UNC Charlotte - Research and Federal Relations

News Listing

Research Services has new online Internal Processing Forms system.

The Office of Research Services announces its new, online Internal Processing Forms (IPF) system, which can be found at http://www.research.uncc.edu/new_IPF/IPF . The new forms will go live on Monday, April 21, 2008.

These forms are used for the review and approval of grant or contract proposals, and signed IPFs are required before a grant or contract application may be submitted.

The new system offers some improvements over the previous online system, notably the ability to stop at any point, save your work and come back later. With the old system you had to complete all the forms before you could save your information.

The first time you use the new system you will be required to register by entering your user name (the first part of your email address) and creating a password. Once you have registered, when you log in to complete the IPFs you will be automatically listed as the PI. You will be prompted to select any co-PIs while completing the forms.

If you have technical questions about using the new IPF system, please contact Paul Varavalai (7-6774 or pvaraval@uncc.edu). For all other questions, contact Ellen Zavala (7-2592 or eezavala@uncc.edu).

Other than the registration login, the new forms are very similar to the old ones. However, if you would like to arrange a training session on the new forms, please contact Ellen Zavala.

NIH now requires articles to be submitted to its PubMed Central archive.

Effective April 7, the National Institutes of Health has a new reporting requirement for all researchers receiving NIH funds. The final, peer-reviewed manuscripts of all articles resulting from NIH-funded research that are accepted for publication on or after April 7 must be submitted to PubMed Central, NIH's digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature. These changes to the NIH Public Access Policy will ensure that the public has access to the published results of all NIH-funded research.

The policy applies to all peer-reviewed articles that are based on work directly funded by:

A NIH grant or cooperative agreement active in Fiscal Year 2008 (Oct. 1, 2007-Sept. 30, 2008) or beyond;

A contract signed on or after April 7, 2008;

The NIH Intramural Program; or if your salary is paid by the NIH.

The NIH's Public Access FAQ states that non-compliance will not be a factor in the evaluation of applications, but it "will be addressed administratively, and may delay or prevent awarding of funds."

Complying with the new policy

Full compliance to the new policy, which applies to funding received directly from NIH as well as NIH-funding received through a subaward from another institution or entity, includes the following three steps:

Addressing copyright. You must ensure that any copyright transfer or other publication agreements allow your article to be submitted to NIH in accordance with the policy. If your publisher's current agreement transfers copyright to the publisher but does not specifically allow submission to PubMed Central or similar depositories, then you will not retain that right. In these cases, the NIH gives the following as an example of the type of language you could add to the contract: Journal acknowledges that Author retains the right to provide a copy of the final manuscript to the NIH upon acceptance for Journal publication, for public archiving in PubMed Central as soon as possible but no later than 12 months after publication by Journal.
Submitting an article. You may submit your article to be published by the journal of your choice. If you submit to any of these journals, the publisher will deposit the article with NIH for you. You may still have to provide the award information, and review and approve the article, but with that you are considered compliant with the policy's submission requirements. For journals that do not submit your article for you (those not included in the above list), you are responsible for submitting your final, peer-reviewed manuscript upon acceptance for publication to the NIH PubMed Central system. To submit an article, you must log in to the NIH Manuscript Submission System, where you will need your grant number(s); author names; a copy of the final, peer-reviewed manuscript; along with any figures, tables, or data that were submitted to the publisher. NIH provides more information on the submission process and tutorials to guide you, or you may contact Ellen Zavala in the Office of Research Services at eezavala@uncc.edu or ext. 7-2592 for assistance.
Citing an article. Beginning May 25, 2008, when you submit an application, proposal or progress report to the NIH, you must include the PubMed Central reference number (PMCID) or the NIH Manuscript Submission reference number (NIHMS ID) when you cite articles that stem from any NIH-funded research. For the citation, list the PMCID at the end of the full journal citation for the article. If a PMCID is not yet available, include the NIHMS ID instead.

Want to know more?

NIH Public Access – NIH web site on this policy; it includes an FAQ and other useful information.

Guide for Research Universities – information on the NIH change from the Association of Research Libraries.

Sample cover letter – for use when submitting an article to a journal. Letter is found in Appendix A (page 21).

New online IACUC application process introduced.

On Jan. 15, 2008, the Compliance Office introduced a new online application system for protocols submitted for review by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). From this point forward, all IACUC applications must be submitted online via the Animal Care Application (ACAP). In addition to streamlining the application process for the investigator, the new ACAP system has been designed to capture all information needed for comprehensive IACUC review and compliance concerns.

The old downloadable Microsoft Word template previously used for protocol submission will no longer be accepted by the Compliance Office or the IACUC for review and approval. All new protocols must be submitted via the new system. Investigators who originally submitted protocols using this paper form must continue to use the paper forms available on this website for amendments and continuing review/annual renewal submissions until the end of the protocol approval period.

For more information, call the Compliance Office at 7-2557 with any feedback and/or for help getting started.

Grants.gov now requires Adobe Reader 8.1.2

Those applying for Adobe Reader applications on Grants.gov are now required to use Adobe Reader version 8.1.2. Please note that not all applications are provided in Adobe Reader so you should also have the PureEdge Viewer installed. Both are available to download for free from the Grants.gov website .

NIH to reduce temporary “error correction window” to two business days.

Starting Jan. 8, 2008, the National Institutes of Health “error correction window” (i.e. the time allowed after the submission deadline to address NIH system identified errors/warnings) will be reduced to two business days (down from five business days) for all electronically submitted grant applications.

Electronic applications will be considered “on-time” if all of the following criteria are met:

All required registrations must be complete prior to the initial submission.

Initial successful submission to Grants.gov must have a timestamp on/before 5:00 p.m. local time of the applicant organization on the receipt date.

Applicants must correct errors and/or warnings within the two business days following the receipt date (referred to as the “error correction window”).

All application corrections must be in response to a system-identified error/warning (application submissions with additional changes may be refused).

If final submission is sent after the receipt date, a cover letter attachment must be included identifying the system-identified errors/warnings that have been corrected.

For more information, see http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-08-018.html.

NSF changes proposal format requirements, policies in new Guide.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has released its updated policies and procedures in a consolidated policy document, the NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide. Effective June 1, 2007, this new guide incorporates both the NSF Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) and Grant Policy Manual (GPM) into a single HTML document.

The new policy framework is designed to improve the awareness and knowledge of the complete set of NSF policies and procedures, while making access to this information easier.

Here is a summary of changes to NSF proposals:

Only four types of fonts allowed. These font types are: Arial, Helvetica, Palatine, Computer Modern, or Georgia typeface. The font must be a black font color and a font size of 10 points or larger.

A standard, single-column format should be used in the body of the proposal.

There is no expectation by NSF that proposals submitted for funding will include cost-sharing. The statutory cost sharing requirement of 1% is eliminated.

Unless required by a specific program solicitation, letters of support should not be submitted with a proposal. If the solicitation does require them, the letters should be unique to the proposal submitted and cannot be altered without the author’s explicit prior approval. Proposals that do not comply with these instructions may be returned without review.

NSF Grants.gov instructions will be incorporated at a later date.

When the Authorized Representative electronically signs a proposal, he or she is submitting the Certification regarding Nondiscrimination and, where applicable, the Certification regarding Flood Hazard Insurance.

Biographical Sketch(es) – Personal information such as home address, home telephone number, fax or cell phone number; home email address; date of birth; citizenship; drivers’ license; marital status; personal hobbies; and the like should not be included. Website addresses for publications listed should be included.

Participant Support – has been revised to show that for some educational projects conducted at local school districts, the participants are being trained as employees. In such cases, the costs must be classified as participant support if payment is made through a stipend or training allowance method. The school district must have an accounting mechanism in place to differentiate between regular salary and stipend payments.

Reference books and periodicals may be charged to the grant only if they are specifically allocable to the project being supported by NSF.

If you have any questions about this information, contact Lauren Beastall at lbeastal@uncc.edu or ext. 7-3429.

NSF document helps PIs address "broader impacts" criterion.

All National Science Foundation (NSF) proposals are required to address the following two criteria: What is the intellectual merit of the proposed activity? What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity? Most researchers can easily address the intellectual merit of their project, but many may not be as clear about what NSF considers to be "broader impacts".

A new "Dear Colleague" letter released by NSF clarifies what the agency expects from PIs addressing this criterion. It states: “In light of NSF’s commitment to the broader impacts criterion, proposers should carefully consider ways to incorporate rigorous, meaningful and innovative broader impacts activities (e.g., broadening participation) that integrate with the research being proposed. It is expected that project activities related to broader impacts will be of the same caliber as those addressing the intellectual merit criterion. They should be based on good scholarship, and be designed to achieve clearly stated goals and metrics, while possessing the appropriate expertise and resources available for implementation. Thus, a simple listing of outreach activities, or reference to inclusion of research personnel who are members of underrepresented groups, falls short of the rigor required to satisfactorily address this criterion. We would like to call the community’s attention to several sections of all proposals that require the broader impacts criterion to be specifically addressed: the Project Summary, the Project Description, and the Results of Prior Support section.”

The full letter can be found online at http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2008/nsf08044/nsf08044.jsp.

Want to know more about the NC Consortium for Human Subjects Protection?

The North Carolina Consortium for Human Subjects Protection (NCCHSP) was established Sept. 16, 2004 with funding from the National Institutes of Health to The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The purpose of the original Consortium was to promote best practices in human research subject protection across the entire state.

More information is available at http://www.research.uncc.edu/comp/consortium.cfm .

UNC Charlotte is a partner in the Triangle Census Research Data Center.

UNC Charlotte is a member of the Triangle Census Research Data Center (TCRDC), a partnership between Duke University, the U.S. Census Bureau and the UNC system. The TCRDC partnership offers faculty, students and research staff access to unpublished micro data from the Bureau’s economic and demographic censuses and surveys via a secured computer laboratory located on the Duke campus. Confidential data from other government agencies may be accessed via the TCRDC as well. A fact sheet on the TCRDC partnership is available at http://www.research.uncc.edu/Prop/TCRDC_FactSheet.docx.

Researchers wishing to use the TCRDC must submit a proposal to the U.S. Census Bureau for approval. Interested researchers should contact the TCRDC administrator or director about their projects for help in navigating the process and answering questions. For more information on the U.S. Census Bureau Center for Economic Statistics proposal process, see http://www.ces.census.gov/index.php/ces/researchguidelines.

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