Enhancement of reporting tools for management of sponsored projects

David Norton, PhD., Vice President for Research; Matthew Fajack, Vice President & Chief Financial Officer

In order to provide researchers with timely, accurate, and comprehensive information about their grants, the university is launching a project to design intuitive reporting tools for use in the management of sponsored projects.

Key outcomes of this reporting initiative will be to design, develop, and provide tools and reports – geared specifically toward investigators—that are easy to use and will help manage sponsored projects by answering recurring questions. What are my current/active project balances? Who did I pay on my projects? Have I met the required cost share commitments for my projects?

To ensure this effort meets the needs of UF principal investigators, a project team composed of employees from the Division of Sponsored Research, UFIT Enterprise Systems, and the Office of the Chief Financial Officer will be working to engage investigators in defining – from their unique, working perspective – what would be useful.

Over the next few weeks, the project team hopes to interview a wide range of investigators, from different disciplines, with varying degrees of administrative support and technical interest. As a research dean on campus, your perspective about who would be a good choice to include in this effort is welcomed. If you know of principal investigators who might be willing to spend about an hour of their time with the project team, please forward their names to Stephanie Gray, Assistant Director, Division of Sponsored Research, at slgray@ufl.edu – or please ask them to contact her directly @ 273-4062.

It is our commitment to keep campus well informed about this project and its impact. Regular communication updates will be provided. The initial phase of investigator engagement is scheduled to be completed by April 30, 2012.

Your support of this effort will help ensure it meets the needs of principal investigators. If you have any questions or recommendations about this project, please do not hesitate to contact Stephanie Gray, Assistant Director, Division of Sponsored Research, at slgray@ufl.edu or 273-4062.