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Home Division of Research & Innovation News & Impact OPAM Brings Support to Researchers

OPAM Coordinates Support for Researchers

The Office of Post-Award Management is a joint initiative, acts as a liaison and initial touchpoint to provide support for PIs

The Office of Post-Award Management (OPAM) is a collaborative initiative over two divisions. This unit is responsible for the financial administration of post-award management and acts as an initial touchpoint for hopeful PIs as well as a liaison between Pre and Post Awards. The Chief Financial Officer, VP for Business and Finance, and the Executive VP for Research & Innovation have joint oversight.

As the liaison between the central and the decentralized research units offering post-award management support and service by OPAM, the post-award management support and service aims to ensure efficiency, timely processing and overall research compliance for all new and continuing awards for the campus research community. OPAM’s goal is to ensure that the university complies with sponsor requirements concerning financial reporting and project closeout.

The mission of OPAM is to provide a customer-facing one-stop-shop office to support and streamline the management of the university’s sponsored project from award set-up to closeout. All expenses that are allowable, allocable and reasonable to the project, and any required adjustment for costs is posted in compliance with accounting, reporting and close-out procedures. Achieving compliance with sponsored awards is a responsibility shared by the Principal Investigator (PI), departmental business offices (BO), grants, contracts accounting and OPAM. Such as, with the PI, you are ensuring that they are the designee before any financial reporting and invoicing are submitted.

The OPAM Team consists of five members with titles ranging from assistant vice-president, research administration & compliance (25 years), director of the Office of Sponsored Programs (20 years), manager of Grants & Contracts (25 years), and two research support analysts (13-25 years), totaling 108 years of experience in accounting, budget, research, finance and compliance. The tenured research support analysts will collaborate with PIs and BOs to provide individualized assistance for post-award research administration.

The services offered by OPAM to the research community include but not limited to the following:

  • Receive post-award requests and track actions until fully executed
  • Meet with PIs/BOs to collaborate and advise for award management
  • Analyze and advise central/decentralized units regarding Notice of Award terms and conditions, university, sponsor, and federal policies
  • Aid PIs/BOs with Financial Analysis and Burn Rate, as necessary
  • Review and advise on re-budget
  • Provide guidance with closeout modifications for awards, including sub-awards/subcontracts.
  • Collaborate with OSP/GCA to ensure accurate financial reporting
  • Provide reminders about the timely completion of annual and technical reports
  • Provide units with Sub Setup notice
  • Assist with resources, tools, and training

This “One-Stop-Shop” resource center provides resources, tools, and training by the OPAM team. To learn more about OPAM, please visit their OPAM website, or read their brochure.

Please contact the OPAM team directly by emailing opam@memphis.edu or by calling 901.678.0880 or 901.678.5071, Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.