Grant Connections - February 2016

Wednesday, February 24, 2016
11:00 a.m. – noon
Room 572 of the Bond Life Sciences Center

Agenda

• Hot Topics including the federal closeout window and allowability of student fees. 
• What do you want your new PIs to know? You are working with a PI who has just received their first external award. What’s on your priority list of things you tell them so that their project can run smoothly from your perspective? Let’s brainstorm together, and you might gain some ideas or find new priorities. This will be helpful for those who work with proposals as much as for those who work with awards because remember … putting together a successful proposal means understanding how to carry out those plans if an award is received.

Mark your calendars! Meetings are scheduled for the following dates.

• March 23, 2016
• April 27, 2016
• May 25, 2016

Grant Connections Organizational Crew (send your suggestions for future topics to these people)

• Liz Bent, Grants & Contracts Administrator, CAFNR 
• Marty Carter, Senior Business Operations Associate, School of Medicine 
• Brandi Clements, Grants & Contracts Administrator, College of Education 
• Craig David, Director, OSPA 
• Jill Ferguson, Senior Compliance Manager, OSPA 
• Sheryl Koenig, Grant Proposal Manager, Bond Life Sciences Center 
• Julia Rodriguez, Grants & Contracts Administrator, Bond Life Sciences Center 
• Jamie Szabo, Senior Compliance Manager, OSPA 

Please share with anyone else associated with research who you think might be interested in attending.

Grant Fact Sheet updated 2/2/2016

MU Grants Community,
A new version of the Grant Fact Sheet, dated 02/02/2016, is available on the OSPA website. Please access the current version here, noting the following changes:

System for Award Management (SAM) registration renewed (p. 1)

Travel and Meal Reimbursement Rates for CY 2016 (p. 3)

Institutional Minimum Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant Stipends (p. 4)
The Office of Graduate Studies released tentative rates as a follow-up to Interim Chancellor Foley’s announcement that minimum stipend levels will increase by 25% for the 2016-2017 academic year. Increases will start in July for those students employed over the summer. Additional funds will come from MU’s central budget; the Office of Graduate Studies and the MU Budget Office are determining costs per academic unit and how the funds will be distributed.

Actual stipend levels as well as tuition and medical insurance rates for the 2016-2017 academic year will be added as soon as they are available.

OSPA Updates: New NIH and NSF application guidelines for 1/25/16 due dates | New DHHS salary cap | Proposal submission deadlines policy | Grants training

National Institutes of Health
REMINDER: For 1/25/16 due dates and after, revised SF424 Application Guides
Refer here for the prior notice with full details. Significant changes include updated application requirements and review language to enhance reproducibility of research findings through increased scientific rigor and transparency. Note that the new “Authentication of Key Biological and/or Chemical Resources” attachment is required only for applications that propose to use biological and/or chemical resources.

New DHHS Salary Cap, Effective 1/10/2016
Executive Level II of the Federal Pay Scale, which sets the cap limit for salaries on DHHS awards, has increased from $183,300 to $185,100 effective January 10, 2016. The Sponsored Programs Procedure Guide (SPPG) is updated here, including links to relevant NIH Notices and salary cap history (FY 1990 to present).

National Science Foundation

REMINDER: For 1/25/16 due dates and after, revised Proposal & Award Policies and Procedures Guide (NSF 16-1)
Refer here for the prior notice with full details. Significant changes include a new single-copy document required for each senior project personnel regarding collaborators and other affiliations and new submission instructions for biosketches and current and pending support.

NSF proposal deadlines extended to 1/26/16 | NSF closed today (1/25) due to inclement weather

All proposal deadlines from January 22 and January 25 are extended to January 26, 5:00PM submitter's local time, as a result of NSF closure.

• As per NSF's guidance related to deadline submissions, failure to submit by 5:00PM (submitter's local time) will result in the proposal not being accepted. 
• Please select the updated deadline date in the Deadline/Target Date dropdown in the Remainder of the Coversheet section of your proposal before submitting your proposal to NSF. 
• NSF is closed on Monday, January 25, due to inclement weather. FastLane user support is unavailable. 

If you have not done so already, please alert your SGCA to any proposals (or awards) potentially affected by funding agency closures or closures or delays at collaborating institutions (i.e., anticipated subawards).

Grant Connections - January 2016

Wednesday, January 27, 2016
11:00 a.m. – noon
Room 572 of the Bond Life Sciences Center

Agenda

• Hot Topics
• Preparing and Submitting your NIH Grant Application. Up first in a new Grant Connections discussion series on common proposal submission issues, Brenda Leuenberger from OSPA will share "Questions, Quirks, and reQuests: AKA Errors and Warnings and Calls from your SGCA” for National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant applications through Grants.gov and the eRA Commons. 
• Rigor and Transparency. NIH has implemented changes relating to rigor and transparency “to enhance the reproducibility of research findings,” effective for most applications with due dates on or after January 25, 2016 (NOT-OD-16-11). We will review the new requirements for proposals and post-award administration related to compliance with this policy. 

Mark your calendars! Meetings are scheduled for the following dates.

• February 24, 2016
• March 23, 2016
• April 27, 2016
• May 25, 2016

Grant Connections Organizational Crew (send your suggestions for future topics to these people)

• Liz Bent, Grants & Contracts Administrator, CAFNR 
• Marty Carter, Senior Business Operations Associate, School of Medicine 
• Brandi Clements, Grants & Contracts Administrator, College of Education 
• Craig David, Director, OSPA 
• Jill Ferguson, Senior Compliance Manager, OSPA 
• Sheryl Koenig, Grant Proposal Manager, Bond Life Sciences Center 
• Julia Rodriguez, Grants & Contracts Administrator, Bond Life Sciences Center 
• Jamie Szabo, Senior Compliance Manager, OSPA 

Please share this information anyone else associated with research who you think might be interested in attending.

PeopleSoft Grants Module and the ePSRS January 19 | OSPA Certificate Series for Specialized Grants Training

Enjoy your three-day weekend … and then join us Tuesday morning for the next installment of the OSPA Certificate Series! Come along on a step-by-step walk through the PeopleSoft Grants Module and the Electronic PeopleSoft Signature Routing Sheet (ePSRS) and learn some tips and tricks along the way. Next Tuesday, January 19, from 8:30 to 10:30am in Memorial Union Stotler Lounge I … Register here: https://apps.orcs.missouri.edu/ospa_training/

2016 OSPA Certificate Series for Specialized Grants Training

MU Research Community,

New to research administration, want a refresher on the award cycle, or looking for an overview of recent changes in the MU Office of Research? Please consider attending one, a few, or all of the OSPA Certificate Series for Specialized Grants Training sessions planned for 2016. Join us for Fundamentals of Sponsored Programs this Thursday, January 14, from 8:30 to 10:30am at the MU Student Center. From the OSPA website, the Training Registration page (https://apps.orcs.missouri.edu/ospa_training/) details sessions scheduled through early April—including fundamentals, EVR and cost transfers, budget development, ePSRS, F&A, and more!—and describes additional sessions to be scheduled for the remainder of the year.

Please contact Jill Ferguson (fergusonjs@missouri.edu) with questions about the sessions or Megan Ray (rayme@missouri.edu, 882-2810) if you have any trouble with registration.

Grant Connections | December 2015 Meeting Notes

Notes from the December Grant Connections meeting are included below for your review and reference. Thanks to all who attended. We hope to see you at the next meeting on Wednesday, January 27, 2016.

Happy New Year!

 

NIH Notices: For 1/25/16 due dates, revised SF424 Application Guides including new REQUIRED attachment | Revised FY16 Grants Policy Statement

MU Grants Community,

Please take note of the following NIH 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.

Effective for proposal with due dates on or after January 25, 2016:
Revised SF424 (R&R) Application Guides and Supplemental Instructions (NOT-OD-16-029)

Rigor and Transparency*
Change: Updated application requirements and review language to enhance reproducibility of research findings through increased scientific rigor and transparency. These changes will take effect for most research grant applications (including small business and complex research grant applications), but will not impact institutional training and individual fellowship applications until a later date. Changes include:

• Updates to application guide instructions for preparing your research strategy attachment 
• Use of a new required attachment: "Authentication of Key Resources Plan” (uploaded in Other Attachments section of R&R Other Project Information form) 
• Additional rigor and transparency questions reviewers will be asked to consider when reviewing applications

See the attached summary and NOT-OD-16-011 and NOT-OD-16-012.

Grant Connections - December 2015

Wednesday, December 9, 2015
11:00 a.m. – noon
Room 572 of the Bond Life Sciences Center

Agenda

• Hot Topics
• Office of Research Ongoing Strategic Initiatives and Core Research Infrastructure Support. Mark McIntosh, Ph.D., Interim Vice Chancellor for Research, Graduate Studies, and Economic Development; Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Strategic Initiatives; Director of the Research Core Facilities; and Professor and Chairman of the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology. Dr. McIntosh will talk about the key role we as research administrators play in strategic initiatives for growing MU’s research enterprise. 

Mark your calendars! Meetings are scheduled for the following dates.

• January 27, 2016
• February 24, 2016
• March 23, 2016
• April 27, 2016
• May 25, 2016

Grant Connections Organizational Crew (send your suggestions for future topics to these people)

• Liz Bent, Grants & Contracts Administrator, CAFNR 
• Marty Carter, Senior Business Operations Associate, School of Medicine 
• Brandi Clements, Grants & Contracts Administrator, College of Education 
• Craig David, Director, OSPA 
• Jill Ferguson, Senior Compliance Manager, OSPA 
• Sheryl Koenig, Grant Proposal Manager, Bond Life Sciences Center 
• Julia Rodriguez, Grants & Contracts Administrator, Bond Life Sciences Center 
• Jamie Szabo, Senior Compliance Manager, OSPA 

Please share this information with anyone else associated with research who you think might be interested in attending.