PrintRADG Meeting February 26th: Federal and Foundations Update
Federal Update: Kevin Casey and Jon Groteboer from Harvard's Office of Federal Relations spoke at the NCURA Region One RADG meeting held on February 26. Download presentation by clicking here.
Foundations Update: Tara Murphy, FAS Director of Research Development, spoke about how private foundations are being affected by the economy at the NCURA Region One RADG meeting. Download "Private Foundations and the Global Economic Crisis" presentation by clicking here.
Old Subcontract Object Codes Will Be Disabled February 27th
Charge subcontract invoices to object code 8190 for expenses up to $25K and 8191 for any expenses over $25K.
Download Subcontract Object Codes Memo Here
GMAS Focus Groups Are Being Held
FAS, OSP, and FAD-SS will be interviewing FAS administrators over the next few weeks to get feedback from GMAS users. The discussions will enable us to identify enhancements and fixes necessary to improve GMAS performance and to determine what steps can be taken to increase utilization and deployment of GMAS across Harvard. To sign up for focus groups, contact Pat Fitzgerald at pwf@fas.harvard.edu.
OSP Website Has a New Design and Has Been Updated
Significant changes: data is now accurate, will be updated regularly, and will be reviewed on a quarterly basis. Out-of-date pages have been removed entirely. There is also a new Policies section that will be updated regularly. Updates and input are always welcome. Send to OSP_Webmaster@harvard.edu or click the “Contact Us” link.
Faculty Committed Effort Population Must Be Completed by February 27th in Preparation for the Faculty Effort Certification Deadline on March 31st
Some faculty effort coordinators have PIs with grants in multiple departments. If you find cross-departmental faculty in FASERS, please populate their effort for your Org(s) and let Alan know by putting a comment in the Private Notes box telling Alan that the PI needs to be transferred. He’ll reassign the faculty member to the other department, and will let you know if a PI gets transferred to your unit so you can finish off their pre-population.
Yale University Recently Had an Audit Finding Concerning Faculty Effort
Faculty were charging 100% of their summer months to sponsored projects but not spending 100% of their time on sponsored projects. FAS had a finding in that the FY07 Faculty Effort Certification didn’t adhere to an "implied standard" of timeliness, so certification within nine months of the end of the previous fiscal year is the new policy.
Supplemental Salary Forms for January-June 2009 Are Being Processed
FAS recently changed "Summer Salary" to "Supplemental Salary" and modified the policy to reflect the fact that in reality faculty don’t spend 100% of their time on sponsored projects in the summer months, and they do spend a certain amount of time working on sponsored projects during the academic year. After much deliberation-- and to reflect this reality-- FAS decided that no more than 75% effort may be charged to sponsored funds in any month. The whole method is complicated by the fact that many PIs have multiple supplemental salary funding sources, the Harvard Fiscal Year doesn't correspond to sponsored project end dates, faculty often take vacation in the summer months, and some sponsors place grant constraints on the number of months of effort they'll pay for (e.g. two months for NSF).
The process going forward: PIs will be asked to fill out a Supplemental Salary Request form in May to specify up to two months worth of supplemental salary forthe first half of the fiscal year. Ordinarily, sponsored salary payments from the project(s) they specify will be charged in July and August to the fullest extent allowed by FAS, i.e. no more than 75% of a month's salary, with the remainder paid in September, October, November and December if necessary. In January, PIs will be asked to fill out a Supplemental Salary Request form for one month of salary for the second half of the fiscal year. Generally, sponsored salary payments from the project(s) they specify will be charged in June at 50% of a month's salary, with the remainder paid in February, March, April, and May if necessary.
If you have questions about how a particular faculty member's effort will be charged, please contact Alan Long at aklong@fas.harvard.edu. To see how a faculty member's effort has been charged to sponsored projects you manage, run a detail listing using their HUID in the "Description 2" field and the object code 6040.
Download answers to some Frequently Asked Questions on Supplemental Salary here.
Harvard Estimates That As Much As 200 Million Incremental Sponsored Dollars May be Awarded to our Faculty in the Next 18 Months As Part of the Stimulus Package Just Passed By Congress.
These funds will have to be spent quickly in order to have the desired effect on the economy, but carefully as well. Along with this funding comes “an unprecedented level of reporting that must include the number of jobs created or preserved, and must demonstrate the stimulus purpose.” Stimulus package: NIH is receiving $10.4 Billion, NSF $3 billion, DoE $2 billion, NASA
$
1 billion, NEA $50 million. President Obama has directed that the government processes should be clear and transparent. Recovery.gov will report how stimulus funds are being spent. Part of the stimulus package will be used to hire more auditors in the Offices of Inspector General at the federal funding agencies.
Download February 12th Stimulus Update Here
Download February 18th Stimulus Update Here
Download AAAS Stimulus Summary Here
Proper Stewardship of Sponsored Research is Imperative
Harvard’s budget crunch is affecting us all: we’re seeing significant increases in workloads, early retirement programs, vacant positions not being filled, and many FAS departments asked to cut budgets by 15% or more. We're all human, so increased workloads can lead to increased errors. Grant funds are also increasing significantly (see above). The government’s expectations for accountability and proper stewardship of federal funds are leading to increased scrutiny of universities, as evidenced by the Yale settlement announced in December 2008 and a January 2009 federal audit report issued for Duke University. Duke had an audit finding concerning administrative effort being charged to federal grants: $1.7 million in charges were disallowed, based on limited samples and extrapolation of the sample findings.
Here’s what you can do: Educate your central, school, and department leaders about the needs of sponsored research administration. Encourage administrators and researchers in your areas to go to training sessions within and outside of Harvard. Look at workloads and decide which things will give the biggest bang for the bucks. Review policies and give FAS RAS and OSP suggestions to make your lives easier. Help your colleagues in departments, schools, and OSP as much as you can.
