New to
Sponsored Projects Administration at Penn?

On behalf of the Office of Research Services (ORS), welcome to this exciting area at the Univeristy of Pennsylvania. Penn ranks among America's top recipients of competitve research grants and receives more than $700 million in external funding annually. For more information on current research at Penn, please visit Research at Penn. As administrators, we work to ensure that these funds are properly administered. ORS is here to assist the Principal Investigators and Business Administrators in accomplishing this mission. An overview of our website is provided below in an effort to introduce new members of the research community to the available resources and tools.

What do I need to know and where do I find it?

Our website has been designed to provide the tools that those responsible for the administration of sponsored projects at Penn will need. Below is some information regarding how the website is organized.

The left bar of the homepage (and most other pages) includes links to our most visited pages. These are organized by topic.

From our homepage, there are several categories to select from that will allow individuals to view information indexed by area of interest. There is a link called Principal Investigators that includes information and resources which would be of interest to PI's. The Proposals link will bring one to a list of resources available for those preparing proposals. The Award Management link brings site visitors to an area where links have been organized by the life of the award. Also included on our homepage is a link to Sponsor links which provides a list of quick links to available sponsor's websites. Links to our Sponsored Projects Handbook and to other Penn Offices involved in sponsored projects administration at Penn are also included.

On the right side of our homepage, there are links to a variety of spotlight topics which are of high interest to sponsored projects administrators. At the bottom of that section, you will find a link to an archive of all ORS Newsletters. You will also find a link that will instruct you on how to subscribe to our listserv. Everyone involved in the administration of sponsored projects at Penn should be subscribed to the listserv. It is monitored and subscribers will only receive messsages which have been approved as highly relevant and worthwhile (generally 1-4 messages per month including a link to the monthly newsletter).

Touring the ORS website is a great way to get an introduction to sponsored projects administration at Penn. There are a variety of training resources also available to new administrators. These include both hands on training and online training. Please see below or the ORS Training page for more information. Comments or suggestions regarding the ORS Website are greatly appreciated and should be forwarded to orsweb@upenn.edu.

While the ORS website has been created to provide Penn administrators with tools to use in making decisions regarding the awards they administer, Sponsored Projects administrators should keep in mind that ORS staff members are here to assist administrators as needed.

If you have any questions regarding the proper administration of sponsored projects at Penn, please contact an ORS staff member for further assistance.

What types of training are available?

A variety of training is available to those involved in sponsored projects administration at Penn.

For access to online training on a variety of topics, please click below:
Research Compliance Tutorials and Quizzes

To take a quick quiz on a variety of sponsored projects topics, please click below:
Please note quiz changes each time taken. (Great tool for learning!)
Research Administration Quick Quiz

To view frequently asked questions on a variety of topics, please click below:
Research Administration FAQ's

To learn more about ORS, please click below:
Research Services Overview Presentation Slides