU) may request that the award be established in advance of receipt of the official award notice based upon/insured by a guarantee of funding from an unrestricted funding source. 

A Pre-Award Guarantee may be requested to 1) allow for pre-award spending in advance of the project’s start date, if authorized by the sponsoring agency or 2) allow for the award and budget to be established based upon the actual anticipated start date should delays in receipt of the notice of award occur or be anticipated.  

The Pre-Award Guarantee can request funding for: Specific budget categories at any budget amount up to the anticipated award amount for the category (e.g, salary and fringe benefits only) or the entire proposed project budget. 

College/School/Unit Procedure: The request for a Pre-Award Guarantee must be initiated by the PI/PD or their departmental administrator in Cayuse SP. The request must commit a non-sponsored funding source to cover any expenses that are not ultimately covered by the anticipated award. The request must be consistent with the Cayuse SP Proposal Form submission. Pre-Award Guarantee budgets must include salaries and fringe benefits if they are to be charged during the pre-award period. 

If the University does not receive the anticipated award, the responsible CSU must transfer all expenses posted to the Pre-Award Guarantee budget to an unrestricted account. 

In those instances in which a project will continue into another fiscal year (such as an annually renewed state project), OSPA can establish an award for the next year during the annual “Planning and Budget Preparation” period. This allows payroll appointments to continue into the new fiscal year. The PI/PD must make a request using the process outlined above. 

OSPA Procedure: Once submitted in Cayuse SP, the Pre-Award Guarantee request will be assigned to the appropriate OSPA Specialist to work with the Principal Investigator and the CSU to solicit and validate any additional information or material that may be necessary to establish the award in Workday. As part of the process, project personnel will have their Conflict of Interest/Attestation and Disclosure status validated by the COI Office. Once approved and posted, the Principal Investigator and the CSU will receive an email confirmation from OSPA confirming establishment of the Pre-Award Guarantee. 

New faculty members  to the University of Louisville often transfer grants and contracts that were originally awarded to their former institution.  To provide guidance  with the transfer process, below is an outline of documentation required when transferring a National Institutes of Health award.  The transfer process for other sponsors including Private Non-Profit agencies varies and will be addressed on a case by case basis. 

From the Original Grantee Institution: 

• Official Relinquishing Statement
• Provision of the effective date of relinquishment (should be on Relinquishing Statement)
• Estimated unexpended direct and F&A cost balances from the current budget period (carryover from previous budget periods should not be included in these amounts)
• Statement of Intent concerning the transfer of any equipment 

From the New Grantee Institution (UofL): 

• (At the top of each page you should include "Change of Grantee Institution" in the header)
•  New face page signed by UofL authorized official (PHS 398 form page)
• Description of the facilities at UofL (using the PHS 398 form page)
• Detailed budget for the initial (transfer) budget period
• When future commitments exist, categorical budgets for those periods 

NOTE:  Each budget should be based upon the previously recommended levels. Even if transferring mid award year, the total budget is rebalanced to apply UofL’s current negotiated indirect cost (IDC) rate for all remaining years. If the previous institution had a higher IDC rate UofL applies our rate for all future years with excess IDC in the first mid award year redistributed as direct costs. 

Effective January 1, 2026, the current salary cap is $228,000, see  NOT-OD-26-038. For awards already issued in FY 2026, if funds are available and the salary cap increase is consistent with the institutional base salary, recipients may re-budget funds to accommodate the new salary cap level. 

In Workday, salary over the cap is automatically calculated in accordance with the DHHS salary cap requirements. In addition, the following items have provide guidance  and aid departments in verifying the appropriate salary that can be charged directly to DHHS sponsored programs and the salary “over the cap” that needs to be funded from an unrestricted source. 

• Guidance on Salary Cap for DHHS and NIH (PDF)
• Completing the NIH Salary Cap Worksheet (Excel) 

The worksheet should be completed for any individual with an Institutional Base Salary (IBS) over the DHHS Salary Cap. 

Specific tabs have been created and can be used: 

• At “Proposal Stage” when preparing a DHHS proposal budget.
• At “Award Stage” when preparing a budget for the awarded year and to direct Payroll distribution.
• At “Effort Reporting Stage” during the bi-annual effort report certification to verify the required “over the cap” salary and to certify total effort on all DHHS/NIH awards. 

* The DHHS agencies to which the salary cap applies include not only NIH but also CDC, ACF, CMS, FDA, HRSA, AHRQ and SAMHSA.