CPRA cheat sheet

Pre-award spans the full lifecycle from funding opportunity identification through proposal submission, award negotiation, and acceptance; it ends when an award is executed or a proposal is declined.

A funding opportunity announcement (FOA) must be reviewed for eligibility, cost sharing, page limits, required forms, and submission deadlines before any drafting begins.

The standard federal proposal package includes: cover sheet, project summary/abstract, project narrative, references cited, budget and budget justification, biographical sketches, current and pending support, facilities and other resources, and required assurances.

Budget categories under federal guidance typically include personnel, fringe benefits, travel, equipment, supplies, contractual, other direct costs, and indirect costs; each category has specific allowability and documentation rules.

Cost sharing (matching funds) must be documented, verifiable, and included in the proposal budget when required or voluntarily committed; voluntary committed cost sharing becomes an obligation if the award is made.

Indirect cost rates are negotiated with a cognizant federal agency and apply to modified total direct costs (MTDC) or another negotiated base; the rate agreement must be current at time of proposal submission.

Proposal routing and internal review deadlines are set by the applicant organization, typically requiring completed budgets and compliance checks several business days before the sponsor deadline.

Subrecipient vs. contractor determination affects budget treatment, required documentation, and flow-down terms; subrecipients perform a portion of the programmatic work and require a subaward agreement.

Just-in-time (JIT) requests, when permitted by the sponsor, may ask for updated other support, IRB/IACUC approvals, or human subjects enrollment data after peer review but before award.

The CPRA Body of Knowledge organizes research administration competency into domains covering pre-award, award management, financial management, compliance, and related professional practice areas; exact domain names and weights are defined in the CPRA Candidate Handbook.

Candidates should confirm current domain titles, percentage weights, and the number of scored items directly from the most recent CPRA Candidate Handbook, because the exam blueprint is periodically updated.

Exam items are typically scenario-based and test application of policy, regulation, and institutional procedure rather than isolated recall.

Core federal references include the Uniform Guidance (2 CFR 200), agency-specific policy manuals, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) where applicable, and sponsor program guidelines.

Key compliance concepts include allowability, allocability, reasonableness, consistency, and documentation; these five tests underpin most cost and audit questions.

Roles and responsibilities are distributed across principal investigators, departmental administrators, central sponsored programs offices, and compliance committees; the exam tests handoffs and escalation points.

Professional ethics and conflict-of-interest rules, including disclosure of significant financial interests and institutional conflict policies, fall within the Body of Knowledge.

Award lifecycle stages-proposal, negotiation, execution, management, reporting, closeout, and audit-form a recurring framework for organizing study and answering scenario questions.