Grants Management Fundamentals
This sub-cluster holds the foundational terms and concepts of grants management that underpin every other page in this cluster but don't belong to a single stage of the award lifecycle: the vocabulary of pre-award and post-award administration, the roles typically involved (principal investigator, sponsored programs office, authorized organizational representative), the general shape of the grant lifecycle from opportunity identification through closeout, and terms that recur across proposal development, financial compliance, and specific funding programs alike. Research grants management as a profession in the United States is organized around the competency areas defined by the Certified Research Administrator (CRA) credential, administered by the Research Administrators Certification Council in partnership with the Society of Research Administrators International, and around the training curriculum of NCURA, the National Council of University Research Administrators. Both bodies divide the field into pre-award and post-award domains, a division that structures this entire cluster and that this sub-cluster introduces at a general level before more specific pages take up proposal development, financial compliance, particular federal mechanisms, and international funding bodies in turn. Readers arriving here are typically looking for a definition or a basic orientation rather than a procedural how-to: what distinguishes a grant from a contract or a cooperative agreement, what "indirect costs" means before diving into Uniform Guidance specifics, or how the award lifecycle is generally sequenced. Pages in this sub-cluster are written as entry points, with more detailed treatment of any given stage or mechanism found in the corresponding specific sub-cluster.
Guides
Co-Principal Investigator: What the Title Means at NIH, NSF, and Your Institution
“Co-PI” carries three different meanings depending on who is using it: NIH’s Multiple PD/PI model, NSF’s formal cover-sheet co-PI role, and informal institutional usage with no agency standing at all.
NIH R56 Bridge Award: What It Is and Why You Cannot Apply
The NIH R56 (High Priority, Short-Term Project Award) provides interim funding to a subset of unfunded, highly meritorious R01 applications so the PI can gather more data before resubmitting. Institute and center staff select recipients directly from the R01 applicant pool — there is no R56 application, FOA, or deadline to respond to.
UK Global Talent Visa for Researchers and Academics
How the UK Global Talent visa’s four researcher endorsement routes work, which body assesses which field, how the endorsed-funder route ties to grant funding, and how it compares to Skilled Worker sponsorship for an academic post.
Other Transaction Authority (OTA): How OTs Differ from Grants and Contracts
Other Transaction (OT) authority lets specific federal agencies fund research, prototyping, and production outside the FAR and, in most cases, outside 2 CFR 200 — which means Bayh-Dole, standard cost principles, and Single Audit coverage do not automatically apply. This guide explains which agencies hold OT authority, how universities access it through consortia, what is actually negotiable, and how a grant, a FAR contract, and an OT agreement compare side by side.
Graduate Assistantship: Types, Stipends and How to Get One
What a graduate assistantship actually is, how teaching, research, and administrative assistantships differ, what’s in a typical funding package, how the pay is taxed, and how to find and win one.
H-1B Cap-Exempt Status for Universities and Affiliated Nonprofit Research Organizations
Which employers qualify for H-1B cap exemption under INA 214(g)(5), what evidence documents an affiliated-nonprofit or research-organization test, and what happens when a researcher moves between cap-exempt and cap-subject employers.
EB-1B Outstanding Researcher Petitions: What the Sponsoring Institution Files
EB-1B is employer-petitioned, not self-petitioned: what the department, research office, and counsel each supply for the permanent-position offer, the six evidentiary criteria, and the Form I-140 filing.
What Is a Grant? Definition, Types, and the Federal Award Lifecycle
A grant is a financial-assistance instrument for a public purpose, distinct from a contract (acquisition) or cooperative agreement (assistance with substantial agency involvement). This guide covers grant types, the award lifecycle, and 2 CFR 200 recipient obligations.
Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) and Research Funding: A Guide for Research Offices
Minority Serving Institution (MSI) status is a federally determined eligibility category, not a self-designation. This guide covers how HBCU, TCU, HSI, AANAPISI, ANNH, PBI, and NASNTI designations are defined and re-determined, which research-funding programs use MSI status, and what it means for a research office managing eligibility, partnerships, and capacity-building awards.
Research Project Management for Principal Investigators: Frameworks, Timelines, and Tools
How principal investigators apply project-management frameworks — scoping, work breakdown structures, Gantt-chart timelines, and risk registers — to research projects, and where the PI role diverges from a PMP-certified project manager.
The Journal of Research Administration (JRA): SRAI’s Peer-Reviewed Practitioner Journal
The Journal of Research Administration (JRA) is SRAI’s peer-reviewed practitioner journal for the research-administration profession. This guide covers what it publishes, who edits it, its history, ISSN, submission process, and how it compares to NCURA’s Research Management Review.
NCURA Traveling Workshops: Level I, Level II, DRA, FRA, and Senior-Level Training Compared
A comparison of NCURA’s core traveling workshop tracks — Level I, Level II, Departmental Research Administration (DRA), Financial Research Administration (FRA), and the Senior Level Workshop — covering who each is for, what it covers, and how to choose.
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation: Research Grants and the Venture Philanthropy Funding Model
The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation pioneered venture philanthropy, turning a $150M investment in Vertex into a $3.3B royalty sale. Here is how that model works and how CFF funds investigator research today.
MacArthur Foundation: Research Grants and the MacArthur Fellows Program
How MacArthur Foundation’s institutional research grantmaking (Big Bets, 100&Change) differs from the nomination-only MacArthur Fellows Program, and what each means for research administrators.
NGMA Certified Grants Management Specialist (CGMS)
A complete guide to the NGMA Certified Grants Management Specialist (CGMS) credential: eligibility, exam domains, cost, accreditation, recertification, and how it differs from GPC and CRA.
Schmidt Sciences: AI Safety, Trustworthy AI, and 2026 Funding Programs
Schmidt Sciences is the 2024 successor to Schmidt Futures and funds AI2050 and the Science of Trustworthy AI RFP line — distinct from the Schmidt Science Fellowship, one program within its broader portfolio.
Bezos Earth Fund: Climate Research Grants and the AI Grand Challenge
How the Bezos Earth Fund structures climate and nature research funding, and how its AI Grand Challenge for Climate and Nature program works for academic applicants.
Doris Duke Foundation Research Funding Programs: Medical Research, Environment, and Arts
A practical guide to the Doris Duke Foundation as a research funder: its Medical Research, Environment, and Arts programs, its invitation-based grantmaking model, eligibility, and how to apply.
Rockefeller Foundation: Research Grantmaking Programs and How to Apply
How the Rockefeller Foundation’s health, food, power, and climate programs work, how its invitation-only grantmaking process runs, and practical guidance for institutions seeking its funding.
Open Philanthropy (Now Coefficient Giving): Research Grantmaking Programs
Open Philanthropy renamed itself Coefficient Giving in November 2025. This guide covers the current fund structure (including the Science and Global Health R&D fund that succeeded Transformative Basic Science and Global Health and Development), the organization’s effective-altruism roots and relationship to GiveWell, and how researchers actually apply for a grant.
Bloomberg Philanthropies: Research and Public Health Grantmaking Model
How Bloomberg Philanthropies structures its public health grantmaking, its focus areas, and how researchers and institutions can realistically engage with it.
What Is Fluxx? Grants Management Software for Foundations and Funders
Fluxx is cloud-based grants management software used by foundations, corporate giving programs, and government grantmakers to manage the grants they award — the opposite side of the funding relationship from grantee-side eRA systems like Cayuse or Kuali.
GPC Certification: The Grant Professional Certified Credential
What the GPC (Grant Professional Certified) credential is, GPCI’s points-based eligibility system, exam format and fees, and recertification requirements, plus how it compares to the CRA credential.
How to Find Federal Grant Awards: A Cross-Agency Search Guide (NSF, NIH, DOE, USAspending.gov)
A cross-agency orientation guide to searching already-awarded federal grants — NSF Award Search, NIH RePORTER, DOE’s PAMS Award Search, and USAspending.gov — for competitive intelligence, collaborator vetting, and funding-history benchmarking.
NSF Grant Success Rates: How Hard Is It Actually to Get Funded?
NSF’s agency-wide funding rate sits near 27%, but directorate and division rates range from single digits to over 40%. A look at NSF’s own Funding Profile and directorate-level data, and what it means for proposal planning.
University Endowment Tax: What the New Federal Excise Tax Means for Research Funding
A federal excise tax (IRC Section 4968) taxes net investment income at a small number of well-resourced private universities, on a tiered 1.4%-8% scale based on endowment assets per student. As restructured by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act for tax years starting in 2026, it narrows the covered-institution pool but raises rates for the largest endowments — with real downstream effects on endowed chairs, internal research grants, and research infrastructure capital funding at the institutions it covers.
ICE Campus Enforcement Actions and International Research Staff
What ICE campus enforcement actions are, how they differ from routine visa/SEVIS administration, and what research offices can do to prepare for grant-funded international postdocs and research staff.
DOE Award Search: How to Find Funded Department of Energy Grants
DOE-funded research grants are found through PAMS Award Search (DOE Office of Science awards specifically) and USAspending.gov (DOE awards department-wide) — there is no single department-wide DOE award database like NIH RePORTER or NSF Award Search.
J-1 Exchange Visitor Visa for Postdocs and Visiting Researchers: 2026 Changes
How J-1 Research Scholar and Professor status works for postdocs and visiting researchers, and what genuinely changed in 2026: the DHS fixed-admission-period rule, the new Visa Integrity Fee, and tighter consular screening.
OPT and STEM OPT for International Graduate Researchers: 2026 Rule Changes Explained
A research-administrator’s guide to OPT and the STEM OPT extension for international graduate researchers, including DHS’s 2026 rule replacing duration of status with a fixed admission period.
G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Foundation Grants: Focus Areas, Grant Structure & How to Apply
How the G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Foundation funds basic biomedical and life-sciences research: focus areas, grant structure, eligibility, and its institutional-nomination, invitation-based application process.
How to Look Up an eRA Commons ID
How to find an eRA Commons ID: where logged-in users see their own username and Person ID, and how a Signing Official or Account Administrator searches for a colleague’s existing account.
ACS Grants: American Chemical Society Research Funding Explained
What “ACS grants” means (American Chemical Society, primarily the Petroleum Research Fund) versus the unrelated American Cancer Society, plus PRF grant categories, award sizes, eligibility, and research-administration considerations.
Research Grant Funding Statistics: Where to Look
A navigational guide to the real, authoritative sources for research grant funding statistics (NIH RePORT, NSF/NCSES, UKRI), plus the terminology needed to read success-rate data correctly.
Cancer Research Funding: A Landscape Overview for Researchers
A landscape guide to who funds cancer research — NCI and the broader NIH, the American Cancer Society, disease-specific charities like LLS and the Prostate Cancer Foundation, and AACR — and how researchers combine them into a funding portfolio.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Grants: Focus Areas, Grant Types & How to Apply
How the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funds health equity work: focus areas, grant mechanisms, eligibility, the application process, and how it differs administratively from federal grants.
Certified Research Administrator: RACC, NCURA, and SRA International Programs Compared
How RACC’s tested CRA/CPRA/CFRA certifications differ from NCURA and SRA International’s completion-based certificate programs, how to become a certified research administrator, and where CASRAI’s own certification catalogue fits in.
Data Sharing Agreement Template: Illustrative Clause-by-Clause Example
An illustrative, generic data sharing agreement template walked through clause by clause — parties, permitted use, security requirements, publication rights, ownership, term, and liability — for research administrators drafting a discussion draft before institutional legal review.
NSF Award Search: How to Look Up Past and Current NSF-Funded Awards
NSF Award Search is the U.S. National Science Foundation’s public database for looking up past and current NSF-funded awards by PI, institution, or award number — distinct from NSF Funding Search, which lists open, not-yet-awarded opportunities.
NIH RePORTER vs. Grants.gov: What’s the Difference?
NIH RePORTER is the tool for searching NIH-funded past and current awards by PI, institution, or project number — distinct from Grants.gov, which lists open, not-yet-awarded opportunities.
How to Set Up an eRA Commons Account
How to register an eRA Commons account: the difference between institutional and individual registration, and the exact steps a Signing Official or Account Administrator follows to create a new PI, trainee, or staff account.
Private and Nonprofit Medical Research Funders: A Landscape Guide
How HHMI, Wellcome Trust, the Gates Foundation, and disease-specific charities such as the American Cancer Society fund medical research differently from NIH or NSF, and what those differences mean for research administrators.
Research Funding Data: What It Is, Where to Find It, and the Standards Behind It
What research funding data is, where it comes from, the identifier standards linking it together, and how research offices use it for reporting, benchmarking, and discovery.
Types of Grants: A Research Funding Taxonomy
A research administrator’s taxonomy of grant types: by legal instrument (grant vs. contract vs. cooperative agreement), by purpose (project, training, center, SBIR), by restriction (categorical, formula, block), and by selection method (competitive vs. non-competitive).
Grant Management Systems: What They Do (and How They Differ from a CRIS)
What a grant management system is, the pre-award/post-award functions it covers, how it differs from a CRIS/RIM system and NIH’s eRA Commons, and how institutions evaluate one.
