College of Medicine s3

HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER research administration Roundtable

Facilitated by COM, Research Administration and Compliance JHMHSC M134, PO Box 100215, Gainesville, Florida 32611-0215 Tel: (352) 273-5398 Fax: (352) 273-5387 Email : [email protected] Website: www.med.ufl.edu/research/rac MINUTES Tuesday, January 29, 2008

1. Open Forum

2. NIH Update - Handout

3. Grants.gov Update - Handout

4. Upcoming Proposal Deadlines – Handout

5. Training Opportunities - Handout

Present:  J. Edward Poppell, VP for Administrative Affairs  Winfred M. Phillips, DSc, VP for Research, Office of Research  M. Peter Pevonka, MS, RPh, FAPhA, Assoc. VP for Research, Sr. Assoc. Dean , Research Administration and Compliance  Thomas E. Walsh, PhD, Director, Sponsored Research  Brian Miller, Assistant Director, Sponsored Research  Judith Harris, Proposal Processing, Division of Sponsored Research  Dee Dee Teel, Awards Administration, Division of Sponsored Research

Facilitated By:  Cindy Weinbrecht, Director of Research Administration and Compliance  Aundrea Corbit, Coordinator, Research Administration and Compliance

The meeting was an open forum for the discussion of post award issues related to Contracts and Grants. Mr. Pevonka opened the forum for discussion.

Dr. J. Hugh McDowell, Dept. of Ophthalmology, related his issues concerning the difficulty appointing postdocs to training grants. In order to be compliant with NIH, the University can no longer appoint postdoctoral trainees as postdoctoral associates receiving salary, and instead they must be appointed as postdoctoral fellows receiving a stipend. This change has affected health insurance, as they are no longer eligible for the State of Florida health insurance plan. Postdoctoral fellows may have their insurance covered by Gatorgrad Care. This has made recruiting fellows to Training Grants less appealing, since they are receiving less health insurance coverage than they normally would as a postdoctoral associate. There are approximately 10 or 15 postdoctoral associates currently appointed to training grants who for a three year period will be grandfathered in with their current status. All new postdoctoral trainees not currently appointed to training grants will be appointed as fellows and will have the option of health insurance through Gatorgrad Care.

Ms. Cindy Weinbrecht, Director of RAC, raised the concern for changing health insurance policies may affect coverage for a fellow who has a pre-existing health condition. Fellows don’t have to go with Gatorgrad care, but if they choose a different policy it will be more expensive. Ms. Weinbrecht suggested it would be helpful to receive procedures on how to properly appoint a postdoctoral fellow.

Eilene Handburg, CCTRC, voiced her concern that the volume of work is not matched by the number of personnel in Contracts and Grants. Clinical Trials stop at an NIH grant deadline. Some of her department’s grants had been ready to be closed out for over a year. One solution for her office was to send CCTRC staff to C&G to sit with the closeout person to assist with closing her account.

Mr. Poppell explained that a lot of bad data was brought over when we transitioned to PS. As of January 28th he said we have 30 late reports, per NIH’s perspective. We have 160 Clinical Trials that need to be closed. Mr. Poppell asked the departments assistance in helping C&G staff to close out the accounts, but also said in the next 4 to 5 months, the C&G Office will be caught up with sending reports, and cleaning up A&R issues.

Mr. Pevonka added that the College of Medicine in conjunction with DSR is working on a Health Science Center DSR Signature Authority, and further on developing a Post Award Core centrally located at the HSC. Mr. Pevonka asked if departments and PI’s were getting copies of FSR’s before they are sent to the agency. The overwhelming response from those present was no. There was consensus that it has been mostly federal funds that were sent back without the knowledge of the PI and department.

Dr. Phillips and Mr. Poppell let the departments know they were interested in hearing the departments’ feedback on this issue and are working to remedy the problem.

Dr. Walsh suggested moving all Clinical Trials from a 209 fund code to a 214 cash fund code because it would eliminate the problems with accounting for residuals.

Felicia Fitzgerald, Auditor in the COM Clinical Trials Office, suggested this will compliance issue because historically, as soon as revenue was received, IDC was distributed, and in some circumstances, patients were not enrolled in the study, and difficulties were encountered trying to get funds returned. Dr. Walsh suggested “scooping IDC off the top” and holding it.

Tonia Lambert, Coordinator for College of Public Health and Health Professions, relayed difficulties she experienced when a project was set up in Peoplesoft and the related subcontract was input with the wrong account code, which caused IDC to be charged incorrectly on the subcontract. Now they are trying to close out the subcontract, but because IDC was miscalculated the grant is overspent. She was told by C&G that they’re trying to do IDC adjustments manually and unfortunately they are behind. She suggested C&G should be proactive in setting up projects correctly in the initial phase to prevent having to clear up mistakes at the project’s end.

Kenneth Marx, Associate Director of Emergency Medicine, expressed how he felt C&G gave the feeling of “us against them” rather than working for common good. He expressed communication with C&G Staff is terse and sometimes respond as if they were irritated.

Mr. Poppell said this was not news to him and said that the stress and pressure of being caught up with work is affecting C&G staff. Mr. Pevonka added that the number one issue he hears from the departments is you can’t get a hold of anybody or communication is terse, so they are not taking the time to understand what the issues are and how they can be corrected. It is taking numerous emails and phone calls to get through. Mr. Poppell apologized and said staff is working 6 days a week, and patience is weary, but it is no excuse for how the C&G staff has come across.

Ms. Weinbrecht mentioned that Edie at C&G sent a checklist of procedures to be done before the closeout and suggested it would be very beneficial to post this and make available to department. Tonia Lambert added it would be helpful to have one for each type of award. Steve Howard from Molecular Genetics added there were problems with retention and continuity at C&G, and that no one person was there long enough to finish on report or provide consistent help. Ms. Weinbrecht suggested a “cradle to grave” model, where only one person would be responsible for a project from pre-award, post-award, to close-out. The forum discussion was closed.

Dr. Walsh introduced Brian Miller the new Assistant Director at Sponsored Research. Aundrea Corbit introduced Jasmine Hightower, the Grants Assistant in the Research Administration and Compliance Office.

Ms. Weinbrecht mentioned there is a Peopletool report where you can see all projects for your department, including those that have ended. The beginning and end dates are the Commitment Control dates, and not the project start and end dates. But this was one of the issues on Mike Conlon’s Priority List that was being worked on.

A token of appreciation was give to Jesse Hoffner from the Department of Pathology, for her work in Research Administration. Ms. Hoffman will be retiring in February.

Judy Harris from Proposal Processing shared there is a change in Clinical Trial registration. Sponsors are now required to register clinical trial on the ClinicalTrials.gov website. If you receive funding for a clinical trial from NIH then we are considered the institute and, we are responsible for registering it through this site. Contact Brian Prindle for the institutional password to register it.

Ms. Harris also discussed in brief the requirements for the new Adobe forms. Currently there is only one agency that has been on the new Adobe files. However, they have found that PureEdge does not work in Windows Vista and Windows XP doesn’t work with the new Adobe forms. She suggested unless this is fixed that departments will need two computers, each with one of these operating systems. She also said we will need Adobe 8.1.1 to use the new Adobe forms. Transitioning to the new forms will start in Spring.

Aundrea Corbit concluded the meeting by informing staff of the upcoming NIH conferences in San Antonio and Chicago and the NCURA Regional meeting in May. More details were given in the handouts.

If you have any questions contact Aundrea Corbit at 273-5398. Send suggestions and/or comments regarding future topics to [email protected] with “Roundtable Suggestions/Comments” in the subject line.