LIZ,
 In response to your earlier inquiry about grants management software,
our info systems people have developed a series of interactive databases
using FoxPro 2.5 as the database manager.  These databases do not handle
accounting issues, since at this institution grants accounting is handled by
a subset of our Finance/Accounting department.  The series includes separate
databases for Grants/Contracts/Research Agreements, IRB protocols, IACUC
protocols, recombinant DNA protocols, hazardous substance protocols and finally
a database for faculty.  All of these databases are interactive.  For example,
if an IRB protocol number is entered into the grants database as the controlling
protocol for human research on that grant, the system goes over to the IRB
database to make sure that that protocol exists, that it is current and that
its expiration data goes at least until the end of the grant budget period
being entered.
 Prior to in-house development of these databases, this office used
MIRS and it is unbelievable how much the new system is improving our
productivity.  To complement the databases, we have recently begun using a
commercially available report writer for FoxPro called FoxFire.  With this
report writer, we can generate reports which draw from fields in any or all of
the separate databases in the system.
 The entire database structure is PC based and housed on a 486DX-33
network server running under OS/2 which is housed right in our department.
Currently, the database is only available to users in this department, but we
have plans to make certain components of it available to investigators, etc.
Of course, when we do this it will be with sufficient security that each
investigator will only be able to access records of his own grants and perhaps
department chairs will be able to access data from all the grants in their
department, but not from other departments.  Further in the future, I would
like to use this database structure to pull grants accounting information from
the mainframe used by accounting in order to provide up-to-date account status
information to each P.I. about his/her account.
 I guess I should clarify one thing.  Our accounting department does not
handle grant BUDGET data, they are in our database.  They merely handle the
accounting work associated with transactions in the institutional account
set up for the grant.
 As a disclaimer, our office really can not claim any of the credit for
development of the database, a really talented guy named Don Koskie in our
information systems division was the brains behind that.

Doug Wilkerson, Ph.D.           VOICE:  (419) 381-4252
Assoc. V.P. for Research        FAX:    (419) 381-4262
Medical College of Ohio         e-mail: xxxxxx@CUTTER.MCO.EDU
3000 Arlington Ave.
Toledo, OH 43614