GAMS enables a researcher
to build a proposal budget with minimal effort, print out a
full set of proposal forms, and route a proposal electronically
for campus approval. The next step in the electronic process
is to submit electronically to funding agencies via EDI (Electronic
Data Interchange).
For proposal creation
and award management, GAMS takes information from three
main profiles or information sources: Researcher, Institution
and Sponsor/Program.
The research or principal
investigator (PI) profile for the grant is the primary
resource on a grant proposal. The GAMS PI Profile maintains
current salary, fringe benefit percentages, demographic
information, publications, degrees attained, and current/pending
support from other grants. When a PI is named in a proposal,
GAMS pulls the PI's information from the profile and
links it with the proposal. This process enables GAMS
to complete the necessary agency forms required for a
complete submittal. Much of the information in the PI
profile is retrieved directly from other institutional
information systems, but some of it must be maintained
by the researcher. The benefit is that information contained
in the profile is automatically loaded into every proposal
for that researcher without further intervention.
For the university, GAMS
maintains an institution profile of the unique identification
numbers that are always required but tough to find when
they are needed such as the tax ID number, congressional
district, etc. More important, GAMS is the central reference
point for up-to-date F&A rates (IDC or overhead) that are
used on all grant proposals. The institutional profile
maintains F&A rates for both on-campus and off-campus research.
By keeping these rates current in GAMS, the institution
can guarantee that researchers use the correct rates in
proposals. The calculations for taking the applied overhead
to budget items will be transparent to the creator of the
proposal.
GAMS also maintains sponsor
and program profiles which contain the budgeting
rules for each agency and the forms required for submission.
These profiles also manage, for example, the restrictions
on the types and amount of expenses that will be supported
by a particular agency, the method of F&A computation
(total direct versus modified total direct), and the
allowable cost of living percentage. Each sponsor profile
contains the necessary logic to convert a generic budget
into the necessary budget forms, cover sheets, and certification
forms required by each agency in the required format.
GAMS also tracks the expense categories that require
detail budget justifications and prompts the user for
an extended description.
Benefits
in using GAMS:
Common
user interface-GAMS allows the faculty member and/or
departmental research administrator to create a research
proposal in the same manner each time, regardless of
agency-specific forms or the type of PC used to enter
the information.
Proposal
Application Preparation and Submission-GAMS is designed
to gather all the common data elements necessary to print
a proposal on appropriate sponsor forms and/or transmit
a proposal in an electronic data interchange (EDI) format
(as proposed by federal agencies).
Embedded
Knowledge-GAMS embeds knowledge into a proposal preparation
process. The GAMS rules-driven interface embeds various
agency profiles, institutional profile, and individual
investigator profiles into the proposal preparation process.
GAMS provides the preparer with appropriate agency, institutional,
and individual information that validates the proposal
is consistent with those profiles.
Process
Improvement-GAMS builds electronic routing and approval
systems into the institutional approval process. Specific
information, now found on the form PA005, required for
internal institutional review and approval is summarized
from the proposal. Appropriate chair and dean level approvals
are obtained in the electronic approval process prior
to routing the next stage. Exceptions, approvals, and
justifications are documented at each level prior to
proposal submission.
Award
Management-The award acceptance and project initiation
component of GAMS uses all of the information from the
proposal preparation, approval, and submission stage
in the initiation of project accounts. Sponsor profiles
of agency terms and conditions are provided in the same
manner as at the proposal preparation stage. This component
of GAMS also provides an interface with the accounting
system for the establishment of accounts.
