About the Guide

This guide is designed to help Research Administrators and other staff easily navigate through available online resources. It also contains comprehensive details related to each phase of the research administration process, as well as helpful resources such as Quick Reference Guides, checklists, and system user manuals.

How to Use This Guide – Overview

The RAMP guide is "mapped" to help you quickly find the information you need related to each phase of the research administration process.

Each section contains several types of information:

• Links to online content in the SPARCS and CNG web sites
• Links to Quick Reference Guides, FAQ's, User Manuals for systems such as RADAR and PINS, and other helpful references
• Other general and detailed information on the topic to supplement the online links

Some topics also contain links to optional video and outside links that may be of interest.

If you are new to Research Administration at NC State, you may also want to access an online Frequently Used Acronyms page and print or bookmark it for future reference.

Tips for Success

Don't get lost! As you travel through the guide, you'll be clicking links that will take you to various web pages -- most often, the links open in a new window or tab, so just click back on the RAMP window/tab to continue. In other situations, the link may take you directly to another site, so just click the back button to return. If you decide to explore further, though, you may be more than one click away from returning to the RAMP Guide. So take a look at the menu illustrated on the left and remember that you can get back to the RAMP Guide at any time by making sure you get back to the Contracts and Grants site (often by just clicking the header on the main menu) and then select the Resarch Administrator Management Program (RAMP) menu item to get back to the guide.

Taking Notes and Saving Information
There are several tools to help you organize and save helpful references in this guide. You may want to:

• Click the Journal illustration on the right to open and save a RAMP "Travel Journal" Word document to record notes or action steps as you go through the guide.
• Bookmark or save web pages as Favorites to a RAMP folder on your browser.
• Print pages from the web site, but remember to check the current site for the latest information rather than relying on printed copies that may be out of date.

Email Links
You'll also find an "Ask the Expert" e-mail link (as illustrated on the left) at the end of each section for any questions you may have on the content.

For any problems with the RAMP site such as broken links or pages that don't load properly, use the "RAMP Guide Comments" e-mail link (as illustrated on the right) at the end of each section.

Printing Information from the Guide

If you want to print the entire guide, a section, or a chart or illustration, please review the following cautions and instructions.

Caution:
We recommend that you consult the online version rather than a print version whenever possible to make sure that you are referring to the most up-to-date information available on these important topics. Each section contains a "Last Update" entry at the end of the section, so be sure to go online and double-check that date whenever you are referring to a print copy to make sure you have the latest information.

How to Print the Entire Guide:
You cannot print the entire guide with one print command. To encourage usage of the online version for referencing the most up-to-date content, we are not providing a print version for the entire guide. A workable method for printing the entire guide, however, is the section printing method explained below.

How to Print a Section of the Guide:
You may print any section of the guide the same way you currently print online pages from your computer. On most browsers, you have the option to select "File" on the tool bar and then select "Print" or right-click on the page and select "Print" to start the print process.

RAMP Guide pages print without the web page menu or header being visible as illustrated on the right. You may find that the first printed page only contains the section header, but the rest of the pages will print fully.

Adjusting the Print Size:
If the page print is too small or if the text is cut off on the right margin of page, you can adjust the percentage up or down to fit on the page using the "Print Preview" option as illustrated below.

How to Print a Chart, Image, or Illustration:
You may want to print some of the charts or other images to use as references. Use the same method that you normally use to print images from web pages.

If you are not familiar with how to do this, review the instructions illustrated below for the Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers or check your browser's Help file on printing images if neither of these methods work for you.

Printing an Image with Internet Explorer:

Printing an Image with Firefox:

Exploring the SPARCS and CNG Sites

As you click through the topics in the guide, you'll be exploring sites created and maintained by both offices.

Generally, the pre-award and post-award areas of the process and the compliance regulations are monitored by each office as illustrated below.

The compliance issues listed above are typical examples but the list is not all-inclusive. If you have not thoroughly explored the CNG and SPARCS web sites, you may also want to view a 2-minute video illustrating how to navigate the CNG web site.

Each site maintains up-to-date Contracts and Grants (CNG) and Sponsored Programs and Regulatory Compliance (SPARCS) contact lists for any questions you may have, but you may also want to review and save the Who to Contact document pictured below for some helpful tips on which office to contact for various issues.

Searching the RAMP Guide

As you return to the RAMP Guide as a resource, you can use the Main Menu or the Search function to get to what you need quickly.

Menu Access
As you have seen, the RAMP Main Menu has a bullet list of topics in each section as well as direct links to most of the references linked in each section as illustrated below. So, in many cases, you can probably get to what you need quickly by scanning the menu, selecting a section to skim to what you need to review or by clicking on one of the Related Resource links.

Search Method
You may also use the Search function from the online RAMP Guide as illustrated below. Note how the Search function relates to each site, so that you can target or narrow your searches to get the results you need.

From the RAMP Guide, start here:

1. From any section of the RAMP Guide, you will find the "Search C&G" box at the top of the page as pictured below. In this example, we are searching on the "RFP" term.

2. If you type your search term in the box, the system returns references from the entire Contracts and Grants site, including references from the RAMP Guide. In this instance, we got 19 results total, with the first two illustrated below.

3. If you would like to narrow your search to the RAMP Guide only, type "/ramp" in the search box following "cng" and hit enter again to focus the search on the RAMP Guide only.

Note the resulting reduction to 3 references in the example below, since we restricted the search to the RAMP Guide only.

4. Since this "RFP" search is primarily a pre-award topic, you could search the SPARCS site for "RFP" also. To search SPARCS for "RFP" or any other topic, make sure that you are on a SPARCS page (as illustrated in 5 below) or click the SPARCS link at the top left of the menu circled below to go from the CNG site to the SPARCS site.

5. Then use the SPARCS search function as illustrated below to enter your search term.

6. Typing your search term in the SPARCS site, the system returns references from the SPARCS site, without including references from the RAMP Guide (since the RAMP Guide is part of the CNG site). In this instance, we got 59 results total from the SPARCS site, with the first two illustrated below.

If your College Business Office cannot help on related questions

To report broken links or make suggestions for improvement

• Travel Diary - a Word document to save for your guide notes
• Frequently Used Acronyms
• Who to Contact

Return to RAMP Guide Table of Contents

You'll find a RAMP path link like this one at the top and bottom of each RAMP guide section.

Click the RAMP link below to return to the RAMP Guide Table of Contents.