Pre-Award Questions & Answers
Submitting project goals and objectives at the beginning can save users time when preparing future, current and pending/other support documents (one of the required fields). This new field option is one of the ways that the PERA system will save the user time and effort by eliminating the need to provide the same information on multiple occasions. If a user does not have the goals and objectives at this stage, it can be edited at any time during the proposal development process. Additional help text will also be incorporated to guide the user through this step.
Known information about the investigator will be prepopulated and editable. In many cases a question previously answered will appear as a populated answer later in the process. Unfortunately, many of the compliance questions will not be pre-populated because they must be answered and certified for each unique proposal. This is also true for other modules as well. Users will have the opportunity to collaborate with their assigned Pre-Award specialist to complete the funding proposal and to assist with answering questions along the way. Users will have the ability, in some cases, to copy and update previous proposals that are in their dashboard to save time.
In some cases, a no answer to one question eliminates conditional questions so that they do not appear and do not require an answer. However, there are a number of mandatory questions that must be asked to ensure compliance with federal and sponsor requirements. The PERA team has reduced the number of the questions currently required on the proposal worksheet in the Proposal Information Portal (PIP). You can be assured that each question posed has a specific need for asking and a specific action taken based on the answers provided. Some questions enable system-to-system functionality and pre-populate required forms, others route or provide information about the proposal to other individuals who will engage based on the answer provided, while others gather key information required for institutional certification and overall compliance. The time to complete the questions is estimated to take 15-30 minutes depending on the complexity of the project and/or size of the project team. Each resubmission, revision (supplemental funding request), renewal, and continuation will utilize data and answers from the original submission requiring only a subset of questions to be answered.
Yes, the PERA system allows the assigned administrator to see what has been started and track where the proposal is in the process. This will be visible to the researcher as well. Pre-Award staff will continue to follow up with faculty if additional steps need to be taken to ensure the proposal is submitted on time.
Yes, some of the added capabilities of the PERA system are that you can communicate right in the system and the communications are visible and retained for historical tracking. PERA users can continue to communicate via the channel that they find most comfortable. Email, Teams, or the PERA comment feature can all be used for communicating with Pre-Award staff.
Yes, the cloud-based PERA system at Purdue has security measures in place, including login controls and role-based access. Purdue IT Security has been involved from the RFP stage in evaluating the product. PERA has the necessary level of security that is required by Purdue. PERA will operate like a lot of our other systems and software. PERA does not provide the same level of security as systems handling controlled or classified information. For sensitive research projects, additional security measures may be necessary.
When the University submits a proposal, we are required to certify certain statements. Additionally, we sometimes must provide evidence of these certifications being captured at proposal time to satisfy an audit or sponsor review. The PI and Co-PI certifications captured in PERA for each proposal allow the University to provide these sponsors with the required institutional certifications at the time of submission and to pull them from the permanent record when needed.
While investigators will still need initial assistance from Pre-Award teams for budget creation, the new Excel tool will facilitate subsequent adjustments. This tool provides a spreadsheet template with built-in formulas, allowing investigators to easily modify figures and see automatic updates to the total budget. Although the complexities of salary budgeting may still require expert input, this tool simplifies the process of making changes, reducing the need for constant back-and-forth communication.
No, limited submissions will remain in InfoReady.
Faculty will no longer use the Proposal Information Portal (PIP) and will transition to using the PERA system for all proposal-related activities. The PIP will be decommissioned with the launch of PERA. The current upfront questions in PIP will be replaced by smart forms in PERA. The project teams are evaluating the built-in questions to ensure they align with the university’s needs and drive the system’s functionality effectively.
Individuals with edit or read-only accesses are assigned on a per proposal basis.
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