To:      SFSU faculty and staff involved in sponsored projects
From:  Enrique Riveros-Schäfer, AVP Academic Affairs

I hope this newsletter is useful to you.  Please send us your feedback.  Here is a shortcut to assist you if you have questions or need information from ORSP.

• For general information about day-to-day operations, please contact Michelle Gagnon, Acting Director
  
• For questions regarding Pre-Award, please contact Ken Paap.
  
• For all issues pertaining to the Research Infrastructure Implementation Project, Post-Award, Personnel, Compliance, and Technology Support for ORSP, including the ORSP website, please contact me.

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Dear ORSP Principal Investigators:

This is the second ORSP newsletter.  As we said in the first issue, this is a modest publication.  The goal is to provide timely and useful information to PIs, and to eliminate the need to send out multiple emails from the various areas of ORSP.

We will continue to improve communication with the campus community, and we welcome your feedback.  Please contact me if you have suggestions or ideas.

Michelle Gagnon
Acting Director
Office of Research & Sponsored Programs
8-1792
mgagnon@sfsu.edu

In this issue:

• Upcoming ORSP Dates & Deadlines
• Personnel
• Post-Award
• Compliance
• Pre-Award
• Implementation Team

*This applies only to funding agencies who allow 90 days from the end date of the project for final financial reports to be submitted.  For projects that require final financial reports within 30 days of the end date of the project, deadlines are shorter.  Please contact your Grant Administrator for more information.

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• Reimbursed Release Time (RRT) forms will be distributed to PIs by October 31.  In addition to signing the form, PIs will need to obtain the signature of the faculty member receiving the release time (if other than the PI), and the signature of the Dean.  Forms should be returned to ORSP, ADM 471 by November 20.  Please contact Victoria Narkewicz at 8-1973 or toria@sfsu.edu if you have questions.

• All Principal Investigators (PIs) must complete the new Student Hiring Request Form and submit to ORSP at least one week prior to hiring a student.  The form is located on the ORSP website.

• ORSP now requires this hiring form because there are two types of student assistant appointments.  The form will allow the ORSP personnel staff to distinguish between the two, which are listed below. Please contact Jenny Chau at 8-1862 or jchau@sfsu.edu if you have questions.

  1. Regular Student Assistants who are engaged primarily in administrative, clerical, technical, custodial, laborer, or lab/research work.

  2. Instructional Student Assistants (ISAs) who are engaged primarily in tutoring, grading, and/or teaching work.  The Instructional Student Assistant classification is covered by a collective bargaining agreement between the California State University and United Autoworkers, Unit 11.  An appointment letter will be given to all Student Employees who are hired in the ISA Classification.

Reversal of Benefit Charges

• Academic year faculty who received additional summer salary from grants/contracts may have seen charges for health, dental, vision, life and long –term disability (LTD) insurance appear on Labor Cost Distribution (LCD) reports.  These costs should have been charged to the faculty member’s academic department, and not to the grant.  The error occurs because of a technical problem in the State Controller’s Office payroll system.  For the months of June, July, and August 2006, these charges were manually reversed and credits applied to those grants that were affected.

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• In early November, notices will be sent out to all Principal Investigators via email for projects ending January 2006. 

• Principal Investigators should work with their Grant Administrator during this time to forecast final expenditures, finalize any cost-sharing documentation, request a no-cost time extension or carryover of unobligated funds to a subsequent budget period.  

• If you have any questions concerning the 90-day closeout notices, please contact your Grant Administrator. 

Post-Award Staffing Changes

• Mirna Vasquez has accepted a new position as Procurement Card Coordinator within Fiscal Affairs here at San Francisco State University.  We will miss her presence in ORSP and wish her all the best in her new role.

• We are currently interviewing for Mirna’s replacement and expect to have a new Grants Administrator in place early November.  In the interim, Diane Coseo will be administering projects in the following areas:
• Biology
• Chemistry & Biochemistry
• COSE Dean's Office
• Computer Science
• Engineering
• Geosciences
• Mathematics
• MBRS-SCORE
• Physics & Astronomy

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Time & Effort Reports

• We have concluded the spring 2006 effort reporting period. Thanks to all faculty and staff for returning your effort reports in a timely manner.

• Time and Effort reports have been distributed for faculty who received additional pay during summer 2006.  The deadline for returning them to ORSP is November 1st.  If you have not returned your summer 2006 effort report, please do so as soon as possible.

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NIH Grant Applications

• Reminder - If you are planning to submit a NIH grant application you must be registered with an eRA Commons account.  If you are not registered, please contact Pre Award Manager, Jackie White at whitej@sfsu.edu or call 83578 and she will register you.

• NIH has announced the new round of competition for the NIH Director's Pioneer Award.  This program supports exceptionally creative scientists who take highly innovative -- and potentially transformative --approaches to major challenges in biomedical research.

• Scientists at all career levels and engaged in any field of research may apply for the Pioneer Award, as long as they are interested in exploring biomedically relevant topics.  The application period opens on Friday, December 1, 2006 and closes on Tuesday, January 16, 2007. Application instructions and additional information on the Pioneer Award can be located at http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/pioneer.

If you have any questions concerning Pre-Award policies or procedures, please contact Christine Ramos at extension 8-6478 or cbramos@sfsu.edu.

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• We recently hired Michael Fennell as the Training Specialist.  Michael’s background in Instructional Technology is an important asset to our area.

• We are interviewing applicants for the IT Specialist and a Grants Administrator.  We expect to complete this process in November, 2006.

• Of the 134 Action Items on our agenda, we have completed 24 and are currently working on 27.  We are currently reviewing the feedback we have received from each one of the units, and will develop a detailed agenda to continue this process.

• At the Faculty and staff Retreat in January 2007 we will do a presentation with updates, a brief discussion of the implementation process, and will answer questions from faculty.

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