The purpose of this demonstration is to guide users through the flow of a Principal Investigator pro

1
The purpose of this demonstration is to guide
users through the flow of a Principal
Investigator proposal within the AMS The system
itself will cater for all SFI programmes (work is
currently ongoing on the CSET and RFP
awards). Question and comments are welcomed
throughout although there will be time allotted
for Questions at the end of the
demonstration. Thanks.
2
Implementation Goals

• Replace paper process
• Improve communication
• Standardize procedures
• Improve tracking
• Increase reporting capability

3
Applicant advises university of wish to submit
application
Grant Administrator (GA) creates Nomination
Applicant not on AMS
GA creates Applicant
Applicant on AMS
Applicant completes submits application using
Offline Assistant
GA reviews application for submission to AMS
NOT Approved for submission to AMS
Approved for submission to AMS
Application arrives on workbench of Director to
be assigned to Programme Officer.
4
Setup Email The GA within each Institution will
be setup within the AMS by a member of the SFI
AMS admin team. The username for the GA and each
user setup will be their institutional email
address. Once setup the AMS automatically sends
an email to the GA. Contained within this email
is the username, the user password and the OA
token.
5
Logging On To logon to the AMS the GA opens
their web browser to https//www.sfi-ams.ie This
will present the screen opposite where the
username and password should be entered. If a
user forgets or loses their password they should
enter their username and click on the Go button,
this will email a new password to the user.
6
Terms Conditions On the first login each user
will be required to accept the terms and
conditions of usage of the AMS. Clicking the
link will open another browser window containing
the terms and conditions in pdf format. This
will only be required to be accepted once.
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Registration questions Logging into the systems
for the first time will also require the user to
answer four security questions. Subsequent
logins will query the user for two of these
answers.
8
Workbench Once the registration and security
issues have been taken care of the GA is
presented with their workbench. This will
display any tasks that have been waiting for
action by that GA.
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Explanation of Grant Administrator Menu
Items Log out clicking here will bring the
user out of the AMS to the Login Screen as shown
in slide 4. Change Password allows the user to
change their password. Forgot OA Token The OA
Token is sent to each user of the Offline
Assistant when they are created within the
system. Alerts clicking here shows each user
what outstanding tasks are required of a user
(Grant Administrator, Programme Officer, etc.).
If there is a new task this page automatically
opens to inform the user that there is an
application related task to perform. Applicants
Clicking here displays the applicants related
to the user. For example if a Grant Administrator
click here the AMS retrieves the Researchers
associated with his/her institution. My Current
Work Displays the open work/tasks associated
with each user. All My Proposals Contains a
list of all applications associated with the user
(i.e. A Grant Administrator from NUIG will be
able to view all the applications/nominations
from NUIG). My Archived Proposals Contains
associated applications which have been funded or
declined. Create Nomination This is where a
Grant Administrator creates a nomination for an
applicant from their institution, where a
Nomination is an application for one of the
applicable grants or awards. Download Offline
Assistant Link to allow Grant Administrator to
download the complete Offline Assistant.
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Create Nomination To create the nomination the
GA selects the programme and research area from
the drop down lists and enters a title for the
proposal. The GA must then select an applicant,
if the applicant does not exist within the system
they must be setup by the GA. This is done by
clicking the Create Applicant button.
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Create Applicant Complete the fields in the
create applicant form. To ease the process the
Grant Administrator now only needs to complete
the username, password email fields to create
an applicant. The applicant will then complete
the remaining fields once they log in. As with
any user setup the system will mail the applicant
with their log in details and a link to the AMS.
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Create Nomination ctd. On completion of the
required fields, the AMS will assign a
PreProposal ID (a unique identifier for each
proposal). The PreProposal ID is also used by the
applicant on the Offline Assistant. A
confirmation email will also be sent to the
Applicant and the GA
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Create Nomination ctd. The AMS automatically
emails the applicant and the GA to confirm that
the proposal has been setup. This email contains
the proposal title, the pre-proposal ID, the
programme, the applicant name and the GA.
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Applicant Logon Using the details in the mail
sent by the AMS the applicant follows the link to
the AMS and logs in. As with all users the first
time logging in the applicant will have to agree
to the terms and conditions of use and to setup
the registration answers.
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• Applicant Logon ctd.
• The first page available to the applicant on
  first entering the system will be to complete
  their personal details
• Name
• Contact Details
• Date of Birth
• Nationality
• Some of these details are mandatory as can be
  seen on the screenshot.

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Applicant Workbench On entry into the system the
applicant will be presented with the Proposals
Workbench from here the applicant should download
the Offline Assistant. Following the links the
applicant should download the Full Install . The
Offline Assistant (OA) can be installed from the
download (by choosing open from the prompt) or by
saving to a location on the users computer.
the filename will be sfioa_installer20050207_r85
or similar.
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Install Offline Assistant The installation
process is a simple four step process as
displayed on the image. 1. Run setup 2. Choose
destination location (use default) 3. Start
Installation 4. Finish!
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Offline Assistant programme location If the OA
is installed using the defaults applicants can
open the OA by following the path in the image.
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Offline Assistant Setup Applicant In order to
complete the application within the OA the
applicant must login as an administrator on the
OA to set themselves up as an applicant user
using admin as the username and password as the
password.
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• Offline Assistant Setup Applicant ctd.
• From the Admin menu select create user. This
  will
• present the user with the details shown in the
• second image.
• Support notes will be also be available for
  view
• from this section of the OA
• Enter the information into the fields provided
  as
• shown in the
• second image below.
• Note - Ensure the Login ID is the same as for
• the AMS.

Create Create a new application. Select
Review or edit your application. Print Print
your application. Submit Submit your
application. Admin create your user account
- update connection settings
- update the Offline Assistant -
import/export files from the OA
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Setup Application within OA The screen shown
displays the opening screen of the OA after
logging on. To setup the application within the
OA the applicant needs to enter the programme to
which they are applying, the proposal name and
the Pre-Proposal ID. Once the applicant fills a
field that information is automatically saved,
there is no requirement to save data.
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Complete Proposal Any applicant who has viewed
or completed a paper based proposal to SFI should
be familiar with the layout within the
OA. Mandatory sections are highlighted in red
and mandatory fields within sections are also
marked. Proposals will not submit unless all of
these have been completed.
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• Complete Proposal ctd.
• Some fields such as
• Lay Summary
• Value to Ireland
• Require limited direct text entry, there are
  checks in place to ensure the text entry does not
  exceed the quota.
• If the applicant exceeds this quota and moves
  onto the next section the data entered will be
  removed.

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• Complete Proposal ctd.
• Some sections such as
• Technical Summary
• Infrastructure
• Justification of Costs (within Budget Summary)
• may be completed by direct text entry or by
  adding an attachment.

25

• Complete Proposal ctd.
• Other sections are completed by adding
  attachments only
• CVs
• Research
• In the case of CVs, each applicant, co-applicant
  and Collaborator listed within an application
  must have a corresponding CV attached.

26
Complete Proposal ctd. Current Support contains
information about applied for and/or current
grants. Once the applicant clicks on the Add
Grant button the screen present the image
shown. Fields marked with red exclamation marks
or asterisks are mandatory, once filled in they
change to green plusses.
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Complete Proposal ctd. Each section within the
budget is completed separately. Click the Add
Row button to add rows within each
section. Totals are automatically calculated and
cannot be edited by the applicant.
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Complete Proposal ctd. The Budget Summary is
automatically calculated and the applicant is
expected to Justify the costs involved by
attaching a document or by entering the
justification text in the space provided.
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Complete Proposal ctd. The Institutional
Signatory details are pre filled. To complete
the application the applicant enters the date of
completion and signs off.
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• Import/Export Files
• To ensure portability, it is possible to import
  and export an application. This option is
  selected from the Admin menu.
• To Import
• Point to the location of the archive file.
• Select the type (Proposal, user file, programme
  template)
• Click Import.
• To Export
• Select the application from the dropdown.
• Enter a valid location
• Click Export (a zip archive will be created in
  the location specified).

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Submit Proposal Incomplete proposals will not be
submitted onto the system. The OA checks through
to see that each section is complete. In this
case the Technical Summary was not
included. When this happens the applicant should
return to the application and complete the
omitted or incorrect section.
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Submit Proposal ctd. On completion the applicant
then submits the proposal using the OA, the
proposal will be verified firstly from the OA and
then once it reaches the AMS. This involves all
mandatory fields and sections being checked for
completion and the assurance that all files
described within the proposal are attached with
the submission.
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Submit Proposal ctd. Successful submissions to
the AMS will trigger confirmation emails. These
emails will be sent to the GA and the applicant.
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GA Workbench Once the application has been
submitted it will appear on the GA
workbench. The task is to grant the application
the University Approval of Proposal.
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Questions and Comments (please be so kind as
to leave your nametags on the table as you exit)