Budgeting Basics for Pre- and Post- Award Management

Grant Writing Academy Seminar Series

This workshop is designed to give faculty an overview of budgeting throughout the award lifecycle. From building a competitive proposal budget to managing expenses after an award is funded, understanding the basics of sponsored research budgeting can help you make more informed decisions, avoid common pitfalls, and keep your research moving forward.

We’ll cover key concepts, helpful strategies, and what you should keep in mind at every stage…from proposal development through award management!

Meet Your Presenters:

Tiffany Totman, MBA is the Director of the Research Administration Core in the Department of Medicine at Stanford University. She is an experienced research administrator and finance leader with a strong track record of supporting complex, multi-investigator team science initiatives. In her role, Tiffany leads a centralized model that provides both pre- and post-award support to faculty and divisions, with a focus on enabling high-impact research while ensuring strong financial stewardship and compliance. She partners closely with investigators to provide strategic oversight of large, non-routine sponsored projects, including budget-to-actual analysis, forecasting, effort management, regulatory compliance, sponsor reporting, and award closeout. Tiffany is passionate about building scalable systems, strengthening research operations, and developing high-performing teams that support the evolving needs of academic medicine.

Kristin Smith brings years of experience in pre-award grants administration to the Team Science Initiative. She is the administrative contact throughout the proposal process which includes review of the funding announcement to identify specific terms and conditions, building timelines and checklists to keep the proposal process on track, and ensuring documents are compliant with sponsor requirements. Kristin works closely with the PI, Research Process Manager, Grants and Contracts Officer, and the team to keep everyone focused on timely progress, and assembles final documents for upload to sponsor portal. She has successfully submitted large, complex, programmatic grants from a variety of sponsors and enjoys being involved in collaborative and meaningful projects.

Cole Sims is a research administrator in the Research Administration Core in the Department of Medicine and brings experience in pre-and post-award management. He is trained as an accountant and has worked with a variety of large federal, non-federal, and industry sponsors. Cole has experience in clinical research financial management providing account set-up, post-award administration, reporting and analysis, and closeout of clinical trials. He works closely with the PI, clinical coordinators, and others to provide comprehensive portfolio management in accordance with sponsor requirements and guidelines.

About Our Virtual Series:

The Grant Writing Academy Seminar Series focuses on socioemotional and practical approaches to improving the grant writing experience and increasing funding success. This series provides tools and strategies to lead early-career faculty to grant success and onto independent research careers through panel sessions, workshops, and focused talks.

Accommodations:

If you need a disability related accommodation to participate in this event (captioning, sign language interpreting, Braille, etc.), please contact the Diversity & Access Office at disability.access@stanford.edu or 650.725.0326. Requests should be received at least one week prior to the event.