[CCoE Notice] Updates from the Engineering Grant's Office

[Greenwell, Stephen J]

Dear Colleagues,
It has been nearly a year since Dean Sharma and I began the effort to rebuild and strengthen the Engineering Grants Office team and enhance the services we provide to our faculty. Among our key objectives were doubling the size of the team and introducing structural changes to improve grant submission processes. We have expanded the team from three to six members and implemented a proposal development timeline to help the team plan ahead. Based on your feedback, these changes have led to noticeable improvements in operations.

However, several recurring challenges continue to affect the team's efficiency and, at times, create unnecessary stress, leading to extended work hours, including late nights and weekends. While we have made significant progress, there are still areas where we can work together further to optimize the process to the benefit of everyone.

Based on feedback from the team and input gathered during our mini-retreat in December, a few common issues have been identified:

  *   Incomplete transmittals missing key information such as solicitations and PI details.
  *   Interim deadlines in the proposal development timeline are frequently overlooked.
  *   Sub-award information is disclosed too late in the process.
  *   Delays in receiving required documents from sub-awardees.
  *   Cost-sharing arrangements are addressed at the last minute.
  *   Multiple and last-minute budget modification requests.
  *   Inclusion of unregistered senior personnel, graduate students, or sub-awardees just before submission.
  *   Gaps in communication during critical stages of proposal development.
  *   Slow response from the Grants Office team members, who manage high volumes of urgent tasks and unexpected issues.
To address these challenges, we have updated and clarified the proposal development timeline to better define the roles and responsibilities of both the Grants Office team and the PIs. This updated timeline is shared below and can also be accessed online at the proposal development timeline<https://www.egr.uh.edu/research/resources/proposal-timeline>.

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We greatly appreciate your ongoing collaboration and commitment to helping the team ensure a smooth and successful proposal submission process.

Sincerely,
Dmitri Litvinov
Moores Professor, Senior Associate Dean for Research and Facilities
litvinov at uh.edu<mailto:litvinov at uh.edu>

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