University of Wisconsin–Madison

SMPH Guidance for Research Administration Management Portal

The Research Administration Management Portal (RAMP) is the University of Wisconsin’s system for processing proposals, awards, and agreements, including their modifications and setups.

You can find comprehensive guides and instructions for this system at the Research and Sponsored Programs (RSP) website.

This information is specific to processes within SMPH and includes tips to navigate the system. 

Approvals Required for All Funding Proposals

Before submission to the sponsor, all proposals must be reviewed and have these approvals:

  • SMPH Research Administration division budget approval (Ancillary Review: Division Budget Review)
  • Your department chair or their delegate’s approval (Ancillary Review: Chair Approval)
  • PI certification (if Multi-PIs, all MPIs will need to complete Multi-PI Certification Ancillary Review)
  • SMPH Research Administration Department Review
  • UW–Madison RSP approval

All extramurally sponsored projects require SMPH Research Administration Office review before submission to RSP. When in doubt, send an Ancillary Review to SMPH before “Submitting for Dept Review.”

How to find and send Ancillary reviews to the SMPH Research Administration Office:

  • Search by Cost Center: UWMSN | CCHL5 | SMPH | School of Medicine and Public Health 
  • The Org Cost Center Hierarchy (CCH) ID will be CCH000075
  • Ancillary reviews for the SMPH Research Administration Office may also be sent to CC002425

Submit to Department Review

“Submit to Department Review” is used to route records from departments to your Dean’s Office. Make sure you have obtained all appropriate Ancillary Reviews (Division Budget Review or Dean/Division Signoff or Other, as well as PI Certification) before sending a record for Department Review. Submitting for Department Review should be reserved for when you are done with a record and ready for the SMPH Research Administration Office/RSP to complete final processing.

PI Effort and Salaries on Sponsored Research Projects

SMPH requires minimum 1% effort for PIs on sponsored projects, with a few exceptions. 

SMPH policy on time and effort on grants ​ ​

Providing Access for Other Departments to Records

Please give read-only rights to any Research Administrator from an outside department when you have added one of their faculty/staff to a Funding Proposal. Do this by adding the Research Administrator to the Administrative Personnel (question 4c) on the FP Smartform, Personnel page. You should also send an ancillary review (Ancillary Review: Additional Department Review) so that other departments can review and approve their personnel included on a proposal. 

Submission Instructions

On the FP Smartform, submission details are important to include.

  • If submitting an SF424, you need to state in the Submission Instructions box if the proposal will be submitted in Cayuse or RAMP. Please have this entered before sending Division Budget ancillary review.
  • If nothing needs to be sent to the sponsor, state “Internal Routing only.”
  • Please explain what you want to happen after submission, i.e., do you want RSP to submit to sponsor? Will the department submit to sponsor? Do you need a letter of intent signed?
  • If RSP needs to log in to another system (i.e., ProposalCentral) to sign or complete the submission to the sponsor, please provide the proposal identifier so the application can be easily located.

Two-Step Process for MTA, DUA, NDA/CDA (Research Only, Not CTA), FFS Agreements

RAMP requires SMPH to use a 2-step process when reviewing certain agreements. This means all agreement records require a Dean/Division signoff to the SMPH Research Administration Office. When you receive approval, you then need to read the comments provided. The comments may or may not contain guidance to send an additional Dean/Division signoff to the SMPH Contracts Solution Team.

If you miss this step and submit the agreement to RSP, it will slow down the review of your agreement as RSP sends the record back to the department for the SMPH Contracts Solution Team to review.

No-Cost Extensions (NCEs)

PI approval of NCEs is necessary before submitting an NCE request.

PI approval can be:

  • PI signature on the NCE letter/request included in the record
  • PI was included on an email from/to the sponsor requesting or approving the NCE
  • PI has completed an ancillary review

*Note that for subawards, attaching a NOA showing that the prime grant has been extended is not sufficient for an NCE — there must also be evidence that the prime sponsor intends to extend the subaward to UW as well.

Just In Time (JIT)

JIT emails will indicate if the request needs to be submitted by email or in eRA Commons (NIH). When the response is prepared, it needs to be uploaded to RAMP and eRA Commons (if applicable). Then, use the email function within the RAMP record to send an email to the RSP specialist of the record to submit the JIT in eRA Commons or by email. The SMPH Research Administration Office team does not typically submit JIT responses to NIH.

Adding/Updating Cost-Centers

Adding/updating a cost center to an existing award should be done by the owning department as an Award Mod Request in RAMP.  

To add or update a cost-center that is within SMPH, indicate what cost-center(s) is to be added/updated and provide a short justification/reason for the change. Please also indicate whether the cost-center change impacts the scope of work. Chair approval and approval of the other department being added/updated is required before sending for Dean/Division signoff from the SMPH Research Administration Office.  

To add or update a cost-center that is outside of SMPH, please follow the same procedures, with the addition of seeking approval from the outside Dean/Division and department before sending for Dean/Division signoff from the SMPH Research Administration Office.