09-July-2001 meeting - items discussed:
- Dan discussed a recent Human Subjects article in the New York Times. The article discussed that "researchers at Johns Hopkins University who conducted an asthma experiment that led to a healthy volunteer's death last month had no sought or received FDA approval to use an unlicensed drug that was involved in the experiment." This simply led to a discussion about the importance of compliance issues while performing sponsored research at our university.
- Dan communicated to the group that many faculty will likely submit proposals to the Washington Attorney General's office because of a pool of money available from a Vitamins settlement. There are instructions for this that I recommend you follow - they are listed on the OGRD website http://www.ogrd.wsu.edu
- Dan shared about his trip to D.C. and attending the Council on Government Relations Meeting (COGR). A summary of the items discussed at COGR were:
- Faith Marshall, Director, Program in Bioethics at the Univ. of Kansas Medical Center and Chairperson of the National Human Research Protections shared about the emerging trends in the regulations for human subjects.
- COGR works with all federal agencies, ie, NASA, Army, ,DARPA, NSF, NIH, USDA, just to name a few - they are far reaching.
- Dr. Marcus Peacock, Assoc. Dir. For Natural Resource Programs, OMB addressed the President's science policy - they want to keep it about the same and increase in some areas (ie NIH).
- P.L. 106-107 was discussed which requires the federal agencies to streamline their grant processes and how they are coming along.
- Denise Faerber has a new GRA matrix up on the web.
- Vince Hutnak still has the cost-sharing policy in draft out on the web for comment.
- Barry Johnston gave an update on the F&A proposal. DHHS came back with some questions that Barry and the Consultants are coming up with answers for which should be turned in sometime in mid July.
- Lori Selby was introduced as working on special projects for Business Affairs - an outcome of the input from the Design Teams.
- We discussed that WSU must have agreement numbers with those Sponsors that provide us federal flow through money. If a Sponsor does not have an agreement number then OGRD will assign a number.
- Training courses are moving ahead full steam. If questions please call Mary Hoffman or look at the HRS website for times and locations.
- Mary Hoffman, Joan Root, and Dan Nordquist presented their first "Life Cycle of an Award" and so far so good. Excellent attendance and this same class will be offered again on July 10th.
- The NCURA Videoconference on "Compliance Issues Impacting Financial Research Administration" is May 15th from 8:30-11:30 in Murrow Studio B. Please plan on attending. You can register on-line at http://www.ogrd.wsu.edu/workshop/workshops.asp
- Dan discussed intellectual property issues related to the 1986 Tax Reform Act to let folks know that "pre-negotiated license agreements" can be a problem if the project associated with the technology is in a university facility that is financed by tax-exempt bonds. A majority of our buildings are financed in this manner and OGRD reviews these types of issues.
- Dan discussed Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT) issues with the group. The University mission is to perform research, teach, and be involved in public service. If the work that a faculty member does not fall into one of these categories, with other exceptions applying, then the revenue generated by that work may be taxable. Contact OGRD if this becomes an issue.
- Barry Johnston indicated to Dan that nothing of substance has occurred with the F&A proposal. We have not yet heard back from NIH as to when negotiations will start.
- Dan discussed the actual feedback from the Design teams and that fostered some discussion:
- The departments would appreciate that if a question was posed to either SPFO or OGRD that instead of sending them to one office or another that the office that rec'd the call will follow-through to find out where things are at. OGRD communicated our willingness to do that. This is a more service-oriented approach.
- The departments asked if they could be contacted when OGRD needs to send something back to the Agency so the department is aware of the potential delay for setting up agreements. Dan will talk to Andrea, Denise, and Grant about how this will take place.
- An issue was brought up about communication on the process for no-cost extensions. Nancy McMahon and Dan Nordquist will look into this and discuss with SPFO. Mary Hoffman provided what Vanderbilt does in their process.
- Fabrication of equipment was discussed and whether WSU has a process for excluding the F&A once an item of equipment is complete and inventoried. We currently do not have a mechanism to handle this. Dan has inquired into the methods of our neighboring and peer institutions are handling this and will pass this onto Barry Johnston for further review once Dan has received all the feedback.
- NSF electronic signatures will be managed through FastLane as of 01-July-2001.
- Vince Hutnak is developing another draft of the cost-sharing policy. Once that is up on the web Dorothy Heitter, Mary Hoffman, Phyllis Hornbeck, and Denise Faerber, and Dan Nordquist will meet for a review of this policy to provide feedback to Vince. This feedback will be presented to the RAG group.
- Dan did not have time to present this information but wanted to pass it along via the RAG minutes. A reminder that all Material Transfer Agreements (MTA's), Confidentiality Agreements, and No-money agreements (research related) come through OGRD for official signature and negotiation if necessary. In order to expedite the negotiation process for MTA's, Dan developed a web form that will be posted on the OGRD web page that can be filled out by the PI to give OGRD the best information on how to move these along. Intellectual property, liability, publication rights, etc. seem to be the big hang-ups on many of these agreements. Here is an HTML version of that form that will be developed into a web form that can be input directly via the web.
- Our next meeting is scheduled for June 11th at 9:00 am - Denise will run this meeting since Dan will be out of town at a Council on Government Relations Meeting.
|