What is Grants Management Software? Benefits for Research Administration

Key takeaways

• Grants management software automates and simplifies complicated processes to reduce time and resources spent on research administration and enable organizational growth.
• Moving manual workflows into grants management software reduces potential errors and faculty burnout, decreasing the risk of noncompliance and turnover.
• Centralized grants management software ecosystems connect all stages of the research and grants lifecycle with increased transparency for better oversight and decision-making backed by data.
• The Cayuse Research Suite is designed by researchers, for researchers, to reduce administrative burden and support growth so teams can focus on the work that matters most.

Today’s research teams face an ever-increasing demand for research, made all the more difficult by limited funding, time, and other essential resources. Fortunately, grants management software can help get the most out of available resources by reducing administrative burden, improving time management, and supporting data-driven decision-making. 

In this guide, we’ll outline the purpose and key benefits of grants management software for teams across the research lifecycle.

What is grants management software?

Before going any further, we’ll want to define grants management software. Simply put, grants management software is a digital system that consolidates all tasks related to a grant’s lifecycle, including applications, accounting, reviews, approvals, reporting, compliance, and close-out.

Where many of these processes would have traditionally included paper files, scattered electronic documents, and far too many email follow-ups, grants management software provides a single platform to centralize these workflows for better accuracy, transparency, and collaboration.

Who needs grants management software?

Research organizations all rely on grants to fund enterprises composed of highly skilled scientists, post-doctoral fellows, and research staff organized in teams led by key investigators. Key investigators serve as the principal investigators on a series of awards designed to fund their laboratories and research interests.

In many cases, a sizable grant funding portfolio is required for this purpose. While the subject matter of the individual grants in the portfolio is usually similar, they differ in both their amounts and budget periods. These two differences can cause substantial variations in the overall value of the portfolio over time and complicate its management. To handle these complications, research-focused investigators turn to administrators for help.

These research administrators are usually responsible for helping oversee the various grant portfolios within their organization to ensure their investigators have adequate short-term and long-term funding. They track portfolios that fund individual teams as well as combined funding for their entire organization. 

However, according to Cayuse’s annual State of Grant and Research Administration Benchmark Report, 75% of research administration professionals experienced a workload increase over the past year, while 50% do not feel they have enough staff and resources to support their work—a trend that has remained consistent since Cayuse began conducting its industry benchmark survey.

Slow, repetitive, manual processes are a common issue for teams overwhelmed by their current workloads. That’s why many successful research organizations use grants management software to oversee and administer funding portfolios. 

How does grants management software help?

While different software solutions have specific benefits for different stages of grant management, there are several major benefits that carry across the entire research lifecycle. These include:

Better efficiency

Grants management software automates workflows to reduce the time spent on each stage of a grant’s administration. This means faster submissions, approvals, requests, and overall better time management.

Increased transparency

Dashboard views can provide faculty and other stakeholders with role-appropriate views into statuses and updates. Single sign-on (SSO) logins give everyone involved in a project secure access at any time, from any location.

Improved accuracy

SmartForms and other built-in review features can catch errors before a grant moves to the next step, reducing the need for costly revisions. Centralized workflows also promote better data hygiene and easier version control.

Reduced risk

More accurate submissions and accessible grant histories reduce the risk of noncompliance at all stages of the research lifecycle and support easier audits when they arise.

Informed decisions

Keeping the full range of research activity on a single platform supports more thorough data analysis so leadership can make informed decisions backed by data from past and current research projects. 

How does grants management software benefit pre-award administration?

Monitoring proposals for future funding involves several areas of pre-award administration. These include:

Number of submissions 

The goal of submission tracking is to ensure your organization maintains an adequate funding pipeline. Since not all applications are funded, the combined budgets from the submissions must exceed the team’s budgetary needs. Monitoring future proposals requires tracking the number being submitted, who is submitting them, the amount of future funding, when it would start, and more.

Identifying possible sponsors 

Identify which agencies have research agendas that are aligned with the interests of your key investigators and monitor their calls for proposals.

Success rates 

Measure success rates by investigator and by funding agency to identify who may need help with proposal development.

Resubmissions 

Encourage the modification and resubmission of rejected proposals when appropriate.

Automate the generation of current and pending support 

Tracking current and pending support is necessary for the creation of Current and Pending Support or Other Support pages needed for the submissions to NSF, NIH and other federal agencies. Automating their generation greatly expedites proposal development.

How does grants management software benefit post-award administration?

Administrators use grants management or accounting software to track current awards in several areas of post-award administration, including: 

Managing budgets and expenditures 

This involves grant accounting activities, including monitoring current balances, which entails not only tracking budgets and expenditures but also tracking encumbrances of personnel, non-personnel, and F&A transactions. Monitoring personnel encumbrances may involve projecting future payroll and fringe benefit charges based on project budget periods.

Meeting deliverable schedules and closeout procedures 

Meeting deliverable schedules requires tracking and adhering to agency reporting deadlines, which can vary by both sponsor and project. Following proper closeout procedures requires the timely completion of purchasing and payroll transactions, and completing proper documentation.

Following proper financial and research compliance policies and procedures 

Financial compliance involves verifying appropriate charges. All charges must fall within the scope of the research project and comply with sponsor policies. Financial compliance involves overseeing purchasing and personnel activities, including time and effort certification. Research compliance is often an issue of ethics, which (depending on the nature of the research project) may be governed by committees such as IRB, IACUC, and IBC. Additional compliance policies and procedures include time and effort certification, financial conflict of interest, proper scientific conduct, and more.

Preparing to submit competitive renewals to increase the likelihood of future funding

While submitting competitive renewals may be considered pre-award activity and thus part of monitoring future funding, preparation begins during the current budget period. The submission includes describing the continued benefits of the project, defining the scope of the research in terms of both the science and budget, and meeting agency deadlines. Since competitive renewals are usually more likely to be funded than new submissions, advanced preparation can solidify the funding opportunity.

Where should organizations deploy grants management systems?

Who controls the day-to-day management of a grant funding portfolio often depends on the size of the organization. In larger research organizations, departmental administrators handle this. In smaller organizations, central office administrators oversee it. While the administrative requirements are fundamentally the same, the challenges are quite different.

For example, large research organizations may have researchers who are funded from grants outside of their department, so total funding management requires access to information outside of their domain. Furthermore, the managerial focus of departmental chair and the type of research conducted within their department requires departmental administrators within the same organization to implement different management strategies. 

That’s why large organizations are more successful when grants management software solutions are deployed at the department or center level. Smaller organizations tend to find more success when implementing these systems centrally.

Cayuse grants management software

As regulations continue to change, administrators need software solutions to help meet these challenges. Fortunately, the Cayuse Research Suite streamlines administrative complexity across the grant and research lifecycle:

• Award Management: Find and manage funding, oversee proposal submissions and agreements, track project effort, and consolidate award management.
• Compliance Management: Simplify oversight across IRB, IACUC, COI, and biosafety with centralized tools.
• Vivarium Management: Manage animal care, orders, inventory, and billing in one modern system.
• Technology Transfer: Track disclosures, IP, and licensing to move research from lab to market.