• Plan Ahead for September BFS Upgrade
• Save the Date: Campus C&G Workshop on June 14
• SPO is Hiring—Four Positions Available
• Budgeting: Equipment "or Equivalent"
• DHHS Issues Final Rule on Research Misconduct
• Fulbright Deadline is August 1
• NIH Policy on Public Access to Publications Now in Effect
• NCCAM Issues Interim Policy on Biologically Active Agents and Placebo Materials

Funding Program Announcements

Contract and Grant Awards in April

Limited Submission Programs

Faculty Prize and Award Programs

The campus is upgrading the Berkeley Financial System (BFS) in Fall 2005, and BFS will be unavailable for a period of time while the system down during the database conversion. During the down time, it will not be possible to process any new awards, fund advances, or award modifications.

Current plans are to take BFS out of service at the end of the business day on Thursday, September 8 and make it available in the upgraded environment Monday, September 26. The upgrade process of the database will begin after August's month-close processing is complete.

For more information, see the BFS upgrade project web site at http://bfsupgrade.berkeley.edu/default.htm.

Save the Date: Campus C&G Workshop on June 14

The Vice Chancellor for Research Office and the Sponsored Projects Office are planning to host a live satellite-broadcast workshop on Tuesday, June 14, 2005, 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., on Principles of R&D Contracting. The workshop is presented by the National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA).

This videoconference will serve as a training opportunity for faculty and research administrators in central and department levels who are assigned the tasks of identifying contracting opportunities, submitting contract business proposals, and negotiating and managing federal contracts. In addition, the conference will seek to address faculty issues. Items to be discussed will be: reading and interpreting RFP's (requests for proposals), preparation of contract budgets, and identifying the regulatory sources of information to assist research administrators manage federal contracts (e.g., Federal Acquisition Regulations, Confidentiality, Publication Rights).

There will be no charge for the workshop, but attendees will be asked to register in advance and to register early because there are a limited number of seats. More information will be available soon on the SPO web site soon.

The Sponsored Projects Office is now recruiting for a Senior Administrative Analyst position, two Administrative Analyst positions, and an Administrative Assistant III.

The Senior Administrative Analyst will work in the non-federal unit, reporting to the Assistant Director of non-federal projects. The Administrative Analyst positions are for research administrators—one for federal and one for non-federal agencies. The AAIII will serve as the front office receptionist and handle purchasing/accounts payable, payroll, and benefits.

The job descriptions are listed on SPO's web site: http://www.spo.berkeley.edu/position.html. For information about applying, see http://jobs.berkeley.edu/.

When preparing proposal budgets, especially budgets for contracts, include "or equivalent" after any specifically named equipment. Specifying manufacturer, model, etc. requires a sole-source justification. Regardless of the source of funds, the campus has to follow purchasing regulations and procedures, which include competitive bidding for major purchases.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) published the final version of changes to existing regulations for research misconduct in the May 17 Federal Register (http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20051800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2005/05-9643.htm). The National Institutes of Health is part of the DHHS.

The final rule, effective June 16, makes the DHHS definition of research misconduct consistent with the one adopted by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in 2000 for all federal agencies. It retains the existing regulatory model under which universities must conduct their own investigations of allegations of research misconduct involving scientists applying for or receiving DHHS research funding.

In the final rule, universities are not required to establish training programs in the responsible conduct of research. However, institutions are required to foster an “environment that promotes the responsible conduct of research.” Institutions must report an accusation of research misconduct if it is settled before the investigation concludes, but are not required to report preliminary investigations if they find no research misconduct was committed.

Applications for Fulbright Grants for research and lecturing abroad are due August 1, 2005. The U.S. Fulbright Scholar Program for U.S. Faculty and Professionals sends 800 scholars and professionals each year to more than 140 countries.

Program information and application material are available on the Council for International Exchange of Scholars web site (http://www.cies.org/us_scholars/us_awards/). The program is administered by the Graduate Fellowship Office for all applicants from the Berkeley campus (http://www.grad.berkeley.edu/fellowships/index.shtml).

The National Institutes of Health Public Access Policy went into effect on May 2, 2005. The Policy requests and strongly encourages all NIH-funded investigators to make their peer-reviewed author's final manuscripts available to other researchers and the public at the NIH National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central (PMC) (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov) immediately after the final date of journal publication. At the time of submission, authors have the option to release their manuscripts at a later time, up to 12 months after the official date of final publication.

The NIH provides guidance to NIH investigators on manuscript submission on the the NIH Public Access Web site: http://www.nih.gov/about/publicaccess/. This web site includes an author's manual with information on using the manuscript submission system, and links to the manuscript submission web site (http://nihms.nih.gov/), which has a frequently asked contact information for the NIHMS help desk.

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) recently issued an interim policy and applicant guidance for biologically active agents used in complementary and alternative medicine and placebo materials.

Biologically active agents are defined (for this policy) as those test agents derived from biological sources or small biologically active molecules used as complementary and alternative therapies. Homeopathic medicines are currently not included in the policy document.

The policy covers the product quality of agents and materials used to be used in research supported by NCCAM and the scope of research that NCCAM will support.

The April 29 NIH Guide announcements are: "NCCAM Interim Policy: Biologically Active Agents Used in Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) and Placebo Materials" at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-AT-05-003.html; and "NCCAM Interim Applicant Guidance: Product Quality: Biologically Active Agents Used in Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) and Placebo Materials" at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-AT-05-004.html.