1 Overview of Research Administration Support Tsu-Jae King Liu, Associate Dean for Research Cathy Jen, Acting Assistant Dean Cynthia Weekley, ERSO HR Director

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Overview of Research Administration Support

Tsu-Jae King Liu, Associate Dean for ResearchCathy Jen, Acting Assistant Dean

Cynthia Weekley, ERSO HR Director

AcknowledgementsDarrell Erickson (Assistant Dean)

Fall 2010

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Financial Model• Overhead charges are assessed against every award

for research:– 53.5% for contracts/grants– 10.5% for gifts + tax imposed by department

• A portion of these overhead charges is returned to the research support organization, to cover the costs of routine administrative support:– 7.5% of award for contracts/grants– 7.5% of award for gifts

• Note: This income is based on past expenditures (3-year rolling average)

Overview Post-Award Business Services Human ResourcesPre-Award

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The Pre-ERSO Era8

• Redundancy in administrative structures inefficiencies

• Lack of consistency in administering awards significant compliance risks

• Lack of effort reporting substantial fines levied against the university

• Lack of timely financial reporting overspending, resulting in $2.7M in overdrafts– partly covered by ERSO all faculty share the financial burden!

• HR issues GSRs were not paid in a timely mannerOverview Post-Award Business Services Human ResourcesPre-Award

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ERSO Overview• ERSO was formed in July 2005 to provide research

support to CoE faculty via well-trained teams of staff• Knowledgeable in sound business and research administration

practices, financial management, and quality service delivery• Cross-trained to allow maximum use of resources• Structured with inherent flexibility to allow proper research

support allocation to meet changing demands

• Responsible for adherence with University Principles of Accountability– Informed of current pertinent policies and procedures – Consistent in policy interpretation and application


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ERSO Quick Facts• Supports 240 faculty within the College of Engineering– ~$90M in research expenditures

• 63 central administrative staff, including 26 Research Support Officers (RSOs)


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2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 -

20,000,000

40,000,000

60,000,000

80,000,000

100,000,000

120,000,000

140,000,000

160,000,000

FederalIndustryNon Federal GovernmentalNot for ProfitUniversity of California

Amount of ERSO-Managed Awardsby Sponsor


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Number of ERSO-Managed Awardsby Sponsor

2006 2007 2008 2009 20100

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

FederalIndustryNon Federal GovernmentalNot for ProfitUniversity of California


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ERSO Basic Services• Pre-Award– Proposal preparation and submission

• Post-award– Grants administration

• Business Services– Purchasing– Reimbursements– Payroll

• Human Resources– Recruitment & Hiring (GSRs, Staff, Other

Researchers, Students, & Independent Contractors)

– Benefits, Leaves & Worker’s compensation– Reclassifications, Promotions & Merits


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ERSO OrganizationAssociate Dean for Research

Tsu-Jae King Liu

Assistant Deanvacant

Director, Human ResourcesCynthia Weekley

Deputy Director, Business ServicesCathy Jen

• HR Operations• Purchasing • Reimbursements• Payroll• IT• Finance

Research Administration Team Leads

• Jane Doyle• Leslie Goldstein• Elise Mills• Vonis Moore• Jennifer Stone


(Darrell Erickson)

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Proposal Preparation and Submission• Quick facts:– In FY10, ERSO submitted 574 proposals for over $455M in funding.– On average, ERSO submits 1.6 proposals per working day.

• Proposals must be submitted to Sponsored Projects Office at least 5 working days before the sponsor's deadline!(Exceptions require Dept. Chair and VCR approval, and are tracked.) Contact your Research Support Officer well before the SPO

deadline, to set a schedule for proposal preparation/submission!

• If a Subrecipient is named in a proposal, a completed Subrecipient Commitment Form must be included.http://www.spo.berkeley.edu/Forms/subaward/UCBsubrecipient.pdf(signed by an authorized institutional representative of the Subrecipient)

Overview Pre-Award Post-Award Business Services Human Resources

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Grants Administration• Each new award is entered into the ERSO Intranet after

notice is received from Extramural Funds Accounting.

• RSOs monitor expenditures and generate financial reports (posted on the Intranet) on a monthly basis.– Provide an “at a glance” view of each fund

• Financial projections are prepared and posted ≥3x/year.

• RSOs work with faculty from award through closeout, to support research and assure projects are in compliance.– ERSO’s Effort Reporting Coordinator works with the RSOs to

generate effort reports for proper certification. – Faculty certification of Effort Reports are required 2x/year.


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Examples of Non-Compliance Consequences• An NSF audit resulted in a $25,000 penalty related to GSR

effort that auditors could not confirm.

• A recent audit of ONR projects for the time period 2000-2008 resulted in a disallowance of ~$2.5M due to the lack of effort reporting.– ERSO’s share of this penalty is $885K, to be paid within 5 years

• Potential $500K penalty related to lack of sub-award monitoring*

• $50,000 penalty for fraudulent travel and entertainment expenses*

Damaged university reputation greater audit scrutiny

Overview Pre-Award Post-Award Business Services Human Resources*The University is looking to the Department to cover these costs!

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Risk Areas

• Overdrafts– Fund advances / guarantee funds

• Cost transfers

• Certifications of Effort

• Cost-share commitment and tracking

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Purchasing• Quick facts: – On average, ERSO processes 1300 purchase orders per month– Orders <$5,000 are processed by Purchasing Coordinators.– Orders up to $35k are processed by Alice Wong (Buyer II); orders

up to $100k are processed by Jeanette Witt (Sr. Buyer)

• To expedite a purchase order that exceeds $10,000:– Provide formal price quotations from 3 different suppliers, or– Provide sole-source justification

Note: For Federal procurements, this is required at $5,000.

• Equipment purchase requests require a confirmation statement that the PI searched for like equipment, and none exists for use in lieu of requested equipment.


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Purchasing Process1. A request is submitted via the ERSO Intranet.

2. PI approves the purchase; his/her RSO is automatically notified.

3. One of the ERSO purchasing staff enters the information into the campus’ system (BFS).

4. The PI’s RSO checks the requisition for allowability and funding availability, and approves the purchase.

5. For purchases <$5000 (“low-value”), the approved requisition, which will be converted to a purchase order though overnight batch process, is automatically dispatched to the supplier.

For purchases >$5000 (“high-value”), the requisition is routed to an ERSO Buyer (Jeanette Witt or Alice Wong), who makes sure that the price quotation is competitive (unless sole-source justification is provided). Buyer then dispatches PO to supplier.


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Purchasing (cont’d)• Use “Freight on Board – Destination” to avoid risks

with shipping.– FOB Destination UCB owns the material upon receipt– FOB Origin UCB owns the material as soon as it leaves seller’s dock

• Independent contractors must have professional liability insurance, approved scope of work, and approval from HR in advance of starting work.

• Federal awards exceeding $550,000 require a Supplier Diversity Plan. – Contact Roesia Gerstein([email protected]), Supplier

Diversity Administrator, for more information.


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Shipping and Receiving

• Shipping:– Standard form to be completed

• Receiving:– Deliveries are received by Shipping &Receiving unit in 266

Sutardja Dai Hall or 190 Soda Hall

– Package is logged and then delivered to “ship-to” locations

– Staff receives goods in campus system with proof of receipts returned by requesters

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Reimbursements• Quick facts: – Average time for travel reimbursement is now 14.3 days.– Average time for entertainment reimbursement is now 9.8 days.– There is no Per Diem for domestic travel.

• Tips to reduce time for travel reimbursement processing:– Submit your expense report through the ERSO Intranet.• This includes a completed ERSO Reimbursement Form and

scanned receipts to show what you paid.– Document any unusual circumstances.• If receipts were lost or they were unavailable, an expense log

showing amounts paid out each day may meet the University requirement for documentation.


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Entertainment Reimbursements

• The business reason must be provided, to document the necessity and benefits to the University for incurring the entertainment expenses.

• A host signature is required for each official university sponsored event.

• Exceptional entertainment expenditure requests should be submitted 3 weeks in advance to the ERSO Assistant Dean’s office for review. – Approval must be granted by the CoE Dean, EVCP, or the

Chancellor (depending upon the circumstances).


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Payroll

• The campus Payroll and Personnel System (PPS) interfaces with the campus Human Capital Management System (HCM).

• Paycheck generation is authorized and based on HR actions entered by HR Operations into the HCM. – Payroll adjustments are made based on coordinated notice for

action between the RSO, HR Operations and Payroll Services.

• Vacation credits are processed in direct response to the receipt of a supervisor-approved employee timesheet.– Approved timesheets are due by the 5th working day after the

close of the reporting month.


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Payroll (cont’d)

• Campus payroll deadlines dictate all payroll actions.– Delays in communicating changes or corrective actions to

ERSO HR Operations can result in payroll over/underpayment when notice occurs after campus payroll deadlines!• Identified overpayments can not be credited to a project

until repayment is received and recorded by the PPS.– Employee health/dental/vision benefits continue to be

charged to a project if termination and/or early departure notification is not recorded in the HRMS within 30 days.

– Any adjustment activity after the close of a payroll process month will result in a month delay in reporting.


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• Confirmed sufficient funding is required at the time the GSR appointment begins.– Make sure that actual effort correlates to project charge!

• GSR appts automatically set a pay status in the PPS, based on percentage time, pay rate, and appt. period.• Percentage time impacts fee remission.

(Early termination may cancel fee remission)

• Pay rate is determined by the student’s academic department.• Normally, appointments are full semester.

(Partial appointments are subject to project terms & conditions.)

• Review & approve GSR appointment requests in the new online request system in timely manner, and communicate early with HR regarding changes to GSR appointments!

Graduate Student Researchers


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Faculty• Appointment forms should be completed in advance

with your RSO, for the following:– Faculty Research Appointment (Research leave)

– Faculty Salary Research Exchange Program– Recall appointment

• Newly retired faculty must wait 30 days and receive 1st retirement check before eligibility.

• 43% maximum applies to all recall appointments.

– Summer research appointment• limited to ≤ 57 days (“3 ninths”), with no more than 47.5 days (“2.5

ninths”) on federal projects• Combined summer research appt.s must be reported to HR.

• Effort must be devoted to the project for the period charged!• Formal effort reporting guidelines apply to Federal projects.


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Faculty Research Appointment

• Heaven point buyout– Example:

25% faculty research appointment 25% reduction in heaven pt obligation

– A portion of the salary savings is returned to the home department.

• The charged level of effort must be devoted to the project.

• Formal effort reporting guidelines apply to Federal projects.


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Faculty Salary Research Exchange Program• Under the Faculty Salary Research Exchange Program, a

faculty member can direct-charge up to 30% of his/her monthly salary (i.e. 9/12 of annual salary) each month during the academic year to contracts/ grants. In return, he/she receives 75% of the resultant salary savings in the form of a State general operating 19900 fund, which is– discretionary (subject to guidelines) and unlimited in term– not subject to overhead charges– best used for salary, because the cost of benefits (often as high

as 30% for staff) would be covered by the State. • GSR Fee Remission (but not including NRT) and benefits would be covered.

• Example: A faculty member with an academic-year salary of $100K could direct charge up to $22.5K of this salary to contracts/grants within an academic year. (Benefits and indirect costs also would be charged to the contracts/grants.) He/she would then receive $16.875K in a 19900 fund at the beginning of the following academic year.


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Summer Compensation

• Effective with summer 2009 earnings, faculty may not receive more than 2.5 summer ninths (48 weekdays) from federal sources. – UC policy defines a month to be 19 weekdays, with a limit of 57 days for the summer.

• PIs who wish to take more than 2.5 ninths may do so by indicating in writing, by April 30 of the given year, the precise number of additional days of compensation they anticipate being paid from federal funds and the congruence between days of effort for this compensation and personal days. – The PI will be responsible, in the event of an audit by external or internal sources, for

demonstrating congruence between effort and compensation. Such attestation shall be filed with the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost and retained in the appropriate contract and grant files.


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Other Researchers• Quick facts: – Salaried and supplemental appointments are processed by ERSO. – All other appointments (e. g. non-paid visitors and fellows) are

processed by the academic department.

• Confirmed sufficient funding is required at the time the appointment case preparation begins.– Salary should be commensurate with the scope of work, and

should not cause internal equity issues.

• Miscellaneous:– No retroactive appointments will be approved!– Post-doc’s must have proof of Ph.D. prior to appt. start date.– Effective January 1, 2009, foreign visiting undergraduate student

researchers fall into the new J-1 subcategory “Student Intern”.Overview Post-Award Business Services Human ResourcesPre-Award

29Research Appointment Case Preparation and Approval Process

Overview Pre-Award Post-Award Business Services Human Resources

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Case Lead Times

Case Type Required lead time prior to appt. start date

Assoc. Researcher or Full Researcher* 6+ monthsAny case requiring a H Visa* 4 monthsAny case requiring a J Visa* 2 monthsStaff reclassification* 2+ monthsNew staff appointment 2 monthsSpecialist or Asst. Research Engineer 2 monthsVisiting Researcher (without Visa) 1 month

Post-doc (without Visa) 1 month

*Requires central campus office review; timeline is not under ERSO control


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Work Climate Issues

• Civility

• Please be respectful of RSO and Business Service staff’s time

• Please respond to requests in a timely manner

• Provide the “whole picture” so that staff can assist you to accomplish your goal with the necessary information.

Documents

1 Overview of Research Administration Support Tsu-Jae King Liu, Associate Dean for Research Cathy Jen, Acting Assistant Dean Cynthia Weekley, ERSO HR Director