Research topics from the March 17, 2011 Finance & Sponsored Programs Forum are summarized below.

Topics covered: OS Timesheets; OSVPR Finance & Administration Working Group; On-line Proposal Development and Routing; On-line Effort Certification Implementation                                *

OS Timesheets (David Browning):

• Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA) staff have examined OS time-recording mechanisms to ascertain whether they meet effort certification requirements. 
• At UNH the term “hourly” indicates non-status pay/work and employees in this category must submit timesheets unless enrolled in Web Time Entry (WTE).
• This hourly form  has been updated to contain a statement indicating that the employee’s signature constitutes certification of effort.
• The timesheet used by Operating Staff not yet enrolled in WTE has not contained such a statement this entire fiscal year, therefore effort certification reports will need to be generated for them and reviewed/signed by the employee.  This will no longer be an issue once all OS are enrolled in WTE.

OSVPR Finance & Administration Working Group (Tammy Goldberg and Victor Sosa):

• This working group has been constituted.  Members:  Robert Anderson, David Browning, Jeanne Davis, Pasha Gerni, Tammy Goldberg, Karen Jensen, Kate Roberts, Kerry Scala, Julie Simpson, Victor Sosa.
• The group will work on process improvement in the areas of finance and administration particularly affecting research and other sponsored programs.  One of the first tasks will be to contribute to consideration and implementation of the NCURA external review team recommendations.

On-line Proposal Development and Routing (Rob Anderson):

• The InfoEd Proposal Development module (PD) will support the institution’s goal of more external funding to support research, scholarship, and creative endeavors.  The goal also includes increasing the number of faculty submitting proposals.  PD will allow increased “throughput” of proposals without increasing the workforce in SPA.
• Other exciting potential benefits are electronic routing and an electronic yellow sheet.
• The current flow of proposal development and routing was mapped in a session facilitated by Paul DeMello, director of the UNH IT Project Management Office.  Also, a hardware upgrade is scheduled that will increase the processing speed for PD.
• Currently the steering committee and SPA Grant and Contract Administrators are learning how to use the product.

On-line Effort Certification Implementation (Suzanne Huard):

• The federal government requires that individuals paid from federal grants certify that the pay they have received from a grant matches the amount of effort they expended on behalf of that grant.
• This coming summer UNH will undertake the first annual effort certification, replacing schedules that required multiple certification periods each year.
• The on-line tool is a Banner product that will allow individuals to certify their effort on line through WISE, more easily and faster than using the current paper system.

The current plan is to go live for this summer’s certification and the implementation team is cautiously optimistic, but there are still a number of thorny details to work out.  A go/no go recommendation will be provided by the implementation team to SVPR Nisbet in April.