July 30, 2010

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Agreements

The Sponsored Projects Office has notified UC Berkeley Principal Investigators (PIs) with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) agreements that contract terms, especially terms dealing with the period of performance, are being strictly enforced by LLNL.

PIs are cautioned not to perform any work without a fully executed agreement between LLNL and the University and not to conduct project activities outside the performance period without the express written authorization of the LLNL contracting office. PIs that choose to perform work at the request of LLNL scientific personnel without the concurrence of the LLNL contracting office do so at their own risk.

July 27, 2010

Federal Register 2.0 Beta Site Launched

The Federal Register is the official daily publication of federal notices, rules and regulations, requests for comment, and presidential documents.

The Office of the Federal Register and the U.S. Government Printing Office are jointly developing an unofficial prototype of an XML-based edition of the Federal Register on a new site, federalregister.gov. The new site provides a more easy-to-read format for Federal Register documents and has web tools and user aids designed to help people find material relevant to their interests.

The beta site was launched on July 26, 2010 to mark the 75th anniversary of the Federal Register Act. Comments and suggestions from the public are welcome.

NIH Progress Reports/Continuation Applications

Berkeley Principal Investigators (PIs) with National Institutes of Health awards subject to the Streamlined Non-Competing Award Process (SNAP) are required to submit their progress reports/continuation applications to NIH using the Electronic Streamlined Noncompeting Award Procedure or “eSNAP.” In the past, PIs were required to route their eSNAP reports through SPO for review and submission.

As of August 1, 2010 PIs should submit eSNAP reports directly to NIH without prior review by SPO. This change in procedure is in response to a recommendation generated by the Dean’s Streamlining Initiative. PIs who will be preparing an eSNAP report and individuals who will be assisting them with editing the eSNAP report or the PI’s e-Commons profile need to be registered in the NIH e-Commons.

Guidance on how to register can be found on the SPO web site at http://www.spo.berkeley.edu/Procedures/nihcommons.html.

Additional guidance and helpful hints on the submission of eSNAPs including initiating and managing an eSNAP, editing business information, and uploading science also is provided. PIs are strongly encouraged to read this information before preparing and submitting an eSNAP. SPO will begin the process of delegating submission authority to PIs on July 30, 2010. NIH will generate an automatic message to alert each PI when the delegation has been completed.

PIs who do not receive such a notice by August 6, 2010 should contact Jim Fong for assistance at jimfong@berkeley.edu or 643-2734.