A research university with $180M in annual research expenditures had a 22% proposal success rate, below the 30% benchmark for peer institutions. Faculty reported spending 40% of their research time on grant writing, compliance, and reporting rather than actual research.

Grant opportunities were discovered haphazardly, with no systematic matching of faculty expertise to funding announcements. Budget creation for proposals took 2-3 weeks due to complex institutional cost rates and sponsor requirements. Post-award compliance monitoring relied on monthly manual reviews, with 8% of grants receiving audit findings for spending irregularities.

The university needed to streamline the entire grant lifecycle while improving success rates and compliance.

The Solution

Agents that find grants, draft proposals, build budgets, submit, monitor, and report

Vijan.AI deployed 6 agents across the research office. The Grant Finder matches faculty research profiles to funding opportunities from NIH, NSF, DoD, and private foundations. The Proposal Drafter generates narrative sections using LLM trained on successful proposals. The Budget Builder creates compliant cost breakdowns with institutional rates and sponsor limitations. The Submission agent files applications through Grants.gov, Research.gov, and sponsor portals. The Compliance Monitor tracks post-award spending against budget categories in real-time. The Report Generator produces sponsor-required progress and financial reports.

Autonomous Agents

How each agent reasons, decides, and acts

Step 1 · Discovery

Grant Tracking Agent

Intelligent Grant Opportunity Discovery

Continuously scans federal, foundation, and industry funding databases to identify grant opportunities matching faculty research profiles, autonomously alerting researchers and routing to proposal management in phase 1.

Input

Faculty research interests, publication records, and grant history

Output

Curated grant opportunity alerts with match scores and deadlines

Queries grant database APIs from NSF, NIH, private foundations for new RFPs matching institutional priorities
Calls match engine to score opportunities against faculty expertise using publication keywords and past awards
Autonomous decision: send high-match alerts, recommend collaborative teams, or flag limited submission competitions
Forwards interested faculty and opportunity details to Scholarship Management for proposal development in pre-award phase

Step 2 · Proposals

Scholarship Management Agent

Collaborative Proposal Development

Facilitates proposal writing through collaborative workspaces, autonomously managing compliance checks, institutional approvals, and submission deadlines while coordinating with budget planning in phase 1.

Input

Grant opportunities with interested faculty and proposal templates

Output

Submitted grant proposals with institutional sign-off and budget validation

Invokes proposal system to provide templates, track sections, and manage multi-author collaboration with version control
Calls collaboration tool to route drafts through compliance review, IRB approval, and administrative sign-offs
Autonomous decision: flag missing sections, extend internal deadlines, or auto-submit with institutional certifications
Passes proposal budgets to Budget Allocation agent for validation against cost policies before final submission

Step 3 · Budgeting

Budget Allocation Agent

Grant Budget Optimization

Develops compliant grant budgets using institutional rates and funder guidelines, autonomously optimizing indirect cost recovery and personnel allocations before transitioning awarded grants to post-award phase.

Input

Proposal narratives with project scope and funder budget requirements

Output

Detailed, compliant budgets with justifications and institutional approval

Uses budget template library pre-populated with current F&A rates, fringe benefits, and tuition remission costs
Executes cost estimator to model personnel effort, equipment, travel, and subaward scenarios for maximum allowability
Autonomous decision: recommend cost-sharing commitments, adjust indirect rates, or flag unallowable expenses
Transitions awarded grants to Grant Accountant in post-award phase for financial management and expenditure tracking

Step 4 · Billing

Tuition Billing Agent

Grant Expenditure Management

Manages post-award financial transactions including payroll charges, procurement, and subaward payments, autonomously monitoring burn rates and budget compliance while reporting to compliance monitoring in phase 2.

Input

Awarded grant budgets with approved spending categories and timelines

Output

Real-time expenditure tracking with budget variance alerts

Calls finance ERP to post payroll distributions, vendor invoices, and travel reimbursements to grant accounts
Queries grant ledger to track cumulative spending against approved budgets with real-time burn rate calculations
Autonomous decision: approve expenditures, flag over-budget categories, or initiate no-cost extension requests
Sends transaction logs and compliance flags to Financial Aid Compliance agent for policy adherence verification

Step 5 · Compliance

Financial Aid Compliance Agent

Grant Compliance Monitoring

Ensures all grant expenditures comply with federal regulations, funder terms, and institutional policies, autonomously detecting violations and triggering corrective actions before financial reporting in phase 2.

Input

Grant expenditure transactions with funder award terms and regulatory requirements

Output

Compliance certifications with issue remediation documentation

Invokes policy engine to validate expenditures against OMB Uniform Guidance, cost accounting standards, and sponsor terms
Maintains audit trail documenting approvals, cost transfers, and effort certifications for regulatory examinations
Autonomous decision: approve compliant transactions, disallow unallowable costs, or escalate to sponsored programs office
Forwards clean compliance records to Revenue Reporting agent for sponsor invoicing and financial statement preparation

Step 6 · Reporting

Revenue Reporting Agent

Grant Financial Reporting

Generates sponsor financial reports and university revenue recognition statements, autonomously reconciling expenditures with funding drawdowns and feeding performance data back to improve future proposal budgeting.

Input

Compliant expenditure data with sponsor reporting templates

Output

Submitted financial reports with revenue recognition and closeout documentation

Calls BI platform to aggregate expenditures, match to funding sources, and calculate indirect cost recoveries
Executes report generator to produce sponsor-specific formats for FFR, RPPRs, and invoices with required certifications
Autonomous decision: submit periodic reports, request additional funding tranches, or initiate grant closeout procedures
Feeds award performance metrics back to Grant Tracking agent to refine opportunity matching and budget templates

Results

Measurable impact within 90 days of deployment

35%

More Funded Proposals

Proposal success rate improved from 22% to 29.7%. Total research funding increased by $28M annually.

70%

Less Admin Time

Faculty time spent on grant administration reduced 70%. Proposal preparation time cut from 6 weeks to 2 weeks.

Zero

Audit Findings

Post-award audit findings eliminated through continuous compliance monitoring and automated spending alerts.

Opportunity Coverage

Faculty awareness of relevant funding opportunities increased 3x through proactive matching and alerts.

Implementation

From pilot to production in 12 weeks

Week 1-4

Agent Design & Tool Integration

Defined agent capabilities, connected ML model, rules engine, graph DB, and chargeback API tools. Configured orchestrator routing logic.

Week 5-8

Shadow Mode & Autonomous Tuning

Agents ran in shadow mode on 10% of transactions. Tuned decision thresholds, tool call parameters, and feedback loop retraining frequency.

Week 9-12

Full Autonomous Deployment

Production rollout across all channels. Agents operating fully autonomously with human-in-the-loop for critical escalations only.

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