Keeping up with Changes

Excellence in Research Administration Initiative implementations (08/28/15)

Submissions

• Endorsement Form is now 2 pages and can be signed electronically.
• Administrative components must be in ORSP at least 5 business days before sponsor deadline.
• Remaining components must be in ORSP at least 2 business days before sponsor deadline.
• Proposals not been submitted to ORSP by the 2 day deadline will not be accepted without prior approval.
• Conflict of Interest certifications will not be required at the time of proposal submission if a disclosure has been submitted within the last 12 months for all participants on the project.

Award Set-Up

• For budgets reduced by less than 25% of the proposed amount for awards that allow re-budgeting without sponsor approval, PI must provide a revised budget within 5 business days or ORSP will perform a straight line reduction across all cost categories to proceed with the account/index set-up.
• Signature Authorization Form will no longer be used.
• Automatic, electronic notifications will be sent to PIs and Department Administrators for all accounts/indices created.

Rutgers’ Institutional Prior Approval System (IPAS)

• Only PI and Business Official are required to approve IPAS requests.
• No-cost extension requests no longer go through IPAS.  Instead, they should be submitted to ORSP or Corporate Contracts.

IRB

• Review of approved IRB protocols in subsequent years of non-competing continuations/modifications is no longer required.

RBHS DGCA Advisory Meeting 03/17/15

Nearly all fringe corrections for FY 14-15 were recorded in February.  (A few were posted in March.) Details pertaining to grant indices were forwarded to the NJMS CFO; non-grant information was sent to RBHS Central Finance.  Questions should be sent to costgr@rci.rutgers.edu.  DGCA will “clean up” these entries as follows:

• In instances where a credit was posted to a closed index, they will reverse previous non-salary cost transfers to correct the credit.  They may ask departments for help with this. These will be done by end of May. Departments should not do the paperwork for these corrections. 
• In instances where a deficit was created, they will do a cost transfer to correct the deficit.  They may ask the departments for help with this.  These will be done by ~ June 15^th. Departments should not do the paperwork for these corrections

RAPSS will go live in April and will be first used for new June 5^th NIH submissions.  There will be separate training sessions for Proposal Teams and for Approvers.  ORSP will also provide a User Guide and a training video.  All proposal team members and approvers who anticipate submitting in June must be trained, optimally, 2-4 weeks before the deadline.  If all goes well, RAPSS will be open to other new federal submissions in July.

• On page 1, when completing “purpose of index,” do not say “to set up index for gifts.”  Instead, tell how the funds will be used – e.g. “to support the xyz program.”
• On page 2, fill everything out completely.  If funds come through the RUF, indicate the original source.  Indicate source index number, or attach NJHF letter, or attach fund agreement for scholarships etc. 

DGCA will establish index number and transfer cash at the same time.  These indices require a $5k minimum.  For smaller amounts, just spend off source index directly.

One DGCA analyst in Newark will handle designated indices (for marketplace approvals only) and restricted discretionaries; and a different one will handle sponsored grants & contracts.

The final report from Huron Consulting will be available soon.  Many of the suggestions they made cannot be implemented until we’re on one financial system.  Two suggestions that will be implemented:

• Only 2 approvals will be required in the IPAS portal – just PI and Chair.  The Dean’s signature will no longer be required.
• In RAPSS, information that is needed for submission is separated from what is needed at award, which reduces workload for submissions that are not funded.

DGCA will streamline the processing of NJHF awards.  For this year, they will not book awards based on letters, but you can spend based on letter, even though no budget or cash will show up in banner.  They have to first review and correctly categorize all the NJHF indices.  Next year, these indices will be budgeted annually.  DGCA bills NJHF quarterly and then it takes ~ another quarter for them to receive payment, so it may take 6 months for the cash to show up in CRL370.  DGCA will designate one person to answer questions about NJHF. 

Diane Ambrose will convene a committee to help define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for ORSP.  Contact her if you are interested in participating.

CRL370 was created for L-UMD end users and is not used by DGCA.  Any questions re: CRL370 should be sent to Kyle Aaronson.

Regarding the 94 indices that were adversely affected by the new F&A rate during the novation, the analysis is complete and differential funds will be distributed to affected PIs in April.

01/17/15 RBHS DGCA Advisory Meeting

The RAPPS rollout (phase I) is planned for the end of April and will focus on new NIH R01s.It will have an HR feed but not a salary feed.ORSP has hired a trainer to assist with training.

Some reminders from DGCA:

• PIs should submit technical final reports and invention statements to the NIH in a timely manner.
• Only DGCA should send invoices.No PI should do billing.
• Checks must go directly from sponsors to 65 Davidson.
• At the end of a grant budget period, if no new funding arrives and the PI anticipates > 25% balance remaining, he/she must request carryforward, giving an explanation and budget indicating how the funds will be used.PIs should confirm anticipated balances with grant analyst.
• No-cost-extensions should be requested at least 2 months before the end date of a project.

Some reminders from OCC:

• Submit MS Word docs (not pdfs)
• Always try to negotiate a 59% F&A rate.
• If an F&A rate for a clinical trial is < 30% a waiver will be required.
• If an F&A rate for all other clinical research is < 59% a waiver will be required.
• If University Hospital is involved, a "UH Research Plan" will be required.

• If grant is still active – retro will be charged
• If grant is expired (end date has passed) but final FFR not sent to sponsor yet – retro will be charged
• If grant is expired (end date has passed) and final FFR was sent to sponsor– retro will be charged to Dean’s F&A index.

• They are unrestricted (e.g. startup, overhead, residuals from clinical trials.)
• They are now managed by the Finance Office (not DGCA).
• All CTs, CISFs, check requests etc. pertaining to these indices should go to Finance (not DGCA)
• For now, there is a problem with Finance approving Marketplace orders so DGCA will continue to do this till a solution is found.

02/14/15 Revised Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG)

Uniform Guidance (UG) recently incorporated language from eight existing OMB circulars into one consolidated set of guidance in the CFR. The PAPPG has been revised to implement UG and other significant changes. It went into effect 12/26/14. An archived version of the NSF January 27th webinar covering revisions to the PAPPG is now available on the NSF Policy Office website: http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/outreach/PAPPG.mp4. (large file may take a few minutes to load.) Slides are posted at:http://nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/outreach/nsfupdate_pappgdec14.pdf.

02/13/15 New biosketch format required for NIH submissions

The NIH's new format biosketch will be required on/after May 25, 2015. The guide notice (NOT-OD-15-032)

02/02/15 RBHS new fringe rate

The RBHS fringe rate is now 40.43% (32.78% + 7.65 FICA/Medicare)

01/29/15 Anticipated changes to the handling of discretionary indices

• In the past, many internal source indices have been mistakenly classified as “restricted” and therefore came under the DGCA.  Those indicesare actually unrestricted will now be considered “designated” funds and will be under the aegis of the Finance Office. 
• DGCA will continue to be responsible for Grants, Contracts, Clinical Trials and (for now) NJHF and Rutgers Foundation (even if use is discretionary.)
• The fund designation for designated indices will be changed from 2i, 2m, 2o, 2p etc. to 4i, 4m, 4o, 4p etc.
• FYGRNT will still function and funds will retain their history and balances.  (This differs from “state indices” where end-of-year balance is not rolled forward.)
• Budget roll forward will no longer occur.  Funds will be budgeted like other unrestricted funds each year after discussions between finance office and departments.
• Designated indices will be non-revenue recognition
• For now, these indices will retain their RA designation even though they are unrestricted.  (R=restricted, A=NJMS).
• New index requests should go through local finance office who will communicate with Financial Operations POCs:
  • Gary Kovach, Director, University Budget Office, RU CA
  • Kyle Aaronson, Sr. Admin for Finance and Business Operations, RU CA
• Michele Conlin will process the stack of discretionary index requests that is currently on her desk.