Research Advocate

RAC Offices to Close During the Annual Campus Winter Break

2009-11-06T15:12:00.000-08:00

The Animal Care and Use Committee Office, the Office for the Protection of Human Subjects, the Sponsored Projects Office, and the Research Administration and Compliance Office will be closed during the campus energy curtailment beginning Wednesday, December 23, 2009 through Wednesday, January 6, 2010. Offices will reopen on Thursday, January 7, 2010.

SPO Proposal Submission

SPO will process proposals due in December and January according to the VCR’s five-day proposal submission policy with the following exceptions:

For proposals with deadlines that fall between December 23 and January 8th, the due date to SPO will be no later than Wednesday, December 16, 2009.
For proposals due January 11th-13th, the due date to SPO will be no later than noon on Monday, December 21, 2009.
SPO will not accept proposals after noon on Monday, December 21, 2009.

To assist Berkeley faculty and staff members who need to submit proposals before and/or after the holiday/furlough period SPO will extend its drop box hours from 7 am to 6 pm from December 9th to the 18th. SPO will collect proposals from the drop box each day at 6 pm. These proposals then will be logged in on this date. A SPO Research Analyst also will be available to answer general proposal questions from 7 to 8 am and 5 to 6 pm each day during this same time period. Persons needing assistance from 7 to 8 am and 5 to 6 pm should call the main SPO number: 642-0120.

PIs also are encouraged to inform their SPO Research Analyst if they will be submitting a proposal with a due date just prior to, during, or just after the curtailment period. This will give SPO and the PI an opportunity to discuss the best way to handle the proposal to make sure it is submitted in a timely manner.

ACUC Protocol Submission

Please note that all protocols and protocol revisions must be submitted via email to: ACUC@berkeley.edu by 5 pm on the deadline date.
If you wish to make changes to an approved protocol, you must first contact the ACUC office to obtain a copy of the current approved version of your protocol. Failure to do so may result in your protocol being returned to you.
The deadline for protocol submission for the January 20, 2010 meeting is Monday, November 16, 2009.
The deadline for protocol submission for the February 17, 2010 meeting is January 5, 2010. No exceptions to this deadline will be granted as ACUC staff must process all protocols for the February meeting by end of business on January 6, 2010.

CPHS Protocol Submission

The deadline for protocol submission for the December 4, 2009 CPHS-I meeting is Monday, November 9, 2009.
The deadline for protocol submission for the December 18, 2009 CPHS-II meeting is Monday, November 23, 2009.
There is no CPHS-I meeting in January 2010; the deadline for protocol submission for the February 5, 2010 CPHS-I meeting is Monday, January 11, 2010. Please note that any new protocol to be reviewed at this meeting must be submitted via eProtocol.
The deadline for protocol submission for the January 22, 2010 CPHS-II meeting is Friday, December 18, 2009. (Please note this is an earlier deadline than usual).
Important: if your study is “greater than minimal risk” needing full board review and the approval will expire before January 22, 2010, you must submit your renewal application in time for review at a December 2009 CPHS meeting.
No deliveries will be accepted after noon on December 22, 2009; any documents left in the drop box over the break will not be retrieved and logged until January 7, 2010.
eProtocol Announcement: OPHS anticipates that as of December 18, 2009 investigators will be required to submit ALL NEW PROTOCOLS via eProtocol, therefore no paper-based submissions for new protocols will be accepted after NOON on Friday, December 18, 2009. Please check the CPHS website for updates or changes to this deadline.

In addition, for protocols determined to be exempt prior to July 1, 2009 if an investigator wants to make a modification or revision to his/her protocol then s/he must re-submit the exempt protocol via eProtocol as a “new” project and incorporate the amendment into the protocol application. Please include a reference in the narrative to the original exempt determination CPHS# and append the “old” determination of exemption approval letter to the submission. See the CPHS web site for more detail about eProtocol submissions.

RAC Offices to Close During the Annual Campus Winter Break

2008-10-29T15:02:00.000-07:00

The Office for the Protection of Human Subjects, the Sponsored Projects Office, and the Research Administration and Compliance Office will be closed during the campus energy curtailment beginning Thursday, December 25, 2008 through Friday, January 2, 2009. The Animal Care and Use Committee Office will be closed beginning Wednesday, December 24, 2008 through Friday, January 2, 2009. Offices will reopen on Monday, January 5, 2009.

SPO Proposal Submission

Proposals with deadlines during the campus shutdown should arrive at SPO by Friday, December 12, 2008.
Proposals due at agencies in early January should be at SPO by Monday, December 15, 2008.
No deliveries will be accepted after noon on December 24, 2008; any documents left in the drop box over the break will not be retrieved and logged until January 5, 2009.

ACUC Protocol Submission

The deadline for protocol submission for the January 21, 2009 meeting is Monday, December 8, 2008.
The deadline for protocol submission for the February 18, 2009 meeting is January 12, 2009.
ACUC will be closed on December 24, 2008.

CPHS Protocol Submission

The deadline for protocol submission for the December 5, 2008 CPHS-I meeting is Monday, November 10, 2008.
The deadline for protocol submission for the December 19, 2008 CPHS-II meeting is Monday, November 24, 2008.
There is no CPHS-I meeting in January 2009; the deadline for protocol submission for the February 6, 2009 CPHS-I meeting is Monday, January 12, 2009.
The deadline for protocol submission for the January 16, 2009 CPHS-II meeting is Monday, December 22, 2008.
Important: if your study was given full board review last January and approval will expire before January 16, 2009, you must submit your renewal application in time for review at a December 2008 CPHS meeting.
No deliveries will be accepted after noon on December 24, 2008; any documents left in the drop box over the break will not be retrieved and logged until January 5, 2009.

Berkeley Coeus Upgrade Coming Soon

2007-11-13T15:08:00.000-08:00

The Research Administration and Compliance Information Systems team (RAC-IS) is making final preparations to switch to the new, upgraded Berkeley Coeus version 4 in late November. The Berkeley Coeus system is the institutional system of record for tracking all Berkeley campus research proposals and awards processed by the Sponsored Projects Office (SPO) and the Industry Alliances Office (IAO). Data captured in Coeus is passed automatically to the Berkeley Financial System (BFS) to establish and modify fund accounts for project spending.

RAC-IS is working to make the transition to Coeus 4 as transparent and smooth as possible for the campus. However, during the move to the new system, Coeus may be unavailable for one to two days. The interruption in service will affect the Coeus to BFS feed for award set up as well as access to Coeus Web. Campus staff and faculty with possible issues related to award setup during this period may contact Kevin Phung (kphung@berkeley.edu). RAC-IS will provide more details on the move to Coeus 4 during the next several weeks.

The upgrade is a complete technical migration. The client application is now written in Java; upgrades from MIT will be incorporated as they are released, while at the same time preserving Berkeley customizations; the entire system will run on Campus Data Center Web Farm and database infrastructure; and all legacy data will be migrated to the new system. Benefits out of the box include enhanced capabilities for documenting proposal reviews, tracking agreement negotiations, managing subcontracts and subcontractors, and compliance information, among others.

The upgrade project lays the groundwork for future enhancements in a number of areas, including reporting and campus access to SPO data, conflict of interest disclosure tracking, routing and approval of proposals through the campus, and system-to-system submission of fully electronic proposals to the federal Grants.gov system. When implemented, the new human and animal subjects protocol systems will be integrated with Coeus.

RAC Offices to Close During the Annual Campus Winter Break

2007-10-25T16:10:00.000-07:00

The Office for the Protection of Human Subjects, Animal Care and Use Committee Office, and the Sponsored Projects Office, along with the Research Administration and Compliance Office, will be closed during the campus energy curtailment beginning Monday, December 24, 2007, through Tuesday, January 1, 2008. The RAC offices will also be closed for the afternoon on Thursday, December 13, 2007.

SPO Proposal Submission

Proposals with deadlines during the campus shutdown should arrive at SPO by Friday, December 7, 2007.
Proposals due at agencies in early January should be at SPO before Friday, December 14, 2007.

ACUC Protocol Submission

The deadline for protocol submission for the December 5, 2007 meeting is Monday, October 22, 2007.
The deadline for protocol submission for the January 23, 2008 meeting is Monday, December 10, 2007.

CPHS Protocol Submission

The deadline for protocol submission for the December 7, 2007 CPHS-I meeting is Monday, November 5, 2007.
The deadline for protocol submission for the December 14, 2007 CPHS-II meeting is Monday, November 12, 2007.
The deadline for protocol submission for the January 4, 2008 CPHS-I meeting is Monday, December 3, 2007.
The deadline for protocol submission for the January 18, 2008 CPHS-II meeting is Monday, December 10, 2007.
Please note that if your study was given full board review last January and approval will expire before January 4, 2008, you must submit your renewal application in time for review at a December 2007 CPHS meeting.

Work Begins on New Online Protocol Management System

2007-08-06T16:00:00.000-07:00

The Research Administration and Compliance Office is very pleased to report that work has begun on the “eProtocol” Project to implement an online protocol management system to support research projects involving human or animal subjects. The system is designed to replace manual, paper-based research protocol processes with a broadly distributed electronic system to simplify protocol submission, processing, and compliance monitoring. The Office of the CIO’s Technology Program Office is providing the services of Jon Conhaim who is representing RAC as project manager of the eProtocol Project.

Over the next months, we will be installing, configuring, testing, and performing a fit/gap analysis on the system. As part of this work, we will be interviewing faculty and OPHS, ACUC, and SPO staff to determine precisely how the system fits with our existing processes and what gaps may exist that will require process or system modifications.

We are excited to initiate this important project with outcomes that will benefit the entire campus.

RAC Forum: Save the Dates!

2007-08-02T17:47:00.001-07:00

The Research Administration and Compliance Office has scheduled the monthly RAC Forum meetings for the coming year. This year, we will be holding the RAC Forum on Wednesdays from 10:30 a.m. until noon. All meetings except for April will be held in the Tilden Room, 5th floor, ASUC Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union building. Please save the following dates:

September 12, 2007, 10:30-noon
October 10, 2007, 10:30-noon
November 14, 2007, 10:30-noon
December 12, 2007, 10:30-noon
January 16, 2008, 10:30-noon
February 13, 2008, 10:30-noon
March 12, 2008, 10:30-noon
April 16, 2008, 10:30-noon (location to be determined)
May 14, 2008, 10:30-noon
June 11, 2008, 10:30-noon

We will be sending the agenda for the September meeting soon. You can also check the RAC web site at http://rac.berkeley.edu/racforum.html.

As always, please feel free to contact us if you have ideas or suggestions for topics you'd like to see addressed at the meetings. We'll see you in September!

Animal Care and Use Update

2007-04-15T18:40:00.000-07:00

The organization that examines and accredits animal care and use programs around the world has given the UC Berkeley's animal care and use program another thumbs up, awarding it the prized accreditation it has maintained through five site visits since 1994. Three representatives of the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International, known as AAALAC, visited the campus on October 2 and 3 last year, touring every animal facility on campus, reviewing many animal care and use records and visiting many faculty laboratories. The team’s comments were uniformly positive, and their recommendation for full accreditation was approved by the AAALAC Council on Accreditation. In a March 21 letter to UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor for Research Beth Burnside, Dale G. Martin, president of the Council on Accreditation, wrote, “The Council commends you and your staff for providing and maintaining an exemplary program of laboratory animal care and use.”

For more details see the ACUC web site or the April 4 article on the accreditation in the campus Berkeleyan, “Campus animal-care program earns three-year accreditation.”