Looking for the perfect grant or funding source to support your research and scholarly activities? The Pre-Award Team offers personalized one-on-one sessions to help you identify opportunities tailored to your project. In these sessions, you will receive expert guidance on navigating databases, refining search strategies, and uncovering funding programs that align with your goals.

Schedule your session today and take the next step toward securing support for your work!

Email: Samantha Ellithorpe at sellithorpe@wcu.edu or Matt Salerno at msalerno@wcu.edu to schedule a session.

A subaward to the institution should be treated like any other sponsored agreement coming to the institution. As soon as you know that you will be included in another institution’s proposal as a subawardee, let us know!

Subaward packages must be routed and approved in InfoEd before submission. These packages will typically include the following documents:

• Subrecipient Commitment Form
• Statement of Work
• Budget and Budget Justification
• Letter of Support
• Biosketch

Contact the Pre-Award Team to ensure your subaward package is complete and submitted on time!

We’d like to remind Principal Investigators (PIs) and grant staff that meals for individuals traveling on grant-related activities must be reimbursed at the approved per diem rates. Federal guidance places strict limitations on food purchases. Meals and refreshments are generally not allowable unless they meet specific criteria.

• Direct food purchases (such as catering or snacks) are permitted only when:
• They are integral to the program objectives,
• Explicitly approved in the grant budget or by the sponsor in writing, and
• Fully documented to demonstrate necessity and reasonableness.

If your grant allows direct food purchases, please note that Cameron or Ben may request additional details during expense review to ensure compliance.

For any questions about allowable costs or if clarification is needed, contact the Post-Award Accounting Office before incurring expenses.

If a grant requires budget revision, no cost extension, change in PI or change in scope, note these prior action requests requires Office of Research Administration’s oversight and approval. To start the process, please complete the Post-Award Action Form. This form is the simplest and most efficient way for our team to manage requests. Once submitted, Cameron or Ben will follow up with you to discuss your submission and next steps.

We appreciate your collaboration and look forward to supporting you with your prior action requests!

To make connecting easier, the Post-Award team has created a Bookings page with quick meeting templates designed for faculty and staff. These templates reflect Ben and Cameron’s availability, so you’ll only see times that work with their schedules.

Current meeting options and their purposes:

• Fund Review – Schedule time for a detailed review of your project expenditures.
• ORA PAR Form Follow-Up – Discuss your Prior Action Request, timelines, and next steps.
• Project Closeout Meeting – Meet 90–120 days before your project ends to review your budget, reporting requirements, NCE needs, and more.
• 30-Minute Meeting – A quick session for questions that need more discussion than email allows.
• PI Check-In – Set up recurring meetings to review budgets, procurement realities, upcoming events, travel, hiring grant personnel, AY/SMR effort, and other project activities.

Ready to schedule?

Visit our Bookings Page to find a meeting option or time that works best for you. You can also click on each meeting option for their respective meeting link.

Remember to close IRB records when ALL are true:

• All data collection is complete
• Access to identifiable or coded data (where a key exists) is no longer needed
• You are only working with de-identified data or all analysis is completed
• All study interventions and participant contact have been completed.

Study closures are created by completing a Continuing Review submission and including in the submission that you wish to close the study.

You can use the following instructions to complete this process: IRB Study Closure How To

For questions, contact: Mallory Ball mball@wcu.edu 

Do you want to discuss something one-on-one with the Compliance unit? Use the Bookings link below to schedule a time that works best for you!

Book time with Mallory Ball: Office hours

To meet growing interest, the ORA has scheduled more workshop sessions for the spring! Don’t miss these opportunities to build your grants knowledge and connect with peers.

• Grant Seeking, 2/19/2026, 3:00-4:00 pm, Apodaca 115: designed to help faculty search and locate funding opportunities using the SPIN database and other grant-seeking resources.
• Grants 101, 2/12/2026, 3:30-4:30 pm or 3/31/2026, 3:30-4:30 pm, Apodaca 115: designed for the entry-level knowledge-based faculty who want exposure to the world of grants. It covers the who, what, and how…a great place to start!
• Financial Management, 3/03/2026, 3:00-4:00 pm, virtually: designed for our more experienced faculty who want to learn more about shadow budgets, personnel costs, and purchasing rules and guidelines to help manage their grant.

Register Now. Seats are limited.

We are excited to announce a new addition to the site: Special Programs & More. This page is your go-to for upcoming events, workshops, presentations, and special programming opportunities. Explore what’s new and stay connected.