Setting Up Award

A notice of grant award (also referred to as notice of award, NOGA, NGA, sponsor notice, or award letter) is a notification from a sponsor indicating that a proposal has been funded. Notice of grant awards are typically received by the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP), although on occasion the Principle Investigator (PI) may be notified directly. All notices must be forwarded to ORSP for review and processing.

A notice of an award is not official until all terms and conditions have been reviewed, and MU's authorized signing official has signed the agreement. 

Before accepting an award on behalf of Marquette University the Grant Contracting Department within the Office of Research and Sponsored Projects reviews all terms and conditions, regardless of the sponsor, and will oversee appropriate negotiation remedies.

All grant NOAs must be sent to the general mailbox for grant contracting and copy Katherine Durben, Executive Director, Office of Research and Sponsored, in email.

The Office of Economic Engagement (OEE) Corporate Engagement, in conjunction with ORSP, is responsible for the review and approval of all industry-sponsored research agreements. 

OEE should be consulted in the first instance of when a relationship with private industry is being contemplated.  Any questions related to the industry sponsored agreement can be addressed by the Office of Economic Engagement (OEE) Corporate Engagement.  

Many requirements must be met prior to establishing an account number. Typically, an account number is set up within five business days of receiving a fully executed agreement from the sponsor.

Key compliance items can delay the award setup such as a revised budget due to a budget cut, a change in effort of key personnel, billing/invoicing/payment terms, human subject research approval, animal research approval, institutional biosafety approval, financial conflict of interest training of key personnel, or a sponsor financial contact.

The account setup process includes three departments which all have a role in initiating your grant account number.

1. ORSP receives the fully executed award and it is entered into Kuali (assuming all compliance needs are met) within 5 business days.

2. It is sent to Grant Accounting and an account number is created within 3 business days.

3. Accounting activates your grant number, associates it to your department and establishes it in the Marquette Financial System. You will be required to complete Authorized Signer Forms.

Note:  At times, there may be a need to create separate accounts for a single award. These situations are not standard; credit splits cover allocation and recognition needs.

The MU internal account number consists of four numerical identifiers. The Fund, which classifies your expenditures as non-research (01) or research (06) based. The Responsibility Center (RC) is a series of numbers specific to your department. All accounts related to your department use the same identifying RC number. The Restriction is your grant number which always starts with a number seven. Naturals are a series of numbers that identify specific types of expenditures (i.e. summer salary, undergraduate salary, travel, publications). The full account number will be used when authorizing salary, reconciling expenditures and reviewing your account in the Marquette Financial System.  

You will receive an email from ORSP once your account has been fully established along with grant guidance. You can start charging expenditures to the grant account at the beginning of your project period. Any expenditures incurred prior to the start of your project period cannot be charged to your grant. It is important you monitor your grant account throughout your project period to ensure spending is in compliance and in alignment with what has been promised to the sponsor. How to track your grant account expenditures and balance can be found here (link to BI instructions; yet to be finalized).

Pre-award spending is spending that occurs on an award before the funder's official award notice is received by the University. Pre-award spending may also include spending that occurs after the official receipt of the award but before the account has been established for the award.