Guidelines for Departmental Administrators/Approvers for eGrants
The eGrants System is a two-tier electronic grant application system used by the Wellcome Trust. It allows PIs to create and edit grant applications online and then route their applications electronically to their department for approval; the department can then route the applications to Research Services for checking, authorisation and submission to the Wellcome Trust.
- Approver role (Head of Department) and Submitter role
- Approval Process
- Internal procedures and notes on completing the Departmental Approver Form for Electronic Grant Application Systems
Approver role (Head of Department) and Submitter role
The eGrants system has created an Approver role called 'Head of Department' and a Submitter role called 'Institution Administration Department Users' (IAD Users) to help manage this process. The Approver role called 'Head of Department' is carried out by an authorised representative from each department (not necessarily the actual Head of the Department) and the Submitter role called 'IAD Users' is carried out by authorised representatives from Research Services.
It is also possible for the 'Head of Department' to delegate access to their account to any other eGrants account holder who is in the same institution, as they feel appropriate (i.e. to an Administrator). Anyone who has been delegated access to the 'Head of Department' account will in essence be using the 'Head of Department' account and not their own. Therefore they will have the same rights as the 'Head of Department' and their name will not appear in any of the electronic forms or notifications.
Approval Process
Once the PI has completed their application they must assign a 'Head of Department' (this can be done at any stage, but the application cannot move forward for approval until this is done). This is done via the Application Details page, by selecting the [Update] option available next to the Head of Department title.
The application can then be submitted for departmental approval via the Application Details page, by clicking on the Submit to Head of Department button. A system-generated email is sent to the assigned 'Head of Department' (and any delegated user if this option has been set up by the 'Head of Department') informing them that the application is ready for approval or rejection.
The 'Head of Department' or delegated user must then log on to eGrants to review the application. If amendments are necessary the 'Head of Department' or delegated user must return the application to the PI to make the changes as they do not have edit access. The PI makes the changes and re-submits the application to the 'Head of Department' again.
Once the 'Head of Department' or delegated user is content for the application to proceed, they submit it on to Research Services for checking, institutional approval and onward submission to the Wellcome Trust. This is done via the Application Details page, by clicking on the Approve & Submit to Admin. Dept. button.
Internal procedures and notes on completing the Departmental Approver Form for Electronic Grant Application Systems
Please note that the Departmental Approver Form for Electronic Grant Application Systems 
(70kb) is used to nominate Approvers for the Je-S system, the Wellcome Trust's eGrants system, and the John Fell Fund system. Departments can select the same people to fulfil these roles for all systems, or different people for each system as appropriate. However please consider the different approval mechanisms for each system before nominating approvers to each system.
- It is recommended that departments nominate only one Approver/'Head of Department' per department to the Wellcome Trust’s eGrants system to avoid confusion when the PI selects which 'Head of Department' to send their application to. It does not matter who is in the role of 'Head of Department' (i.e. actual Head of Department, Administrator, Finance Officer etc) as long as the department's PIs will be familiar with the person's name and know to select them to approve their application.
- To ensure cover during staff absences, we advise the 'Head of Department' account to delegate access to other users. Please note that the users delegated access to the 'Head of Department' account do not need to be listed on The Departmental Approver Form for Electronic Grant Application Systems, as this should be managed by the 'Head of Department'.
- The person nominated as Approver/'Head of Department' and those who intend to be delegated access will need to create a user account on the eGrants system. Please note that any person who does not intend to be a PI, Co-applicant, or supervisor on an application only requires a partial account.
- Once created, the status of the nominated 'Head of Department' account will be changed to 'Head of Department' by Research Services so that it is available for PI's to select. It is the responsibility of the person with the 'Head of Department' account to delegate access to this account as this cannot be done centrally by Research Services. To delegate access, the 'Head of Department' should go to the Delegates tab from the Homepage and then select the relevant person from the drop down list.
- All accounts created on the eGrants system will require a unique email address, normally the person's individual ox.ac.uk email address. The email address is automatically checked by the system and if it is already in use on another account, the new account will be rejected. Account creation is immediate.
- If the 'Head of Department' account delegates access to another eGrants user, the 'Head of Department' can choose the option for the delegated user to also receive email notifications. We would recommend that this option be selected.