When universities pursue research funding, the process can feel like a full-time job in itself. While the benefits of funding often outweigh the frustrations of securing new funding, adhering to proposal requirements, managing spreadsheets, and chasing signatures strains even the most organized teams.
Grant management software for universities is designed to eliminate those stressors and streamline research funding.
For research institutions, it centralizes the entire grant lifecycle into a single, secure, and collaborative platform. Faculty and staff spend less time chasing forms and signatures and more time supporting students and researchers in advancing critical discoveries.
With the right tools, funders and researchers can easily comply with requirements, support and continue groundbreaking innovation, and make smarter, faster decisions to advance research.
Research funding is too complex; here’s how universities can simplify it
Research funding is rarely a linear process, and it’s not often that a grant proposal receives approval during the first round of review. Typically, each grant application requires multiple drafts, supporting documents, departmental approvals, and compliance checks. Tight deadlines complicate these workflows, especially when approvals become another line on the to-do list.
Traditional approaches, such as those using paper files, spreadsheets, or PDFs, often fall short of meeting these needs. Bottlenecks add unnecessary delays to high-stakes processes, frequently forming around shared inboxes, overlooked emails, or missed deadlines.
Grant management software simplifies this complexity. By integrating every stage of the grant approval process into a single system, universities can reduce manual work, streamline approvals, and empower researchers and administrators alike with clear, streamlined workflows. This type of grant tracking software helps institutions avoid bottlenecks and maintain momentum in high-stakes funding cycles.
Why universities struggle with grant administration
Managing grant applications is a team effort that spans multiple departments. Yet, in many institutions, these efforts are hindered by fragmented processes and unclear responsibilities.
With modern grant administration software, universities can centralize processes, reduce errors, and improve the success rate of grant submissions.
Typically, grant applications are reviewed by multiple departments and reviewers before receiving final approval. If a grant requirement requires further investigation or revision, the entire process must start over from the beginning.
When these approvals and reviews are sent by email or dropped on desks, it’s easy to see how redundant data entry, version control issues, and errors pop up that delay or derail funding.
Grant management systems save time and eliminate these frustrations. Instead of wasting hours tracking down signatures or restarting review processes from the beginning, research teams can get back to writing stronger proposals, and the finance department can easily manage awarded funds that get misplaced in the paperwork shuffle.
What grant management software does for research institutions
Manual systems that rely on spreadsheets can’t keep up with modern grant lifecycles. Spreadsheets are often riddled with errors, with one study suggesting that a staggering 94% of spreadsheets used in decision-making contain errors.
Those broken systems are often inaccurate and fail to provide instant visibility into application statuses, award disbursements, or compliance documentation.
Modern research grant management software changes that. It:
- Centralizes documents, approvals, and communication in one secure location
- Enables immediate access to grant data for researchers, finance teams, and decision-makers
- Automates reminders and reporting timelines, reducing missed deadlines and manual follow-ups
- Helps teams navigate complex compliance and reporting requirements
For universities managing multiple active funding sources, a streamlined grant management system eliminates bottlenecks and enables grants to move through their entire lifecycle with ease.
Two major benefits for university teams
For institutions with active research programs, grant management software is a crucial component of their infrastructure.
It provides two significant advantages:
- Reduces administrative workload: From auto-generated reminders to built-in routing workflows, the software automates core administrative tasks. Staff are free to return their focus to strategic support, rather than repetitive tasks such as chasing approvals and signatures or manually updating spreadsheets.
- Improves compliance and reporting accuracy: A central system ensures all grant activity is clearly documented and accessible, making audits easier and reports more accurate. This reduces the risk of compliance issues and supports greater institutional oversight.
Instead of working around outdated processes, teams can trust that their systems are working with them.
Enables collaboration across research, finance, and administration
A single grant may pass through three, four, or even five departments, not to mention the back-and-forth with external funders or donors working with the university. With this many hands touching one grant application, confusion is inevitable.
Grant management platforms integrate with existing financial and administrative systems to reduce confusion and foster collaboration. Shared dashboards provide all stakeholders with a clear understanding of grant status and highlight potential issues in the approval process that typically cause delays.
How it helps:
- Keeps departments aligned: Everyone sees the same real-time status, reducing confusion and unnecessary back-and-forth.
- Streamlines reviewer workflows: Teams can easily assign roles, distribute applications, and track progress across departments or campuses.
When systems are connected, collaboration replaces frustration and bottlenecks. Everyone in the department operates from shared dashboards, keeping grants on track for proper processing, approval, and disbursement.
Built to handle complexity at scale
Nonprofits, like digitally mature universities, are 4X more likely to reach their mission goals. Grant management systems give research teams a helping hand to stay on top of grant fundraising and research initiatives.
Whether managing a single-year project or a multi-year, multi-funder research portfolio, these platforms offer the flexibility and scalability to support institutional growth and research advancement.
As funding portfolios expand, the software is configurable enough to track unique requirements while remaining standardized enough to ensure consistency across programs and departments.
Choosing the right-fit solution
Not all grant management systems are created equal, and corporate-level software often does not support university workflows.
When selecting the right tool for your institution, look for:
- Higher education alignment: Choose software designed specifically for academic and research settings.
- Secure and user-friendly interface: It strikes a balance between data protection and ease of use.
- Integration capabilities: Ensure the system connects with your existing finance, HR, and reporting tools to avoid data silos and redundant data entry.
The right grant management software supports your institutional goals and adapts with your team.
Foundant’s solutions, for example, are designed specifically for research funding. That focus is uniquely tailored to the needs of funders and researchers managing research grants, ensuring flexibility, support, and ease of use compared to similar corporate-focused platforms.
Start simplifying research funding with the right tools
Funding research shouldn’t come with a pile of paperwork that slows down progress. Researchers are enthusiastic about their work, but bottlenecks and drawn-out approval processes divert their attention away from testing new theories and sharing their learnings with broader audiences.
When researchers, finance departments, reviewers, and administration spend less time on manual processes, they’re free to focus on the work that matters most, like advancing research, securing new funding, and demonstrating impact.
Grant management software streamlines research funding by freeing up time for administrative support, reducing missed deadlines, and ensuring accurate compliance reporting.
Foundant’s grant management software solutions are designed to meet the needs of today’s research institutions. We help you streamline complex workflows, improve collaboration, and support every stakeholder involved in your grant lifecycle.
Reach out to learn more about how Foundant supports research funding today.