New Method: Proposal and Award Status Updates in Phoebe Search

According to Sponsored Project Office FY 2015 metric data, nearly 60% of awards received by SPO are processed within 14 calendar days, and approximately 75% of awards received in SPO are processed within 30 days. These data, while noteworthy, do not meet the needs of a PI who is interested in obtaining a status update on one particular proposal or individual award being processed through SPO.

Unfortunately it is impossible for SPO Contract and Grant Officers to respond to every inquiry about the individual status of the over 3,000 proposals and 4,500 award transactions processed through SPO each year. To do so would divert SPO’s Contract and Grant Officers from the essential task of actually processing these transactions.

However, Phoebe Search now offers another way for the campus to obtain basic status information about a particular proposal or award transaction without contacting a SPO Contract and Grant Officer. These are the steps:

1. Log in to Phoebe Search using your CalNet ID: https://phoebe.rac.berkeley.edu/search/
2. Enter the four digit Phoebe proposal number in the Phoebe Search Box.
3. If the proposal has been submitted to the sponsor, the status of the proposal will be listed as, “Approval Pending - Submitted.”
4. If the proposal has been submitted but the award document related to the proposal has not yet been received by SPO the status line will read, “Awaiting sponsor decision.”
5. If the award document related to the proposal has been received by SPO but the award has not yet been released by SPO the status line will read, “Award Received - in process.”
6. To check on the status of a fund advance:
   
   1. On the left hand side of the Phoebe Search page choose “award.”
   2. Enter the four digit Phoebe proposal number in the Phoebe Search Box.
   3. If a fund advance request has been received and processed the status will read “Fund advance.”

Please note: Since the vast majority of awards are processed by SPO within 30 days, PIs are encouraged to wait to contact SPO about an award with the status “Award Received – in process” until after 30 calendar days have passed. Award terms are being negotiated during this time, and when complex awards and contracts are being negotiated it may take time to reach agreement on these terms.

SPO is working on ways to make all SPO actions more transparent to the campus, and our efforts to provide an increasing number of status displays in Phoebe Search during the award negotiation process is a work in progress. With that in mind, campus PIs and Department/CSS RAs are asked to check Phoebe Search before initiating a “status call” to SPO so that work on these important campus transactions can take place.