| Research Advocate PDF Version May 2006 |
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Contents...
Funding Program Announcements |
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| Campus Issues Policy on Gifts/Grants Distinction
Vice Chancellor for Research Burnside has announced a campus policy on the distinction between gifts and grants. The policy provides clear guidelines both for making these distinctions and for handling the "gray" areas that arise. The May 9, 2006 campus announcement is available here: https://mossberg.berkeley.edu/CALmessages/display_message.asp?d=5/9/2006&s=100. The new policy includes the following documents (PDF files):
These documents are available on the Vice Chancellor for Research web site (under "Research Gifts"): http://research.chance.berkeley.edu/main.cfm?id=9. |
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New Guide to Consulting for Faculty and Academic Employees: Interim Policy and Guidelines for Campus In a May 10 campus memo, Chancellor Birgeneau issued a new Guide to Consulting for Faculty and Academic Employees: Interim Policy & Guidelines for the Berkeley campus. The memo states that this draft version reflects extensive consultation with the UC Office of the President. The memo also states that because final approval from UCOP is still pending, some details of language may change in the final version, but that the goal is to have a fully sanctioned set of procedures by Fall semester. |
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| SPO Has Moved!
The Sponsored Projects Office has moved to the PowerBar Building at the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street in downtown Berkeley. The new address is 2150 Shattuck Avenue, Room 313, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-5940. For a map of the area, see the SPO web site: http://www.spo.berkeley.edu/spomove.html. The building entrance is on Shattuck Avenue, and SPO is on the third floor in Suite 300. |
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NCURA Workshop on National Security
The next NCURA satellite workshop, "National Security Issues," will take place on Tuesday, June 13, 2006, from 8:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. in Sibley Auditorium in the Bechtel Engineering Center. There is no charge for the event, but due to limited seating, attendees are asked to register at http://www.spo.berkeley.edu/workshop/ncuraworkshop.html. For those who cannot attend, the DVD recording of the workshop will be available near the beginning of July for departments to borrow. The workshop will address research-related issues that may involve national security concerns. Topics will include export control regulations, involvement of foreign nationals in research, international collaborations, "sensitive but unclassified" data, and security issues related to select agents and bio-containment laboratories and facilities. Discussion will also include institutional procedures related to export control as well as sensitive research projects, facilities, or activities. Other areas of consideration include negotiations, contract clauses, visa issues, "sensitive but unclassified" research, contract issues between universities and DOD agencies on bio-defense projects, rules on use of select agents and bio-defense pathogens, and designing a secure facility. |
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| Campus Training Resources
SPO and the Vice Chancellor for Research Office will be offering the following NCURA live satellite workshops during the coming year. DVDs will also be available for departments to borrow.
SPO has DVDs of the following past workshops available. To borrow a DVD, contact Betty Roberts (2-8112, bkrobert@berkeley.edu).
Other suggested training:
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| Conflict of Interest Checklist for NSF/PHS Financial Disclosure Revised
The Conflict of Interest Checklist has been revised to include names of all project investigators and yes/no checkboxes for disclosable financial interest of each project investigator. Providing this additional information on the form is intended to better comply with federal requirements. Principal investigators or project directors are required to sign this form for proposals to be submitted to the sponsor types listed below and must include it with proposals to the Sponsored Projects Office. Principal investigators, co-principal investigators, and other individuals (e.g., postdocs) who have responsibility for the design, conduct, or reporting of a project must disclose their financial interests in any organization that might benefit from the research being conducted for proposals to the Public Health Service (including National Institutes of Health), the National Science Foundation, or other sponsors that have adopted the federal requirements for financial disclosure. Disclosure is required at the time a new proposal is submitted to the agency and whenever there is a change in the financial interests of a responsible individual. The revised form should be used immediately. Old versions of the form should be discarded. For further information, see http://rac.berkeley.edu/coi.html. |
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| Update on NIH Multiple PI Policy
The National Institutes of Health issued a reminder notice about the new multiple principal investigator pilot program. The notice reminds applicants that the multiple PI option will be available only for specific programs involved in the pilot, all participating PIs need to be registered in the NIH Commons, and multiple PI applications must include a leadership plan. Pilot Multiple PI Programs:
The notice is published in the May 12 NIH Guide at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-06 -069.html. The NIH Multiple PI web site is http://grants.nih.gov/grants/multi_pi/index.htm. |
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| Filling Out the Federal SF 424: What is E.O. 12372?
The federal application Standard Form 424 (SF 424) includes the question "Is application subject to review by State Executive Order 12372 process?" On the most commonly used version of the SF 424, this question appears on the second page. Executive Order 12372 (E.O. 12372), "Intergovernmental Review of Federal Programs," structures the federal government's system of consultation with state and local governments on its decisions involving grants, other forms of financial assistance, and direct development. Under E.O. 12372, states, in consultation with their local governments, design their own review processes and select those federal financial assistance and direct development activities they wish to review. Since October 1, 1983, most states, including the State of California, have acted to establish a review and comment system in response to E.O. 12372. In such cases, applicants for grants will need to meet the requirements of the intergovernmental consultation process established by a particular state and its local governments before Federal agencies take action on the application. The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance lists the federal programs subject to review at http://12.46.245.173/pls/portal30/CATALOG.EXE_12372_RPT.show. The State of California office for E.O. 12372 review is the State Clearinghouse for federal grant review in the Governor's Office of Planning and Research. The State Clearinghouse web site, http://www.opr.ca.gov/clearinghouse/FederalGrant.html, lists the programs that require State of California review. If a grant program appears on this list, one copy of the application cover form (Standard Form 424) must be sent to the State Clearinghouse. The State accepts fax copies of the SF 424 and does not require a copy of the full application package. Principal investigators and department staff preparing proposals to federal agency grant programs need to check the State of California list (http://www.opr.ca.gov/clearinghouse/grant.html) to see if the program is on it, and mark the SF 424 form correctly: "Yes" on the SF 424 form if the program is, and "No" if it is not. SPO staff will take care of faxing the SF 424 to the State Clearinghouse. |
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| NIH Eliminates Paper Assignment Letters
Effective June 1, 2006, NIH will no longer mail paper copies of notification of assignment and change of assignment letters. A major motivation for this change is that after May 10, 2006 all applications submitted to NIH must include the eRA Commons User name for all project directors and principal investigators. Therefore, investigators will be able to use the eRA Commons to obtain assignment information. NIH announced this change in the May 5 NIH Guide at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-06-066.html. |
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| NIH Proposes to Limit Training Grant Reimbursements
The National Institutes of Health is proposing to limit reimbursement for tuition, fees, health insurance, training related expenses, and institutional allowance on Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) programs. This change affects institutional NRSA research training grants and individual NRSA fellowships. The NIH announcement is published in the May 5 NIH Guide at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-06 -064.html. Before finalizing the new policy, NIH is soliciting comments. Comments are due by June 2, 2006, and may be submitted at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfi_files/NOT-OD-06-064_rfi_add.htm. The proposed changes are summarized below. Tuition and fees: For institutional (T32, T34, and T35) and individual (F30 and F31) predoctoral NRSA awards, NIH will provide an amount per trainee equal to 60 percent of the level requested by the applicant institution, up to $16,000 per year. If the program supports formally combined dual-degree training (e.g., M.D.-Ph.D, D.D.S.-Ph.D.), the amount provided per trainee will be up to $21,000 per year. Training related expenses: For institutional training grants (T32, T34, and T35), the training-related expenses category will be modified to include health insurance as an allowable expense. This category will be referred to as "health insurance and training related expenses." NIH will provide an additional $2,000 per predoctoral trainee per year, and an additional $4,000 per postdoctoral trainee per year. Institutional Allowance: NIH proposes to provide funding for individual fellowships comparable to that provided via the new "health insurance and training related expenses" category of institutional training grants. This category will be referred to as "health insurance and institutional allowance." |
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