Category Archives: Research Administration Announcements

Having Challenges Tracking Down Students and Postdocs at the Time of the RPPR? Here is a Tip to Make It Easier…

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Having challenges tracking down students and postdocs at the time of reporting? Establishing a process where you have students and postdocs establish an eRA Commons account at the time they start working on an NIH grant award can save you a lot of time and energy trying to track down people who may no longer be at your institution at the time of your Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) submission. You may even want to have them create an ORCID ID as well! (In case you missed it, read the November 2017 Open Mike blog post to learn more about eRA Commons and ORCID integration.) (From NIH ExtramuralNexus, 1/30/2018)

The NIH and Other PHS Agency Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) Instruction Guide states that information must be provided or updated for all PIs/PDs and each person who has worked at least one person month per year on the project during the reporting period, including graduate students, undergraduate students, and high school students (p.82-83).

Additional information about ORCID can be found in a NIH ExtramuralNexus post from November 15, 2017 titled “Teaming with ORCID to Reduce Burden and Improve Transparency.”

To register individuals in the NIH eRA Commons, please contact your Sr. Grant Coordinator in the Office of Research Administration with the individual’s name and UA email address.

Recent Changes to NSF Budget Justification – Senior Personnel Salary Support

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As a general policy, NSF limits the salary compensation requested in the proposal budget for senior personnel to no more than two months of their regular salary in any one year. (See Exhibit II-7 for the definitions of Senior Personnel.) It is the organization’s responsibility to define and consistently apply the term “year”, and to specify this definition in the budget justification. This limit includes salary compensation received from all NSF-funded grants. (NSF 18-1)

To comply with this requirement, the following language should be included in all NSF budget justifications:  “The PIs are cognizant of the NSF policy that restricts NSF support to two months in any year.  For purposes of this restriction, The University of Akron defines a year as January-December.”

Information about all recent NSF changes to proposals can be found in the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG, publication number NSF 18-1) or in the ORA document outlining the most significant NSF Changes-Effective Jan. 29 2018-rev.020218.