Awards where deposit of payment signifies acceptance 

These awards do NOT meet the definition of Voluntary Support, and they may or may not have a proposal record developed by Pre-Award.  This includes situations where we receive payment (partial or in the full amount of the proposal) from the sponsor, but no other award/agreement for Contracting to review.  The sponsor is providing the payment and has no expectations of any formal agreement to be executed. There are no terms and conditions associated with this funding. 

This also includes situations where the sponsor provides the payment, and the only additional document provided is a simple (often one page) award letter acknowledging the award to Purdue but not including any contractual terms and conditions and no countersignature required.  

These types of awards can be processed by Post Award without involvement from Contracting; however, if Post Award ever has concerns regarding the language in an award letter, they should email this to the Director of Post Award for review and determination if contracting needs to be involved or not.  

• The authorization follows the contractual signature delegations given to Post Award Director and Assistant Director. The Director of Post Award will review anything above delegation and work with the Associate Vice President for Sponsored Program Services to obtain approval.  
• The Cash Team will search in PERA for the existing Funding Proposal to match the payment (full or partial) with a pending proposal.  If successful, the payment documentation should be forwarded along with the Funding Proposal number via email to the Launch Team (awards@purdue.edu) for processing.  
  • Payments received without a pending proposal should be followed up by the Cash Team.  This follow up should be to determine if the payment does belong within SPS. Until the Cash Team has determined the payment belongs to SPS, there is no reason to involve either the Account Management or Launch Teams. 
    • If determined the payment is for a sponsored project, then the payment documentation and response from the sponsor should be sent to the Launch team at awards@purdue.edu. 
    • The Launch team will create an Award only funding proposal and then route to setup. 
    • If the payment is just a partial payment on a funding proposal, then Launch will contact the PI to see if an award letter or any other documentation was provided by the sponsor. If not, the launch team will reach out to the sponsor to confirm the total amount expected for the project.  
      • If funding was cut and all that is expected is that partial payment, launch should reach out to PI to confirm that the work can be completed within that funded amount. The award will be setup based on the amount of the payment and not the funding proposal. 
      • If additional funding will be received, then the award can be setup for the full amount.  
    • If funding is received but a grant cannot be created prior to the end of the month in which it was received, the SPS Cash Group will JV the funds to the Pending & Clearing account per the process guide for Pending & Clearing until a grant is created. 
  • If a funding proposal is routed to Contracting that should be awarded off the check following the procedures in this document, Contracting will route the documentation to awards@purdue.edu and clarify that these procedures can be followed. 

Note: If Post Award staff have any concerns with awarding funding in this manner or believe that an agreement should be in place, they should email this to the Director of Post Award for review and determination if contracting needs to be involved or not.  

Below are helpful steps with this process: 

• The Funding Administrator (AM Team) will need to review and confirm with the PI and/or sponsor that the payment is to be the award document and that there are no terms and conditions associated with the funding. If there are documents/agreements that need review or signature, then the Funding Administrator will forward to awards@purdue.edu for processing. 
• If there is no agreement and the sponsor confirms that the check/award letter is the only documentation, the Launch Administrator will email the award notice/email to the Director or Assistant Director for review.  
• The Director or Assistant Director will review the award notice/email and respond with approval to use the payment as the award document to the assigned Launch Administrator. 
• Once the approval of the Director or Assistant Director is received, the launch administrator will: 
  • Create an Award Only Funding Proposal, if a proposal record does not exist 
    • Save documents as Add Attachments. 
  • Click Award Letter Received to send to Setup for award establishment.