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What is a Stand-Alone Grant?

Stand-alone grants are funding sources with limited duration terms. This means that they are not meant to be ongoing in perpetuity. For example, a faculty start-up package is not meant to last a faculty member’s entire career at UW. It is meant to help start their labs, scholarship, and research for a specified period (this varies by unit).

Stand-alone grants will carry over their net position from year to year. This means that if there is a balance at the end of year 1, it will show as a beginning balance in year 2.

Guard Rails for a Stand-Alone Grants

The College of the Environment assigns stand-alone grants under the following conditions:

  1. Professorships: While gifts have a Gift Worktag and we apply the program and assignee to revenue and expenses for which faculty may have “pots” of money in a single gift, the use of a stand-alone grant allows the pot of funds to show in the PI Dashboard and allows easier reporting and tracking. Each Stand Alone Grant will be a driver, which will drive the Cost Center, Program, Assignee, Gift, Fund and Function. The naming convention is as follows:
    • GRXXXXXXX CoEnv | Unit (acronym) | Shortened Gift Name Professorship- faculty last name, first initial[period]
  2. Endowed Chairs: While gifts have a Gift Worktag and we apply the program and assignee to revenue and expenses for which faculty may have “pots” of money in a single gift, the use of a stand-alone grant allows the pot of funds to show in the PI Dashboard and allows easier reporting and tracking. Each Stand Alone Grant will be a driver which will drive: Cost Center, Program, Assignee, Gift, Fund and Function. This also allows for better management of distribution tracking. The naming convention is as follows:
    • CoEnv | Department Name (acronym) | Name of Endowed Chair- Last Name, First Initial
  3. Director or Chair Incentives: The College creates stand-alone grants for all Director or Chair Incentives. The naming conventions are as follows:
    • CoEnv | Department Name (acronym) | Director (or Chair if they are Chair) Incentives – Last Name, First Initial[period]
  4. Internal Research Awards: The College issues numerous internal awards through indirect cost recovery funds and gift funds. Many of these are limited in duration (i.e., they must be spent in 1-3 years). These driver worktags will “drive (autopopulate) cost center, resource, fund, function, program and assignee. These are generally more than 1 year and are not for students. The naming convention is as follows:
    • GRXXXXXXX CoEnv | Unit (acronym) | Name of the Award- faculty last name, first initial[period]
  5. Faculty Start-Up Packages:  All faculty Start-Up Packages receive a stand-alone grant. In general, faculty start-up packages are funded from multiple sources. The naming convention for these will be as follows:
    • Stand Alone Grant 1 for Dean’s Office Portion :
      • CoEnv | Unit Name (Acronym) | Faculty Start-Up 1- Last Name, First Initial[period]
    • Stand Alone Grant 2 for Unit Contribution using Primary Resource A: 
      • CoEnv | Unit Name (Acronym) | Faculty Start Up 2- Last Name, First Initial[period]  
    • If Relevant, Stand Alone Grant 3 for Central Matches Contribution: 
      • CoEnv | Unit Name (Acronym) | Faculty Start-Up 3- Last Name, First Initial[period]
    • If the Unit uses more than one resource for its contribution, it would repeat with Faculty Start-Up 2B, 2C, etc.
    • If another Unit contributes and it is not the Dean’s Office or a Central Match, it will repeat with Faculty Start Up 4,5,6
  6. Faculty Research Cost Recovery Funds: Some units distribute Indirect Cost Recovery Funds to labs each fiscal year depending on available resources. Every faculty lab will be assigned a research cost recovery stand-alone grant. These will drive Resource, Fund, Program, Function and Assignee. The naming convention is as follows:
    • CoEnv | Department Name (acronym) | Faculty Research Cost Recovery – Faculty Last Name, first initial[period]
  7. Research Cost Recovery not assigned to a faculty member: Some units distribute Indirect Cost Recovery Funds to labs each fiscal year depending on available resources. Every research lab will be assigned a research cost recovery stand-alone grant. These will drive Resource, Fund, Program, Function and Assignee. The naming convention is as follows:
    • CoEnv | Labs Research Cost Recovery- last name of researcher, first initial[period]
  8. Faculty Retention Packages: Each faculty member awarded a retention faculty will receive a stand-alone grant from each funding source contributing to the retention package. The naming convention is as follows:
    • Dean’s Office Contributions: CoEnv | Department Name (acronym) | Faculty Retention 1 – Faculty Last Name, first initial[period]
    • Unit Contributions: CoEnv | Department Name (acronym) | Faculty Retention 2 – Faculty Last Name, first initial[period]
    • Central or outside Unit Contribution: CoEnv | Department Name (acronym) | Faculty Retention 3 – Faculty Last Name, first initial[period]
  9. Student Technology Funds (STF) Student Technology Fund Awards will be assigned a stand-alone grant. As part of the HUB Operations and Services, the Associate Director for Finance and Business Operations will request security hierarchies when creating and awarding STF funds. The naming conventions are: Student Life | Student Technology Fee (STF) Award | Department Name and Award title. The Dean’s Office does not control the creation of these awards. Unless otherwise specified, most STF awards fall under the Research and Engagement Activities Cost Centers.
  10. Surplus funds from sponsored awards: Sometimes sponsored awards are fixed price and a unit will have a remaining balance they are allowed to retain. While this is identified through a resource worktag, units have differing policies on whether or not a Principal Investigator (PI) retains the use of the residual funds. Naming conventions are as follows:
    • CoEnv | Department Name (Acronym) | Surplus – faculty last name, first initial[period]

What a Stand Alone Grant is Not

Despite the unfortunate name, a stand-alone grant is not a sponsored award. All sponsored awards are assigned a Grant Worktag and are from an award that was applied for through the eGC1 system, Approved by a department, the Dean’s Office, and the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP), and awarded and set up by Grant and Contract Accounting.

A stand-alone grant is not a replacement for legacy state budget numbers.

A stand-alone grant is not a specific activity.

A stand-alone grant cannot be used as cost share on a sponsored program because it will collide with a sponsored program grant worktag, which is required for all cost share. Units will have to provide the resource and fund through a cost share addendum assigned a sponsored award grant worktag and project worktag.

Advantages for Faculty with Stand-Alone Grants

Stand-alone grants will show on the Principal Investigator Dashboard but must be configured in the widget. This is why it is important for stand-alone grants to be assigned a related program and assignee worktag.

Advantages for Transacting on Stand-Alone Grants

Stand-alone grants are meant to be drivers. They are intended to drive the cost Center, Resource, Fund, Program, and function. When transacting, one should enter a stand-alone grant, and Workday will auto-populate the cost center, resource, fund, program, assignee, and function.

Reporting and Security on Stand-Alone Grants

Each stand-alone grant is placed into a hierarchy for reporting purposes. This will enable the unit to report on all start-up packages for their unit and the Dean’s Office to report college-wide on faculty start-up packages. Current Hierarchies are as follows:

  • Level 1 is the Enterprise (all of UW)
  • Level 2 is stand-alone grants (to distinguish them from sponsored awards)
  • Level 3 is the College of the Environment Stand Alone Grants
  • Level 4 includes:
    • Faculty Retentions
    • Faculty Start-Up
    • Faculty Research Cost Recovery
    • Professorships and Endowed Chairs
    • Internal Awards
    • STF Awards

Additionally, all stand-alone grants are assigned to a “Grant Security Hierarchy,” which means that the Grant Manager role will need to be transferred to individuals who manage these stand-alone grants.

Users may run Extract FDM—Stand Alone Grants R1356 in Workday to review all stand-alone grants in a unit. We recommend leaving all filters blank and sorting by level 2.

In 2025, the college will massively clean up the stand-alone grant hierarchies to report more holistically by unit and on a college level.