While we continue to hope that there will be a positive resolution to this situation it is certainly possible  we may be facing a partial shutdown of the Federal Government.  While we know what has happened in the past, we do not know if things will be the same this time. In the past Grants.gov continued to take submissions, even though some of the Federal agency systems that receive proposals from Grants.gov were not operational. However, to ensure that proposals were counted as submitted on time they still needed to be submitted to Grants.gov by the deadline.  NSF Fastlane did shutdown last time and allowed for late submissions due to the shutdown, but basically gave very little turnaround time once they were back up.  Therefore, the Office of Sponsored Programs is recommending that we continue with business as usual submitting proposals by their due dates.  If this changes we will communicate any changes.

If there is shutdown new awards and increments will undoubtably be delayed.

Below is a link to agency specific information that is available at this time, but I have checked some of the links and they do not all link to documents at this time.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/agency-contingency-plans/

I want to assure you that OSP and OVPR will continue to monitor the situation and stay in communication.

Thank you,

Stan Jackson

Director, OSP

UMBC implemented the KualiResearch Conflict of Interest (COI) module to document the disclosure processes for Public Health Service (PHS) and Non-PHS submitted proposals that are governed by the UMBC Interim Policy on Individual Financial Conflicts of Interest in PHS Funded ResearchandUMBC Policy on Individual Conflicts of Interest in Research & Product Development. Your disclosure is linked to any proposal you’ve submitted in Proposal Development while working with OSP.

If you have any questions specifically regarding COI, please point persons to the COI USER Guide, https://research.umbc.edu/files/2018/01/COI-USER-GUIDE-Steps-for-completing-the-Kuali-COI-financial-disclosure-01.11.2018-1.pdf.

Principal investigators departments are reminded that CITI COI training is required before any proposals submitted in Proposal Development (and Kuali COI). To see more information on this compliance training, go to https://research.umbc.edu/conflict-of-interest-training-2/

The ORPC staff are ready to assist and service COI’s through Kuali, so if you have any questions after 1st reviewing the guide, please send an email to compliance@umbc.edu.

Kuali Live in 2018!                   

UMBC is now live with Kuali!  Kuali is a new software system aiming to significantly improve the process of proposal submission and several other critical extramural related activities for our faculty and department administrators.

Kuali is partnership between the Kuali Foundation and a community of R1 institutions, including the University of Maryland Baltimore and College Park. The system was designed by university research administration subject matter experts specially for universities.

It provides a web-based, single resource for proposals, all extramural award types, compliance, and unfunded agreement information while providing a solution for many complex workflows as part of the review and approval process. Kuali allows for Administrators, Principal Investigators, Co-Investigators, Chairs and Dean's one cloud-based portal to their individual, unit, college or center information.

 Easing the burden of extramural funding submissions, Kuali provides tools to assist in collaboration, budget and compliance approvals. The system provides the UMBC community an electronic approval and submission process, and eliminates the requirement to create Federal Agency form packages. Kuali submits automatically to System-to-System Grants.Gov. The system also has compliance tracking, for example, COI financial disclosures tied directly to proposals, awards and IRB.

 UMBC is joining sister system campuses who are committed to the transition of the research management format from PeopleSoft to the cloud-based Kuali system. The alignment presents a unique opportunity for UMBC to benefit from a system-wide initiative sharing of resources.          

 UMBC funded proposals and awards will be managed in Kuali. Future functionality will include tracking negotiations, reporting, compliance and finally the close-out process.

 For questions, just email us at OSP Team at the following:  http://OSPA@UMBC.edu.

 For further information and to sign-up for Kuali training, go to UMBC Kuali Website at:

• Maleda Belilgne, Assistant Professor, Africana Studies and English, presented on James Baldwin's Speculative Imagery with her paper, "Nobody Escapes Anything: Proleptic Sound in Sonny’s Blue."
• Lindsay DiCuirci, Assistant Professor, English, presented on Nathaniel Hawthorne with her paper, "A Is for Archive: (Un)Dead Things in Hawthorne’s ‘Custom-House.”
• Jessica Berman, Professor and Director of the Dresher Center, presided over a session sponsored by the MLA’s Publication Committee on the creation, preservation, digitization, and critique of archives.

• Kate Brown, Professor, History, was the featured speaker at the AHA Modern European History Section Luncheon. Her lecture was titled, "The Great Chernobyl Acceleration: How Writing European History has Changed in the Age of the Anthropocene."
• Christy Ford Chapin, Associate Professor, History, participated in the round table, "Late Breaking: Revolt against Regulation in the Time of Trump: Historical Perspectives.”
• Meredith Oyen, Associate Professor, chaired the round table, "After War: Recognizing, Representing, and Remembering Veterans in American Society, 1945-2016.”
• Scott Casper, Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences and Professor of History, chaired the "Teaching with Material Culture and Historic Site" roundtable.
  

Reminder: Changes for January 25, 2018 Application Due Dates

Two major changes impact applications submitted for due dates on or after January 25, 2018.

• Applicants are required to use FORMS-E. Wondering what this means for late applications or reviewers submitting under the continuous submission policies? See NIH Guide Notice NOT-OD-17-062 to learn more.
• Applications that include one or more clinical trials must be submitted in response to funding opportunity announcements that allow for clinical trials. See NIH Guide Notice NOT-OD-18-106 to learn more.

New Electronic Submission Requirement for Diversity Supplements

The funds provided in response to Diversity Supplement requests are used to improve the diversity of the biomedical research workforce by recruiting and supporting students, postdoctorates, and eligible investigators from groups that have been shown to be underrepresented in health-related research. Currently, NIH does not require that diversity supplements be submitted electronically, which poses a challenge to NIH staff when trying to identify and track diversity supplement awardees and their subsequent research careers.

Effective January 25, 2018, all single and multi-project diversity supplement requests MUST be submitted electronically (NOT-OD-18-111).

Our diversity supplement funding opportunity announcement will be reissued with FORMS-E application forms and instructions on January 25, 2018 (NOT-OD-17-062). Until then, requests can be prepared using our current FORMS-D diversity supplement FOA. This FOA will expire on February 25, 2018 and all subsequent requests must use the new FORMS-E FOA.

Since the ability to submit diversity supplement requests to multi-project awards is new, an application forms package was added to the FORMS-D diversity supplement FOA to facilitate those submissions. A similar package will be added to the FORMS-E FOA when posted. Although the new package is used in conjunction with multi-project awards, the diversity supplement request itself is structured as a single-project application to the parent award.

Use our “Research Instructions” found on the How to Apply – Application Guide page when preparing all diversity supplement requests.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced on January 17, 2018 an Interim Final Rule (IFR) that delays by six months the effective date and general compliance date of the revisions of the  Common Rule. This means the effective compliance date to comply with the the revisions is now July 19, 2018.

Please stay tuned to the ORPC group page, as well as the IRB website, for more information and educational outreach.

Please contact the ORPC staff with any questions.

We have added three updated processes to the Guidelines and Procedures section of the OCGA website.

• Sponsored Award Deficit Monitoring and Resolution Process
• Guidance for Charging of Costs to a Sponsored Award
• Cost Principles Reference Grid