Grants Manager

Basic Science Research Administrative Pod 2 is a group of professionals who provide administrative support to the following departments and centers: Biochemistry Department, Cell & Developmental Biology Department, Center for Stem Cell Biology, Center for Structural Biology, Mass Spectrometry Research Center, Center for Computational Systems Biology, and Vanderbilt Institute of Chemical Biology. Pod 2 is comprised of three teams, each with expertise focused in one of the following areas: sponsored research (pre- and post-award), finance, and HR.

Key Functions and Expected Performance:

• Prepare and assemble grants proposals/contracts in compliance with sponsor, University, and federal guidelines and strict deadlines in coordination with applicants including faculty, research fellows, and students.
  • Conduct extensive monitoring of requirements, deadlines and time management for responses to Program announcements/R.F.A.’s or general application submissions in a proactive manner. Assist with multiple applications for multiple applicants and departments under absolute, unwavering agency and internal deadlines.
  • Work and train in a collaborative manner with the Principal Investigator (P.I.), Other collaborative Research institutions; and in conjunction with the Sponsored Programs Administration grants and contracts office, throughout the application process to achieve a professional document for submission.
  • Responsible for routing and obtaining appropriate signatures, both physical/paper and electronically routed as required from PI, Key Personnel and other department or outside institutions and agencies.
  • Assist P.I. and supervisor to assemble application prior to submission, and insure timely submission.
• Prepare draft budgetary allocations through grant application year and periods for applications.
  • Estimate budgets based on spending historical spending trends and existing forecasting models from various shared databases.
  • Present, edit, and finalize recommended budget for next grant application year with P.I. and central offices.
  • Review budgeted direct cost items for federal compliance; and other agency, industry, or foreign government guidelines for accuracy, accountability, reasonableness, and consistency.
• Interact with peers within other departments and agencies to facilitate the development, submission, and administration of grant proposals.
  • Work in a collaborative manner with the P.I. and the central offices throughout the application process to achieve a professional document for submission.
  • Responsible for the tracking and receiving back confirmation of submitted application and status.
  • Provide or facilitate to outside departments requests for biosketches, other support, budgets, inter- and intra-departmental contracts, and other ancillary data in a timely fashion.
  • Responsible for getting non-competing applications or reports to Grants, Sponsored Programs Administration and/or Research Finance for review and final submission.
  • Responsible for insuring accurate data flow from Pre-award team to Post-award and HR teams.
• Assist with and manage budget responsibilities for grants.
  • Works in conjunction with supervisor on new, competing or revised grant applications in preparing initial and extended budgets, including Indirect cost calculation.
  • Reviews budget details with PI, including: personnel, effort allocated and overall expenses, ensuring consistency with agency regulations and Research Finance guidelines.
  • Coordinate with post-award team to insure awards and budget adjustments are recorded properly.
• Serves as a resource for the department or division.
  • Monitor agency announcements for funding opportunities available to faculty, research fellows, and students specific to those groups.
  • Keeps abreast of new/updated agency policies, procedures, deadlines and timeframes of new initiatives and coordinates communication across the supported departments.
  • Attends all necessary training offered by the Sponsored Programs Administration and/or Research Finance in addition to monitoring online/published applicable materials (i.e.: NCURA newsletter, NIH online updates, DOD announcements, internal Vanderbilt guidelines).
  • Keeps supervisor and PIs informed of any material changes in policies/procedures from agencies or central offices.
  • Provide PI information on obtaining forms and/or websites for submitting: New Animal or IRB protocol requests (NOI), Annual Surveillance Forms, Salary only approvals, Rebudgeting or No-Cost-Extensions, etc.
  • Assist overall administrative team as assigned to complete non-application aspects of Human Resource management relative to costing for personnel costing and effort management, annual fiscal budgeting, reporting, forecasting and general office/administrative aspects of operation as assigned.
• Project implementation/maintenance
  • Maintain existing plans to achieve defined departmental goals and objectives       
  • Maintain and edit existing databases, office functions and procedures, etc.           
  • Compiling data, conducting research assignments and summarizing findings according to general instruction provided by supervisor
  • Analyzing and reporting findings relating to operations        
  • Assist as assigned with completion of various periodic and annual departmental projects and functions, including fiscal-based start-up and close-out deadlines.

Supervisory Relationships:

• This position does not have supervisory responsibility.

• This position reports administratively and functionally to the Basic Science Administration POD2 Pre-Award Administrative Officer.

Education and Certifications:

• A minimum 2-year Associate degree or equivalent is necessary.

• A 4-year Bachelor degree is preferred.

Experience and Skills:

• Proficient in Microsoft Word is necessary.

• Able to create and update worksheets in Excel is necessary.

• Have a working knowledge of Adobe including forms creation, editing and conversion of documents between these three programs is necessary.

• A background in grant application preparation for agencies (NIH, DOD, AHA, etc.) is preferred.

• Familiarity with reviewing and editing private industry and foreign agency contracts is preferred.