Awards Improvement and Development Effort (AIDE)
Transforming grant management at the University of Washington
Finance, Planning & Budgeting, the Office of Research, and UW Information Technology are collaborating to improve awards management in grants administration. This initiative focuses on streamlining award setup, enhancing reporting capabilities, and increasing efficiency across units to better support research efforts.
The success of the AIDE initiative is dependent on, and will build upon, the excellent work already undertaken by the dedicated teams in Sponsored Programs Finance and Grant & Contract Accounting. Learn more about the Post-Award Grant Backlog progress here.
Continue reading to learn more about the goals, sponsors, and timeline of the AIDE Initiative.
Progress Dashboard
Check back for weekly updates on the Awards Improvement and Development Effort. Access the dashboard by clicking on image below.
Goals
Simplify and standardize workflows to reduce manual workarounds and speed up award setup. This includes optimizing Sage-to-Workday integration for improved efficiency.
Optimize processes within Workday to clearly define ownership, minimize manual interventions, and improve the accuracy and timeliness of sub-award management.
Provide accurate and comprehensive reporting solutions for principal investigators (PIs), departments, schools, and colleges. Address missing or incorrect data issues and close gaps in institution-level reporting capabilities.
Implement advanced Workday features to increase visibility of interdependent issues, speed up reporting, leverage Workday to increase efficiency across units, and support greater transparency and accountability.
Resolve critical backlogs in award and sub-award set up, closing, and reporting through expedited processing.
Project Timeline
The AIDE Initiative is organized into two concurrent tracks to create immediate positive impacts.
Main Track: This 20-week initiative, commencing in mid-February 2025, aims to optimize Workday processes, ensure alignment across stakeholder organizations, and identify and implement key technology enhancements and integration improvements.
Fast Track: This track seeks to address and resolve significant backlogs in award and subaward setup, invoicing, closeout processes, and reporting.
Leadership
Executive Sponsor
Andreas Bohman | Vice President, UW Information Technology, Chief Information Officer
Provides leadership and strategic oversight for the initiative, fostering collaboration between FPB, OR, and UW-IT. Ensures alignment with institutional priorities and resolves high-level challenges.
Co-Sponsors
Mari Ostendorf | Vice Provost, Office of Research
Focuses on streamlining award and subaward workflows, meeting sponsor compliance standards, and addressing reporting needs for PIs and institutional stakeholders.
Jason Campbell | Vice President, Finance & Budget Strategy, Finance, Planning & Budgeting, Deputy Chief Financial Officer
Leads efforts to improve post-award processes, aligning them with financial policies and leveraging efficient tools to optimize resource utilization and ensure compliance.
Check back for updates as we move through the phases of this effort. Stay up to date on our progress and share your feedback by by subscribing to the AIDE mailing list.