This user manual will guide users with the role of Researcher or Researcher Reviewer through the Maestro Researcher Portal. The Researcher Portal provides Researchers with an easy to navigate view of their accounts, proposals, projects and tasks.
CONFIDENTIAL: This document is considered confidential. Information in this document is restricted to the Maestro Team, its authorized recipients only and any reproduction, distribution, or public discussion of this material is subject to the limits described in the non-disclosure agreement with Research Information Systems.
Welcome to the TAMUS Research Management Information System, Maestro.
Maestro is a web browser-based application that consists of several modules. The system is designed to support researchers and research administration across The Texas A&M University System (TAMUS). The information in Maestro is based upon data feeds from the FAMIS and Enterprise Data Warehouse databases.
Maestro provides researchers and research administrators with timely and accurate information needed to manage research activities and to assist in understanding what documents could need follow-up or additional actions from the researcher.
Access the system by logging in to the Maestro homepage at https://maestro.tamus.edu with Single Sign-On (SSO) UIN and password.
User accounts are automatically setup for researchers once they are added to a financial account in FAMIS, a proposal in Maestro, or a project in Maestro.
Researcher Reviewers (business administrators, research administrators or other staff assisting researchers) must request an account through their Campus User Administrator. Your campus user administrator can be located by navigating to your Maestro Home Screen > Contact Us.
The Researcher Dashboard represents a doorway to information for research activities relevant to individual researchers. It serves as a central location where you can:
View a comprehensive listing of items needing action or follow-up from the researcher
View contact information for the Researcher's Proposal Administrator, Project Administrator, and Conflict of Interest Official
View alerts pertaining to proposals, projects, and accounts
View research account balances and detailed transactions
View proposals
View active project information and project negotiation status
Complete Financial Conflict of Interest disclosures
View monthly account statements
View payroll allocations
Search for federal funding opportunities
Search for inventory
View performance data on proposals, awards, and expenditures
The Researcher Search is very dynamic. The search will match any item in the PI’s proposal, project, account and disclosure list by searching on proposal number, project number, account number, disclosure number, title or sponsor information.
You must enter a minimum of three characters for a match to be found. If a matching result is found, selecting an item in the list of results will take you directly to the selected item.
The 'Action Needed' section of the researcher dashboard contains a list of all items that require action from the Researcher.
To navigate to a specific category of an item, such as Proposal Approval, click the hyperlinked name of the item displayed in the list. This will navigate you to a worklist containing only items of the type selected or navigate you directly to the action/approval page if the item listed count is 1.
To navigate to a listing of all items needing action, click on the number displayed in the ‘Action Needed’ summary bubble, or on the number next to your name in the upper right hand corner. This will navigate you a worklist containing all items needing attention. From this screen, you can navigate to a specific item by clicking on the description hyperlink.
The ‘Contacts’ section of the researcher dashboard contains contact information for the Researcher’s Proposal Administrator, Project Administrator, Negotiator, Conflict of Interest Official, and Maestro Support. A blue down arrow indicates that there additional contacts who can be seen by clicking on the blue arrow.
Alerts pertaining to proposals, projects, and accounts are displayed in their respective alerts section of the researcher dashboard.
The summary bubble in each alert section display the total number of that type of alert.
To navigate to a specific alert click the hyperlinked description of the alert.
To navigate between alerts in a given alert section, click the Next or Previous navigation arrow.
Proposals with submission due within 14 days will appear in the proposal alert section.
Following are the types of alerts that will appear in the project alert section:
Research compliance protocol authorization expiring within 30 days
Research compliance protocol authorization is missing
Research compliance protocol authorization expired
Technical Deliverable past due, not completed by the responsible person
Missing Financial Conflict of Interest annual disclosure for Investigator on the project
Project has an open modification and the project end date in in the past
Project budget period is ending in 90 days, has a balance of funds, and Carry Forward is currently not allowed
Following are the types of alerts that will appear in the account alert section, except for non-sponsored accounts or accounts with institutional sponsors:
Active accounts with a negative balance
Active Accounts with a positive balance ending in 90 days
Active Accounts frozen for activity
The 'Announcement' section of the researcher dashboard contains Maestro news and updates as well as hyperlinks to instructional videos/guides, documentation search and scheduled Maestro training classes.
The Researcher Links section of the dashboard provides quick links to commonly used features: Monthly Statements, Favorite Accounts, Payroll Allocations, Peron Payroll, Researcher Performance, Notification History, Searches for Awards, Opportunities, Inventory, & Area of Interest, the Researcher’s Opportunities, and Reports.
The monthly statement screen displays 12 months' worth of historical information for accounts with expenses during the selected month. The display defaults to the last financial month prior to today's date. To navigate to a different month click the corresponding tab at the top of the statement page.
From the month-year selected via the tab, you will see all accounts listed for which you are the Primary Responsible person on the account, with the monthly Expenditure for each account as well as a Total Monthly Expenditure for all accounts displayed.
To export the results to Excel or PDF, click the ‘Select Rows for Export/Review’ checkbox next to each account you want to export and then click the ‘Export Excel/PDF’ button located at the top right of the screen.
To see the details for a specific account, click the expansion arrow located to the left of the account number to see on the same page, or click the account number itself to see on a separate page.
Once expanded, you will see an Account header summary with Monthly Budget Transaction Total, Starting Balance, Period Expenditures, Encumbrances, and Ending Balance information followed by a listing of detailed Expense and Payroll transactions for the current month selected.
Favorite accounts navigates to the current listing of your accounts that you have marked as 'Favorites' via the Current Account list screen (by clicking the ‘Add Favorite’ icon on the account you wish to add). To remove an account from your Favorite Accounts list, click the ‘Remove’ icon for that account line.
To navigate to account details, click the account number hyperlink.
The purpose of this screen is to provide the account owners with information about projected payroll yet to be paid. The data for this screen comes from BPP Active Budget. The active budget is scanned for currently active and future iterations for a single fiscal year. A line is written to the extract file for each Source line on the iteration that is active now or in the future.
Calculations are done in the extract file to estimate the amount of projected payroll “yet to be paid” for the fiscal year. There are also calculations to estimate the benefits remaining to be paid as well. These calculations also calculate the pay periods remaining in the fiscal year.
The Person Payroll screen shows how much you have paid an employee over all of your accounts for the time specified. You can then select individual accounts to export/review (click Show Selected Rows). The ‘Show Selected Rows’ changes to “Show All Rows.’ Each account can be drilled down to the monthly total down to 'Monthly Payroll Details.’
The Researcher Performance screen displays Proposal, Award, and Expenditure information for the Researcher. The default period displayed is the five last fiscal years.
To change year type or select a range of years to view, click the appropriate radio button and select the year range from the dropdowns and then click the Search button to refresh the screen accordingly.
Results may be printed or Exported to Excel via the pushbuttons located on the top right of the screen.
The Notification History screen will show all emails sent to you from Maestro for the specified time frame.
The Awards Search page allows you to search awards based on title, sponsor, date, fiscal year, function, and/or Co-PI, etc.
The Opportunity Search navigates to the Funding Opportunity Search page.
Maestro has a nightly process in place to load Grants.gov funding opportunities. These opportunities can then be searched by various search fields such as RFP#, Title, Sponsor, etc. or a combination of one or more of these search fields.
To view additional detailed information provided by the funding agency, click on the hyperlinked RFP# returned in the results window.
Inventory Search gives Maestro users view into all research equipment that is kept in the FAMIS FFX Module. They can find out where the equipment resides, when it was purchased and who is custodian.
The Area of Interest Search allows you to find others who have research projects using the keyword you searched, and provides their organization and email.
The Account icon navigates to Current Account list screen.
This screen shows researchers all of their accounts and balances, regardless of the administering organization. The screen lists all active support accounts where the Researcher is the primary Principal Investigator (PI) as well as all active support accounts where the Researcher is a Co-Investigator (Co-PI).
To add an account as a ‘favorite account’, click the ‘Add Favorite’ icon on the account you wish to add. To view a list of your selected Favorite Accounts, click the ‘Favorite Accounts’ icon.
To navigate to account details, click the account number hyperlink.
This screen displays the relationship between connected entities (proposals, projects, and accounts). You can easily and quickly navigate among the various connected entities by clicking the corresponding hyperlinked project number, proposal number, billing project number, or account number.
This screen displays all the attributes of the selected account. Data is fed from data warehouse and it represents one day old information.
The account balance screen displays account balances by category and account revenue balance. Balances displayed are real time from FAMIS.
Columns ‘Project Budget as of’ and ‘Project Expenditure as of’ display budget and expenditures for project inception to specified End date for research projects. Year based projects have only current year values. Column ‘Encumbrance as of’ displays value for encumbrance as of End date. Column ‘Period Expenditure’ can display cumulative expenditure for the selected period (Start Date – End Date). These dates can be changed by selecting the respective drop downs and then clicking the ‘Search’ button to refresh the screen.
To view account balance detail, click on the hyperlinked expenditure or encumbrance amount for a particular Finance Category.
To view detailed transactions, click the hyperlinked Subcode displayed in the account balance detail or click the 'Account Transactions' icon located at the top of the page.
The screen is designed to display expenditure, encumbrance, budget, revenue budget, revenue actuals, payroll, payroll commitment, and account receivables transactions. To display transaction details click on the respective tab for the type of transaction you wish to view. Encumbrances for only non-payroll items are displayed, except for TAMRF.
The Payroll Transaction screen displays detail payroll transactions at individual position pin level.
The Payroll Commitment screen shows payroll encumbrance details. Commitments are shown only by invoking web services for FAMIS accounts (TAMRF, TTI excluded).
This screen displays detail payroll transactions at individual position pin level.
The purpose of this screen is to show payroll encumbrance details. Commitments are shown only by invoking web services for FAMIS accounts (TAMRF, TTI excluded).
This screen displays expenditure and spending trends for the account in three different areas:
Planned Expenditures Versus Actual Expenditures
Account Budget: Budget received over time.
Expenditures: Show total expenditures over time.
Planned Expenditure: Distribution of total budget over a number of months reflected as progressive total predicted expenditure over time.
Spending Trends
(%) Spent: Percentage of spending until current month.
Projected (%)Spent: Future percentage of spending expectation based on current spending trend.
Spending Trend Over Time
Cash Burn Rate: The difference between first month in funding period until period month, divided over number of months until that point.
Cash burn rate should show how fast or slow you are burning from your budget over time.
The Proposal icon navigates to Current Proposal List screen.
This screen shows researchers all of their proposals, regardless of who is the administering organization. The screen lists all proposals where the Researcher is the primary Principal Investigator (PI) as well as all proposals where the Researcher is a Co-Investigator (Co-Pi).
To navigate to proposal details, click the proposal number hyperlink.
This screen displays the relationship between connected entities (proposals, projects, and accounts). You can easily and quickly navigate among the various connected entities by clicking the corresponding hyperlinked project number, proposal number, billing project number, or account number.
This screen displays proposal general information including:
Title
Sponsor
Principal Investigator
Lead Organization
Administrative Organization
Project Begin and End Dates
Total amount requested
Indirect Cost Information
Checkbox indicators to denote if Cost Sharing, Budget Split, IDC Waiver, Compliance Issue, Conflict of Interest, or Subrecipient
items exists on the proposal
Proposal Administrator contact information
This screen displays all personnel associated with the proposal and their respective role on the proposal.
Reporting codes shown on this screen include: Underrepresented Student, STEM Education Program and COVID-19 Related.
This screen displays three research compliance items which are required to be completed by the PI at the proposal stage: Human Subjects, Animals (Vertebrates) and International Collaboration. There is a quick option for the PI to Set All to No, as well as compliance contacts should the PI have questions.
This screen displays all uploaded documents that pertain to the proposal. To view a particular document, click the hyperlinked document name.
This screen displays IDC Waiver information such as Sponsor, IDC rate allowed, IDC rate requested, etc. if applicable.
This screen displays the budget split among System Member and Department if applicable as well as cost sharing information if applicable. Click the appropriate tab to view budget split or cost sharing information.
This screen displays the Actions, Routing, Notes, and Access Control related to the proposal.
The Project icon navigates to the Active Project screen.
This screen shows researchers all of their projects, regardless of who is the administering organization. The screen lists all active projects where the Researcher is the primary Principal Investigator (PI) as well as all active projects where the Researcher is a Co-Investigator (Co-PI) or Other Personnel.
To the right of the Active Projects, are options to change the view, conduct a mini search or export to Excel.
To navigate to project details, click the project number hyperlink.
This screen displays the relationship between connected entities (proposals, projects, and accounts). You can easily and quickly navigate among the various connected entities by clicking the corresponding hyperlinked project number, proposal number, billing project number, or account number.
This screen displays project general information including:
Title
Sponsor
Principal Investigator
Lead Organization
Administrative Organization
Project Begin and End Dates
Negotiator and Project Administrator contact information
An editable field to give the project a nickname (remember to Save)
There are sub-tabs to navigate to the respective information:
Integrity Check
Terms and Conditions
Project summary information
Project closeout information (if applicable)
Sponsor Contact
Notes (if applicable)
FCOI status of personnel
This screen displays all personnel associated with the project and their respective role on the project. The PI has an option to add/change/delete personnel on the project, assign their role and credit, and designate the dates of each. Clicking on the eye icon under Detail provides additional personnel details such as their UIN, Title and contact information.
This screen lists the initial award and all negotiated modifications to the project. All documents related to the project may be viewed by clicking the ‘Document’ tab. To open a document click the hyperlinked document name.
This screen shows all of the dates and steps taken from when the agreement was logged on.
This screen allows the PI to complete his/her compliance statement; there is an option for the PI to ‘Set All to No’ if none of the items apply. This page also displays all research compliance items that have been designated by the Principal Investigator as either being applicable or not-applicable to the project. If there is a check to the right of the compliance item group, then the PI has determined that it applicable to the project. You can click on the expansion icon to see the related details, including notes and documents, as well as the compliance contact(s).
Click the ‘Compliance’ tab to view approval statuses for any items marked ‘Yes’. To view the details, click on ‘View’ under the Approvals column.
This screen displays NSF and THECB reporting information as designated by the Principal Investigator.
This screen displays pending and completed project deliverables.
To ‘Complete’ a deliverable, highlight the deliverable to be completed, and select Action>Complete
This screen allows viewing, printing and routing of the Sponsored Project Summary report (long or short) for any actions recorded on the project. You can choose one particular action or any number of actions.
This screen displays the relationship between Maestro project and FAMIS SPR project (billing project). Budget, Expenditures, Encumbrances, and Balance information is displayed for all accounts linked to the project. Status of billing invoices and related information is also viewable.
This screen also displays information on Funding Period, Cost Sharing, Indirect Cost Rates, project Actions, and IDC Distributions (as applicable). Click the appropriate tab to navigate to the respective information.
This screen utilizes the new Maestro Budget Module that Sponsored Research Services (SRS) began utilizing for new budget entries in April, 2022. As Sponsored budgets are created, users will see information here reflecting the Sponsored Budget for current and future funding years.
This screen utilizes the new Maestro Cost Sharing Module that was released in April, 2022. Cost Sharing Committments and Cost Sharing Actuals can now be viewed on the Billing Project level within the Project record.
Researchers can review the Cost Sharing Periods for each Billing Project within their Project record as Cost Sharing Periods are created. Selecting the Period # will navigate the PI to view Cost Sharing Requirement and Cost Sharing Transaction Details similar to the Administrator screens
Researchers can review all Cost Sharing Periods defined on the Maestro Project level on this tab. If multiple Billing Projects and / or Multiple Cost Sharing Periods have been created and defined, the data will be displayed here to compare Required vs. Actuals and Remaining Required Amounts
The Disclosure icon navigates to the Disclosure Dashboard.
From the disclosure dashboard, you can:
Create a new disclosure
View historical disclosures
View contact information for your Conflict of Interest Official(s)
View disclosure status information
View previously disclosed significant financial interest (if applicable)
To create a new disclosure, click the Create New Disclosure icon located under the Disclosure Actions section.
This will navigate you to the Financial Disclosure page where you will specify whether there is a Significant Financial Interest or not.
Clicking on the ‘Certify No SFI’ Button will complete your certification with no further action needed on your part.
Clicking on the ‘Yes’ button will bring up another screen.
CClick on the Create SFI button. Enter your SFI information, then click Save. You have the option, at the bottom of the page, to upload conflict resolution plans. If you have questions, click the COI Contact button (top right corner).
You may also choose to link your research to your SFI by clicking the Link Research hyperlink for each individual SFI (this takes you to a new screen). Linking your research to a SFI is optional.
TO LINK RESEARCH: Check the box for the corresponding research that applies to your SFI. Click the Save button. Return to your SFI homepage by clicking the SFI List button, located next to the Save button. Then click the Next Step button, also located at the top right corner of your screen.
Review all of the information to make sure it is correct. Then click the Certify and Submit button.
To view Historical Disclosures, click the Historical Disclosures icon located under the Disclosure Actions section.
This will navigate you to the Disclosure page where you will see a listing of your disclosure history. There can only be one ‘Active’ disclosure and this is denoted by the checkmark in the Active column. To view details about a disclosure click the hyperlinked disclosure number.
The ‘COI Officials Contacts’ section of the disclosure dashboard contains contact information for the Researcher’s Conflict of Interest Officials.
The ‘Disclosure Status’ section of the disclosure dashboard contains the time until next disclosure last disclosure date, and when the current disclosure expires.
The ‘Previously Disclosed Significant Financial Interest’ section of the disclosure dashboard contains information on previously disclosed significant interest made by the researcher. (if applicable)
To navigate to a listing of all items needing action, click on the 'Work List' icon.
From this screen, you can see items that you have previously approved or navigate to a specific item in your work list by clicking on the description hyperlink.
If you Reject an item, a note or reason for rejection is required. On some items, like deliverables, you need to click the Complete icon.
To switch from Researcher Portal mode to Maestro Standard Mode, click the 'Maestro Standard Mode' icon.
To switch back to Researcher Portal mode, click the 'Researcher Portal' mode icon or select 'Researcher Portal' from the settings drop down list.