Procedure Library

VPR FY25 Seed Grant Acceptance & Project Set-up

Purpose

The Funding Incentive Seed Grant Program (Seed) is an intramural program sponsored by the University of Utah Research Foundation (UURF) designed to support new areas of research that can lead to extramural funding of new research. The program emphasizes developing new research directions that can produce new funding opportunities from major sponsors. 

Questions about individual competitions should be directed to individual colleges. Questions about the program can be directed to vprgrants@utah.edu. 

The following procedure is designed to assist faculty members, who receive these types of awards, to set-up a new internal project, in collaboration with OSP.

Applicability

Principal Investigators (PIs) who receive award letters for Seed funding should follow the instructions below to initiate the project set-up.

Instructions

Step 1: Award Review and Acceptance

Award recipients must carefully review the award letter, including the terms and conditions. Depending on the college-specific terms of the award, recipients may need to work with their college to formally accept the award before initiating the project.  

Step 2: Submit to OSP

a) Submit a DSS via eProposal 

PI's or department administrators can initiate, complete, and submit the Document Summary Sheet (DSS) via eProposal, accessed through Campus Information Systems (CIS). THE DSS MUST BE SUBMITTED WITHIN 30 DAYS OF AWARD RECEIPT - or the recipient risks voluntarily relinquishing the award.

The DSS forms the base on which the project is created and is used to collect all the needed information and document the necessary approvals. 

Please note the steps below for proper completion of the DSS:

1. 
   1. Start your title with 'FY25 Seed Grant'
   2. use '11256 - University of Utah Research Foundation' as the sponsor
2. 
   1. See image re: how best to answer the questions above
   2. Select the OSP grants contact that corresponds with the department administrating the Seed project
3. 
   1. Intramural Seed grants are exempt from F&A
4. 
5. 
   1. Answer 'No' concerning requesting a waiver
6. 
   1. Attach/upload the award letter before submitting the DSS for routing of approvals

After the necessary approvals have been obtained, a link to the electronically approved DSS is sent to OSP. 

The DSS will need to be integrated into PeopleSoft, by OSP, before it will be possible to initiate the eAward Setup Request (See b). 

b) New Award Setup Request via eAward

Once the DSS is integrated, PI's or department administrators can initiate and submit the New Award Setup Request transaction in eAward, accessed through Campus Information Systems (CIS). 

Please attach the award letter as your notice of award (NOA). 

Please attach a detailed budget for the authorized award amount. GCA uses the various chartfields to allocate the amounts provided in the award document. 

If you're new to eAward, this 4 minute video walks you through how to initiate a new award setup request transaction.

Once OSP receives this request, we will review the request for completion and work with GCA to set-up your project. When GCA completes the project setup, the PI and department admin (post-award liaison) will receive an electronic notification from 'PSnotify' confirming completion. 

Seed Grant Conditions

• FY25 project do not have a designated start date. However, the budget period/period of performance will still be limited to 1 year from the start date. Any remaining funding will be deobligated, unless the project is approved for a no-cost extension (NCE) and extended through OSP.
• If the Seed grant cannot be completed within the first year, the PI can request a one-time NCE through their college.
• Requests for 2nd NCE's must be reviewed by the VPR and are rarely permitted. The VPR reserves the right to deny an NCE request that does not meet the requirements, is not well-justified, or is not reasonable. To review NCE Requirements or submit a request, click HERE.
• The policy of the VPR is to only setup one project per Seed grant, to keep the management and audit of awards efficient. Requests for companion projects on VPR Seed projects will be declined.
• Final reports are due to the college based on the terms of the award.  
• Documentation of relevant IRB and/or IACUC application submissions must be approved before funding release.
• Upon receipt of a new Seed award, the PI will not be eligible to apply for Seed funding for 2 years from the most recent award.

Related Policies and Procedures

• Policies > Procedure Library > Document Summary Sheet (DSS) Creation 
• Grants Life Cycle > Award Management > eAward