Research Administrator
Overview
The Organization
As an independent research organization, the Morgridge Institute for Research explores uncharted scientific territory to discover tomorrow’s cures. In affiliation with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, we support researchers who take a fearless approach to advancing human health in emerging fields such as regenerative biology, metabolism, virology and medical engineering. Through public programming, we work to inspire scientific curiosity in everyday life.
The Research Administrator will be responsible for the coordination and administration of outgoing subawards, including amendments issued to subrecipients under prime federal or non-federal grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts. The Research Administrator will also support the Sponsored Programs Pre-Award Manager in pre-award activities. While the position will focus primarily on pre-award tasks it will assist with post-award tasks as needed.
Primary Responsibilities
- Manage all subaward activity from various funding sources including federal and private sponsors. This includes subaward preparation and negotiation, amendments to ongoing subawards, and approving documents for Institute endorsement.
- Responsible for ensuring that all aspects of subaward processing are both timely and compliant, including subrecipient risk assessment, subrecipient monitoring, subaward issuance, FFATA reporting, completing risk evaluations, and recommending mitigation measures.
- Collaborate with Morgridge Investigators to ensure that the subaward includes appropriate deliverables, and that the appropriate terms and conditions have been included in the subaward as defined by the prime award.
- Manage sub documentation including accurate period of performance, financial encumbrance execution and backups.
- Facilitate the review and approval of subaward invoices to pay subrecipients.
- Support Principal Investigators (PIs) in application preparation for submission to various sponsors. Provide guidance in the review and interpretation of funding opportunity announcements and sponsor guidelines.
- Review, analyze, and endorse completed proposals and awards to ensure use of the correct processes, forms and submission requirements prior to Controller review and institutional sign-off. Effectively communicate potential problems, and working with SPA Manager or Controller, resolve accordingly.
- Submit proposals on behalf of the Institute to various federal and/or private sponsors using a variety of submission portals such as NIH ASSIST, NSF research.gov, and grants.gov
- Enter and track proposals and awards in Electronic Research Administration System (InfoEd).
- Coordinate responses to internal and external requests for grant-related information (i.e. current biosketches, trainee information, human/animal protocol approvals, PI other support).
- Create, address, and process correspondence with sponsor agencies (e.g. inquiries, carry forward requests, change in effort requests, no cost extensions, equipment purchase, and budget reallocation requests).
- Confirm regulatory compliance prior to a new fund being set up. (e.g. IRB, IACUC, NIH Animal Congruency, BioSafety)
- Assist PIs/admins in annual/final reporting (RPPR) with tracking due dates, gathering information from subs, confirm effort and financial balances. Review and submit report on behalf of Institute.
- Assist in providing training and maintaining documentation of training to Morgridge community on Sponsored Program policies/procedures
- Monitor research compliance current events to ensure Morgridge is in compliance with federal and state laws and regulations; develop and update policies and procedures; monitor, analyze, and ensure changes in federal and state laws are incorporated into sponsored program operations.
- Duties may include assisting in tasks such as completing and documenting award closeout procedures; allocating salary & effort reporting; compliance review of costs; communication with pass-through entities regarding incremental funding; monthly sponsor reporting; and assisting with audits.
- Perform other related duties incidental to the work described herein.
Requirements
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each primary duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.
Education and Experience:
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience is required.
- 2 to 5 years of experience in Research Administration either from a Departmental or Central Office background. Experience in both pre- and post-award preferred
- Certified Research Administrator (CRA) preferred.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities Required:
- Demonstrated expertise with researching, interpreting, and applying sponsor regulations
- Experience in Uniform Guidance regulation, FAR and other rules and regulations regarding federal awards, and NIH, NSF and other major funding agency policies.
- Experience with non-federal sponsors such as AACR, SU2C, ACS, and other Foundations that support biomedical research
- Experience with grant management applications (InfoEd)
- Experience in subcontract design, negotiation, and administration.
- Demonstrated ability to work independently and cooperatively with team members required.
- Ability to coordinate overlapping projects and deadlines required.
- Ability to work with minimal supervision.