Meeting materials are available for your review along with a list of links shared during the session. Q&A from our session are included here for reference and will be available with the other meeting materials shortly.
Within a week or so following every MRAM, an email like this one typically goes out with Q&A from the session and a link to the meeting materials.
Subawards Update
Q1: Can you update us on what is being done to reduce the back-log over the long term?
A1: Please know that we are working as efficiently as we can. We do have an escalation process for especially urgent items and an assurance request process in cases where our subrecipient has requested assurance of our intent to issue a subaward or amendment. Two new administrators were hired and a temporary consultant has been added to the team. We continue to work with leadership to address ongoing and future needs and will convey that information soon.
We are actively working through the backlog, doing what we can to prioritize actions for which the subaward action (SA) end date is imminent and which have been in our office the longest. Additionally, we receive and prioritize escalation requests via the established process.
A bit more detail about volumes since May:
Week over week volumes ranged between 696 and 860 (average 779) actions in OSP at any given time, at various stages. From May through August, we are averaging 220 fully executed actions per month.
During that same time, we received an average of 218 actions per month. However, when we received these requests has impacted the nature of the backlog right now.
Number of Subaward Actions first in OSP during:
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May – 170
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June – 138
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July – 266
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Aug – 296
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Sept – Projected to be approx. 250
Takeaway: August is historically a heavy month for subaward request volumes, and that continues this year. As incoming requests decline, backlog will begin to decline.
Q2: Are you able to discuss how withdraws for changes prior to assignment or returns from OSP for campus action and then resubmitted, impact (if at all) where the request is in the cue.
A2: It is easiest for us to see the “Last In OSP” date. However, our subaward team lead is working on a better way to track those that have been returned and sent back and/or withdrawn and sent back so that we can take that into account, as well.
Q3: For invoicing subaward recipients - once a subaward request or mod has been approved, are subrecipient’s invoices sent to the PI from OSP via workday? or do we need to do anything on our end?
A3: OSP is not involved in the invoicing process. Please see the “Invoicing” and “Troubleshooting Invoicing” sections of the new A-Z Subawards Checklist for information about the invoicing process and for links to Procurement resources for additional details.
Research Security at UW
Q1: Can you let us know what is required for "foreign travel registration"? Does this mean any traveler from UW has to register through an office at UW or something else? Would international individuals who travel to UW need to register as well?
A1: UW personnel will need to register their travel within a UW system if they are traveling outside the United States, including travel for official UW business, sponsored travel, or travel for research purposes. Specific details regarding implementation of this requirement are currently under development by key stakeholders and further information will be shared with campus in the coming months. Travel by international visitors to the UW will not register in the same system. Stay tuned for more information.
Q2: Research Security - Regarding foreign students, does this include students who are indirectly supporting research through administrative roles such as financial support?
A2: Generally, yes. If an international student is contributing to research and is funded from their home country, the PI of the research should disclose that support.
Q3: For T32s, do mentors need to complete FCOIs disclosure as well at the proposal stage? Here are the instructions on UW web site: Should mentors on T32 training grant proposals be designated as investigators? Because all investigators must complete a disclosure before an eGC1 is ready to submit, we recommend that you complete the eGC1 with “No” selected in the Investigator column on the PI, Personnel, & Organizations page. As mentors are assigned a trainee and become active, access the eGC1 for the T32 proposal and select “Yes” in the Investigator column. SAGE will send an email to the now active mentor to disclose FCOI. We have had mixed reviews from OSP, and some consistency and clear guidance is appreciated. FIDS FAQ - Should mentors on T32 training grant proposals be designated as investigators?
A3: The FIDS guidance is accurate. Please also see Current and Pending, or Other Support, under the NIH section -Visiting Scholars, Post-Doctoral Scholars, or International Students Supporting Research for another example and more information. We'll make sure to follow up with our team in OSP with this reminder.
Federal Research Security by Design Video Series
Q: Does OSP plan to send any communication to UW PIs about the research security by design information?
A: As the UW's official Research Security Program is developed, PIs and campus will receive more information on Research Security including the videos and information shared. Stay tuned for more information.
Separate Year Accountability
Q1: Where can we see which "Separate Year Accountability" category an award falls into?
A1: You can see this new special condition in Workday on the Special Conditions tab or in Award Portal.
Q2: I think I heard that separate year accountability is required for non-snap NIH awards. Is that the case?
A2: Yes, separate year accountability is required for NIH non-SNAP awards.
Q3: How do we know when the PI role is vacant? When I go to Award Portal, the PI is listed in one place, but not the other.
A3: When you look at an award in Award Portal, the Principal Investigator's name appears in a field called "Award Contract Owner". The Award Contract Owner is not a Workday security role. When you look at a grant in the Grants tab in Award Portal, the Grant PI appears in the PI Name field. If the PI Name field in Award Portal is blank, something about the individual's position has changed and it requires an update to their active position to properly reflect their name and to route any approvals to them.
PI Changes
Clarifications were added to the PI Change slides to indicate:
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Change the PI displayed as the Workday Award Contract Owner and/or the Grant PI of the Primary award line
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Follow steps on the OSP Award Changes webpage for Changes to Key Personnel Including PI
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in SAGE, these are the Principal Investigator on the ASR or the PI assigned to the Primary SAGE Budget worksheet
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Change the PI displayed as the Grant PI on a non-Primary award line
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Send a GCA Only MOD
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in SAGE, this is the PI assigned to a non-Primary SAGE Budget worksheet
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Correct the PI (not a change in PI but to correct an error possibly made by GCA e.g. there’s no change in PI but Award Contract Owner or any of the Grant PIs are blank)
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Award Portal ticket to GCA
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Q1: PI promotion meaning if they get promoted from Associate Professor to Professor?
A1: Yes, a promotion from Associate Professor to Professor is an example of a position change.
Q2: When PI's go on leave or sabbatical, is there a process for getting subaward invoices reassigned for approval in their absence? And who can that be delegated to, is it still only the dept. chair?
A2: Currently, there is no process to assign the Workday Grant PI role while a Principal Investigator is on leave or on sabbatical. Please check the sponsor's terms and conditions to make sure the length of the leave is within the sponsor's acceptable timeframe.
Q3: Are the PI change guidelines applicable to individuals with the Applicant PI status or just Institution PI?
A3: The PI change guidelines apply to individuals designated as UW PI, Multiple PI, and Applicant PI.
Q4: Is there any graphic flow chart (like for eGC1 approvals) to show us subrecipient invoice flow?
A4: There is no graphic flow chart specific to subrecipient invoices. There is a process flow on slide 3 of the Supplier Invoice Lifecycle & FAQs document available on UW Connect Finance.
Q5: Is there a report we can run to see all the unfilled positions?
A5: You can use the Workday report "Grant Unfilled Principal Investigator (PI) Roles R1554" to identify unfilled positions by Workday award or Cost Center Hierarchy.
Q6: So, on an award with a subaward and invoices outstanding, if the PI is promoted (e.g., from Assoc. Prof to Prof), WD will stalls payments until the "PI" is reassigned to the award. My guess is that the sponsors and the auditors will not care about this peculiarity created by WD, since it is an internal process unrelated to the scientific management of project, and will ding us for the WD-related delays that have become our new SOP. That's going to be fun on a final invoice submitted around 6/30 before a promotion takes effect with a FAD of, say, 8/31. And, since WD already rejects invoices submitted more than 45 days from the end of the performance period, I am curious what steps are being taken to expedite changing PI status and does AHR know this. Also, was whoever can manually release invoices in WD consulted when making this process.
A6: There are no efforts currently to expedite the PI Change process. Please use the Workday report "Grant Unfilled Principal Investigator (PI) Roles R1554" to identify unfilled positions and follow the steps on the Office of Sponsored Programs Award Changes webpage in the Programmatic Changes section if sponsor approval is required to change the PI.
SAGE Roadmap
Q1: When you add sub-categories to MODs, will those sub-categories be viewable on the main Award Requests page? We often have multiple MODs for a single award and it's difficult to differentiate them when viewing the whole list on Award Requests.
A1: We intend to expose subcategory abbreviations on the Award Request List, but not likely for initial release. Soon after would be the goal.
Q2: Will you add the ability for campus to withdraw an ASR/Mod request to correct items and resubmit?
A2: This is in the SAGE backlog, but not prioritized for Q2. Capacity is not available.
Q3: Is SAGE / ORIS working on the terrible terrible lagginess and slow-performance issue on SAGE budgets. This issue exists on ALL (complex and not complex) SAGE budgets. Takes making a budget from a 15 min task into a 2 hour task. I have many many grants that I manage, and this web-based budget making is making this one task much more time consuming than before?
A3: We made some performance improvements earlier this year. We have not planned to go further there, unless other planned features get de-prioritized. It is our hope to give SAGE Budget focus in Q3 and Q4 of FY25.
Q4: Is there a single page available that lists all these SAGE training and resource links?
A4: All training links we mentioned are posted and regularly updated on the SAGE Awards & Mods and SAGE Budget resources pages.
Q5: How satisfied are we with the SAGE Budget design? Any changes planned or is the current version stable?
A5: In the near term, we have no capacity to revisit the design. Longer term, yes, we would like to streamline the budget entry process for post-award.
Q6: Will the SAGE global view/ global edit roles be fixed so all MODS can be opened within the relevant security hierarchy?
A6: This work is in the SAGE backlog but was not prioritized for Q2. We will revisit for Q3 and Q4.
Q7: Also, whenever you change the start date on a SAGE budget, it deletes whatever selections you made for Award Type (which is a required field). Currently ASRs (which integrate SAGE budget directly) allow you to submit even if a required field on the SAGE budget is left blank. This should not be the case! I have had so so many ASRs returned to me because i needed to select the "award type" on the SAGE budget - but I had already selected it. It was just auto-cleared because I changed the start date for Year 1 to align with the award contract's start date.
A7: We will have an ORIS Business Analyst reach out to understand your issue further. It is not clear what "award type" means in the SAGE Budget context.
Research Homepage
Q: If departments don't have the capacity to be creating in-depth stories and profiles, are there resources available centrally to assist?
A: The Office of Research is working with the communications teams in each of the schools as well as the Marketing Communications Executive Council (MCEC) to identify stories (already produced on their individual websites) to be featured on the UW Research website. The submission form is intended for stories being submitted by schools/college communications team members. If you have a research-related story or idea, we recommend you discuss the idea with your supervisor or unit leadership to determine the best route for it.
CORE Update
CORE research administration courses for fall are open for registration.