PrintYale Settlement
Yale University settled with the US Attorney's Office for a total of $7.6 million dollars. According to a Yale press release, during the investigation "Yale produced more than a million pages of documents..., developed mandatory training programs for faculty and staff, revised and updated numerous policies and procedures, implemented a new... effort reporting system..., [and] tightened oversight of cost transfers... ." According to the same press release, "A major overhaul of Yale's on-line capabilities in grant administration is under way." In a separate press release, the US Attorney's Office cited allegations involving "the requirement that costs transferred to a federal grant account must be allocable to that particular grant" and faculty who "wrongfully charged 100 percent of their summer effort to Federal Grants."
Recent Proposal Issues
The Office for Sponsored Programs described two problems experienced with recent NSF proposals. These problems illustrate the risks associated with inadequate time for central administrative review. The first concerned incorrect font and margin size. Fortunately, in this case the program officer allowed the PI to submit an adjusted proposal.
The second issue occurred when a proposal received by FAS RAS and OSP minutes before the deadline had to be submitted without review. In this case a supplementary document was missing and the proposal was rejected without review. OSP makes every effort to submit all proposals they receive. However, administrators and investigators should note that sponsors are getting tougher about adherence to proposal requirements. Read the proposal instructions and get the proposal to RAS and OSP in time for them to perform an adequate review. When a proposal is rejected it is not only a waste of investigator effort and a missed funding opportunity, but it reflects badly on the university as a whole.
Importance of Sponsored Transaction Coding This Base Year
FY09 is the base year for the overhead calculations needed to negotiate the federal overhead rates. Please be extra careful when coding sponsored transactions, using the sponsored activity when accounting for University Cost Sharing and always using root values designating the PI managing the project being charged. This will help to get expenses in the right categories and will facilitate accurate faculty effort reporting. Please be sure to review all transactions for allowability and documentation and please check the FASSPAR Invalid Code Combinations and Cost Sharing reports at least monthly, making corrections as necessary. Finally, make sure to code all operations and maintenance costs using an A10 (Operations and Maintenance) activity.
Suggested Postdoc Mentoring Language
for NSF Proposals submitted on or after January 5, 2009
The new NSF Grants Policy Guide says "Each proposal that requests funding to support postdoctoral researchers must include, as a separate section... [in] ...the Project Description, a description of the mentoring activities that will be provided... ." To accommodate this new NSF policy, Greg Llacer, Director of the Office for Postdoctorals Affairs, has provided suggested language for FAS proposals. Please note: this language may be modified. It describes the role of the PostDoc Affairs Office and the PI may want to expand on this description to include a description of his/her own postdoc mentoring activities. The full suggested text is under development. For questions on recommended language for the Postdoc Mentoring Plan, please contact:
Susan Gomes
sgomes@fas.harvard.edu
(617) 496-9448
Upcoming Learning Opportunities
(click on the red hyperlinks for more information and to register):
Spending Sponsored Funds Workshop is scheduled for Wednesday, January 20th in Lamont Library Forum Room.
Harvard Overview of Sponsored Projects Administration one-day workshop is scheduled for Wednesday, February 4th.
FAS RAS Sponsored System Workshop Series begins again on Wednesday February 11th. Workshops cover systems such as Equipster, Budgeting using an Excel template, GMAS, CREW, and FASSPAR.
