Dean's Faculty Update
So, what is happening with IFAS Sponsored Programs (ISP)?
Date: July 31st, 2009
From: Mark R. McLellan, Dean
IFAS Faculty ----
So, what is happening with IFAS Sponsored Programs (ISP)? ....
I have heard this question so many times the past few weeks; I thought I better get an update out to you.
So just to recap --- during this past year or so, many unit leaders approached Dr. Cheek with repeated concerns about the ability of the ISP to meet the needs of the faculty. In November of 2008, Dr. Cheek decided to make overtures to central administration about centralizing both the Pre-Award and Post-Award sections of ISP.
The central Contracts & Grants (C&G) office was the first to jump quickly to a plan and worked closely with us to come to a congenial transition for Post-Award. This part of ISP operations will likely have the least impact on the faculty. As a part of the drafted plan, all current ISP Post-Award staff will simply move to C&G and become their employees. If there are issues with invoicing, residuals, or other post-award handling of your projects, communications would be with unified C&G as IFAS would no longer have a Post-Award Team. IFAS administration is currently reviewing a draft agreement between IFAS and central C&G and expects to finalize this plan very soon.
ISP's Pre-Award move began with a detailed work-flow analysis and discussions with the Division of Sponsored Research (DSR). We have met with Unit Leaders about these plans. We have asked Unit Leaders to fully share with you the centralization concepts and to provide feedback on any concerns or issues.
The Pre-Award part is somewhat more challenging, however, it too is moving closer to a draft agreement. The Pre-Award proposal currently in discussion would do the following:
- Require the PI to prepare a ready-for-submission proposal for the Division of Sponsored Research (DSR). This means that the PI will have significant responsibility to read and adhere to the RFP/RFA guidelines. DSR currently handles incoming proposals on a first come first-serve basis – there will not be a dedicated person for each Unit.
- Focus the Dean’s offices to examine cost share or deviation from norms such as standard IDC rates, publication rights, intellectual property, etc., when reviewing and signing your proposal. This will be handled by the “lead” Dean’s office with respect to each proposal.
- Anticipate a designation or hire of a Grant Specialist to assist faculty in each IFAS Unit. This could be a dedicated individual – full or part time, a grants specialist shared with other unit(s), or current staff with significant grant preparation expertise.
- Provide payment from IFAS to DSR for the equivalent of 3 full time research administration professionals to handle the DSR submission of our faculty’s fully prepared proposals and to negotiate our contractual agreements.
- Utilize a group of 3 fulltime grants professionals to form a resource team (e.g. "SWAT Team") in support of your Unit’s grant specialist. These three IFAS based individuals will provide Teaching, Training and Troubleshooting – for the Unit grant specialist. These folks will be facilitators not processors. Remember that all grants must now be completed in full at the Unit prior to their submission to DSR.
- Work with Unit based Grants Specialist through the IFAS Grant Resource Team to help our faculty best prepare their proposals.
- Create teaching and training opportunities for faculty and Unit Grant Specialists to improve the grant proposal preparation by using the 3 person SWAT Team.
- Responsible to the Dean for Research Office, the Grant Resource Team will support all Unit Grant Specialists and all type of grants including teaching, research and extension.
Presuming an agreement in Pre-Award is forth coming, a transition time of 3 weeks will be required to move all ISP Pre-Award activities to DSR. During that transition we anticipate that all new grant and contract submissions would be diverted directly to DSR. Gradually all projects currently under review by the 6 pre-award stations of ISP will submitted to DSR for execution. Finally all records and data files will be transferred to DSR. At the end of this transition there will no longer be an IFAS Sponsored Programs (ISP). All queries of faculty will be directed to their Unit Leaders and the Unit Grant Specialist or to DSR for assistance. The Experiment Station intends to set up an office to handle processing of grants and contracts re IDC approval and cost sharing approval. Also watch for a new more automated DSR1 signature process to be developed along the lines of the DocuSign system currently used by IFAS breeders.
The big change here is that faculty will prepare their grant proposals for submission and seek assistance from their Unit Grant Specialist. Each Unit Leader will work with their faculty to create a support solution (Unit Grant Specialist) that will be functional for their unit. The support in the Unit will be needed as ISP will cease to exist. All staff currently in ISP’s Post-Award section will become Contracts & Grants (C&G) staff reporting to the University. Three staff currently in ISP pre award will become teachers, trainers and trouble shooters for the Unit Grant Specialists as a part of the IFAS based Grant Resource Team.
No agreement has been fully executed yet, but we are getting a lot closer. When this does happen, we will alert you with changes to your processes.
Mark R. McLellan
Dean for Research, IFAS
Director, Florida Agricultural Experiment Station
