Campus Training Resources: Workshop DVD Library

The Research Administration and Compliance Office has DVDs of the following NCURA workshops and other training material available for campus departments to borrow. To borrow a DVD, contact Alaisha Hellman (3-2836, amhellman@berkeley.edu). RAC is ordering the 2008 NCURA TV DVDs; they will be listed here when available.

NCURA TV Satellite Broadcast Recordings

• Conflict of Interest: How to Spot and Manage It (June 2007)
• Effort Reporting (March 2007)
• Sponsored Program Essentials (January 2007)
• Post-award Issues for the Pre-award and Departmental Administrator (January 2006)
• Best Practices in Research Compliance: Update on Policies and Regulations and Implementation at Institutions (September 2005)
• Principles of Federal Research and Development Contracting (June 2005)

Other DVDs

• What Are We Signing Anyway (NCURA Course, December 2005)
• Export Control Session (UC IP Managers/C&G Officers Meeting, November 2005)

Berkeley Coeus 4 Upgrade Complete: New Passwords for Coeus Web Accounts

The Research Administration and Compliance Information Systems team (RAC-IS) has successfully finished the upgrade to Berkeley Coeus version 4. All core components of the system (proposals, awards, subcontracts) and all associated infrastructure elements (state of the art development environment, future upgrade capability, Coeus-to-BFS feed, reporting mechanisms) have been upgraded and RAC-IS is now pleased to announce the rollout of the new Coeus Web.

The updated web service runs on new technology and infrastructure. All reports available on the old system are available on the new system. The campus Master Org Tree hierarchy has been implemented to identify organization units associated with proposals and awards. Benefits of the new system include enhanced capabilities for documenting proposal reviews, tracking agreement negotiations, managing subcontracts and subcontractors, and compliance information, among others.

New Coeus Web Passwords

Existing campus users of Coeus Web will need new passwords in order to access the new system.

UPDATE: To sign up to activate your account and receive a new Coeus Web password, to request a new account, or for more information on Berkeley Coeus Web and Coeus version 4, please contact Neil Maxwell (nmaxwell@berkeley.edu, 2-0123).

Please note that accounts established for departments are shared accounts; accounts for faculty are established for the individual faculty member.

More About the Berkeley Coeus 4 Upgrade

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, and is also used to provide required reports to the UC Office of the President.

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 runs on Campus Data Center Web Farm and database infrastructure; and all legacy data has been migrated to the new system.

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. When implemented, the new human and animal subjects protocol systems will be integrated with Coeus.

Berkeley Coeus Upgrade Coming Soon

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

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.

NIH Publishes September Extramural Nexus Newsletter

The National Institutes of Health has published the September edition of NIH Extramual Nexus. The articles, linked below, include interviews, news, and updates from the agency.

For those planning on applying for NIH grants in the near future, a Use of Adobe Forms article explains that NIH will continue to use PureEdge forms at least through March 2008 grant application submission deadlines. A related article, Future Electronic Submission Transitions Still on Hold, states that the transition of NIH Training Grants (T), Career Development Awards (K), and Fellowships (F) to electronic application submission will not occur until Grants.gov can develop the new Adobe forms.

September NIH Extramual Nexus contents:

• News From the Director of OER: Creating and Maintaining a Sustainable Scientific Workforce
• In Their Own Words: An Interview with OPASI Director Dr. Alan Krensky
• New Resource for Advancing Innovative Technologies Joins the Commercial Assistance Program
• The NIH System for Enhancing the Science, Safety and Ethics of Recombinant DNA Research
• OER NIH Policy for GWAS Data Sharing Announced
• Powerful Award Trend Resource in the Works
• Eye on PI: NIH Educational Debt Repayment Available to Ph.D. Research Scientists; From Commerce to the Community: New Patent Rules Issued ; Principal Investigator’s eRA Commons Account; Multi PI Update
• Electronic Submission Update: Updated Application Guides Now Available; Future Electronic Submission Transitions Still on Hold; Use of Adobe Forms
• Roadmap Update: NIH Director Announces Recipients of New Innovator Award; NIH Director’s 2007 Pioneer Awardees Announced at Symposium; NIH Interdisciplinary Research Consortia Launched
• NIH Regional Consultation Meetings on Peer Review Available in October
• House and Senate Approve New Bill Extending FDA Authority
• Science in the News
• Guide Notices

Work Begins on New Online Protocol Management System

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!

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!

New Research Advocate Blog

The Research Administration and Compliance Office is pleased to offer a new model for providing news to the campus: the Research Advocate weblog (or blog).

In the new model, news, information, updates, and other content is published dynamically as articles are written. A key feature is news feed technology. By subscribing to the news feed, you can receive new content automatically delivered to your web browser or RSS/Atom reader without your having to visit the site or check e-mail. RAC will continue to e-mail a notice every month with a table of contents linking to each article online.

Other features:

• Seven-day rolling list of new awards received by the campus, updated daily.
• Monthly summary of funding program announcements.
• Articles are archived for easy browsing of back issues.
• Article content is fully searchable.

The Research Advocate blog is published at http://news-rac.berkeley.edu.
For information on how to set up a news feed, see http://rac.berkeley.edu/aboutfeed.html.

News Feed for Research Advocate

The Research Advocate weblog includes a syndication feed. By subscribing to the feed, you can receive new content automatically delivered to your web browser or RSS/Atom reader without your having to visit the site or check e-mail.

Research Advocate News Feed: RSS | Atom

What are RSS and Atom?
RSS (or Really Simple Syndication) and Atom are two types of web feed formats specified in XML (a generic specification for data formats) and used for Web syndication. RSS and Atom delivers information as an XML file called a feed, web feed, RSS stream, or RSS channel. Feeds provide a way for users to easily receive newly released content.

How to Subscribe
To subscribe to a feed, you will need a feed reader or aggregator. Web browsers, email software, and web-based news sites offer a variety of RSS subscription features. You may already have a feed reader built into software you are already using.

The links below have instructions on how to use some of the more common feed readers:
Browsers: Firefox 2, Internet Explorer 7 (PC only), Opera 9, Safari (Mac only)
Email Software: Mozilla Thunderbird
Portals: Google Reader, MyYahoo
Other Feed Readers: RSS Compendium list, Open Directory Project list
Wikipedia article: Web feed

Once you have set up a feed reader, to subscribe to the news feed, click
Research Advocate RSS feed or Research Advocate Atom feed or go to the Research Advocate blog and click on the links under News Feed on the right column. If you would like a feed only for specific topic areas, you can alternately subscribe to one or more links here:

• Research Advocate News Feed - all topic areas: RSS | Atom
• Research Advocate News Feed - Animal Care and Use (ACUC): RSS | Atom
• Research Advocate News Feed - Conflict of Interest (COI): RSS | Atom
• Research Advocate News Feed - Human Subjects Protection (CPHS): RSS | Atom
• Research Advocate News Feed - Sponsored Projects (SPO): RSS | Atom
• Research Advocate News Feed - Research Administration and Compliance (RAC): RSS | Atom

If you need more help setting up your Research Advocate news feed, please contact Shelley Sprandel in RAC Information Systems (spore@berkeley.edu, 2-8122).

UC Irvine Chancellor Testifies on Public Investment in Universities and Economic Growth

UC Irvine Chancellor Michael Drake testified in March before the House Financial Services Committee about the role that federal investment in university research and education has played in promoting economic growth. He made his presentation at a hearing on the role of public investment in promoting economic growth. A webcast of the hearing and copies of speeches presented, including Chancellor Drake’s testimony, are available at http://www.house.gov/apps/list/hearing/financialsvcs_dem/ht032307.shtml.

New Requirements for Research Involving Controlled Substances

The campus is implementing revised procedures for complying with U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration requirements for the use of controlled substances in research. These changes will help ensure that the campus's institutional permit for use of controlled substances in research is renewed by May 2007.

Effective immediately, principal investigators are responsible for ensuring that specific requirements are met for any controlled substances used in the course of their research. More information is available in the campus announcement: https://mossberg.berkeley.edu/CALmessages/display_message.asp?d=2/23/2007&s=101.

RAC is Hiring! Business Manager Position Available

The Research Administration and Compliance Office is recruiting applicants for a Business Manager/MSO II position.

Reporting directly to Assistant Vice Chancellor Marcia Smith, the RAC Business Manager will be responsible for management of all business functions in RAC including managerial leadership, support staff supervision, budgeting, planning, personnel administration, planning and management of outreach events, and financial and accounting administration.

The job is posted at http://jobs.berkeley.edu/, Job # 006004.

April 10 RAC Forum

The next RAC Forum will be held on April 10 from 10:30 to noon in the Lipman Room in Barrows Hall.

The following meetings will be on May 8 and June 12. Upcoming agendas and meeting schedules for the RAC Forum are available at http://rac.berkeley.edu/racforum.html. Notices will also be sent out by email. To be added to the mailing list, please contact Shelley Sprandel at spore@berkeley.edu or 2-8122.