Sponsored Research News

Sponsored Research News | April 2020

COVID-19 Updates

Dr. Jaffe's March 23rd memo that pauses all UT laboratory research activities.
OMB issued M-20-17 that provides administrative relief for recipients and applications of federal financial assistance directly impacted by COVID-19 due to loss of operations. The guidance from federal sponsors listed on the OSP FAQ and below are the implementation plans of this OMB memo.
COGR created a Federal Agency-Guidance Matrix that will be updated weekly as information becomes available. The matrix is a very useful tool that lays out sponsor policies on many topics, including salaries, non-refundable travel charges, and no-cost extensions.
NIH issued Notice NOT-OD-20-091 that updates their late application policy. All grant applications submitted late for due dates between March 9, 2020 and May 1, 2020 will be accepted through May 1st. NIH maintains an COVID-19 Information Page.
NSF maintains a COVID-19 Information Page, and on April 1st they updated their implementation of the OMB Memorandum.
DOE issued Attachment 2: DOE-NNSA Implementation of OMB Memorandum M-20-17. The purpose of the guidance is to implement flexibility authorized by OMB Memo M-20-17.
Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas has compiled this FAQ document (updated April 3rd). On April 1st, CPRIT announced they will suspend the first cycle of grant applications for fiscal year 2021 (FY 21.1).
NASA issued their Implementation of OMB M-20-17 and compiled FAQs for Grants and Research.
DOD created an FAQ page for research proposers and awardees impacted by COVID-19.
NCURA hosted a webinar entitled, "Research Administration in a Time of Disruption." The webinar is available for viewing on OSP's MediaSite. Part II of this webinar will be held on April 8th e posted to OSP's MediaSite as soon as it's available.

The OVPR, RSC, and OSP COVID-19 FAQ pages are continually updated, so please check regularly for the most up-to-date information.

Federal Regulatory Updates

Effort for NCI-Funded Awards

National Cancer Institute issued NOT-CA-20-033 to announce the policy on the minimum level of effort that will be a part of the funding consideration for NCI-funded grants. In addition to previously established policies for specific grant mechanisms that have been described in funding opportunity announcements (FOAs), Principal Investigators, including Project Leaders on multi-project grants, will be required to commit a minimum level of effort to be eligible for NCI funding through R01, U01, P01, and R21 grant mechanisms. Effective immediately, competing applications that do not meet the minimum criteria will not be considered for funding unless the level of effort is raised to comply with the policy. In addition, a request to reduce the PI’s level of effort in subsequent years of funding will not be approved if the proposed level of effort falls below the minimum level. The minimum effort policy described in this notice will not apply when the grant is in a no-cost extension. .

Collaborative Proposal Submission through Research.Gov

Effective March 30th, researchers community may prepare and submit separately submitted collaborative proposals from multiple organizations in Research.gov. For separately submitted proposals from multiple organizations, all proposals in the collaboration must be prepared and submitted in Research.gov and cannot be a mix of Research.gov and FastLane proposals.

Collaborative Proposal Preparation and Submission FAQs may be found here.

NSF-Approved Format for BioSketches & Current & Pending

NSF-approved formats for the Biographical Sketch and Current & Pending Support sections of NSF proposals that fall under the revised Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 20-1) are now available. Use of an NSF-approved format for submission of these proposal sections is not required until implementation of the revised PAPPG (NSF 20-1) on June 1, 2020, but proposers are encouraged to begin using the NSF-approved formats now.

Information on Biographical Sketches formats may be found here.

Information on Current and Pending formats may be found here.

SciENcv training will be offered through Zoom on April 23rd and May 20th. Register for training here (Course SP0161)

University Updates

Salary Compensation Reports

On March 5 ^th, an email was sent to Principal Investigators with Salary Compensation Reports for fall 2019. These reports are a tool to review accuracy of personnel cost of sponsored projects and will be provided three times a year. We made the transition to Salary Compensation Reports to move away from the more burdensome process of Effort Certification. The success of this transition greatly depends on full participation by Principal Investigators and their departments.

Please use this link provided in the March 5 ^th email or click here to review all reported listed on your homepage. After reviewing reports, PIs should work with their departmental administrative support staff to request any salary changes that may be needed.

Additional guidance and frequently asked questions can be found on the OSP websit e .

UT Research Management Suite

The UT Research Management Suite project team completed both the All-OSP/OIE preview and a series of immensely productive Agreements Module testing sessions in early March (the latter involving central office staff, departmental administrators, and researchers). As with many offices across campus, project plans have since evolved amidst campus COVID-19 response. Most significantly, our soft Go-Live date shifted two weeks, to Monday, April 20 ^th . Central office teams training began and will continue virtually through that date. End-user Agreements Module training targeting high-activity investigators and admin support staff will soon be rescheduled for the month of April, beginning next week. Interested users are still enthusiastically encouraged to reach out to Sara Clough to schedule Agreements training.

The project team has also been hard at work on various Agreements user resources, including Frequently Asked Questions now live on our project webpage. Our FAQs have been tailored by user experience type: you may view the information directly applicable to you as researchers, central office staff, or departmental support staff.

Scoping of the IRB Module was also completed last month. We are still targeting Go-Live for IRB in late summer, but will update the campus community should that change. As always, our project team is here to assist and support the campus research community; please be in touch with any questions, concerns, or suggestions!

SPAA Restructure Update

SPAA is happy to announce the transition from account assignments which have been based on the 26-account number, towards a unit-based assignment that align with the constituencies currently served on campus.

OSP staff constituency list and account assignment will soon be updated the OSP website to reflect the new workload distribution. The Accounting contacts listed on GB1 in Define are defaulted to Linda Haster, Associate Director of SPAA and individual emails will be sent to each department contact and Principal Investigator introducing themselves to each of you.

Effective April 8 ^th, SPAA will shift all internal processes to facilitate this new structure. Grant & Contract Managers will provide oversight, training and guidance for each of the G&C Specialist and Administrative Associates assigned to their PODs, respectfully. In addition, all voucher types will be reviewed and approved by the SPAA management team and the central support staff.

Derek Diaz will supervise the Platinum and Navy PODs which consists of the following units:

Platinum – Cockrell School of Engineering

Navy – School of Architecture, Moody College of Communication, Executive VP & Provost, College of Fine Arts, Graduate School, Jackson School of Geosciences, School of Law, College of Liberal Arts, School of Undergraduates Studies, VP Diversity & Community Engagement, VP Research (Non ARL) and VP Student Affairs.

Mike Martindale will supervise the Onyx and Gold PODs which consist of the following units:

Onyx – Natural Science

Gold – McCombs School of Business, UT Financial & Administrative Services, College of Education, School of Information, LBJ School Public Affairs, Dell Medical School, School of Nursing College of Pharmacy, and Steven Hicks School of Social Work

Michael Howell will supervise the Raspberry, Shamrock Green, Indigo and Lavender PODs, facilitate ARL research tasks, and provide the following central support functions all units:

Distribute RMS Actions to Appropriate POD

Cash Management – Aging Analysis, Collections and Letter of Credit Draws

Fringe Mitigation

Audit & Compliance Oversight – Internal and External

Subrecipient Monitoring

Salary Compensation Review and Analysis

Closeout Process

Institutional Research Reporting

Special Projects

In some cases, special handling will be taken to accommodate the Letter of Agreements and other specialized tasks. If your department is uncertain who to contact, please send all inquiries to SPAA@austin.utexas.edu and include your unit code in the subject line. Your inquiry will be forwarded to the appropriate SPAA staff member.

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Continuing Education

T he Office of Sponsored Projects and other research support units offer educational opportunities on campus each month. Check the OSP Calendar for free on-campus training that is applicable to

CRA re-certification. Below are training opportunities that were available last month as well as those coming up in the month ahead.

MONTH IN REVIEW

- MARCH -

THE MONTH AHEAD

- APRIL -

4/8 - FEMA COVID-19 Guidance Webinar
4/23 - SciENcv (Zoom)
4/28 - ARA Monthly Meeting (Zoom)
Tuesdays - CRA Study Group
NCURA webinar available on MediaSite

Learn More

Find the latest Federal regulation and UT Austin policy and procedures related to sponsored research on the OSP News & Alerts page.

OSP News & Alerts

Reserve your seat for live-cast webinars and workshops on Research TRACKS (where your research-related continuing education credits are recorded).

Research TRACKS

Did you miss the last newsletter? View past newsletters on the OSP Website.

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