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02/13/2008 |
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Grant.gov Transition to Adobe Forms: |
Grants.gov in conjunction with federal agencies has started transitioning from PureEdge to Adobe forms within grants.gov application packages. This transition to the news forms will be taking place over the next six months. Grants.gov plans to be 100% Adobe format by 6/30/2008. To make the transition a smooth one for users, the new Adobe forms will have the look and feel of the PureEdge. Some improvements have been made to the forms as well. Date fields will have calendars that can be pulled down, mandatory fields will be highlighted in yellow, and the overall functionality of them forms has been improved.
When will it all take place:
Right now:
o Agency Specific Timelines are Being Identified
o Agencies Have Started Posting in Adobe Upon Successful Testing
Coming Up:
o April 1, 2008: New PureEdge Opportunity Cut-off
o April 1, 2008: Open PureEdge Opportunities will be migrated to Adobe
o June 30, 2008: PureEdge Application Submission Cut Off
o July 1, 2008: All grants.gov submissions will be in Adobe
o July 3-5, 2008: Remaining Open PureEdge Opportunities Migrated to Adobe by grants.gov
o December 30, 2008: PureEdge System Retired
To date:
5 Agencies are posting 100% in Adobe
11 Agencies are posting in PureEdge and Adobe
9 Agencies have not yet started posting in Adobe
What this means for you: Since not all applications will be PureEdge or Adobe, it is best to ensure that you have both installed on your computer.
Go Here to Install PureEdgeViewer: Grants.gov
Go Here to Install Adobe 8.1.1 Reader: Adobe
Note: You MUST use Adobe 8.1.1 when submitting an application to grants.gov using the adobe forms. They will not work properly with another version of Reader or with Adobe Professional.
After you Install Reader: You aren’t done! To make sure Adobe doesn’t upgrade past 8.1.1 you need to take the following steps:
1. Open up Reader
2. Go to Help, then “Check for Updates”
3. This will show you what updates are available.
4. Select “Preferences”
5. Uncheck “Automatically check for Adobe Updates”
6. Press “OK”
How does it work:
Go here for grants.gov’s tutorial on how to complete a grant application using Adobe Reader: Adobe Tutorial
Other Resources:
From Grants.gov:
Adobe and PureEdge FAQs: Adobe PureEdge FAQ
From NIH:
Information on their transition: NIH Transition Information
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01/15/2008 |
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Change in Grants.gov forms coming soon. |
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Sometime before June 2008, you will need to open Grants.gov files using Adobe Reader 8.1.1, NOT Professional or Acrobat. You will still need programs to create .pdf files so it is important to get all of your Adobe programs in sync. If an application is sent to Grants.gov using something other than the correct version of Reader to fill out the form, you will not know until an error message is received from Grants.gov. There is no way to convert PureEdge to Adobe, nor can you convert a wrong Adobe file to the correct one. ORCA will keep you up to date on these changes as they happen.
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01/03/2008 |
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CHANGE IN MILEAGE REIMBURSEMENT RATES |
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Effective 1/1/2008, all Drexel University and Drexel University College of Medicine employees should use the revised IRS business mileage reimbursement rate of 50.5 cents per mile, up from 48.5 cents in 2007.
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12/21/2007 |
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NIH REDUCES THE ERROR CORRECTION WINDOW TO 2 BUSINESS DAYS.
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After January 8, 2008, the "error correction window" will be the 2 business days (Mon-Fri excluding Federal holidays) that follow the receipt deadline of the Funding Opportunity Announcement. For example, if your receipt deadline is Tuesday, Febuary 5, 2008, then the "error correction window" begins on Wednesday, February 6 and ends at 5pm local time on Thursday, February 7.Additionally, after the receipt date, a cover letter attachment must be included identifying the system-identified errors that have been corrected. Applications with additional changes may be refused.
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11/29/2007 |
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GRANTS.GOV GOOF-UP.
Always expect last minute problems. |
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The Chronicle of Higher Education cited a November 2nd story in the Boston Globe where a $300,000 grant application to the U.S. Department of Education was rejected because it was submitted to Grants.gov 46 minutes late. The applicant had over 40 years of experience providing educational programs to students and was enraged by the "bureaucratic technicality". John Kerry (D-Mass) complained unsuccessfully to the U.S. Dept of Ed where it was explained that the sponsor "did not have the discretion to waive the deadline nor the ability to alter Grants.gov requirements". It is well known there are problems with Grants.gov and the safest way to avoid such problems is to submit the application days ahead of the actual deadline so there is time to fix any difficulties or errors.
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10/10/2007 |
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NSF REVISES MERIT REVIEW TO ENCOURAGE TRANSFORMATIVE RESEARCH |
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Effective October 1, 2007, the Grant Proposal Guide, as well as funding opportunities issued after that date, will incorporate revised new intellectual merit criterion with the goal of enhancing NSF support for transformative research. This change will specifically include review of the extent to which a proposal explores potentially transformative concepts, such as creating entirely new fields or disrupting accepted theories and perspectives. While the concept of transformative research is not new to NSF, it is hoped that the revised criteria for merit review will infuse support of potentially transformative research throughout NSF.
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10/01/2007 |
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UPDATED PHS GRANTS GUIDES NOW AVAILABLE |
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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Service Grants.gov Application Guide SF424 (R&R) and the corresponding Grants.gov SBIR/STTR Application Guide have been updated to include additional guidance on subaward budgets and the 2 day application viewing window.
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07/05/2007 |
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NIH and Multiple Principal Investigators |
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Since February 2007, the NIH has allowed applicants and their institutions to list more than one Principal Investigator on a grant application. This initiative was designed for team science projects that do not fit into the single-PI model. One basic principle of this model is that each PI is equally responsible and accountable for the research project. However, one (1) contact PI must be designated. This designee is responsible for communication between the PIs and the NIH program official.
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06/14/2007 |
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Does it really help to include cost sharing in proposals? |
The Federal Grants News for Colleges and Universities, May 2007 edition, quoted the NSF proposal guide, "cost sharing is solely at the discretion of the applicant and WILL NOT be a factor in the grant making decision".
A leading panel of educators commented on the following question raised during a live broadcast aired in 2007 by The National Council of University and Research Administrators. "Does showing cost sharing in a proposal help to get a grant approved? In other words, is the sponsor more likely to award the funding if the organization shows cost sharing?" The response from the panelist was: "It depends. If required, the answer is yes. In this instance not providing cost sharing would disqualify the proposal. If NO cost share is required, the evidence has shown that IT HAS NO IMPACT."
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05/22/2007 |
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NOW MORE THAN EVER...get your proposal applications to ORCA 5 business days before the deadline. |
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Grants.gov is currently implementing a phased system deployment of the new Adobe application forms. Deployment is scheduled for completion September 30, 2007 at which time Grants.gov will no longer accept PureEdge application packages. As with the implementation of the PureEdge Application System last year, we expect to encounter untold problems and delays. It is always important to honor the ORCA 5 day lead time for proposal submission so that your ORCA program administrator has adequate time for review and submission prior to the solicitation deadline, but during this time, adequate ORCA submission lead time will be critical. To learn about the differences between the Adobe and the PureEdge forms go here: AdobePEFAQs.pdf.
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05/10/2007 |
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NIH Progress Reports. |
NIH progress reports for R series awards, such as R01s may be submitted electronically using the Streamlined Noncompeting Award Process, eSNAP.
These changes can be submitted online at any time provided you are a registered user in eRA Commons. To register contact your Program Administrator. Visit our eSNAP
quickguide.
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04/27/2007 |
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NSF Investments for FY 2008 |
Cyber-enabled Discovery and Innovation-proposed funding at $52 million
Cyberinfrastructure-proposed funding at $644 million
International Polar Year-proposed funding at $ 59 million
National Nanotechnology Initiative-proposed funding at $ 390 million
Networking and Information Technology R&D-proposed funding at $994 million
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04/16/2007 |
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NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide |
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NSF announces the new NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (NSF 07-140) which will be effective for proposals submitted on or after June 1, 2007. This document supercedes all prior versions of the GPG and GPM and can be accessed here.
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04/05/2007 |
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NIH Roadmap for Medical Research |
Since its inception, the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research has been an “incubator space” for programs that, due to their cross-cutting relevance warrant concerted attention from NIH as a whole. Please see link for 2008 initiatives.
http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/2008initiatives.asp
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03/27/2007 |
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Overdue Final Progress Reports stops funding... |
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According to NSF, an overdue Final Progress Report stops funding actions for the PI and Co-PIs on the award. FastLane will allow submission of most post-award actions with a warning, but will not allow submission of PI/Co-PI change or withdrawal of Co-PI requests.
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02/22/2007 |
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ERS Paperless Effort Reporting System Training... |
Attendance is required for all department coordinators and college/school reviewers.
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01/22/2007 |
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Add ORCA@drexel.edu to your address book... |
Add ORCA@drexel.edu to your address book.
So you can receive automated emails from ORCA informing users of:
- New Content
- Time Critical Information
- Seminar Registration Confirmations
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01/10/2007 |
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Grants.gov NIH Submission Deadlines... |
The DEADLINE for applications to be received by ORCA is as follow:
R01 Applications are due Monday 1/29/2007
R03 and R21 Appliations are due Friday 2/9/2007
Area (R15) Applications are due Monday 2/19/2007
P, T, and K Applications are still paper-based.
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12/27/2006 |
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Good news... |
Updated sponsored project submission transmittal forms now available.
These new forms contain the required NIH certification as well as the credit distribution information for each investigator. Please begin using these immediately. For your convenience, the forms can be found here.
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11/09/2006 |
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GRANTS.GOV News... |
DO NOT REGISTER for Grants.gov
Drexel University is already registered. Please get all completed applications to your Program Administrator at least 5 working days before the deadline for review.
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10/30/2006 |
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NIH to Spread Application Due Dates Starting in January... |
NIH is expected to announce shortly, a spreading out of application receipt dates to avoid volume delays in the Grants.gov system.
A preview of the new receipts dates:
New R01s Feb 5th formerly Feb 1st
New R03s, R21s Feb 16th formerly Feb 1st
Stay tuned for more details...
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09/23/2006 |
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Alert!... Charge Academic Year Salaries NOW |
It's that time of year again! Review faculty labor distrubutions (PAF's) so salaries charge to sponsored projects and AY buyout dollars are released early in the fiscal year. This is also the time to review cost sharing commitments to ensure they are charging correctly. Charging all sponsored salaries correctly now will reduce effort reporting rework too! Send corrections to the ORCA for processing.
To update PAF's go to Websalary or use the Budget Transfer and Salary Distribution fillable PDF form available here .
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