Copy
View this email in your browser

May 15, 2023



Reminder: Foreign Awards Paid in Foreign Currency

Do you manage a foreign award that's paid in foreign currency? We would like to remind you to review the Foreign Awards Paid in Foreign Currency, which outlines a process to manage foreign currency fluctuations in order to minimize cash losses. Important Note: If Harvard is unable to negotiate payment from foreign sponsors in U.S. Dollars (USD), it is important for the department GM to obligate 90% of the award to accommodate potential foreign currency fluctuations that occur over the life of the award.

To view previously featured HCSRA Hints, visit the HCSRA Hints page.

Harvard News

Upcoming Holiday: Veterans Day

In observance of Memorial Day, Harvard University and NIH will be closed on Monday, May 29, 2023. Reminder: If an NIH grant application due date falls on a federal holiday, the application deadline is automatically extended to the next business day.

FY2024 Stipendee Post Docs Rates

The FY2024 Stipendee Post Docs rates are final and are $896 monthly and $10,749 annually. The portion attributed to Health is $700 monthly and $8,400 annually. Also see the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health F&A Rate Agreement, dated April 11, 2023.

Harvard e-News: May Issue is Now Available

The May issue of the Harvard e-News is now available. Harvard's Financial Administration Department publishes this monthly electronic newsletter for users of the University's administrative systems. They welcome questions and suggestions (admin_systems_enews@harvard.edu); if your questions are of general interest, they'll answer them in future issues.

Research Administration & Compliance Systems - May 2023 Update

GMAS will be unavailable starting Thursday May 18th at 6pm. The system will be available again at the start of business on Friday. This release is in support of providing a new ability to communicate directly in the application, further enhancements and bug fixes related to subagreements, and continued work on technical upgrades. For a full list of bug fixes and enhancements, please visit the May 2023 GMAS Release page on the GMAS website.

Harvard Policies & Guidance

Revised Financial Systems Access Policy

The Financial Systems Access Policy has been updated with a 5/1/2023 revision date. The changes to the policy reflect PCard roles with the transition of the PCard to Concur.

Friday, May 19 GMAS Release: Highlights of Subagreement Enhancements

The Friday, May 19 GMAS release will include a combination of technical upgrades and bug fixes, as well as several enhancements that were proposed by the GMAS user community.  

Subagreement Updates Include:

  • Rollback Notification
  • New Dates & Dollars Screen
  • Ability to send notifications from Comments
  • Record counts captured on Sub Dashboard
Resources:

Important Reminder for Procurement Contracts Using Federal Funds

Any contract or transaction that applies federal funds, either through a federal grant or federal government contract, must include one of the versions of Attachment A found on the Terms and Conditions page on the Strategic Procurement website in order to comply with federal law. Whether you are contracting with the vendor directly or purchasing through the Buy-to-Pay system, please ensure that the necessary attachment is included. Please reach out to the Office of Contract Management Contracts Team with any questions.

Contract Management Services

Are you interested in outsourcing your contract management and review needs? The Office of Contract Management Contracts team offers fee-based services to the Harvard Community including prioritized drafting, redlining, negotiating of contracts, contract entry into the University-wide Buy-to-Pay contract management tool, and more. Please visit our Contract Management website for more information or contact Elizabeth Copeland at Elizabeth_Copeland@Harvard.edu.

B2P Tips for Onboarding Non-U.S. Payees (Individual Suppliers)

To assist with commencement and year-end planning, Buy-to-Pay (B2P) provided some helpful tips to onboard Non-US Payees.

Sponsor News

NIH's Analysis of Comments from the Simplifying Review Criteria RFI

As discussed in the blog, “Update on Simplifying Review Criteria: A Request for Information (RFI),” NIH issued an RFI—from December 8, 2022, through March 10, 2023—seeking feedback on its proposed plan to revise and simplify the framework for the first level of the peer review of research project grant (RPG) applications. NIH received more than 800 responses to the RFI; to see the detailed analysis of comments, refer to the full NIH post.

Training and Events

DMPTool: One-Stop-Shop for Data Management Plans

Date: Wednesday, May 17, 2023, 12:00PM - 1:00PM

Register: Registration Link

Description: A 2-page Data Management Plan (DMP) is now required as part of the new NIH Data Management & Sharing Policy. Data management planning is important for funding, but it also sets you up for success with best practices.

The DMPTool is web-based and provides basic templates that can help you construct data management plans. The DMPTool provides you with templates, funder mandates, institutional requirements, and other instructional material.

Endowment, Gifts & Chart of Accounts Zoom Office Hours

Date: Wednesday, May 17, 2023, 2:30PM - 3:30PM

Register: Zoom Link

Description: The Endowment, Gifts & Chart of Accounts Zoom Office Hours repeats on the third Wednesday of January, February, March, April, May, June, September, October, November, December until Sun Jun 30, 2024. If you have questions on the below topics, this is the place to get them answered.

  • gifts (for current use or for principal)
  • non-sponsored activity values
  • CVRs (cross-validation rules)
  • endowment distributions

2023 Faculty and Staff Spring Reception & Appreciation for Dean Michelle Williams

Date: Wednesday, May 17, 2023, 2:00PM - 3:30PM

Register: Registration Link

Description: Harvard Chan School faculty and staff are invited to celebrate the end of the academic year at the 2023 Spring Reception & Appreciation. The School will also have the opportunity to recognize Dean Williams for her service and dedication. The party begins at 2:00pm, following the last Faculty Meeting of the year. You may drop in at any time, and brief remarks are planned for 2:15pm.

General Contract Review Training

Date: Tuesday, May 23, 2023, 10:00AM - 11:30AM

Register: Harvard Training Portal

Description: This is a great course to learn about, or brush up on, vendor contracting and will cover general legal concepts, Harvard-Specific policies and concerns, and how to use Harvard contracts templates or work with vendor documents.

Overview of Harvard University Finances Course

Date: Tuesday, May 23, 2023, 10:00AM - 12:00PM

Register: Harvard Training Portal

Description: The Office of Financial Strategy and Planning is excited to announce Open Enrollment for the Overview of Harvard University Finances Course. The goal of this class is to provide Harvard community members with a clearer picture of how Harvard's finances work. The class is framed by three parts: 1) Organizational context, 2) Financial context, and 3) Higher education industry context.

Risk Assessment in Vendor Contracts Training

Date: Wednesday, May 31, 2023, 10:30AM - 12:00PM

Register: Harvard Training Portal

Description: Join an interactive contract discussion with the SP Contracts team. Understanding risk and mitigating risk is a crucial step in creating an effective vendor agreement. Attendees will receive a sample agreement to review and spot risk prior to attending the course. During the course, they will lead a discussion through the sample vendor contract, pointing out the potential risks and discussing ways to mitigate those risks. After this course, you will be better equipped to anticipate risks, identify contract provisions that address those risks and be aware of ways to mitigate those risks fairly to protect Harvard's interest. 

HART Fiscal Year End Webinar

Date: Friday, June 2, 2023, 10:30AM - 12:00PM

Register: Harvard Training Portal

Description: This annual webinar focuses on tips and tricks for making the most use of HART during the fiscal year end. Topics include understanding how to use the time period prompts found on the Transaction Listing dashboards to locate prior and new fiscal year entries, specific dashboard recommendations for getting results quickly, and using other dashboards found in the FIN-Core and other folders to get the results you need at the most critical reporting time of the year.

Registration Open: Spring 2023 NSF Virtual Grants Conference

Date: Monday, June 5, 2023 - Thursday, June 8, 2023

Register: Registration Link

Description: The National Science Foundation (NSF) will be hosting the Spring 2023 NSF Virtual Grants Conference from June 5 – 8, 2023. Registration is now open. For more information, visit the NSF Grants Conference event page. For those who cannot attend the live conference, all recorded conference sessions will be available on-demand shortly after the event and posted on NSF website and their YouTube page.

Job Openings in Research Administration

We would like to use this section to highlight current research administration job openings. We will keep this section up to date and all job postings can be found on Harvard Careers

Senior Grants and Contracts Manager
Sponsored Programs Administration - MET
Description: The Senior Grants and Contracts Manager is an integral part of the research enterprise and works in close partnership with faculty members. They are a primary resource for providing guidance and oversight on issues related to fiscal, administrative and regulatory management of a portfolio of grants, contracts and sponsored programs from award receipt through closeout. These grants are from a wide-range of sponsors including the federal government (e.g. NIH), foundations, industry, and international contracts from foreign entities. 
Grade: 56
62545BR

Senior Grants and Contracts Manager 

Sponsored Programs Administration - EH 
Description: The Senior Grants and Contracts Manager is an integral part of the research enterprise and works in close partnership with faculty members. They are a primary resource for providing guidance and oversight on issues related to fiscal, administrative and regulatory management of a portfolio of grants, contracts and sponsored programs from award receipt through closeout. These grants are from a wide-range of sponsors including the federal government (e.g. NIH), foundations, industry, and international contracts from foreign entities.
Grade: 56
62222BR

Senior Grants and Contracts Manager

Sponsored Programs Administration 
Description: The Senior Grants and Contracts Manager is an integral part of the research enterprise and works in close partnership with faculty members. They are a primary resource for providing guidance and oversight on issues related to fiscal, administrative and regulatory management of a portfolio of grants, contracts and sponsored programs from award receipt through closeout. These grants are from a wide-range of sponsors including the federal government (e.g. NIH), foundations, industry, and international contracts from foreign entities. 
Grade: 56
61675BR

For more information, please visit the HCSRA website.
To subscribe and reference past issues, visit the HCSRA Highlights Newsletter Page.






This email was sent to <<Email Address>>
why did I get this?    unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences
Harvard Chan School · 401 Park St · Dorchester, MA 02124-1211 · USA

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp