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Topics: Federal Procurement Requirements Review, New RAS Director of Research Development for the Social Sciences and Humanities, Reporting- Financial and Non, and updates on the new Administrative and Clerical Policy, the Affirmation of Awareness/Conflict of Interest process, the Overhead Rate Calculation, including Faculty Effort Certification, and the status of ARRA awards.
Federal Procurement Requirements Review: Ray Wise and Judy McSweeney
Suspension and Debarment and Vendor Justification forms continue to be items of note in A-133 audits. There were no findings in FAS this past year but continued vigilance is key. For more information, please download the powerpoint here, check out the Procurement Website, and contact Ray Wise, Associate Director of Strategic Procurement for University Financial Services. Email: ray_wise@harvard.edu.
New Director of Research Development for the Social Sciences and Humanities
RAS is pleased to welcome Kathryn Coughlin as the new Director of Research Development for the Social Sciences and Humanities Divisions. For the past ten months Kathryn worked as an outside consultant for the Harvard Center for Middle East Studies, identifying potential funding sources, and performing grant writing and project development for the Islamopedia project. Kathryn previously served as Director of Middle East and North Africa Programs and Director of Operations for the American Islamic Congress, Inc. Kathryn's professional experience also includes a position at Georgetown University as the Assistant Director of the Al-Waleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. Kathryn has a B.A. from Berea College, a M.A. from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. ABD from Georgetown U.
Kathryn is currently setting and taking meetings with faculty and administrators in the Social Sciences and Humanities Divisions. If you would like to get in touch with her directly, please email her at: coughlin@fas.harvard.edu
Reporting-- Whose Role is it Anyway?: Karen Woodward Massey, Helia Morris, and Rachel C. Blaine
Timely financial and non-financial reporting is going to be an issue in the upcoming A-133 audit results for Harvard fiscal year 2008-2009. There seems to be some confusion around reporting roles & responsibilities, especially around a few special reports. In general, Financial Reports are scheduled in GMAS, reviewed and approved by Departments, and submitted by OSP. Non-financial Reports are primarily the responsibility of PIs and Departments. Examples include: Annual Reports, Final Reports, and Invention Reports. Non-Financial reports are usually not mentioned in Action Memos so it is extremely important for departments to check the sponsor award notices in GMAS and to use a tracking system to remind PIs and help them to submit the reports on time. Next month we hope to have a discussion around how departments track non-financial report due dates and get reports in on time. For more specific information, please download the Reporting Roles handout here.
Announcements:
1) Changes in Central Research Administration: Deloris Pettis, the Associate Vice President for Sponsored Programs Administration, has left OSP to take on a number of critical new responsibilities in the PEPFAR program. Cathy Gorodentsev, former Acting Dean for Administration at FAS, has now become the Director of OSP under the supervision of Mark Barnes, the University's new Chief Research Compliance Officer and Senior Advisor to the Provost, and Dan Shore, the University's Vice President for Finance. Mark and Cathy will each be speaking at the RAS Friday meeting on December 18th. In addition, RAS's very own Ken Carson will be taking a new position as Assistant Provost for Research Policy and will report to David Korn, the Vice Provost for Research Administration, as of December 14th.
2) Request for NCURA volunteers: Pat Fitzgerald has been asked to come up with the Departmental Track sessions for the 2010 NCURA Annual Meeting. If you would like to be part of this effort, please email Pat at: pwf@fas.harvard.edu
3) Upcoming Research Administration Workshops: Click here to check them out.
4) Budget Template Updated: The template now has additional columns to accommodate five-year proposal budgets starting on or after 7/1/10. Click here to download.
5) New NSF Grants.gov Application Guide may be downloaded from the NSF website at: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/policydocs/grantsgovguide1209.pdf?WT.mc_id=USNSF_109
6) The Holiday Celebration of Research Administration will be taking place at the Queen's Head Cambridge on December 10th from 2-5 pm. Everyone on the RAS Friday list is welcome to attend.
Administrative and Clerical Costs Charged to Federal Grants Update: Patrick Fitzgerald
This is a follow-up to the discussion at the RAS Friday in October. For background information, please see the October notes at http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~research/
training/RAS_Friday_Summaries/09_Oct/Notes.html#admin.
In brief: The new policy is being written by the University Cost Analysis Group and should be available in December. It will be implemented shortly for proposals. We anticipate that the administrative checklist and the 25% FTE requirement will be eliminated. We also anticipate that proposers will be required to specifically justify why an administrator is needed and why the project is considered a major project. The "old" policy will stay in effect for people currently charged directly to current grants. Stay tuned for more information.
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Affirmation of Awareness of FAS and Harvard University Policies Including Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest And Conflicts of Commitment: Dean Gallant
Faculty have been requested to re-sign their Affirmations of Awareness online at: https://asperin.fas.harvard.edu/disclosure/web/
For more information on this process, please go to: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~research/policy/coi.html#faq
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Overhead Calculation Update: Alan Long
Departments were supposed to have used grant proposals and progress reports to pre-populate faculty effort commitments in FASERS by November 13th. This process must be completed ASAP so that faculty members can certify their FY 09 effort in December.
This is a follow-up to the discussion at the last RAS Friday. For background information, please see the October notes at http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~research/training/
RAS_Friday_Summaries/09_Oct/Notes.html#Overhead.
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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Update: Hannah Coache
This is a follow-up to the discussion at the RAS Friday in October. For background information, please see the October notes at http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~research/training/
RAS_Friday_Summaries/09_Oct/Notes.html#arra.
- 56 awards for FAS to date, amounting to $31.9M in anticipated funding.
- Yulanda Quinlan and Hanna Coache will be deploying out to FAS departments in the coming weeks to assist with reporting requirements.
- New Vendor Payment Guidance will be finalized and sent to departments shortly.
If you would like more information about ARRA funding or reporting, please contact the FAS RAS ARRA Project Specialists, Yulanda Quinlan (yulanda_quinlan@harvard.edu) and Hannah Coache (hcoache@fas.harvard.edu), or RAS Assistant Dean for Research Administration Services, David Norcross (norcross@fas.harvard.edu).
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