Diane,
With limited staff, and a growing research base, I'd use two primary
areas as indicators of attainment of scope objectives:
1) Watch the bottom line - are there spikes or lulls in spending? Trust
your instincts and if something catches your eye, then ask questions.
2) Have your office staff get notification of submission of interim
(whatever the timing) and final reports. A good indicator of attainment
is ability to meet those reporting deadlines. And, it doesn't hurt to
occasionally touch base with the COTR or program officer at the
sponsor's location and just ask if they're still happy campers!

Finally, try to meet with major centers' directors from time to time,
just to get a "feel" for how things are running in their back yards.
Ultimately, if you sign the documents, you're responsible for making
sure the university meets its goals - so keep the channels open and just
do the best you can. You'll know when you've reached your limitations,
and then it's time to go to upper management and get your resources
expanded.

Good luck!
Maggie

Diane Schmitz wrote:
> Hi all --
>
> I'd like to know how you handle program monitoring -- ensuring project
> directors and their staff are actually carrying out the activities
> they received grant funding to do. My question concerns extensive
> programs, rather then individual research projects. Our university has
> grown a great deal in the last five years, spawning opportunities for
> grant funding that include extensive partnerships. Our grants
> administration office is centralized and combines pre- and post-award
> services. We help project directors with fiscal issues and monitor the
> financial side, but we're concerned about project directors who aren't
> looking after the programmatic aspects, and aren't communicating
> problems or changes with us or their program officers. We understand
> that part of the issues is educating project directors and their
> administrators during the pre-award proces, but that isn't always
> enough. We've discussed a few costly ideas -- adding a new position
> dedicated to program monitoring and other compliance, or meeting
> frequently with administrators and project directors. If your
> instititution has dealt with monitoring programs, how have you done
> it? Who's responsible? How is the monitoring function funded?
>
> Best,
> Diane M. Schmitz
> Office of Grant & Research Development
> Eastern Washington University
> Cheney WA 99004-2444
>
>
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