What You Really, Really Need to Know About Effort Certification

1. University of Massachusetts Lowell Office of Research Administration What You Really, Really Need to Know About Effort Certification

2. What is Effort Certification? • Effort Certification is our means of providing assurance to sponsors that faculty and staff have met their commitments, paid or unpaid, to extramural projects • It’s required by federal regulation and University policy for all individuals working on sponsored projects A new, improved Effort Certification systemis being implemented right now!

3. Why Should We Care? • Effort commitments and certification are the subject of much attention from federal sponsors and auditors • Erroneously certifying effort can be viewed as fraud • Sanctions can apply to both the institution and the individual

4. Recent Institutional Audits and Fines • Northwestern University – $5.5 million (2003) • Johns Hopkins University (for one investigator) – $2.6 million (2004) • East Carolina University – $2.4 million (2004) • Harvard University/Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center – $3.25 million (2000 & 2004) • Dartmouth – $37,780 (2005) • University of Connecticut - $2.5 million (2006)

5. How is Effort Determined? • Effort is NOT based on a 40-hour work week • Effort is based on 100% of the activities for which you are compensated by the UML • These activities are divided into: • Sponsored project activities • Non-sponsored activities, such as: • Administration, including duties as chair, dean, etc. • Instruction • Research without external funding • Public service and outreach, when closely relatedto your UML duties

6. What Counts in Your 100% Effort? Sponsored Activity • This is your effort on: • Federal grants or contracts (e.g. NIH, NSF, DOD) • Non-federal research projects (e.g. a foundation grant or industry sponsored clinical trial) • Activities you can allocate to a sponsored project include: • Writing progress reports; holding a meeting with lab staff; presenting research results at a scientific conference; reading scientific journals to keep up to date with the latest advances in the project topic area • ... even if your salary is not completely paid by thesponsor (i.e. salary cost sharing)

7. What Counts in Your 100% Effort? Non-Sponsored Activities • Teaching • Serving as a department chair, and other administrative duties • Serving on university committees • Attending general departmental faculty meetings • Public service and outreach

8. Activities NOT Included in Your 100% UML Effort • Outside consulting • Serving on an NIH study section or an NSF peer review panel

9. Pay Sources Should Reasonably Reflect Activity • OMB Circular A-21 J10b(1)(c)says: • “In the use of any methods for apportioning salaries, it is recognized that, in an academic setting, teaching, research, service and administration are often inextricably intermingled.” • “A precise assessment of factors that contribute to costs is not always feasible, nor is it expected. Reliance, therefore, is placed on estimates in which a degree of tolerance is appropriate.” The degree of tolerance at the UML is +/- 5%

10. Who Certifies the Effort Statement? • An individual’s effort must be certified by aresponsible person with suitable means of verifying that the work was performed. • Each faculty member and PI is responsible for certifying his/her own effort • PIs certify for graduate students, postdocs, and PI staff • There are some exceptions made for practical reasons (e.g. someone other than the PI of a large Center grant has better knowledge of the work that was performed). Contact ORA for help with exceptions.

11. How to Certify • You verify that the statement shows a reasonable estimate of the actual effort worked. Things that may help you verify this include: • teaching schedules • outside activity forms • “other support” forms • leave reports • calendars • correspondence

12. How to Certify (continued) • “I certify the salary charged, salary transfers processed and effort certified this period reasonably reflect the work performed in the designated period, and that I have sufficient technical knowledge and/or I am in a position that provides me with suitable means of verification that the work was performed.” • If it is a reasonable estimate for the time period: • Certify by clicking the Certify button • Otherwise: • Work with your effort coordinator to revise the Effort Statement before you certify it

13. Sample Effort Statement

14. Red Flag Issues • Late effort certification • Effort certified by someone without suitable means of verification • A distribution of effort that leaves too little non-sponsored time to credibly cover teaching, administrative, or other university duties

15. Red Flag Issues (continued) • Post-certification revisions • Significant data inconsistency between the Effort Statement and other documentation such as: • Outside activity forms • Other support forms • Leave reports

16. Points to Remember • Effort reporting is under scrutiny by the Office of Investigators General from NSF, NIH, and other Federal agencies • 100% effort is NOT Based on a 40-hour work week. It is based on each individual’s own average work week. • Effort reporting tracks the reasonable approximation of actual activity on projects and should not simply mimic budgeted amounts

17. Help is Available • Your administrator • Office of Research Administration Reference materials are located at http://www.uml.edu/ora/