IC Administration

What is the purpose?

The IC Administration module provides the ability to create checklists used in the Grants Management (GM) and Program (PGM) modules for assessing the scientific merit and business aspects of the grant application. These checklists are used for reviewing, entering assurances, and ensuring compliance with required prerequisites in order to award grants. The content of a checklist, which is based on the IC, activity code, and grant type, can be customized and utilized for GM and PGM applications.

The module also allows staff to support Commitment Accounting (CMAC), by providing authorized CMAC users with online interfaces and capabilities for commitment record processing. This CMAC functionality was designed by and currently supports the CDC. 

What are the features?

Features of the IC Admin module for checklist functions include the following:

• Houses the checklist templates used to create GM and PGM checklists.
• Provides query options to generate a hitlist of existing checklist questions on an agency-wide and IC-specific level.
• Allows the ability to create primary and secondary checklist questions.
• Allows users to edit and renumber the order in which checklist items are displayed.
• Customizes checklists to be agency-wide or IC-specific, which are driven by grant type, activity code, and the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) code.

The IC Admin module also allows CMAC users to do the following:

• Create commitment records and add Common Accounting Number (CAN) information to the records.
• View and edit commitment records and related CAN information.
• Assign CANs to commitment records.
• Approve CANs from primary operating division and other ICs if additional privileges have been assigned.

What are the benefits?

Assessing scientific progress and policy compliance is a critical element in managing grants. The IC Admin module provides a centralized system for creating and maintaining compliance checklists used by GM and PGM staff to track grant progress and administrative requirements. The ability to customize the checklist gives ICs flexibility in ensuring policy compliance and administrative reporting needs.

The IC Admin module also allows CMAC users to link commitments to CANs so that awards are only made using funds that have been explicitly authorized by the IC budget authority.

Who can use the IC Admin Module?

Users must hold specific roles to create checklist data in IC Admin. They must have one of the following roles assigned to their eRA account:

• To create checklist questions for the GM module:

• GM Rule Manager

• To create checklist questions for the PGM system:

• Institute and Center Operations Data Admin

CMAC users also require specific roles to create commitments and to approve CAN dollars:

• To create commitments in CMAC:

• CMAC Manager

• To approve CAN dollars:

• CMAC Approver

See the IC Admin User Guide for more information.