Grant Submission and Research Policies at Tufts: Review and Updates

1. Grant Submission and Research Policies at Tufts: Review and Updates January 8, 2013 Session 1 of year 3 AAPLS (Applicants & Administrators Preaward Luncheon Series)

2. Goals of this Session Review the steps needed to apply for a grant Outline roles and responsibilities for all those involved in this process Provide updates on internal policies

3. Steps for Submitting a Grant Application Identify funding opportunity Download application forms and instructions Engage departmental administrators during the completion of required forms in application package Complete and route for approvals the internal forms for each application Approved internal forms and the complete application are sent to ORA for review and submission to the agency

4. Steps for Submitting a Grant Application, cont. Send completed applications and internal forms to ORA five (5) – FIVE!!! business days prior to the deadline ORA can review budgets and forms in advance of submissions ORA submits proposals to funding agencies. Some non-federal sponsors require investigators to submit proposals directly. Review and approval by ORA is always required prior to submission See the proposal process overview on the ORA web site: http://researchadmin.tufts.edu/ under “Write and Submit a Proposal”

5. Steps for Preparing a Sponsored Research Agreement Processed by both ORA and OTL&IC ORA is only involved when the agreement carries funding Budgets are reviewed by ORA Internal forms must be sent by the departments to ORA, not to OTL&IC ORA distributes fully executed agreements with supporting paperwork to Sponsored Accounting Either ORA or OTL&IC can negotiate agreement terms Intellectual property (IP) terms are primarily negotiated by OTL&IC

6. Internal Approval Process Letter of Intent (HNRCA only) - required for each extramural grant application Intellectual Property Form - required once per an investigator’s tenure at Tufts University Internal Sponsored Coordination Form - required for each extramural grant application and progress report Financial Interest Disclosure Form - required for each extramural grant application and progress report; is needed for each investigator-level position

7. Key Players Principal Investigator Staff Assistant Department Manager/Grants Manager ORA Associate OPD OTL&IC CFR SPA Post-Award Financial Specialist

8. Revised Internal Sponsored Coordination Form Revised September 2012 and available at http://viceprovost.tufts.edu/researchadmin under Forms Previous versions of the form accepted but discouraged More user friendly: a fillable pdf document; drop down fields for ease and uniformity of completion Eliminated redundancy and unused fields, some minor fields are added Most significant change - subcontract amount and number of subcontracts are listed on the budget table Strengthened compliance monitoring: added tax determination about Safe Harbor (completed by ORA at the time of the award)

9. Changes to Financial Conflict of Interest Policy Changes effective August 24, 2012 Minimum threshold of Significant Financial Interest (SFI) decreased. It is now $5,000, including any payments and any equity interests (was $10,000 or 5% equity) Investigators are required to disclose SFI related to their institutional responsibilities (before: only SFI related to the research project) Any reimbursed or sponsored travel must be disclosed, including travel details

10. Changes to FCOI Policy (cont) Details of FCOI are reported to PHS for NIH-funded projects Tufts must respond in writing to requests for information from the general public about FCOI on PHS-funded projects within 5 days of any request FCOI training (via CITI – Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative) is required before engaging in federally-funded research and every four years thereafter For PHS grants only subrecipients must confirm that they have compliant policies or abide by Tufts policy

11. Revised Financial Interest Disclosure Form Revised FIDF is available at http://viceprovost.tufts.edu/researchadmin under Forms Previous version of the form is not accepted Has a new field for the date of completion of FCOI training Has fields for travel reimbursement information: dollar amount or value; purpose of the trip, identity of the sponsor/organizer, destination, and duration

12. Subrecipient Monitoring under FCOI Policy Tufts must take reasonable steps to ensure that any subrecipient Investigator complies with FCOI policy For PHS projects, subrecipients must fill out a financial disclosure form at the proposal stage to certify that the subrecipient has FCOI policy in place that meets the PHS requirements If the subrecipient is listed on the Federal Demonstration Project (FDP) Institutional Clearinghouse http://sites.nationalacademies.org/PGA/fdp/PGA_070596, then this requirement is met and no disclosure form is required

13. Risk Assessment of Subrecipients – Tools Underway New form tentatively titled “Annual Subrecipient Prequalifying Questionnaire” is in the works Will be required annually for each subrecipient at the time of issuing subcontract The new form is geared towards risk assessment of collaborators Terms of subcontract agreements (reports, payments, supporting documentation for invoices, etc) may vary depending on whether the collaborator is low, medium or high risk