Cayuse is a cloud-based software platform used by research institutions to administer sponsored programs, human-subjects and animal-research compliance, and related research-administration functions from a single vendor. This page describes what the platform’s modules do, module by module, and how they relate to one another, based directly on Cayuse’s own product documentation at cayuse.com. It is a standalone product overview, not a comparison against any competing eRA (electronic research administration) platform — for feature-by-feature comparisons, see the related pages linked at the end of this guide.
What Is the Cayuse Research Suite?
Cayuse describes its offering as a cloud-based platform intended to cover the research lifecycle from proposal submission through funding management and protocol compliance. Rather than a single monolithic application, Cayuse is organized as a set of separately branded modules — covering award management (pre-award and post-award grants administration), research compliance (IRB, IACUC, biosafety, and conflict-of-interest review), vivarium/animal-facility operations, and technology transfer — that connect through a shared platform layer Cayuse calls the Cayuse Platform. According to Cayuse’s own materials, the platform layer centralizes task management and unifies user data and access across whichever modules an institution has adopted. Cayuse reports that more than 700 research organizations worldwide use its software, spanning higher education, healthcare, hospital, and government research settings; institutions should confirm current adoption figures and product names directly with the vendor, as SaaS product portfolios change over time.
Award Management (Grants) Modules: Pre-Award and Post-Award
Cayuse’s award-management line covers both sides of the sponsored-programs lifecycle — the pre-award phase (finding funding and developing a fundable proposal) and the post-award phase (managing an active sponsored research agreement once it is funded). For background on how these two functions typically differ organizationally, see CASRAI’s guide on pre-award vs. post-award office roles and on how sponsored-programs offices are structured more generally in departmental vs. central sponsored programs offices.
Pre-Award: Fund Finder and Proposals (S2S)
Fund Finder is Cayuse’s funding-opportunity discovery tool, intended to help researchers and administrators identify prospective funding sources. Proposals (S2S) handles proposal development and system-to-system electronic submission — including support for Grants.gov submission workflows, the mechanism most U.S. federal proposals must go through. This module line is the successor to what was historically branded Cayuse SP and Cayuse 424 at many institutions; current naming should be confirmed against Cayuse’s own site, since vendor product names change.
Post-Award: Sponsored Projects, Fund Manager, Project Effort, and Agreements
Sponsored Projects is Cayuse’s post-award grants-management module, covering the administration of a grant once it has been awarded. Fund Manager provides financial tracking against awarded funds. Project Effort supports effort reporting and certification — the process of documenting how much of a funded individual’s time was actually spent on a sponsored project, a routine compliance requirement for federally funded research. Agreements manages contracts and agreements associated with sponsored work. Insights is Cayuse’s analytics and reporting layer across award data, letting institutions report on portfolio-level metrics rather than working award-by-award.
Human Subjects Compliance: the Human Ethics (IRB) Module
Cayuse’s IRB product — currently branded Human Ethics — handles Institutional Review Board (IRB) submission and review: researchers submit protocols, IRB staff and reviewers manage the review workflow, and the system tracks approvals, continuing review, and reportable events through the protocol lifecycle. For a detailed walkthrough of what a submission actually requires, see CASRAI’s guides on the IRB application and the IRB/REC approval process.
Notably, the IRB module is one of the more commonly standalone-adopted pieces of the Cayuse portfolio: institutions frequently license Cayuse’s human-subjects module without adopting Cayuse’s sponsored-projects or other compliance modules alongside it. Cayuse markets its modules as adoptable individually or as a connected suite, so an institution’s existing eRA or grants system does not need to be replaced to adopt Cayuse for IRB administration alone. Current licensing structure and bundling should be confirmed directly with Cayuse, since packaging can change.
Other Compliance Modules: COI, IACUC, and Biosafety
Alongside human-subjects review, Cayuse offers separate modules for the other major categories of research compliance oversight:
- Outside Interests handles conflict-of-interest (COI) disclosure and tracking — the process by which researchers disclose outside financial and professional relationships that could bias or appear to bias their research, and institutions manage and monitor those disclosures over time. For the disclosure side of this process, see CASRAI’s guide to the conflict of interest disclosure form.
- Animal Oversight supports Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) submission and review, the animal-research analogue of IRB review.
- Hazard Safety covers biosafety and hazard management, relevant to institutions with an Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) reviewing recombinant DNA, biological agents, or other hazardous-material research.
- Cayuse Risk & Compliance (IRIS) is described by Cayuse as an integrated framework spanning these compliance areas, intended for institutions that want a single administrative view across COI, IRB, IACUC, and IBC activity rather than managing each committee’s workflow in isolation.
Vivarium Management
Separately from IACUC protocol review, Cayuse offers a vivarium-operations line for the physical and logistical management of an animal research facility: Vivarium Operations for day-to-day facility and animal-colony management, Schedules for facility scheduling, and Vet Care for veterinary-care tracking. This is operational animal-facility management, distinct from the IACUC protocol-review function handled by Animal Oversight.
Technology Transfer
Cayuse also offers a Technology Transfer module, covering intellectual-property disclosure and licensing management — the administrative workflow institutions use to track invention disclosures from researchers through evaluation, patenting decisions, and licensing. Institutions researching this function in more depth may want CASRAI’s tech transfer cluster overview.
How the Modules Connect
Cayuse’s own positioning is that these modules are not independent point solutions but are unified through the Cayuse Platform layer, which centralizes user identity, access permissions, and task routing across whichever modules an institution runs. In practice this means an institution running multiple Cayuse modules (for example, Sponsored Projects and Human Ethics together) can expect a more consistent user experience and shared account administration than it would get from stitching together separate vendors — while an institution that adopts only one module (most commonly Human Ethics for IRB) still gets a fully functional standalone product without needing the rest of the suite.
Choosing Standalone Modules vs. the Full Suite
Because Cayuse licenses its modules individually, institutions evaluating the platform are not making a single all-or-nothing decision. Common considerations when scoping a Cayuse deployment include:
- Whether the institution already has an eRA or grants-management system in place and only needs to fill a specific gap (IRB administration is the module most often adopted this way).
- Whether pre-award and post-award functions should be run in the same system or kept in separate tools already used by the institution’s sponsored-programs office.
- Whether compliance committees (IRB, IACUC, IBC, COI) should share a single administrative view via Cayuse Risk & Compliance (IRIS), or continue operating as separately managed workflows.
- Integration needs with the institution’s existing financial system, HR/effort-reporting system, and identity provider, since these vary by module and should be confirmed directly with Cayuse during procurement.
Any current pricing, contractual terms, hosting/security details, or integration specifics should be verified directly with Cayuse — this overview describes product scope and positioning as documented on the vendor’s own site, not a procurement-ready specification.
How Cayuse Compares to Other eRA Platforms
This page intentionally does not attempt a head-to-head comparison — for that, CASRAI maintains dedicated feature-by-feature comparisons against three other commonly evaluated eRA platforms:
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Cayuse one product or several?
Cayuse is a portfolio of separately branded modules — spanning award management, research compliance, vivarium operations, and technology transfer — connected through a shared platform layer. Institutions can adopt one module or several, rather than committing to the entire suite at once.
Can an institution use Cayuse for IRB only, without the grants modules?
Yes. Cayuse’s Human Ethics (IRB) module is commonly deployed on its own, including at institutions that use a different system, or no dedicated system, for sponsored-projects administration. Cayuse markets its modules as adoptable individually or as a suite; confirm current licensing options directly with the vendor.
What is the difference between Cayuse’s pre-award and post-award tools?
Fund Finder and Proposals (S2S) support the pre-award side — finding funding opportunities and developing and submitting proposals. Sponsored Projects, Fund Manager, Project Effort, and Agreements support the post-award side — managing an award once it is funded, including financial tracking, effort certification, and agreement management.
Does Cayuse handle animal research and biosafety compliance, not just human-subjects research?
Yes. Separately from Human Ethics (IRB), Cayuse offers Animal Oversight for IACUC submission and review, Hazard Safety for biosafety/hazard management, and Cayuse Risk & Compliance (IRIS) as an integrated view across COI, IRB, IACUC, and IBC compliance activity.
Where can I compare Cayuse directly against other research-administration platforms?
See CASRAI’s dedicated comparisons: Cayuse vs. Kuali Research, Cayuse vs. InfoEd Global, and Cayuse vs. Streamlyne.
