Grants.Gov. Sonia Barragan, Research Process Manager, Research Management Group, Stanford University

Transcription

1 Grants.Gov Sonia Barragan, Research Process Manager, Research Management Group, Stanford University Pamela A. Webb, Sr. Director, Office of Sponsored Research, Stanford University

2 Agenda Welcome and Introductions A Grants.Gov Walk-through Grants.Gov User Guide Getting Ready: Issues for Discussion Technical Challenges Policy and Process Communications and Training Q&A

3 Technical Challenges

4 DUNS/CCR Issues DUNS: All grant and cooperative agreement applications were to use DUNS as of 10/1/02 CCR: All federal contractors required to register before contracts are awarded Most federal online systems use DUNS and/or CCR for validation

5 DUNS/CCR Issues (Continued) Has the effort to use DUNS/CCR been successful? Grants.gov supports only a single DUNS number per institutional credential Many institutions are reluctant to meet requirement of separate CCR numbers for various physical locations Federal agencies must understand that an institution may have multiple DUNS numbers (some agencies assume there is only one) CCR does not always point to institutional contract and grant office (agencies assume it does) Some federal online systems assume EB POC associated with institutional grants office Some federal online systems require use of CCR MPIN number to authenticate (many institutional contract or grant offices do not have access to MPIN)

6 DUNS/CCR Issues (Continued) What is needed? Federal agency standards on how DUNS/CCR will be used to identify and authenticate various structures found with institutions Better documentation on agency web/online systems to guide use of DUNS/CCR

7 Proposal Preparer Workstations Need PureEdge Adobe Acrobat (or other PDF-producing software) Site License? Individual Copy? Browser Mechanism to send large files (FTP, ) Printer?

8 Tech Readiness Distributed Users Do users have rights to download new software? Who will pay for Adobe Acrobat licenses? How will you train/educate departmental or central technical professionals? Who will provide assistance creating.pdf files?

9 AOR Workstations Need PureEdge Adobe Acrobat (or other PDF-producing software) Campus Site License? Individual Copy? Browsers Mechanism to receive large files (FTP, ) Individual printer?

10 Options to Route G.g Files attachment Upload via Digital Drop Box Thumbdrive or CD

11 Attachment Campus limitation on attachment file size? Stanford limitation = 50 MBs Connection speed storage capacity for recipient Chairs, Dept. Administrators, Deans, Central offices may get multiple proposals per deadline what happens if storage quota is exceeded?

12 Digital Drop Box Storage Capacity Meta Data File Management Rights Version Control Record Retention Custodial Responsibilities

13 Digital Drop Box U of Michigan Version See See Handout! Handout!

14 Digital Drop Box Sample Storage Capacity Calculations Proposal participants: (1000 to 1500 PIs, with 2-3 times as many admins, grad students, central staff) Annual Proposal Volume: Average submission success rate: 1 in 4 Typical application package size: 25MB 75 MB Projected Annual Raw Data Volume: 400GB 1000 GB (sub-200gb with intelligent purging)

15 Digital Drop Box - Stanford Prototype Login linked to campus authentication server (campus net ID and password)

16 Main Page -- Immediate visibility to proposals that need to be submitted shortly and key functions PIs would see their own proposals Dept Admrs would see their own proposals Institutional Officials would see their own proposals (but can use search function to see total population)

17 Users (PIs and Administrators) could see the status of all of their proposals

18 Sample Meta-Data Collected on Proposals

19 Digital Drop Box - Meta Data to Consider PI Name Dept Name File Name (campus naming convention established?) Sponsored Projects Office Representative Sponsor Deadline Campus Proposal Reference Number (if assigned) Version (user defined? System controlled?) Instructions to Sponsored Projects Office Representative Name and contact information of person uploading

20 Authority Manager (authorize other users to upload or edit files, or grant rights to more users)

21 Upload files or view what has been uploaded

22 Digital Drop Box Custodial Responsibilities Who will? Purchase, setup and configure? Grant access rights (if needed)? Availability 24 x 7? Backup? Move records to archival storage? Maintain and upgrade? Provide technical assistance? (HelpDesk?) Maintain security?

23 File Management Who can upload? Who is notified? How do central SPO staff know that a proposal has arrived? Been updated? Who is notified if a proposal is altered? Who can view? How can you manage access appropriately? Who can edit? What if the edit causes damage? More errors/warnings? Who can delete or overwrite? Lock down Who locks down a proposal? When?

24 Grants.Gov Campus HelpDesk? Part of larger campus HelpDesk? Advantage: Use existing software/tools people are familiar with How will campus help desk people be trained? Part of central sponsored projects office? Separate phone # and ? Service level promises to campus? How will you track questions/solutions (to guide training and communications?) Who will staff? (departmental and central office staff are already busy at proposal time?) Searchable On-line repository of technical and functional knowledge? Who will organize it? Maintain and expand it? Verify its accuracy?

25 Policy and Process

26 Organizing for Success or Divide and Conquer Wisconsin Grants.Gov Task Force Representatives from across campus Determine how UW-Madison will manage Grants.gov submissions in the short term (within 12 months) Determine what long term solutions will be most effective for UW-Madison to manage Grants.gov submissions Discuss technical options and establish timelines for implementation Develop training and education timelines for Grants.gov Establish campus deadline for routing procedures Develop a Communication Plan to keep campus informed of developments at Grants.gov and changes in procedures across campus Recommends actions that need to be taken Stanford Grants.Gov Advisory Group Representatives from across campus Meets bi-weekly for 90 minutes Determines campus strategy and approach to successfully implement Grants.Gov PureEdge forms Pre-Award Systems Group (SeRA) is dealing with S2S Implements recommendations from the action plans of three workgroups Technical Policy and Process Communications and Training

27 Office Hours and G.g Submissions Grants.Gov server deadlines Grants.Gov server may technically accept proposal later than an agency-posted deadline (but this doesn t make it a valid proposal) Grants.Gov behind-the-scenes agreements with agencies Agency may still reject the submission Agency deadlines May be beyond 5 p.m. deadline What is service expectation for late-arriving or troubled submissions?

28 Internal Proposal Deadlines U of Chicago 3 business days (for complete review); Complete (ready-to-submit) copy by noon on the business day before due date for electronic submissions UCSF 10 business days University of Rochester 5 business days See See Handout! Handout! Stanford 5 business days See See Handout! Handout! Princeton 2 business days Michigan 7 business days (admin shell); 4 business days (application file) Your campus?

29 Internal Process Flow - Questions Who will download and complete the forms kit from G.g? PI or Dept. Administrator? Central office with pre-loading of proposal demographic info and then distribute to the PI/dept administrator? Central office with pre-loading of proposal demographic data and then loading it onto a campus Grants.gov web server? Who is responsible for ensuring it is the current and applicable form set? How will you make sure which copy is the master version? (Version control)

30 Internal Process Flow - Questions Who is authorized to submit the e-version of the proposal to the central sponsored projects office? Who will print the master copy of the proposal (if anyone?) How will the proposal receive its internal approvals via electronic routing or hard copy? For NIH submissions, how will you obtain PI certifications? How will you know you have a match between the ecopy and the hard copy? (Who is responsible if they aren t the same?) Who is responsible for version control?

31 Internal Process Flow Who is authorized to submit to G.g? If campus signer isn t someone who wants to be pushing the button? How do you handle returning the science to the PI for final tweaking? How will the final version of the proposal be stored? Paper (who prints?) Electronically? Who will monitor the submission to ensure success? Who will track and monitor the Grants.Gov messages and the agency messages (if any) Who will ensure that the image of the proposal is what was expected? How will notifications/errors/updates be entered into your project tracking database, if at all?

32 Grants.Gov Printing Challenges Your own printer A shared printer, on deadline

33 Sample Process Flows Michigan See See Handout! Handout! Stanford See See Handout! Handout!

34 Potential Review Process Changes Ensuring Consistency between E-Submission and Hard Copy (if SRO didn t print it from the E-Submission file) Computers Catch Things Humans Ignore Repository of Information so Known Grants.Gov Errors can be Caught on Round 1 See See Handout! Handout! Managing Changes Version control who will fix errors? Special Procedures for Managing Late Submissions? Stanford considering reviewing for compliance elements and forego grantsmanship items

35 Communication and Training

36 Communication and Training Needs Create, populate and oversee campus listservs for distributed and central users Issue communications to campus about Grants.Gov Highlight key changes in agency implementations or campus policy Describe the role and progress of campus Grants.Gov committee or central offices Provide links to key user guides Guide campus users to information resources, including any new campus listservs Create templates and strategy for regular communications to campus (brochures, articles in the campus newspaper, division publications, public fora, etc. Manage Grants.Gov web site, ensuring effective and timely content

37 More Prowl for new information (RESADM-L, changes in Agency Implementations, etc.), ensuring that it is posted or communicated to the right people Decide on training mechanisms and timelines; design and offer on-line and/or in-person training courses Prepare end-user guidance and documentation for central users, departmental users, and faculty (e.g., registration, finding funding opps, using PureEdge, routing proposals, etc.)

38 Grants.Gov Web Sites need to.. Succinctly define new forms and processes Communicate key problems/solutions See See Handout! Handout! Identify policy changes Provide clear guidance for using Grants.Gov Tell users who to contact for training/help/questions Lead people easily to Digital Drop Boxes or technical media needed to route proposals Our Value Added: Reduce information overload into digestible and meaningful information

39 Training When? 2-4 months ahead of need may be desirable Tied to normal event schedule? Who? PIs? Administrators? Central office staff? Chairs/Deans? What mechanisms? On-line tutorials or full on-line classes In-person classes (who will teach these?) Campus meetings User Guides

40 Q&A