Grant Form Application Automated at UT Austin

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin who fill out federal grant applications are benefiting from an innovative technology that helps to streamline the process. This automated, entirely Web-based approach called Cayuse424 has created a ripple effect throughout the UT System.

Cayuse424 gives UT Austin educators, staff and researchers a more efficient way to access grant forms. "We have browser-based forms, with on-the-fly calculations, budgets, escalations - all the complex calculations associated with the funding opportunity are handled inside the Web-based software," said Mark Ace, vice president of business development for Oregon-based Cayuse Inc.

There's even a built-in error detector that alerts users when there's a mistake. "The way the system is set up will provide a warning, which alerts the user to correct the problem," said Ace, adding, "the fact that this system is Web-based and can be deployed immediately without installing any software is what has attracted large institutions, like UT Austin, to this approach to streamlining the application process."

For an institution like UT Austin, which submits hundreds of grant applications each year, a more efficient model for completing the necessary paperwork helps reduce major roadblocks.

Introducing Cayuse424 to prospective users has been fairly easy and the benefits are manifold, according to Sara Boettcher, director of research systems and technology at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio.

"Our implementation started with a conference call with a Cayuse representative who outlined the implementation tasks on their end and also helped our Office of Sponsored Programs [OSP] devise a plan for a staged implementation with our local research community," she said.

It took only a few days for several OSP staff members to be trained on the system. Then, OSP chose six departments at the Health Science Center for training. Simultaneously, Cayuse activated the production version of the Web application that UT would use for grant applications. OSP provided end-user training to the designated departments and accounts were made available to users.

Since Cayuse424 is a subscription-based service, the annual fees are paid at the institutional level, Boettcher said. Each UT System institution is factored into the equation - the amount of federal research dollars each institution brings in annually is used to calculate its cost. No upgrades to hardware or software were required for the rollout.   

Competition Spurs UT
Timing is everything when competing for the rapidly shrinking pool of federal dollars, according to Elena Mota, program coordinator of the UT Austin Office of Sponsored Projects. Not only are resources diminishing, but the number of applicants competing for those federal dollars also is increasing, she said, which makes it even more crucial to streamline the application process for faculty and researchers who routinely write grants to federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense.

In fact, there were 2,900 submissions in 2006 from UT Austin alone, including applications to federal, state, private foundations and corporate funding agencies. Because the requests range from $5,000 to several million dollars, all proposal requests must meet state, university and federal guidelines. That's why Mota, who trains users, was pleased that the Web-based system was relatively fast and easy to implement.

"The process itself was simple; it was just the fact that we didn't have a lot of time to deploy," Mota said. "Now here we are a year later, and it's not as labor intensive for people to get their grants out the door because if people have already done a proposal, they are already in the system."