Research News - November 2007

Essential Policy and Procedure Updates

New F&A (Indirect Cost) Rates

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has approved Facilities and Administrative Cost (Indirect Cost) rates for the University, for the next few years, covering the period 7/1/07-6/30/11. The revised rate structure is described below. Effective for all proposals due 11/12/07 and thereafter, these are the appropriate rates to use when submitting new proposals through The Research Foundation of SUNY. If the beginning of the budget period falls outside of the Research Foundation's fiscal year (7/1/-6/30), the F&A rate that is in effect at the onset of the budget period should be utilized, increasing annually in accordance with the rates below. Effective 7/1/08, the Office of Sponsored Programs will be incorporating the new rate structure into all funded proposals submitted prior to 11/12/07. This will affect the pace at which budgeted F&A costs are drawn down, but will not increase the amount of the Facilities and Administrative Costs charged against these awards nor affect Direct Cost budgets associated with these projects. These budgets are limited by the amounts approved at the time of the sponsored award.

Click Here to access the new F&A Rates.

Please note that the Office of Sponsored Programs will continue to honor special rates that are dictated by sponsor regulations and/or Stony Brook University/Research Foundation policies.  To view a copy of the current rate agreement please access the link at  http://www.stonybrook.edu/research/spo/IDCRateAgreement.pdf

Should you have any questions, please contact Ivar Strand, Assistant Vice-President of Sponsored Programs at 2-4402 or via e-mail at istrand@notes.cc.sunysb.edu.

Office of Sponsored Programs Has Made Changes to the 4 Page Form

The Office of Sponsored Programs has made some modifications to Section V, Proposed Research Activity Information on the Proposal/Award Processing Form (aka "4 page form"). These changes are needed to 1) ensure that the proper approvals are in place when faculty/staff are using the facilities of SB Southampton, 2) identify the use of Veterans Administration's patients, personnel or facilities and 3) alert the Department of Information Technology of any special IT needs.

Kindly utilize this revised form on all submissions effective 11/1/07. Please let me know if you have any questions. The form can be found at:
http://www.sunysb.edu/research/forms/ors/susb299.html

- Contributed by Ivar Strand, Assistant Vice President, Office of Sponsored Programs, Ivar.Strand@stonybrook.edu

November 2007 Update for CORIHS Investigators

Our Human Subject Protection Program (HSPP) has many active participants, including Principal Investigators and their study teams, staff of the Office of Research Compliance (ORC), and the membership of our Institutional Review Boards (IRBs). Our combined efforts continue to help ensure that our HSPP is solid and effective in keeping safe those individuals who volunteer to participate in our research activities at SBU.

The ORC and the IRBs are constantly evaluating the program to assess the need for clarifications of current SBU policies and procedures, promulgation of new policies and procedures, and dissemination of new federal guidance and regulations. The following is a summary of such actions that have been taken, including some clarifications of unchanged policies and procedures, since our last update in June 2007.

It is extremely important that you review this information with all members of your study team.

• IRBNet is Coming Soon!
• Revised SBU Policy: Who can give permission in the research setting on behalf of adults with diminished capacity?
• New SBU Guidance on Minor Assent
• What guidance do YOU need or want or must have?
• The ORC Website

Research Compliance Reminder: Use of recombinant DNA and/or gene transfer technology requires prior Institutional Biosafety Committee Review/Approval!

You must apply to, and receive, approval (or confirmation of exemption) from SBU’s Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) prior to commencing with the following types of research:

Recombinant DNA research involves molecules that:
(a) are constructed outside living cells by joining natural or synthetic DNA segments to DNA molecules that can replicate in a living cell, or
(b) result from the replication of those described in (1).

Human gene transfer research involves the deliberate transfer of recombinant DNA, or DNA or RNA derived from recombinant DNA into the somatic cells of human subjects.

All the information you need regarding this requirement (including policies, procedures and applications) is provided here.

The federal Office of Biotechnology Activities (OBA), within the National Institutes of Health has jurisdiction over recombinant DNA and gene transfer activities conducted at SBU. Their guidelines and IBC requirements are applicable to all faculty, staff, students, and users of the facilities of this University who propose and conduct research involving recombinant DNA, regardless of source of funding. See IBC policy for approval requirements for activities conducted off-site at collaborating Institutions.

Recently, NIH issued a notice reminding the grantee community of the principles and requirements of the NIH Guidelines for Research Involving Recombinant DNA Molecules.
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-07-096.html

Please review this notice for confirmation of the need for compliance in this area. If you have any questions, please contact Judy Matuk at Judy.Matuk@stonybrook.edu, or 632-9036.

NSF's New Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide

The Guide consolidates two previous standalone NSF policy documents: the NSF Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) and the Grant Policy Manual (GPM) and combines them into a single electronic policy framework.   The Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide will be effective for proposals submitted on or after June 1, 2007.  This document supersedes all prior versions of the GPG and GPM and can be accessed at: http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf07140. 

The new guide increases ease of access to the policies and procedures that govern the entire grant lifecycle and eliminates duplicative and sometimes truncated coverage between the GPG and GPM.   

The Guide has two parts:

Part I - NSF's proposal preparation and submission guidelines – the NSF Grant Proposal Guide and the NSF Grants.gov Application Guide (to be incorporated at a later date).
Part II - Documents to guide, manage and monitor the administration of awards The Grant Policy Manual has been renamed the Award & Administration Guide (AAG).

Each Part contains a by-Chapter summary of significant changes to assist the user in navigating through the changes.   

The document is available as a fully Web-linked and searchable PDF version which gives users the ability to print either Parts of the Guide or the document in its entirety and in HTML. If you have any questions regarding the new NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide, please contact the Policy Office on 703-292-8243 or by e-mail to policy@nsf.gov.

NIH Non-Competing Grant Awards Under the Current Continuing Resolution

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) continues to operate on a continuing resolution (CR) that currently extends through November 16, 2007. The CR applies the terms of the FY 2007 appropriations for the period covered by the CR. Until the final FY 2008 appropriation is enacted, NIH will issue non-competing research grant awards at a level below that indicated on the most recent Notice of Award (generally up to 80% of the previously committed level). This is consistent with their past practice during the CRs of FY 2006 & 2007. NIH will consider upward adjustments to these levels after the final appropriation is enacted, but expects institutions to monitor their expenditures carefully during this period.

New Online Research Database

The Office of the Vice President for Research and Department of Information Technology are pleased to announce a new web-based database system that is available to all of the University community. The purpose of this system is to identify and record faculty research interests and expertise, and for delivery of available funding opportunities. Specifically, this shared resource is available to everyone at SBU, with easy navigation and one-stop access to the research interests, job history, publications and grants of all faculty and/or researchers. We are asking that every researcher on campus please complete or update their records. In the coming weeks and months, as the percentage of completed profiles increases, we expect that this database will be an extremely useful tool in identifying potential collaborators.

The second important feature of this system is the new Funding Opportunities web site. As our office collects funding opportunities each week from a variety of sources, we add them into the database, assigning to each a selection of disciplines and keywords. If the assigned keywords match those you've indicated in your profile, you will receive an automated weekly email providing you with the critical elements of the opportunity (sponsor, opportunity title, funding amounts, deadlines, synopsis, etc.) that you can click on and explore. Also, as a way of encouraging multidisciplinary collaboration, you'll see the names, email addresses and phone numbers of all other faculty who also matched the specific funding opportunity, and you'll be able to click on their profiles to learn more about them.

Links will take you to the database:
http://www.stonybrook.edu/researchinterests
http://www.stonybrook.edu/fundingopportunities.

To access it, you simply need your SBU NET ID and password (this can be found in SOLAR [click here for instructions]).

Please feel free to explore the features of this database. Remember, it is important that each faculty member and/or researcher complete his/her profile in order to fully benefit from this service.

Finally, we are very interested in visiting your department during a faculty meeting to demonstrate the database and show you some of its features. Please contact Stefanie Massucci at smassucci@notes.cc.sunysb.edu or 632-8589 to schedule a demo.

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