SPONSORED PROJECTS

2001 - 2002 Annual Report

Offices of Sponsored Project Administration
and Research Compliance

• Organizational Vision and Strategy
• Link to the CWRU Vision and Strategy
• Objectives and Progress
• Current Priorities
• Appendices:
  • Proposal and Award Activity-Last Three Years
    
  • Breakdown by Management Center
    
  • Breakdown of Awards by Sponsor

FY 2001-2002 in pdf

Click here to download a free program to view this pdf file.

Organizational Vision and Strategy

The Offices of Sponsored Project Administration (OSPA) and Research Compliance (ORC) provide the highest level of services in support of research and other sponsored projects at CWRU. They do this through a primary focus on customer service, effective and efficient processes, and attention to quality, timeliness, education, and professionalism. A key resource is the use of electronic tools to facilitate the delivery of these services, whenever possible.

Link to the CWRU Vision and Strategy

The University's desire to be preeminent in research and scholarship is directly supported by OSPA and ORC. These offices do this through their efforts to identify funding, support the submission of applications for funding, and provide the necessary resources to ensure that awards are processed effectively and efficiently, funds are spent appropriately, and research is conducted ethically.

OSPA and ORC also support the University's desire to be of value to society by being instrumental in the development of research partnerships with industry. By facilitating the negotiation and execution of sponsored research agreements, the OSPA supports the potential commercialization of research that may benefit society by addressing a specific problem and by creating new jobs.

Objectives and Progress

1. Ensure that the Offices of Sponsored Project Administration and Research Compliance provide efficient and effective service to faculty and staff engaged in or pursuing sponsored projects. This includes the development and implementation of electronic research administration (ERA) initiatives.

Progress in FY2000-2001 included 1) developing and implementing electronic notification systems (e.g., project closeout, proposal status, project continuation), 2) providing workshops on Intellectual Property, Contracting with Industry, Financial Compliance for Sponsored Projects, Proposal Submission, Grant Writing, Informed Consent, Navigating the IRB, Biosafety, Animal Welfare, Scientific Misconduct, Conflict of Interest, Data Management, Authorship/Mentoring and 3) developing OSPA and ORC web templates so that the CWRU research website has a more professional look that is consistent with the overall CWRU website.

2. Provide university-wide leadership in coordinating the activities of the management centers and the Grants Accounting office with respect to sponsored programs administration including the development of policy, procedures, and educational programs.

Proposal Development workshops were provided with the assistance of Grants Accounting and the Management Centers. Procedures were also implemented to ensure the distribution of overhead across management centers as approved by the respective management centers. Monthly management center meetings were continued so as to discuss and develop sponsored project policies and procedures. OSPA provided greater access to the centralized Proposal and Award Database to management centers for data entry, ad hoc queries, and standard reports (will necessitate training). OSPA developed and is currently pilot testing an online management reporting system that provides data on proposals and awards processed to date with comparisons to previous time periods.

3. Provide university-wide leadership in coordinating the activities of the University (and its affiliated hospitals) with respect to compliance including the development of policy, procedures, and educational programs.

The Office of Research Compliance continued to coordinate the activities of the IRBs of the affiliated hospitals through monthly IRB Advisory Committee meetings. The ORC coordinated the implementation of external IRB audit recommendations, e.g., CWRU policy on IRB membership, communication from senior administration, specific CWRU IRB procedures. The ORC also implemented the Continuing Education Program for Human Subject Protection and coordinated the development of compliance seminars and workshops including a seminar for IRB members and a workshop for Deans and Department Chairs. Revised Conflict of Interest procedures were implemented. The ORC also coordinated the efforts of the IRB Advisory Panel (arts, humanities, and social sciences) in the development of policies and procedures that are responsive to needs of this constituency. This resulted in a formal set of guidelines for determining whether a proposed activity meets the definition of human subject research.

4. Serve as the key university representative to the state and federal governments and associated agencies with respect to the stewardship of sponsored program funding.

The Associate Vice President for Research continued to serve on the Research Officer's Council at the Ohio Board of Regents and coordinated OBR funding opportunities at CWRU (e.g., Presidential Research Initiative, Action Fund, Hayes Investment Fund). The OSPA cooordinated reimbursement from the state of Ohio for OBR commitments. Representatives from OSPA attend Federal Demonstration Partnership meetings and interacted with officials at sponsoring agencies, as needed, to facilitate grants and sponsored research agreements.

5. Stimulate the development of research opportunities at CWRU.

The OSPA served as catalyst for major research funding initiatives by identifying opportunities, communicating these opportunities to interested faculty, and providing support for the development of responsive proposals (e.g., BioEnterprise, Bioengineering Consortium, NASA Glenn, BRTT, TAF). A plan for CWRU's first Research Day (Research ShowCase 2003) was developed. Monthly meetings with the Associate Deans for Research to develop ways to foster interdisciplinary research continued. The Presidential Technology Development Fund grant program was implemented and the Presidential Research Initiative and Research Infrastructure Grant programs continued.

(back to the top)

Current Priorities

1. Ensure that the Offices of Sponsored Projects Administration and Research Compliance provide efficient and effective service to faculty and staff engaged in or pursuing sponsored programs. This includes the development and implementation of electronic research administration (ERA) initiatives.

• Develop and implement an electronic routing process for sponsored project applications and contracts
• Implement and support electronic grant submission processes as they are developed by sponsors
• Implement web portal for sponsored projects and compliance transactions
• Provide workshops on sponsored project administration and research compliance including such topics as Proposal Development, Contracting with Industry, Financial Compliance for Sponsored Projects, IRB process, Informed Consent, HIPAA, Data Management, Authorship, Scientific Misconduct, Conflict of Interest, Animal Welfare, Biosafety
• Implement redesigned websites for Office of Sponsored Project Administration and Office of Research Compliance
• Implement next major upgrade to the Proposal and Award Database
• Develop and implement a sponsored projects administration and research compliance process for the CCF College of Medicine

2. Provide university-wide leadership in coordinating the activities of the management centers and the Grants Accounting office with respect to sponsored programs administration including the development of policy, procedures, and educational programs.

• Continue monthly meetings with management center representatives and Grants Accounting to develop and implement sponsored project administration policies and procedures (include CCF)
• Coordinate university-wide web-site development related to sponsored project administration (e.g., providing links to relevant sites from main research page so as to reduce redundancy)
• Enlist management center representatives in the development of web portal for sponsored project administration
• Provide greater access to centralized Proposal and Award Database to management centers for data entry, ad hoc queries, and standard reports
• Provide training for management center administrators in the use of sponsored project administration web tools and databases
• Provide electronic notifications specifically for management centers to assist them in monitoring sponsored projects
• Develop and implement Management Summary Report to be distributed weekly to Deans, Provost,
• Department Chairs, Department Administrators, and Management Center Research Administrators

3. Provide university-wide leadership in coordinating the activities of the University (and its affiliated hospitals) with respect to compliance including the development of policy, procedures, and educational programs.

• Continue monthly IRB Advisory Committee meetings to include CCF
• Develop and implement plan to convert Multiple Project Assurance to Federal Wide Assurance
• Develop and implement plan to obtain accreditation for human subject protection program
• Participate in OHRP quality improvement program
• Develop and implement plan to be in compliance with HIPAA
• Continue the implementation of external IRB audit recommendations, e.g., CWRU policy on IRB membership, communication from senior administration, specific CWRU IRB procedures
• Implement Continuing Education Program for Human Subject Protection
• If funded, implement the NIH supported Human Subject Research Enhancements, which includes a web-based portal for access to key IRB data from all hospital-specific IRBs as well as electronic IRB protocol submission
• Implement revised Conflict of Interest procedures
• Develop and implement site-specific (e.g., UH, CCF, MetroHealth) compliance seminars and workshops

4. Serve as the key university representative to the state and federal governments and associated agencies with respect to the stewardship of sponsored program funding.

• Participate on Research Officer Council at OBR
• Represent CWRU to OBR for Third Frontier Project, Action Fund, Hayes Investment Fund, BRTT, and TAF programs
• Coordinate reimbursement from state for OBR commitments
• Attend Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP) and Council on Government Relationships (COGR) meetings
• Interact with officials at sponsoring agencies (including industry), as needed, to facilitate grants and sponsored research agreements

5. Stimulate the development of research opportunities at CWRU.

• Serve as catalyst for major research funding initiatives by identifying opportunities, communicating these opportunities to interested faculty, and providing support for the development of responsive proposals (e.g., BioEnterprose, BioEngineering Consortium, NASA Glenn, Third Frontier Initiatives)
• Develop and implement biennial plans to use OBR Research Challenge Funds including key management center initiatives and ongoing support for Presidential Research Initiative grants and Research Infrastructure Support grants
• Develop and implement plan for Research ShowCase 2003 and make it an annual event thereafter
• Meet monthly with the Associate Deans for Research to develop ways to foster interdisciplinary research
• Develop CWRU Research Brochure to market capabilities of CWRU to industry and other potential sponsors

(back to the top)

APPENDICES:

Proposal and Award Activity - Last Three Fiscal Years

¹ Proposals include competing and non-competing applications and other discrete project actions that were processed by OSPA
² Awards from external sponsors only
³ Award amount represents the aggregate award amounts of the current budget periods for awards received by OSPA during the fiscal year from external sponsors.

Breakdown by Management Center

Arts and Sciences:

Engineering:

Medicine:

Dentistry:

Law:

MSASS:

Nursing:

WSOM:

UGEN:

(back to the top)

Breakdown of Awards by Sponsor: