SmartGrant
Background/History
ERA Software Systems' founder first created a fully integrated grant and contract management system in the mid-1990s while working at a large research university. With input from universities across the nation, the original Grant and Application Management System (GAMS) was born. Since then, the company has amassed a loyal following among customers seeking an out-of-the-box solution for running a successful sponsored projects office. As the software continued to grow and evolve into a highly robust system, the software's name changed from GAMS to SmartGrant.
In October of 2019, Cayuse, another leader in research administration software, acquired ERA Software Systems. This merger provided Cayuse with additional capabilities to their already robust suite of research products, and ERA Software Systems' customers joined the Cayuse family.
Like Cayuse, ERA Software Systems' founder was actively involved in higher education research administration, as mentioned above, and received a Small Business Innovation Research grant to create system-to-system proposal submission software nearly two decades ago. SmartGrant is recognized as a comprehensive, user-friendly lifecycle application by research institutions of all sizes.
ERA Software Systems has always been committed to supporting pre-award, post-award, and compliance functions and processes in research offices. The merger between ERA Software Systems and Cayuse allows both systems to expand resources, bringing the best that both companies and systems have to offer to a collective customer base.
Having a grants and contracts management software provides a comprehensive suite of innovative, easy-to-use solutions that accelerate research outcomes by increasing collaboration and removing administrative burdens. The software simplifies workflow, eliminates manual and redundant processes, and increases productivity.
Weber State Acquires SmartGrant
During the summer of 2019, the Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP) set out to find a grant and contract management system that would meet the needs of faculty and staff at the institution. The office was looking to standardize processes using innovative technology, while offering faculty and staff a more transparent and interactive system. After researching and demoing several different software solutions and speaking with other state and sister institutions, OSP made the decision to go with ERA Software Systems' SmartGrant. Sponsored Projects has spent the last eight months integrating grants and contracts data with SmartGrant, and learning all there is to know about the system. As an office, we have developed new Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) with the acquisition of SmartGrant that will aid in our efforts of providing faculty and staff at Weber State with a positive, interactive, and customer-service-oriented solution when it comes to grants and contracts.
The Office of Sponsored Projects is excited to announce that we will be rolling out SmartGrant as a standard process for grants and contracts management in the near future. We will be providing training, hosting drop-in labs, and distributing information and guides as a part of the rollout process. Keep an eye out for SmartGrant information to hit your email and department inboxes.
If you have any questions about SmartGrant and/or system rollout, please contact:
Brooke Lindgren (brookelindgren@weber.edu) OR James Taylor jamestaylor8@weber.edu
The SmartGrant modules that will be a part of the initial rollout are the pre- and post-award modules. IRB and IACUC modules are a part of the purchased software package, and will be available once the intial rollout has been completed and is fully operational.
Benefits
Faculty/Staff Benefits
- Reduce administrative burden
- Start research sooner
- Electronic approvals
- Easily check and manage budget
- Easily interact with OSP through system
- All information and documentation (pre- and post-award) housed in one place
Administrator Benefits
- Save time submitting proposals and managing sponsored projects
- Increase collaboration with PIs
- Speed up compliance efforts and processes