Vol. 8, No. 21; June 12, 2009
Published
by the Office of the Vice President for Research
Editor: Amy Danielson
Research News Online provides information
about news, policies, procedures, funding opportunities, and events
of interest to our University of Minnesota research community. It
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1. ARRA Whistleblower Protection Notification
The Office of Institutional Compliance recently informed faculty and staff about American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)-related misconduct reporting. The University has been awarded funding for research, student support, and other needs from the ARRA. In order to accept ARRA funding, the U must have policies prohibiting retaliation against employees who make good faith reports of misconduct (See the U's Reporting and Addressing Concerns of Misconduct policy). The U will provide support to reporting employees to protect against retaliation and respond to concerns of retaliation or unfair treatment linked to the employee's reporting.
The University has a confidential reporting service that may be used for this purpose (toll-free 1-866-294-8680 or via a confidential Web site). In addition, you also have the option of reporting your concerns directly to the Office of Inspector General for the United States Department of Health and Human Services through the OIG Hotline.
A full description of your rights and remedies provided under the act: Division A , Title XV, section 1553, Protecting State and Local Government and Contractor Whistleblowers.
Questions may be addressed to Lynn Zentner at lzentner@umn.edu.
2. NCURA Broadcast - Cost Sharing: Why No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
On June 25, 2009 from 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m., the Office of Oversight, Analysis, and Reporting will be presenting the National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA) videobroadcast, "Cost Sharing: Why No Good Deed Goes Unpunished." It will be shown in 275 Nicholson Hall.
Cost sharing affects all institutions, and its implications often cause confusion. The program will review types of costs that qualify for cost sharing, accepted categories of cost sharing, and requirements for documenting and reporting it. The panel will discuss the pressure points with cost sharing, from proposal to award to project closeout.
In addition, the relationships among cost sharing, effort reporting, and indirect cost rates create the need for sophisticated systems to manage the complexities, and the panel will discuss the key points of intersection. Finally, the panel will seek to clarify important risk areas arising from a heightened emphasis on cost sharing in recent audits.
Participants will learn about:
- Applicable federal policies, the OMB Clarification Memo of January, 2001, and expectations for reporting and documentation.
- The scope of cost sharing responsibilities on a university campus.
- How cost sharing affects F&A rates and effort reporting responsibilities.
- Recent Federal audits and new developments relating to cost sharing.
To register for this workshop, contact Michael Harris at harri826@umn.edu. Certified Approvers must register online at https://onestop2.umn.edu/training/index.jsp?unit=CA to receive continuing education hours. For more information on the Certified Approver program, visit www.oar.umn.edu/CA/index.cfm. For more details on this and upcoming NCURA programs, visit www.ncura.edu/meetings/.
3. NIH Commons Proposal Submissions
PIs are responsible for checking their NIH submissions in the NIH Commons until they are assigned to a review committee. Progress should be monitored in the Status tab on the menu bar. Any problems should be reported to the Commons Help Desk. More information is available at http://era.nih.gov/ElectronicReceipt/check_submission.htm.
A key issue that can cause a submission to not process correctly is inaccurate information in the PI's personal profile, so review data stored there for both accuracy and completeness.
4.
Funding Opportunities and Program Announcements
- For details about Stimulus Bill funding opportunities and news, visit http://www.research.umn.edu/stimulus.html.
Recent announcements include:
- NSF's Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI-R2)
- The National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities limited competitions
- Department of Energy opportunities in energy efficient information and communication technology, geothermal technologies, ground source heat pumps, and wind energy consortia between institutions of higher learning and industry
- The National Institute of Standards and Technology's Construction Grant Program, Measurement Science and Engineering Research Grants Program, and Measurement Science and Engineering Fellowship Program
- The National Science Foundation's Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCS), Division of Social and Economic Sciences (SES), and Division of Science Resources Statistics (SRS) award grants to doctoral students to improve the quality of dissertation research. These grants provide funds for items not normally available through the student's university. Additionally, these grants allow doctoral students to undertake significant data-gathering projects and to conduct field research in settings away from their campus that would not otherwise be possible. For details, visit http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=13453.
Application Deadline: Due dates vary across programs
- ADVANCE: Increasing the Participation and Advancement of Women in Academic Science and Engineering Careers program's goal is to develop systemic approaches to increase the representation and advancement of women in academic science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers.
Institutional Transformation awards are expected to include innovative systemic organizational approaches to transform institutions of higher education in ways that will increase the participation and advancement of women in STEM academic careers.
IT-Catalyst awards are designed to support institutional self-assessment activities, such as basic data collection and analysis and policy review, in order to identify specific issues in the recruitment, retention and promotion of women faculty in STEM academics within their institution of higher education.
This
grant opportunity requires University coordination because the sponsor has limited the number of applications an institution is allowed to submit. For details on how apply for nomination at the U, visit http://www.collaborate.umn.edu/explore/external_coordinated_funding.cfm. For details about ADVANCE, visit http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2009/nsf09504/nsf09504.htm.
U of M Deadline:
June 27, 2009
Letter of Intent Due Date: August 04, 2009
Full Proposal Deadline:
November 12, 2009
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