Reducing Administrative Burden
in Research Administration
September 11, 2013
Agenda:
Reducing Administrative Burden
• Impetus for Change
• Functional Areas Affected
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Federal Grant Applications
Salary Management
Cost Transfers
Initial Billing
Subrecipient Monitoring
Final Reporting
Data and Reporting
Impetus for Change
• In Spring of 2012, we began a comprehensive look
at research administrative processes.
• Almost every transaction requires
• Paper.
• Department initiation and transmission to at least one
central office.
• Entry into more than one database, file, or system.
• We determined to be more efficient while maintaining:
• Transparency.
• Compliance.
• Audit requirements.
Functional Areas:
Federal Grant Applications
• Cayuse, a system-to-system federal grant
application tool, went live in June, 2012, based
on overwhelmingly positive feedback from users.
• The average time savings per application is
estimated to be more than 8 hours.
– Prepopulated or auto-calculating administrative fields.
– Ease of manipulation of the scientific components.
Still to Come!
Subawards.com Import Data into ePTF
Functional Areas:
Salary Management
• Effort Certification (EC) Adjustments match nonexempt salary to certified effort. Effective July,
2012, no cost transfer was required for
“transaction in progress” variances.
• Electronic salary distribution will eliminate the
PAF for more than 4000 transactions per year.
Functional Areas:
Salary Management
Still to Come!
No P-Cert
Committed Effort Management
Prospective Changes from Effort System
EC Adjustments for Exempt Employees
Auto-On
Auto-Off
Functional Areas:
Cost Transfers
• Effective July, 2012, ORA has the authority to
initiate cost transfers to:
• Remove unallowable costs.
• Remove deficits.
• Remove any expenses above the reported
amount.
• Remove any expenses incurred outside the project
period.
• ORA completed 55% of Jefferson’s closeout
transactions for the FY2013 close.
Functional Areas:
Billing
• Effective July, 2012, ORA submits initial
contract bill when payment is due upon
execution.
Still to Come!
Milestone Billing
Functional Areas:
Subrecipient Monitoring
• Beginning July, 2012, ORA requisitions the
purchase order in Ascent for a subcontract upon
execution.
• Beginning October, 2012, PIs were able to
certify on-line as to subrecipient progress
Still to Come!
All invoicing through ORA Risk Threshold for Audit
PI signature no longer required
Functional Areas:
Final Reporting
• Effective June, 2012, ORA completes the
federal final invention and final equipment
reports, if required.
• We communicate with PIs as needed to
confirm inventions reported to OTT.
Still to Come!
Clinical Trial Closeouts
Functional Areas:
Data and Reporting
• Effective for the FY14 budget process, projected
grant revenue and F&A cost recovery were preloaded into Hyperion.
• JeffShare access granted to PIs and
departmental grants staff.
Still to Come!
Capture Out-Year Awards Data share between ePTF and GL
Capture Milestones