Proposed Electronic PAN

News from DRDA-Net

Electronic notification of grant or contract award notices: Update

Date: March 3, 2005
Sent to DRDA-Net by : Marvin Parnes, Associate Vice President and Executive Director Research Administration
Send any comments to: Jim Randolph, nihjim@umich.edu

This is an update of a previously announced message informing you of a change DRDA is planning for the Project Award Process used to notify the Principal Investigator (PI) and staff of associated units of awards. As you will recall the proposal calls for the replacement of the PAN and PAC and the award document with an e-mail message that will contain the electronic enclosure of these documents. This is a plan that DRDA has considered for a number of years. Recently this approach has been validated by a number of SPIT recommendations to enhance communication between DRDA and units. Additionally DRDA has recently implemented software updates that simplify this process. Based on your past feedback here are the details of the change. Initially this change will apply only to NIH grant awards. After a trial period and receiving user feedback the plan will slowly roll-out to other sponsors such as NSF, DOD, etc. Announcements will be made before each roll-out.

The Award e-mails will have the following distribution:

PAN/PAC and award to:
PI
Unit Chair as registered in Blue Pages
Dean as registered in Blue Pages
Pre and post award Administrative Point of Contact listed on PAF

PAN/PAC only:
All other PAF signers including cost sharing signers and departmental contacts
Participating Investigators listed on PAF

When a NIH grant has been processed an email will be prepared that will contain two PDF files. One will be the PAN or PAC (as appropriate) and the second will be the NIH grant award document. The e-mail subject will cite the DRDA number. The e-mail text will contain the following text:

Enclosed are two PDF files containing the official award notification from the sponsor and the Project Award Notice for DRDA # 00-0000.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The project/grant and shortcode WILL NOT yet be active in the Financial and HRMS systems when you receive this message. Listed below are a number of things the administrator can do before the project is active.

Share the PAN and copy of the grant or contract with others who need it.

Review the PAN for the terms of the grant/contract

Review the grant or contract for terms and conditions, deliverables, special reports.

Set up internal record-keeping systems.

Prepare 7471s to budget sub-project/grants, if relevant.

Prepare paperwork for item types, barcodes, and additional shortcodes if necessary.

Prepare paperwork to request sub-contracts, if relevant. If sub-contracts were written into your proposal, the PAN should include a memo describing the process you need to follow to request a sub-contract.

If the budget has been modified or a modular budget was submitted, a 7471 can be submitted to Sponsored Financial Operations before the project/grant is activated so that the budget is set up appropriately. (If your budget includes A-21 monitored expenses, the 7471 and justification should be directed to DRDA.)

Follow the directions on the front of the PAN to change the statement recipient if necessary.

Work with the Purchasing Department to request quotes for major equipment purchases.

Review faculty, staff and student appointments to prepare for appointment changes. Don't forget cost sharing appointments.

Request cost sharing transfers, if relevant.

If you have any questions about the above activities, please contact your Sponsored Programs Account Coordinator,__________, at______________or______________

This electronic notification is not for the purpose of getting data to people but rather to provide information needed for timely project initiation and management. Any data that people need are better obtained from PRISM which is updated the evening after the PAN/PAC is e-mailed.

These changes will occur during the week of March 7, 2005. If you have any question or comments, please send them along to Jim Randolph (nihjim@umich.edu).

Marvin G. Parnes
Associate VP for Research & Executive Director for Research Administration
Email: mgparnes@umich.edu
Phone: (734)936-3933 or (734)764-7230
Fax: (734)763-0085