Grants and Contracts

The SESE business office’s grants and contracts team supports the research of the SESE faculty throughout the entire lifecycle of externally sponsored projects, from proposal submission to award closeout. Please see below for more information about how we can help.

Ann Byers annbyers@illinois.edu is retiring Friday, May 29, 2026 but will continue to complete all proposals that she is currently working on.

Beginning 05/01/2026, he Interim LAS Research Office Contact will manage all new SESE Proposal Requests and serve as the primary Sponsored Research contact:

Name: Austin Dallas

Title: Research Admin Manager

Email: adallas2@illinois.edu

Phone: 217-244-5464

Pre-Award

Grant Proposals/Resubmissions/Renewals

A new proposal request form should be submitted as soon as possible. To submit a new proposal request, please complete this proposal form.

Following submission of the proposal form, you will be notified by the SESE Business Office if they accept your proposal for processing and it is within acceptable timelines. Please submit proposals to the proposal form as early as possible (i.e., as soon as you know you will be preparing a proposal so the SESE Business Office can allocate personnel. In addition to proposal processing time by the SESE Business Office, proposals will need to be reviewed by our Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA) office before submission.

Please note that the LAS Office of Research requests final budget, justification, and all attachments ready for review a minimum 10 business days before SPA deadline. This is a necessary, yet interim constraint.

The SESE Business Office requires 10 business days for processing your proposals prior to submission to SPA. Exceptions for late submission may be obtained in unusual circumstances from the SESE Business Office depending on staff availability, and your Unit Executive Officer. This time period is used to prepare budgets, budget justifications, enter data into proposal portals, and check proposals for compliance with sponsor and federal regulations.

SPA requires a mandatory 4 full business days for processing prior to the submission deadline, however you may make edits ONLY to the proposal statement of work in some cases until the day prior to submission. You can use the SPA proposal deadlines calculator to determine the timeline based on the sponsor’s deadline. Use 10 days for the number of days for departmental review. Note that edits to the final statement of work may be made until the deadline listed on the deadlines calculator, but proposers should be sure to be in close communication with the SESE Business Office on those updates.

When discussing proposing a collaborative proposal or subcontract with an agency, another institution or entity on campus, be sure to check with the other organizations for their proposal timeline and adjust the timeline for submitting a proposal to the SESE Business Office/SPA accordingly.

The business office can assist by providing internal budget models, templates for justifications, and provides reviews of all documents prior to submission. We can also coordinate with other units on campus for development support.

Many sponsors are now requiring CVs and C&Ps to be created in SciENcv. It is recommended to work on these ahead of time so they will only need to be updated when submitting.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sciencv/

Specific details for travel are requested because we are using a website based on location for lodging and per diem. You will need to provide location, duration and purpose for all travel.

Let Austin know about outcomes by forwarding feedback communication received from the sponsor.

Austin should be the point of contact between faculty and SPA. Please do not reach out to SPA on your own.

Departmental Budget Templates

Excel template for CliMAS

Excel template for ESEC

Excel template for GGIS

Other services the grants team can assist with:

Award executions
Other support documents
Current and Pending documents

Other campus resources:

Sponsored Programs Administration
University of Illinois myResearch Portal
- Instructions for the myResearch Portal are here: myResearch Portal Guide
University of Illinois Disclosure Reporting
University of Illinois FCOI Checklist

Post-Award

If you have questions regarding the process after a successful grant is awarded, contact the grants team at [new email to arrive soon!].

Monthly Financial Reports – My-UI-Financials does not require manual adjustments at month end. Each month when Christi or Sherri receives a notice from the University that the prior month has been closed financially, an email will be sent out to the SESE Users asking them to log into My-UI-Financials and review transactions.

Guide to My-UI-Financials Reports

Please contact the grants team with any questions regarding the expenditures on your research projects.