Comply with Effort Reporting

Effort Certification Period is Open

The Certification Period is now open in the current Effort Reporting (ECRT) system for salaries paid during the period of June 1, 2018 through November 30, 2018.  All statements for salaries paid on or after September 1, 2017 are due no later than April 19, 2019. 

All faculty are required to certify their own effort, as they have in the past.  Additionally, faculty who are principal investigators on a sponsored project are required to confirm the salary of all staff charged on their projects.  

In an attempt to ensure that certifications are completed in a timely manner, additional notifications will be sent out to effort coordinators and faculty. In addition, Chairs will be provided a summary status of certification for faculty in their department  for the current certification period, as well as prior periods. 

In late January 2019, ORA was able to officially close all pending effort certifications in the legacy ECRT system.  The legacy system contained all salaries for individuals paid prior to August 31, 2017. Effort statements need to be completed in a timely basis to ensure compliance with federal regulations.

For additional information, including Tip Sheets and reference material, please refer to the ORA website.   For questions regarding ECRT, please email ecrt.admin@miami.edu or call 305-4088.

Huron Consulting Group

Research Technology Asssessment

The Office of Researach Administration (ORA) partnered with Information Technology to bring in Huron Consulting Group to conduct a Research Technology Assessment.  The goal is to deliver a roadmap for research administration technology and support infrastructure.  They have interviewed a variety of individuals from all three campuses and different offices (i.e., compliance, purchasing, human resources, technology offices, departments, etc.). 

Following this six to eight week assessment, they are providing an update with a strategic roadmap for technology.  

More information will be provided once Huron provides their report. 

Good News

UDisclose and Conflict of Interest Changes

The Office of Research Administration (ORA) will work proactively with the Office of Disclosure and Relationship Management (DRM) and notify them immediately of: 

• A sponsor's intent to fund
• Receipt of an inbound contract and; 
• Any other indication that funds will be received

ORA will flag projects in a more proactive fashion. This flag will cause a triggering event in UDisclose and an automated email to the Principal Investigator (PI) instructing  the PI to begin  the disclosure process.  This will also notify Dr. Lory Hayes, Director, Office of Disclosures and Relationship Management, to start the conflict of interest (COI) review process.  

This will allow the awarding and COI process to occur in parallel and minimize delays. 

Coming Soon...

Changes to Workday

Sierra-Cedar, a company that provides consulting, technical, and managed services for the deployment and optimization of applications and technology, is  at the University of Miami assessing all the aspects of the Workday implementation.

Sierra-Cedar is reviewing the following areas for ORA:  

• Billing and billing conversion
• Travel Cards
• F&A missing on transactions
• Missing Object Classes
• Budget dates outside of the award period
• Obligations not liquidated 
• Reports

In addition, they are assisting in the creation of dashboards for departmental administrators and Principal Investigators.  These individuals will be able to see a high level view and drill down for more information. 

The Sierra-Cedar assessment is progressing well and you will begin to notice improvements soon in Workday.  ORA sees progress and is excited about these changes.    

Coming Soon...

New Pre-Award System

The Office of Research Administration has received approval to replace the Pre-Award system. At this time, negotiations have not started. The new system will provide a direct interface with Workday. 

There would be many changes to our current processes. A new Pre-Award system would mean that the PCRF-L would be eliminated. The new system would have electronic routing and approval. 

The focus of this initiative is to eliminate the administrative burden from the faculty and provide access and transparency into the status of both applications and contracts.  ORA  will reach out to faculty and department personnel as we start discussion on how to implement this system. We are targeting implementation of the new system to occur in January 2020.  Be ready for change!