PrintClick the links below to go directly to a topic or announcement:
Announcements & Updates: Welcome, Grants.gov Update, Upcoming Research Administration Workshops, Financial Disclosure and Affirmation of Awareness Forms, New Fringe Rates/Related RAS Forms, SPOC Update
Bright Ideas -- Commonly Misused Object Codes
Updates from NCURA Region 1 Meeting: NIH, NSF & COGR
Spending Sponsored Funds: Case Studies Preview
Hot Topic of the Month: Cost Transfers
Announcements & Updates:
1. FAS Personnel Updates: Welcome to the new (or newly-placed) attendees at the May RAS Friday, including:
- Jennifer Lech -- Senior Sponsored Research Administrator, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
- Rady Rogers -- ARRA Project Specialist, Research Administration Services
2. Grants.gov Update (Tiffany Blackman):
- Grants.gov was originally set up to be a central portal for all federal submissions for assistance (especially from the 26 major federal agencies). The grants.gov system has moved to new servers. The current SF424 forms expire in July and have to get re-approved by OMB; currently no notable overall changes are planned. However, you may be seeing some new forms (from USDA and NSF, e.g.) this summer, unique forms that each federal agency can compose to supplement the basic SF424 package (NIH’s 398 series is one such example). The government is also looking at ways to save information, such as auto pre-fill or the ability to copy an old proposal to use as a template. NASA and NSF use their own systems, but the federal government asked them to post new proposals on grants.gov effective 4/1/10 and to begin seeking ways to get more proposals via grants.gov instead of their home-grown systems (NSPIRES and FASTLANE, respectively).
3. Upcoming Research Administration Workshops (Karen Woodward Massey):
- June 2: NCURA RADG (Research Administrators' Discussion Group) meeting in Boston
- "Personalized medicine: The purpose, the promise, the perplexing problems" with P. Pearl O'Rourke, MD. More info available at http://www.ncuraregion1.org/meetings/radgmeetings.htm
- June 2010 FAS RAS systems workshops (Get details and sign up now at the FAS RAS Registration iSite):
- June 10: Overview of Sponsored Programs Administration class in Longwood Medical Area -- for those new to Harvard and also for those new to working with grants. Sign up at the OSP website -- this class is filling up quickly.
- June 15, 11:30am-3:30pm: NCURA TV: "Non-Financial Research Compliance". More information available at the NCURA website.
- University Area Location:
Kennedy School of Government
Land Hall, Belfer Center
79 JFK Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
- University Area Location:
4. Financial Disclosure and Affirmation of Awareness Forms (Colleen Hutchins):
- A brief reminder from Colleen Hutchins from OSP that Affirmation of Awareness and Disclosure forms should not be submitted to OSP due to confidentiality issues. If you are making a copy of your proposal to give to OSP, please be sure to exclude these forms from the OSP copy. The Affirmation of Awareness and Disclosure of Potential Conflicts forms are now Web-based and are available here, or via the RAS website. The form that does get submitted to OSP and RAS when submitting proposals is the PI Certification Form for NSF/PHS/AHA/ACS, available for download on the RAS website. This form is a certification that the Affirmation of Awareness and Disclosure of Potential Conflicts has been completed online.
5. New Fringe Rates/Related RAS Forms (Alan Long):
- DHHS has signed Harvard's fringe rate agreement for FY11 -- the official approval date is 4/28/2010. New rates are listed on the OSP website. The Dean's Approval Form (DAF) and DAF Guidelines have also been updated to include the new rates, as has the Budget Template.
6. SPOC Update (Cathy Gorodentsev):
- The Sponsored Programs Operating Committee (SPOC) had its most recent quarterly meeting on Tuesday May 18th. Cathy Gorodentsev discussed some current highlights in research administration at Harvard:
- Training Initiatives: URATT (the University Research Administration Training Team, chaired by Pat Fitzgerald and Roseann Luongo) has been hard at work developing new training initiatives for the University, including:
- Online training in Direct Costs, Cost Principles, The Regulatory Environment, and Sponsored Programs Administration Overview, developed by Eileen Nielsen from HSPH
- In-person training available at Harvard
- a University-wide research administration certificate program
- New upcoming policies were finalized May 20th:
- Proposal Submission Deadlines -- effective October 15, 2010, there will be a new policy requiring proposals to be submitted to the pre-award office five business days in advance of the sponsor deadline.
- Guidelines regarding indirect costs on non-federal awards
- Criteria for proposals requiring Provost review (two prior documents have been combined into one document)
- Publication restriction policy
- GMAS will be rolled out this year -- HSPH and HMS have begun submitting proposals via System to System (S2S). FAS will start with online UPAS and non-financial report scheduling.
- ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) -- Currently about $145M obligated at the University, about $39M of which is at FAS. FSS (FAD Systems Solutions) and OSP are working together on a solution to automate ARRA reporting via XML.
- IDC Proposal -- Judy Ryan from OSP and Alan Long from RAS, along with other key University personnel, have been working on a new Indirect Cost Proposal for the University. Stay tuned for more information this summer/fall.
- OSP Metrics -- There is a metrics project underway at OSP to address workload distribution and efficiency. Results should be obtained by the end of June, and OSP will share the results at an RAS Friday later on in the summer.
- Training Initiatives: URATT (the University Research Administration Training Team, chaired by Pat Fitzgerald and Roseann Luongo) has been hard at work developing new training initiatives for the University, including:
7. Other (Pat Fitzgerald):
- There will be an educational process around the new five-day policy.
- HSPH: Research Transformation Project (RTP) involves radical organizational changes with two different deployment models. Pat will have more information at a future RAS Friday meeting.
"Bright Ideas" for May 2010 -- Commonly Misused Object Codes
Jess Martin, Sponsored Programs Portfolio Manager (Physics Dept.)
Mary O'Connor, Manager of Research Administration (CCB)
Nuala McGowan, Research Finances & Systems Specialist (RAS)
Download the handout here. Should you have any questions, please contact Nuala McGowan (nmcgowan@fas.harvard.edu) or Tiffany Blackman (tiffany_blackman@harvard.edu).
If you have a bright idea that works well in your department that you would like to share with the FAS research administration community, please let Nuala know! (Nuala McGowan, 617-495-7681, nmcgowan@fas.harvard.edu)
Updates from NCURA Region 1 Meeting: NIH, NSF, & COGR
Karen Rizman, Assistant Manager of Research Administration (CCB)
Liz Foote, Senior Sponsored Research Administrator (CCB)
Karen and Liz gave updates from the recent NCURA Region 1 meeting in late April in Portsmouth, NH. Download their notes here.
Spending Sponsored Funds: Case Studies Preview
Alan Long, Assistant Dean for Research Finances and Systems (RAS)
Nuala McGowan, Research Finances and Systems Specialist (RAS)
Alan gave a preview of the newly revamped "Spending Sponsored Funds" case study session, to be presented May 25th and 26th.
Hot Topic of the Month: Cost Transfers -- Alan Long
Alan's "hot topic" for May is a reminder about definitions of and naming conventions for cost transfers. Please click here for Alan's Cost Transfers handout.
