first year assistant professor grants workshop effort reporting may 7, 2015 kaytee fletcher, sra
TRANSCRIPT
First Year Assistant Professor Grants Workshop
EFFORT REPORTINGMay 7, 2015
Kaytee Fletcher, SRA
Today’s Topics
• Effort Reporting Overview• Effort Commitments• Top 10 Things a PI Needs to Know about Effort
Reporting• FACET Support
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EFFORT REPORTING OVERVIEW
What is Effort?
• Amount of time spent on a particular activity, whether directly charged to a project or cost-shared.
• Expressed as a percentage of the total amount (100%) of time spent on compensated work-related activities– Instruction– Research/Creative Activity– Service/Administration– Sabbatical/Leave
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Who is required to certify their effort?
• Any Instructor of Record on a course• Any employee paid on a sponsored project• Any employee working on a sponsored project• Any employee with a commitment on a sponsored
project
Why Effort Reporting Matters
• Satisfy Federal requirements (OMB Circular A-21, J. 10)– Support salaries charged (direct & cost-shared) and effort
expended on sponsored projects– Demonstrate compliance with effort commitments made to
agencies• Demonstrate compliance with Florida’s 12-hour law through
reporting to Board of Governors– Florida Statutes, s. 1012.945 Required number of classroom
teaching hours for university faculty members
Why Effort Reporting Matters
• Consequences– Institutional Sanctions: fines and penalties;
debarment from participating in federally-funded research
– Individual Sanctions: civil and/or criminal sanctions (fines and imprisonment); debarment from participating in federally-funded research
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How is effort tracked?F acultyA ssignmentsC ommitments andE ffort CertificationT racking
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What is FACET?• FACET is Florida State University’s official effort
reporting system.• It is required for compliance with federal and state
regulations governing sponsored research and other activities at the University.
• It replaced the Personnel Activity Report System (PARS) during the Fall 2008 semester.
Inputs from Campus Systems
FACET
Employee Data
Payroll Data Sponsored Project Data
Campus Solutions
Course Data
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EFFORT COMMITMENTS
What is an effort commitment?
FSU defines a commitment as:
“Quantified effort for named personnel whether direct charged or cost shared, as specified in the proposal or award.”
Key Personnel• Definition:
– FSU will follow the sponsoring agency’s definition of Key Personnel if one exists.
– If no agency definition exists, FSU will define Key Personnel as the PI and all Co-PIs identified as such in the proposal and/or award.
• PI’s are encouraged to limit the number of key personnel identified in the proposal.
• PI’s are cautioned not to voluntarily include effort commitments that are not paid for by sponsor.
Commitments in Proposals
Effort commitments may be found in:• Budget Forms• Budget Justification• Current and Pending Support• Available Resources Section
Commitment Entry• Proposal and award are reviewed to determine:– Whether a commitment exists for Key Personnel and
whether it is to be direct charged or cost shared– Whether a commitment proposed as cost sharing exists for
non-Key Personnel– Percent of commitment (converting from dollars, or other
values as needed)– What period(s) the commitment covers
Commitment Entry• Commitments are entered under one of two
categories:– Direct Charged Salaries– Committed Cost Sharing
• Depending on how the commitment was stated in the proposal, it may be entered for any of the following:– Life of Project– Academic Year (Fall, Spring)– Summers Only
Commitment Adjustments• Overall commitment may be adjusted due to:
– Increase/reduction in funding– Increase/reduction in period of performance– Changes to scope of work– Reduction at PI’s discretion as allowed by terms of the award [FACET would
not be adjusted for a voluntary increase in overall commitment]
• As long as the Overall commitment is met, commitments allocated to individual periods may be moved to future periods depending on when the employee plans to do the actual work and availability of time
References
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• FSU Effort Commitment Policy– http://www.research.fsu.edu/media/1463/policy-7a-9.docx
• Effort Commitments during No-Cost Extension Periods - http://www.research.fsu.edu/media/1485/effort_nocost.pdf
• Effort Commitment Data Entry in FACET– http://www.research.fsu.edu/contractsgrants/documents/effentry.pdf
• FSU Cost Sharing Policy– http://www.research.fsu.edu/contractsgrants/costsharing.html
• FSU Campus Cost Sharing Procedures– http://www.research.fsu.edu/contractsgrants/documents/csprocedures.pdf
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TOP 10 THINGS A PI NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT EFFORT
REPORTING
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Number 1
Effort is your work on a project, whether the sponsor pays your salary or not.
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Number 2
When you write yourself into a grant proposal, you are committing your effort to the sponsor.
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Number 3
If you reduce your committed effort, paid or unpaid, on a federal grant by 25%, you must have agency approval– If you reduce your paid effort, you may choose to
document cost-sharing so that the total effort does not decrease
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Number 4• Many activities cannot be charged to a
federally funded sponsored project– Writing a proposal (Departmental Research)
– Serving on an IRB, IACUC or other research committee (Sponsored Projects Administration??)
– Serving on a departmental or university service committee (Service – Public/Administrative)
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Number 5
If you work on a sponsored project, you must certify your effort.
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Number 6
Certifying effort is not the same as certifying payroll.
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Number 7
Certification must reasonably reflect all the effort for all the activities that are covered by your University compensation.
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Number 8
Effort is not based on a 40-hour work week.– It is not based on hours at
all.
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Number 9
Effort must be certified by someone with suitable means of verifying that the work was performed.–Employee preferred–Knowledgeable Person
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Number 10
In identifying audit findings, auditors look for indications that certification was based on factors other than actual, justifiable effort.
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Support
• Institutional Research (IR) is the initial point of contact for FACET Representatives for general questions – [email protected]
• FACET Representatives should be the initial point of contact for faculty and staff
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FACET Support Contacts
Sponsored Research Administration Phone Email
Kaytee Fletcher 645-1947 [email protected]
Institutional Research Phone Email
IR-FACET Contact N/A [email protected]
Matthew Earhart 644-4203 [email protected]
Mev Verzaal 645-0285 [email protected]