Quarterly Update
June 2017
Outstanding Awards & Accomplishments

Congratulations to Dr. Changsheng Chen on his continued success & world known Finite Volume Coastal Ocean Model (FVCOM) he & his team developed. He currently serves as the Principal Investigator on multiple projects primarily funded by NOAA & NSF as well as other agencies.
 
The US NOAA has selected FVCOM as the model to build the US coastal forecast system and will hold an annual workshop at their headquarters this year. The Canadian government has also chosen the model for forecasting and holds the FVCOM workshops in October each year. China held a FVCOM workshop last March with 300 people attending.  In June of this year the UK government invited Dr. Chen to attend UK FVCOM user workshop, which was already the 8th FVCOM workshop. The UK has used FVCOM to establish the forecast system along the Scottish coast. As of right now, there are users of the FVCOM in 38 countries. 



Congratulations to Barbara Weatherford 
from the College of Nursing on her continued success in securing awards from HRSA for Nursing Workforce Diversity project.

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SPA Updates

Website updates:

New rates:

Please note, if you have any awards which were received after 3/10/2017  F&A rates will be adjusted to reflect
F&A rates in effect.  Grant Managers will be contacting you regarding re-budgeting, if applicable.

Full Time Employee (34.86% fringe benefits + 1.41% payroll tax) - 36.27%
Payroll Tax (for Faculty & Student payments during summer) - 1.41%



Updates on forms:

  • Graduate Fees Expense Form has been eliminated in June, 2017.
Staff Changes:
 
Deborah Dolan joined our SPA team in June, 2017 as the Pre-award and Sub-recipient Manager. Deborah previously worked at Boston University where she served in the position of Program Director and Sr. Grants Manager. Prior to that Deborah worked at the Harvard Medical School from 1999-2005.



In her new role, Deborah is in charge of managing all current and new sub-awards issued from UMassD to other collaborators as well as performing Sub-recipient Monitoring.  She is also responsible for proposal submissions & awards administration (non-financial) for the assigned departments.



Other changes in staffing & assignments are reflected on SPA Staff website as well.



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New Initiatives:


  • STEM Ed & Teacher Development, Kaput Center & SPA started a working group this spring and will continue with discussions addressing grants related matters to clarify roles & responsibilities, expectations, improve communication and streamline internal processes.
  • Interested in revamping the current effort certification process?  Join our brand new Effort Certification Reform Team (ECRT) by e-mailing eglatman@umassd.edu & get more details.
OTCV Updates

OTCV is wrapping up its work for the fiscal year in helping UMassD investigators to protect and license potentially valuable inventions and other intellectual property. As the year neared to its close, we've received a total of 6 new invention disclosures and have filed 9 new patent applications during the fiscal year. Two U.S. patents have issued to UMassD inventors during FY17. Although the number of new inventions is down from FY16, several of these inventions represent exciting new commercial opportunities, and the office continues to maintain active negotiations for licenses to other UMassD technologies.  If you have any questions don't hesitate to contact David Glass at dglass@umassd.edu, via office phone: 508-910-9815, or cell: 617-653-9945.

Sincerely,



Elena Glatman

Director, Sponsored Projects Administration

Upcoming Proposal Opportunities

Full Proposal Deadlines:



July 19, 2017
for BIO, CISE, EHR



July 20, 2017 for ENG



July 21, 2017
for GEO, MPS, SBE


If you are interested in applying, need more information & assistance please contact
SPA Pre-award Manager assigned to your department.



NSF's PIRE program (pre-proposal deadline anticipated for mid-September) - limited submission (1 proposal per institution).



The 2018  Community Research Innovation Scholarship Program (CRISP) RFP will be released in early September.  CRISP is a year long, group-based, mentoring program supporting junior UMass researchers who have established community partnerships and who are interested in pursuing extramural funded grants.  The program is based at UMass Med's Center for Clinical and Translational Science and provides a course release each semester and $20,000 seed funding. 



NEH summer stipend concept papers are due Friday, June 30 through the RD Grant Portal. 
The program deadline is 9/27/2017.  It is a limited submission (2 proposals per institution). 


If you are interested in applying for PIRE, CRISP, or NEH summer stipend contact Mary Hensel.
Internal Policies & Guidelines Reminders
Business Expense Policy was revised & went into effect on 1/9/2017.  Please note that "No reimbursement will be paid if the expense exceeds 6 months..."


Additional Compensation Guidelines.

A faculty member who requests three months of summer salary must report 100% effort and therefore forego vacation entirely.

 

Records Retention/Disposition Matrix:

Grant & Contract Activity - retain for 6 years after filing of last report, unless required by the sponsor to keep longer.

ProCard - retain for 6 years.



Indirect Costs Rates:

Using a lower than currently approved F&A rate in a proposal must be internally approved by the Vice Chancellor for Research prior to proposal submission, including state funded projects, unless the sponsor specifically limits F&A rate for a particular program.

NSF Proposal & Award Policy Newsletter

(Issue 2 - May/June 2017):

Participant Support Costs Explained - see page 4.

Contact Us
Sponsored Projects Administration


University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
285 Old Westport Road
Dartmouth, MA 02747
Phone: 508-999-8953
Fax: 508-999-8868
Website: umassd.edu/spa


University of Massachusetts Dartmouth | 285 Old Westport Road | Dartmouth | MA | 02747