Phase III of UFIRST went live on July 6 and brings the post-awards business process online. UFIRST Awards creates a more efficient award management process for researchers and administrators and introduces a streamlined environment for the $700+ million in research funding currently managed at UF.
Completed in nine months, the new functionality represents the third and final phase of the UFIRST initiative. Phase III also introduced a new proposal management system with electronic integration to grants.gov for federal submissions. This has enabled the Office of Research to retire Cayuse, its previous software for electronic grants submissions, resulting in savings of $180,000 per year. The entire grants management process is now more transparent, as relevant information for the processing of awards is visible in one location.
There are multiple resources to help research staff with the transition to UFIRST Awards. Training is available as are instruction guides located in myUFL’s Grants Toolkit. An article covering more specific dates, training requirements, and the functionalities of the UFIRST service was published in FYI. Anyone with questions about using UFIRST may email ufirst@research.ufl.edu.