Green Sheets - To Do or Not To Do   Email     Print   PDF

The Green Sheet (Research Proposal Summary) that is attached to all proposals that will be submitted to External Funding Agencies has been the “routing document” for WHOI for many decades.  The most recent version comes directly from the WHOIgrants program and displays both data from the developed budget(s) and data input by department users.

The Green Sheet has several purposes:

• It is the official record that all the Principal Investigators have declared any Conflict of Interest regarding this proposal.
• It clearly indicates – by affixed signature – who has reviewed and approved the content of the proposal.
• It provides information to various offices throughout WHOI – by means of checkboxes – when the proposal pertains to them.

In addition, the WHOIgrants program provides various validations of the information in the database upon Printing of the Green Sheet.  For example, it will not allow printing if an Abstract has not been included or if the Principal Investigators have not been numbered (A1, A2, …)

The Green Sheet must be attached to all proposals to External Funding Sources, including those that will be subawards.  However, WHOIgrants is a tool that can be used to generate accurate budgets for a variety of other purposes.  These “Internal” budgets may be formal (for an internal call for proposals) or informal (for pre-proposals or “what-if”).  The question on these proposals is, “When is a Green Sheet with signatures required?”

• Service Center Quotes (under $10K):  As these do not require any WHOIgrants budget, a Green Sheet is not required.

• Other Quotes under $10K (letter proposals):  Proposals and quotes that are for a total of less than $10,000 do not require a WHOIgrants budget.  At the Department Administrator’s discretion, such small proposals may be sent with only department review and may or may not contain a budget prepared and “frozen” in WHOIgrants .  When this option is selected the Department is responsible for the submission of the proposal to the funding agency and should follow the procedures outlined for Service Centers.  When there is no budget for BiTech in WHOIgrants, all funds received will be manually loaded in BiTech under the object code (5410) Miscellaneous.  A Payment Authorization Information form must be completed and returned to GCS with the payment authorization (purchase order, wire transfer of funds, subaward agreement, etc.) from the funding source.  No Green Sheet is required.

The Department may choose to route the proposal through GCS with a Green Sheet and GCS will submit, track, and negotiate with the funding agency.  A Payment Authorization Information form should be included in the proposal package.

• Pre-proposals:  It is strongly recommended that WHOIgrants be used to generate the budget(s) and that these be FROZEN by using the “To GCS” button on the Submission.  However, they are not routed to GCS and a Green Sheet is not required unless (or until) the proposal receives an award notice.  If this happens without a follow-up formal proposal (i.e. the pre-proposal is funded), then the Green Sheet will have to be done after-the-fact.

• Institute or other Internal Funds (under $10K):  When a small reallocation of funds from an unallocated internal resource is requested for a sponsored project, the new project can be set up in BiTech and funds can be distributed from the “unallocated” subpoint by means of a manual entry.  No budget is required in WHOIgrants and no Green Sheet is needed.  This can be accomplished by an email message from the Project Administrator to the appropriate Grant Administrator.  All money will be loaded in the object code for “miscellaneous”.

• Formal Call for Internal Proposals:  Check the Call and the instructions for submitting the proposal.  In most cases, a formal Green Sheet with signatures will be required before an award can be made.


• Gifts/donations for Sponsored Research:  When Institution unrestricted funds, such as a gift received by Development, is designated for sponsored research and it is $10K or over, a proposal and budget must be entered into WHOIgrants and the Green Sheet is required to be signed by the PI and Department Administrator (only) before the award can be made and the project set-up in BiTech.  If the award is over $10K and less than $50K, the budget may be all in “miscellaneous”.  If the gift is $50K or over, a “real” budget is required.  [If the gift is less than $10K, no budget or WHOIgrants entry/Green Sheet is required.]

Any questions about Green Sheets may be addressed to Grant and Contract Services.