Volume 4, Number 53 ..........................ORA News Online .....................Aprl 30, 2004
DONT FORGET
 
IN THE NEWS


REMINDERS

The following are reminders to consider during your June 1 grant submissions:

* DSR-1 Online: Please be reminded that the online version of the DSR-1 is to be utilized when submitting proposals through the College of Medicine for review and approval. The DSR-1 online form can be accessed at the following website: http://apps.rgp.ufl.edu/dsr1.

* Tuition: Don't forget! All new proposals, including resubmissions, competing renewals and supplements (with the exception of Training Grants), that include salary for graduate assistants and where tuition is an allowable cost, must include tuition of $6500 on the budget for FY 2003/2004. An escalation factor of $500 per year should also be used.

Training Grants should continue to use the actual or weighted tuition rates with no escalations. See the website for the current tuition rates. See NRSA Hints for additional reminders for Training Grants. (Posted 04/30/04)


WELCOME STEPHANIE

Stephanie Anderson has joined the Office for Research Affairs as our Program Assistant. Stephanie comes to the College of Medicine (COM) from the Department of Pathology.

Stephanie can be reached at bivins@dean.med.ufl.edu

Come by and welcome her to the office!

WHAT'S NEW?
CONFERENCES WORKSHOPS


CHANGE IN 2004 SALARY LIMITATION ON GRANTS, COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS, AND CONTRACTS

On March 3, 2004, an Executive Order (EO) was signed to implement a retroactive pay increase for Federal employees. The Executive Level I salary level increased, effective January 1, from $174,500 to $175,700.

Consistent with NIH’s implementation of the FY 2004 salary limitation, if grant awards (competing or non-competing) have already been issued in FY 2004, no adjustments will be made. However, rebudgeting is allowable. Additional details on NIH’s implementation of the salary limitation can be found at “Salary Limitation on Grants, Cooperative Agreements, and Contracts.”

For the full version of this annoucements, go to NOTICE: NOT-OD-04-034 of the NIH Guide. (Posted April 30, 2004)


CHANGE IN USDA/CSREES INDIRECT COST LIMITATIONS FOR FY 2004

The indirect costs (F&A) for awards issued on a competitive basis by the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES) using FY 2004 appropriations may not exceed 20 percent of the total Federal funds provided under each award, except for grants issued under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program which may receive full allowable indirect costs. Another method of calculating the maximum allowable is 25 percent of the total direct costs. This percentage was established by Section 710 of the General Provisions of the FY 2004 Consolidated Appropriations Act (Public Law 108-199). Some CSREES programs are not subject to this limitation. To determine applicability, applicants should check the appropriate Request for Applications (RFA). (Posted 04/30/04)


UF ANNOUNCES HEALTH INSURANCE BENEFIT FOR STUDENTS ON APPOINTMENTS

To continue to strengthen its support for graduate students, the University of Florida is pleased to announce a health insurance benefit program as part of the salary and benefits package for graduate assistants and fellows. Students who are eligible for this benefit include Graduate Assistants, Teaching Assistants, Research Assistants and Fellows. The student must be enrolled in a graduate degree program, on an appointment through Academic Personnel, appropriately registered, and appointed for 0.25 FTE or greater for a particular semester.

Students who elect to take advantage of this benefit may have all charges for the insurance that exceed the subsidized amount paid through payroll deduction. The student can use the benefit only to offset the purchase of an insurance product approved by the University of Florida. Currently, Scarborough Insurance provides a domestic health insurance policy negotiated by Student Government. The list of approved insurance providers may be expanded as long as they can accept payroll deduction.

The health insurance plan will begin Fall Term 2004. The subsidized insurance benefit will not exceed $400 annually ($157 fall, $145 spring and $98 for the summer semester) or the total cost of the insurance product, whichever is less. It will be paid only during semesters that the student is enrolled and has a health insurance deduction.

Contract and grants will be charged for the cost of the benefit for all appointed graduate assistants. As with any benefit, the University will announce the benefit requirements for the coming year. A reasonable percentage increase to use for calculating health insurance costs on multi-year grants would be 3.5% per year. The health insurance benefit will be included as a fringe benefit at a fixed rate of $400 per funded graduate student with an effective start date of fall 2004. (Posted 04/30/04)

The University of Florida is participating in the eSNAP pilot, the electronic Streamlined Non-competing Award Process, which is a component of the NIH eRA Commons. eSNAP allows institutions to submit an electronic version of a Type 5 (non-competitive) progress report to NIH via a web interface.

DSR is requesting your participation in the eSNAP pilot. If you participate, you will be able to submit your progress report directly to NIH and eliminate the paper submission. eSNAP submissions are due 45 days prior to the budget start date, thus providing an extra 2 weeks.

In order to submit your progress report, you will need to be registered with NIH Commons. To establish an account, please email DSR at ufproposals@rgp.ufl.edu with an active email address. If you are already registered, you can login to the NIH Commons website https://commons.era.nih.gov/commons/index.jsp.
(Posted 04/30/04)


2004 NIH Regional Seminar

NIH Regional Seminar on Funding & Grants Administration on May 6-7 in Miami, Florida. The seminar will be hosted by University of Miami, and Florida A&M University, College of Pharmacy & Pharnaceutical Sciences.

The two day seminar will provide information about the NIH funding process, from opportunity identification and application preparation through post award administration. Presentations are targeted towards researchers new to NIH, research administrators, post docs and trainees. NIH electronic research administration labs are offered on the Wednesday preceding the seminar.

2004 program
Registration/logistical information (PDF)

Space is limited, so register early. Late registration fees apply.
Program and logistical information is available at:
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/seminars.htm (Posted 04/30/04)


 

REGION III SPRING MEETING

The Annual Meeting of Region 3 will be held at the Wild Dunes Resort on the Isle of Palms, just north of Charleston, SC on May 9-12, 2004. The theme of this year’s meeting is “ Trained, Tested, and Ready”, reflecting on the topic of several of our sessions concentrating on the training of personnel involved with day to day grant and contract work.

The keynote speaker is Dr. Maria Jacobsen, Chief Research Archaeologist on the Hunley project, a successful recovery of a sunken Confederate Civil War submarine. Her informative talk will kick off the meeting on Monday, May 10.

Site Information - Wild Dunes, South Carolina
Registration - PDF
Program - PDF
(Posted 04/30/04)


NSF REGIONAL GRANTS CONFERENCE

The first National Science Foundation Regional Grants Conference of fiscal year 2005 will be held in St. Louis, MO and hosted by Washington University, on October 4 – 5, 2004, with optional FastLane sessions on October 3rd.

Key representatives from the National Science Foundation as well as your colleagues – faculty, researchers and grant administrators – representing regional colleges and universities will participate.

This two-day conference is a must, especially for new faculty, researchers and administrators who want to gain key insight into a wide range of current issues at NSF including the state of current funding; new and current policies and procedures; and pertinent administrative issues. NSF program officers representing each NSF directorate will be on hand to provide up-to-date information about specific funding opportunities and answer your questions:

Hightlights include:
• New programs and initiatives
• Future directions and strategies for national science policy
• Proposal preparation
• NSF's merit review process
• Cross-disciplinary and special interest programs
• Grant administration, compliance and accountability
• Conflict of interest policies
• Breakout sessions by discipline
• FastLane workshops

For logistical information (including conference registration, lodging, etc.) website.http://cme.wustl.edu/NSF/
(Posted 04/30/04)

IRB Educational Events
IRB Approval- It's what you want, it's what you need May 6th
•Working with WIRB (Western IRB)- June 10th
•Preparing for Continuing Review- July 08th
•Privacy, Confidentiality, and Issues of Tissue
Storage- August 05th
•Compliance and the Conduct of Research-
September 09th (Posted 04/30/04)

 

NEW FUNDING
OPPORTUNITIES

Lupus Foundation of America is accepting applications for their Research Grants. Applications are due to foundation by May 1, 2004.

FRAXA Research Foundation is accepting applications for their Grant and Research Fellowship Programs. Applications are due to foundation by May 1, 2004.

US Army Medical Research and Material Command is accepting applications for their DOD Breast Cancer Research Program. Applications are due to DOD by May 11, 2004.

National Niemann-Pick Disease Foundation is accepting applications for their Research Grants and Fellowship Programs. Applications are due to the foundation by May 14, 2004.

Institute for Research on Pathological Gambling and Related Disorders is accepting applications for "Incentive Grants for New Investigators". Applications are due to the foundation by May 14, 2004.

Human Growth Foundation
is accepting Letter of Intents (LOI) for their Small Grants Program. LOI's are due to May 15, 2004.

National Foundation for Infectious Diseases is accepting nominations for the "Maxwell Finland Award for Scientific Achievement" and the "Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Award for Humanitarian Contributions to the Health of Humankind". nominations are due to the foundation by May 15, 2004.

Charlotte Geyer Foundation is accepting applications for "Interim Funding Grants". Applications are due to the foundation is June 1, 2004.

Hereditary Disease Foundation is accepting applications for research grants. Applications are due to the foundation by June 15, 2004.

Huntington's Disease Foundation
is accepting applications for their Research Grant Program. Applications are due to the foundation by June 15, 2004.

Muscular Dystrophy Association is accepting applications for their "Research Grants Program". Applicaitons are due to the association by June 15, 2004.

For funding opportunities annouced by Research and Graduate Programs FYI http://rgp.ufl.edu/fyi/

New NIH notices, requests for applications and program announcements can be found at NIH Notice.

CLOSING INFORMATION

ORA News Online is a weekly publication of the College of Medicine Office for Research Affairs in the Health Science Center at the University of Florida, JHMHSC M134, PO Box 100215, Gainesville, FL 32611-0215. Please send any comments or suggestions about this newsletter to Aundrea Corbit “SUGGESTIONS”.  If you do not want to receive any more issues, please reply to Aundrea Corbit with "UNSUBSCRIBE" in the subject line or body of the email.