Carnegie Mellon University
December 20, 2017

Tips: December 20, 2017

By SPARCS Help Desk

SPARCS Tips

Following are some tips on using SPARCS to expedite the review and submissions of your proposals -

  • Is the department (Research Administrator, PI, or Foundation Relations) responsible for the submission of a proposal? Please remember to send confirmation of the submission to the OSP Specialist. You can do this by using the Email Specialist activity within the SPARCS Funding Proposal. The OSP specialist will update the SPARCS record to show the state as Pending Sponsor Review. Until this information is received it will be in the Final SPO Review state.
  • Are you creating a proposal because you have already received an award? Please remember to indicate that the proposal being routed is associated with an award document that has been received by Carnegie Mellon.  You can do this by using the Add Comments activity. Be sure to do this BEFORE you use the “Submit for department review” activity. This way everyone approving and reviewing the proposal is aware of the situation.
  • Are you getting held up by validations because you don’t have the information just yet? You can use the Jump To: menu to move off of the page and continue completing the remaining SmartForms. You can always go back to that particular SmartForm once you have the correct information!
  • Throughout the SPARCS system in addition to Help Text (found on the right hand side of the screen) you can also find the blue question mark symbols. If you click on these question marks, the definitions of the terms within that section will display on a popup screen.

 The SPARCS Proposal, SPARCS Department Approver and SPARCS In-Depth Budgeting training will be offered later in January at a reduced schedule. Be sure to check out the SPARCS Events Calendar for a date, time and location. Sign up for the appropriate session through FocusU.

SPARCS Updates

Maintenance

SPARCS unavailable due to maintenance on Wednesday, December 20, 2017 from 6:00 AM to 7:00 AM.