MU Grants Community,
Please take note of the following federal agency
announcements. Should you have questions about the applicability
of this guidance to current or anticipated projects, please contact your OSPA Pre-Award
or Post-Award
staff.
United States Department of Agriculture | National Institute of Food and Agriculture
NIFA issued guidance regarding an updated acknowledgement statement for USDA support by NIFA. NIFA’s Office of Grants and Financial Management will add this same statement to award terms as appropriate.
National Science Foundation
On July 24, 2015, NSF will take a next step in its transition from FastLane to Research.gov by releasing the following ten additional notifications and requests in Research.gov and retiring them from FastLane:
- Long-term Disengagement of the PI/PD or co-PI/co-PD (>3 months)
- Pre-Award Costs in Excess of 90 Days
- Significant Changes in Methods/Procedures
- Significant Changes/Delays or Events of Unusual Interest
- Changes in Objectives or Scope
- Reallocation of Funds Provided for Participant Support Costs
- Change in Person-Months Devoted to Project
- Withdrawal of PI/PD or co-PI/co-PD
- Rearrangements/Alterations in excess of $25,000 (construction)
- Conflicts of Interest
- Salaries of Administrative or Clerical Staff
- Travel Costs for Dependents
- Additional categories of participant support costs other than those described in 2 CFR § 200.75 (such as incentives, gifts, souvenirs, t-shirts and/or memorabilia)
All remaining notifications and requests will continue to reside in FastLane and will be migrated in the future. Awardees may view the status of all notifications and requests in both FastLane and Research.gov, regardless of where they were created and submitted.
Notifications and requests communicate changes in the scope, time, staff or budget of an NSF funded project. Depending on the type of change, awardee organizations must notify or request approval from NSF prior to taking action. Notifications and requests can be created and submitted by either the PIs and/or Sponsored Project Offices (SPOs), depending on the type of notification and/or request. For a full listing of all NSF notifications and requests, please see the Award & Administration Guide (AAG), Exhibit II-1.
National Institutes of Health
Keeping Your Personal Profile Up to Date
Maintaining your Personal Profile is critical for successful interaction with NIH staff and awards processing. Here is why, section by section:
- Name and ID. The Personal Profile data is used to help identify you in cases where two or more people have very similar names. Data fields in this section can be used to correctly identify the account as yours. With almost 400,000 accounts in Commons, you can see why this might be important. Also of critical importance is the Email Address for account-related communications. Keep this current! This is the email address we use to send you a temporary password should you forget yours, or lock the account. If you are using an email address given to you by your organization, but then change organizations, you may lose access to that account.
- Demographics. The information from this section helps NIH track how it is doing providing funding as it relates to race, gender, ethnicity, and disability. Each option must have a response, even if the response is “Do not wish to provide.” Again, while the data is not required, it does help NIH with statistical reporting.
- Employment. NIH takes many steps to ensure all applicants receive unbiased reviews of their applications. One part of this commitment is to remove any conflict of interests reviewers may have with the applications they are asked to review. Accurate and up-to-date information in the Employment section is used to identify potential conflicts of interests.
- Reviewer. All PIs, with or without the Internet Assisted Review (IAR) role, are required to complete and maintain this information. If you do have the IAR role, then you have volunteered to share your scientific expertise by making yourself available to review grant applications. And as such, this section must absolutely be completed and maintained. NIH uses the data in this section to contact you for reviews; determine eligibility for payment for review services; and determine your status for Continuous Submission. Continuous Submission is a way to help recognize outstanding service in the NIH peer review process and on NIH Advisory Groups by allowing you to submit your research grant applications (R01, R21, or R34) on a continuous basis and to have those applications undergo initial peer review in a timely manner.
- Education. The data concerning terminal degree and medical residency are used to calculate your eligibility for New and Early Stage Investigator classifications. Applications from Early Stage Investigators (ESIs), like those from all New Investigators, are given special consideration during peer review and at the time of funding. Peer reviewers are instructed to focus more on the proposed approach than on the track record and to expect less preliminary information than might be provided by an established investigator. Based on the information provided in the Personal Profile, your status as an Early Stage Investigator will be determined and displayed. If this information is not accurate, you may not be granted the ESI classification and miss out on the advantages that it provides.