Grants and Contracts Specialist, Applied Health Sciences

Grants and Contracts Specialist

College of Applied Health Sciences

This Grants and Contracts Specialist provides research administration support for the College of Applied Health Sciences (AHS), serving as a key partner to faculty and research teams in the development and submission of competitive external funding proposals. Responsibilities include interpreting sponsor guidelines, developing proposal budgets and submission plans, coordinating proposal materials, and ensuring compliance with sponsor and university requirements. The position also collaborates with designated units in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences (LAS) to provide targeted proposal support during periods of peak activity and for selected proposal programs.

• Carefully review all relevant sponsor statements and announcements regarding proposal submissions to ensure adherence to sponsor guidelines and procedures; interpret funding announcements and submission instructions.
• Develop proposal submission plans and timelines for faculty.
• Act as a liaison between faculty PIs, co-PIS, investigators, collaborators, and subaward institutions to gather and develop required proposal documents and information for submission.
• Coordinate proposal submissions to the sponsor with Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA)
• Act as a liaison between the investigator and sponsor contacts as it pertains to instructions for submitting proposal (non-scientific inquiries only)
• Development of the budget and budget justification for grant proposal submissions in consultation with PI
• Complete online proposal forms and upload all proposal documents to federal sponsor agencies or assist in the finalization of submissions for faculty to upload for non-federal submissions.
• Maintain records of complete grant submissions in electronic repositories.

• Assist faculty/PIs with the management of their funded research programs, including preparing financial information and rebudgets. Review and approve use of grant funds for expenses such as employee appointments, purchases, and travel reimbursements. Review expenditures to awarded budget to ensure allowability. Take appropriate action to move unallowable/questionable charges to an appropriate funding source.
• Liaison with Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA) with regard to grant fund setup, management, budgets, billing, multi-year grant needs, and close-out activities. Request and monitor anticipation accounts, subaward agreements, no-cost extensions, and other contract extensions as necessary. Assist with the completion of sponsored project close-out reviews and work with SPA to ensure completed projects are closed in a timely manner.
• Assist PIs with the semi-annual expenditure confirmation process to obtain certifications on time.
• Maintain complete award documents and post award work in electronic repositories.
• Other duties related to post-award as assigned.

• Remain current with university and sponsoring agency policies, regulations, and procedures and ensure compliance by attending various meetings and trainings offered by Sponsored Programs and Research Compliance (SPaRC) and the University/campus Office of Business and Financial Services. Maintain active Illinois Certified Research Administration (CRA) designation once certified.

• Bachelor's degree in business administration, accounting, finance, economics or a field related to the position
• Demonstrated experience in administrative support related to research, grants, and/or similar activities.

• Demonstrated experience in higher education administration.
• Experience supporting the development and submission of grant and contract proposals to federal agencies, foundations, and other external sponsors.
• Experience with pre-award and post-award management. Experience developing proposal budgets and budget justifications and interpreting sponsor guidelines and submission requirements.
• Illinois Certified Research Administration designation.
• Experience using enterprise financial, reporting, and research administration systems, including Banner, my Research Portal, EDDIE, and agency proposal submission systems, or comparable systems.

• Knowledge of sponsored research administration principles and applicable sponsor, university, and regulatory requirements.
• Ability to interpret funding announcements, proposal guidelines, and submission requirements and…