Department Administrator

1. Department Administrator Session #6 – October 24th 2012

2. Agenda • Changes in Research Financial Services • Staffing • Website • Tri-Council Questionnaire • Training for faculty • Documentation requirements by Sponsor • Next session

3. Changes in Research Financial Services - Staffing

4. Changes in Research Financial Services - Website • Steps to follow from University of Guelph website • Services • Financial Services • Research Finance • URL • http://www.uoguelph.ca/finance/departments-services/research-financial-services

5. Changes in Research Financial Services - Website • New look • Contacts by sponsor/by department • Build the website for the users • What is useful/helpful information?

6. Changes in Research Financial Services – Website - Comments • Please review website and send comments to back to Dave. • Dave to follow up on ‘reducing’ the number of clicks before logging into FRS … currently it requires 6 clicks from UofG homepage • Please send ideas of content that you would like to see on the website that would be useful for you and/or the faculty • One comment has come back to add a link to the Tri-Council Financial guideline for rules of eligibility

7. Tri-Council Questionnaire • Tri-Council requires University of Guelph to answer a 93 question questionnaire each year • After reviewing our responses Tri-Council will determine the type of monitoring visit to carry out • Full visit (1 week on-site) • Partial (likely carried out off-site) • Targeted (focus on one specific area)

8. Tri-Council Questionnaire • Roles & Responsibilities • Are you clear with your roles & responsibilities as it relates to administration of Tri-Council awards? Generally everyone feels comfortable with Roles & Responsibilities • Are faculty clear with their roles & responsibilities? Dave to follow up with practices used at UofAlberta, UofOttawa, York to see if there is something that can help to provide clarity • Training • What would you like to see? • Provide training to new administrators, new faculty, adjunct, update sessions for the ‘not-so-new’

9. Tri-Council Questionnaire • Authorization of Expenses • Does every transaction have a written request by Grantee or Delegate?– Some do and some do not (eg. Systems contracts, online purchases, etc). • Questions about time frame for delegation and limits and changing the form • Dave to follow up and see if anything can be done. I expect it will remain as a one page document per delegate but I will check. • Limits are left to the departments to administer • Although a department chair signs off on the form, they are not delegated to sign off on expenses for the grant holder unless a delegation form has been completed for the department chair • Review of Compliance and Expense Eligibility • Travel • Financial Reporting - Oracle • RFS review

10. Tri-Council Questionnaire • Eligibility Status - University faculty: To be eligible as an applicant or co-applicant, you must hold or have a firm offer of1 an academic appointment at an eligible Canadian university at the time of application.2 The appointment can be: • a tenured, tenure-track or lifetime professor emeritus position; or • a term or contract position of no less than three years.3 • Status of eligibility should be known in the Dean’s office.

11. Tri-Council Questionnaire – Eligibility Status • One of the requirements is that we notify Tri-Council when someone’s status changes. We must also ensure that someone eligible to hold an award is not being paid from an existing Tri-Council award? • How do we verify that an individual eligible to hold a tri-council award is not being paid or receiving remuneration from an existing award? – Possible for a Post-Doc, Res. Scientist to be paid from Tri-Council award. More thought to be given to this. • URL - http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/NSERC-CRSNG/Eligibility-Admissibilite/faculty-corpsprof_eng.asp

12. Tri-Council Questionnaire • Expense Allocations and Shared Costs • What is considered an internal store? • Bookstore, Chemistry Lab, OVC Pharmacy, CCS, Stockroom, Vehicle Services, Physical Resources, Mailroom, Lab Services, Hospitality, Animal Health Lab, Parking Services, Advanced Analysis Centre, BioImaging Centre, Aqualab, Petty cash… • What are examples of shared costs? Can you please provide some examples? • Are departments processing these in a consistent manner? • A review will need to be done of these different stores/services to identify any compliance issues and adjust accordingly. • CBS is comfortable with the compliance of Advanced Analysis Centre, BioImaging Centre and Aqualab charges

13. Training for Faculty • Ideas about how to reach out and train the faculty • Approach • Content – what do faculty want to be trained on? • Changes to MyGrants Tracker/FRS • Breakout indirect costs from Operating category • Payroll commitments – changes not communicated • Change award amount to be net of indirect costs • Delivery of this training will be delayed until RFS is fully staffed • Please think of a way to reach out to the faculty in your department. Something that comes from the Dean’s office to the department chairs is better than RFS pushing themselves onto the faculty.

14. Documentation Requirements by Sponsor • Note that most commodity groups will receive their funds or be involved with • a project that has funding from AAFC or AAC.

15. Next Session • When would you like to meet again? • Agenda items? • We will meet again in February. Please think of some agenda items to discuss.