Today, the University of Minnesota launched a new grants management system—MN-GEMS (Minnesota Grants Electronic Management System)—that will bring the UMN's proposal submission and award process in line with other top-25 research universities. MN-GEMS will include automated functionality, process transparency, and system integrations that will expand capabilities in all aspects of grants management. MN-GEMS replaces EGMS (Electronic Grants Management System), the UMN's 25-year-old custom grants management system, which was developed in 1998.
Pamela Webb, associate vice president for research administration, who for many years advocated for developing a new system, said, "We are most grateful to have had EGMS, a custom-designed system just for UMN, for 25 years, but its technology had become severely out-dated and our business needs much greater than it could provide. The MN-GEMS system will free up research administrators at all levels to assist investigators in new ways and reduce administrative burden on faculty, helping them to focus on research and be even more competitive with peers at other institutions."
The University's Sponsored Projects Administration (SPA), a unit within the Research and Innovation Office (RIO), oversaw the MN-GEMS implementation. SPA works directly with more than 3,000 faculty and administrative staff to process proposal submissions, grants, contracts, clinical trials, subawards, material transfer agreements, and other agreements across the UMN system. SPA processes more than 20,000 transactions a year representing more than $1.2 billion in annual research expenditures.
The years-long effort to secure funding for and implement the new grants management system was led by SPA and involved the collaboration and partnership of many groups and units across the University, including University leadership, the Office of Information Technology (OIT), the Controller’s Office, RIO leadership, and many other colleges and units.
To learn more about MN-GEMS and access the login to the system visit research.umn.edu/mngems.