Central Office Request - Sponsor Approval for Carry Forward

The SeRA Central Office Request allows department administrators to submit requests to their central sponsored research office within the SeRA system. Benefits of utilizing Central Office Requests include: custom forms and fields for different request types, ability to add related attachments to the request, ability to search and see when a request was submitted, view information provided in a request, to whom a request was assigned, and the current status of a request.

Please do NOT use a Central Office Request to follow up on the status of an existing SeRA transaction (proposal, award, PTA, Central Office Request etc.). Rather, look up the relevant transaction in SeRA to view the latest information. If a follow up is needed, email the current assignee of the request.

When to use the Central Office Request – Sponsor Approval for Carry Forward:

To initiate a sponsor prior approval request to carry forward unspent funds from an ending budget period to a new budget period.

1. Log into SeRA
2. From the red banner at the top of any page within SeRA click on Search. Enter the relevant SPO #. The search will interactively display matches according to what is being entered. Click on the appropriate blue reference number link to drill into the relevant record.

*Note - if you press Enter on your keyboard, the first listed search result will be automatically selected

3. From the Project Summary page, click on Start a Transaction menu, and select Central Office Request

4. A Start Transaction dialog box will open. From the Request Type drop down menu select Sponsor Approval for Carry Forward and click Start

5. Enter the following information in the Request Description textbox:

• Indicate how this request should be submitted to the sponsor i.e. from within a sponsor system or via email.
  1. If the request should submitted to the sponsor via a sponsor system, state which system i.e. research.gov, Fastlane, eRA commons etc.
  2. If the request should be submitted to the sponsor via email, provide the sponsor point-of-contact name and email address.

• An explanation of why unspent funds will remain from the ending budget period and how the funds will be used in the next budget period in support of the scope of work
• If the carry forward will result in any changes in the scope of work, provide an explanation of the changes

6. Attach relevant supporting documents such as a revised detailed budget and budget justification

• From the right hand menu (RHM) under Quick Links, click Add Attachments
• Select the Category: Notification/Request and the appropriate Sub-Category from the pick-list
• Select the file to attach
• Enter any file tags, if desired
• Click Attach
• Repeat for each document you would like to attach to the Central Office Request