The Provost has asked that Research Council review the "AAUP Conflict of Interest Guidelines." The Office of Research will send copies of the document to members.
Garrison stated that faculty need to submit proposals and cost-sharing requirements to the Office of Research in a more timely manner. On the average, it takes 4 hours to review a proposal from beginning to end. Faculty should submit the budget and yellow sheet as soon as possible in order to get into the queue for contract processing. Council members suggested that the Office of Research should communicate with the faculty about the average processing time and workflow backups, recognize cycles of deadlines of the major funding agencies and post them on the web, and set deadlines. Dwayne McCay asked Research Council to name a group to review the proposal process. Doug Birdwell said that this could be done by either the Policies & Procedures Committee or the Special Projects Committee. McCay also stated that an internal management study will be done to review the procedures.
University Controller Ron Maples stated that the goal is to eliminate "shadow books." While information on SAP/IRIS is more timely with direct keying in departments, not all database management functions have been incorporated into the new system. They will continue to work to improve training. A committee will soon be formed, with representation from Research Council, to deal with SAP/IRIS problems and faculty.
A new procedure for effort certification on contracts and grants will begin in February. Training efforts have not yet begun.