Office of Research Administration

The Office of Research Administration (ORA) provides assistance to faculty to identify funding sources, submit proposals, and administer grants and contracts. 

The ORA has moved and is now located on the second floor of Wannalancit Mills. Office hours are M-F, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.  Stop by any time you need grant information and assistance.

The following are a list of staff assignments:

Division/Department	Research Services	Financial Administrator	Grant Accountant
School of Health & Environment (except for Work Environment) Division of Humanities and Social Sciences Division of Sciences (except for Center for Atmospheric Research)	Linda Gladu-Ennis Extension 4718	Suzanne Mahoney Extension 4726	Nancy Desjardins Extension 4719
College of Engineering College of Management Graduate School of Education Center for Atmospheric Research Work Environment TURI Lowell Center for Sustainable Production	Carlo Eracleo Extension 4714	Kevin Mascoll Extension 3646	Kathleen Zerneri Extension 3474

Responsibilities are divided as follows:

Research Services

Under the direction of Linda Concino, Research Services assists with proposal development, review and submission to the funding agency. Once awarded, Research Services will assist with all contractual issues, will coordinate with the compliance office and CVIP, and assist in grant close-out activities. Specific responsibilities include:

• Assistance to investigators in locating funding sources
• Proposal guideline interpretation
• Budget preparation
• Completion of all required proposal forms
• Submission of proposal, either electronically or paper copy
• Provide authorized institutional approval of submissions
• Negotiation of terms and conditions and execution of agreements on behalf of UML
• Set up of new awards and modification of existing awards
• Subcontract issuance
• Contracts for services for research project consultants
• Post-Award Sponsor Approvals including:
  • No-cost extensions
  • Significant re-budgeting action (more than 25%)
  • Changes in the objectives or scope of the project
  • Change of principal investigator
  • Change in key personnel whose expertise is critical to the project
  • Change in grantee institution
  • Purchasing equipment not originally budgeted
  • Change in the use of human subjects or animals
  • Adding or increasing a subcontract not originally budgeted
  • Transferring substantive programmatic work by contract
    

Financial Administration

Under the direction of Michael Accardi, Financial Administration is the bridge activity between pre-award and grant accounting and is directly responsible for the financial management of sponsored research projects.  Please contact Financial Administration for the following activities 

• Primary contact for financial activity for PIs, Co-PIs and project staff
• Assist the principal investigator with projections, estimates and financial data
• Meet with principal investigators to review expenses and resolve financial issues as required
• Assist in the preparation of cost transfers ensuring cost transfers are made timely and in accordance with sponsor's terms
• Assists the principal investigator with payroll issues
• Review and sign off on personnel action forms, additional compensation forms and pro-card requests
• Monitor award/overhead accounts through life of award/project
• Approve and review purchase requests to ensure compliance with terms and conditions of award
• Review and resolve deficits for all research grants and contracts

Grant Accounting

Under the direction of Michael Accardi, Grant Accounting is responsible for the accounting and management of all restricted contracts and grants.

• Management of billing and cash collection
• Preparation of interim and final financial reports
• IDC distribution
• Coordination of all financial audit matters relative to sponsored projects
• Process cost transfers
• Perform grant closeout functions
• Account and grant reconciliation

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