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The scoop on Coeus: It’s not just for grants.gov proposals

Coeus is equally useful for preparing and routing other grant proposals, whether they are going to industry, foundations or federal agencies.

Are you chasing paper to get signatures for a grant proposal? You can stop running around (save those strides for GetFit!): there's an easier way to prepare your grant proposal and route it to get the approvals you need. MIT's tools of choice are Coeus Premium, a full-featured downloadable application, and CoeusLite, a user-friendly, web-based version of the Coeus grants management system. Both versions of Coeus are supported by MIT's Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP).

[Note: For help deciding which program to use, see the OSP web page Coeus Premium vs CoeusLite.]

A digital path

Since 2004, when OSP developed the Coeus grants management system, members of the MIT community have submitted almost 20,000 grant proposals to government agencies, corporations, and foundations.

While a few hundred of these proposals were submitted online before 2007, digital submissions ramped up with the debut of CoeusLite that year. CoeusLite was developed to enable users to prepare Grants.gov applications via the Web. Grants.gov is the online portal for 26 federal funding agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Coeus has been used to prepare over 5000 proposals that were submitted to federal agencies, with approximately 1700 "system-to-system" transmissions to Grants.gov. This has led to the perception that Coeus starts and ends with government grants and can only be used for "system-to-system" transmissions. That's not the case. Coeus is equally useful for preparing and routing grant proposals for submission to foreign sponsors, industry, and foundations.

What's more, going digital at the start benefits the entire process of grant administration, since Coeus is MIT's system of record for all proposals and awards. When Coeus is used up front, it becomes the repository for proposals, eliminating the need for paper files.

Learn all about it

If you're ready to make the switch from paper to Coeus, OSP has a course for you. CoeusLite: Non-Grants.gov Prep & Routing is a new two-hour classroom-based session that will be offered monthly.

This course integrates the basics of proposal preparation, from how to read an RFP to using the system to prepare and route a proposal. It covers everything from information gathering to uploading and attaching files. For the full course description, choose the MIT Learning Center link under the Training tab in SAPweb Self Service, then go to Course Catalog > Administration > Sponsored Projects & Practices.

In addition, OSP continues to offer Coeus courses that focus on proposal development and Grants.gov submissions. You can register for any of these courses through SAPweb Self Service.

Get with the program

OSP hopes to have all proposals created or routing in Coeus by fall 2012. If you submit grant proposals and are still filling out paper forms, you can do your part by taking the OSP course that's right for you.

If you need help using Coeus after taking a course, contact your OSP administrator or send mail to coeus-help@mit.edu. Depending on your needs, a member of the Coeus Support Team may be able to schedule a one-on-one session to help you escape the paper chase and streamline your grant proposal process.

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