Research Admin August 2022 Update

RAMP – Research Administration Modernization Project

Employee Compensation Compliance – NOW LIVE!

Throughout July, the Employee Compensation Compliance Design Team conducted live training sessions with stakeholders on the UW–Madison and UW-Milwaukee campuses. Recordings of the training sessions are available for anyone unable to attend.

ECC Resources for UWMadison and UW-Milwaukee

Visit the above Research and Sponsored Programs page often to see additional training materials.

Why ECC?
As we move from traditional effort reporting to this new world of project-based payroll certification, it’s important to emphasize the “why” behind this project. Changes to federal regulations now allow universities to leverage flexibilities to make the certification process easier and less burdensome to PIs and administrators.

Our team’s analysis shows that the future payroll certification (via ECC) approach will:

  • Reduce the number of required biannual certifications from 9,504 to 4,163
  • Reduce the number of researchers/PIs needing to complete certifications from 4,462 to 1,440

Key ECC Dates

  • August 1: “Pre-review” period opens for coordinators
  • September 15: “PI Certification” starts

Affected PIs will be notified in early August.

Grants & Agreements

July was yet another busy month for the G&A Design Team working on the UW–Madison implementation. Since the last update, the team has been successfully navigating the design of the future system by completing or starting 8 of 11 design iterations. Design cycles to date:

  • Completed: Iteration #1 – Single Sign-On / HR data feeds
  • Completed: Iteration #2 – Proposal Configurations and Workflow
  • In progress: Iteration #3 – Award Set-Up Process
  • In progress: Iteration #4 – Award Modifications
  • In progress: Iteration #5 – Agreements
  • In progress: Iteration #6 – Complex Proposals
  • In progress: Iteration #7 – Integrations with IRB/IACUC/Safety/COI
  • In progress: Iteration #8 – Data Conversion

Change Management
On July 26, Grants and Agreements Design Team Lead Kate Mollen gave the UW–Madison research community a sneak peek of how the new system will function for the development and submission of extramural funding proposals. Watch the recording, titled “RED Discussion – ATP/RAMP – What’s Coming.”

We Need Your Help!
Get involved (and make your mark!) by helping the Research Admin Strategy Team name the new sponsored research system at UW–Madison!

While RAMP (Research Administration Modernization Project) is the name of the implementation project for Huron Research Suite, the team needs your help naming the Huron Research Suite Grants & Agreements modules that will replace WISPER and Cayuse.

Submit your suggestions by Wednesday, August 31.

The Research Administration governance group will vote to select the winning entry, which will be announced at a later date.

Financial ForecastingNOW LIVE!

This module went live in July and is now in production.

A common question ATP gets is “Who will use this tool?” The current plan is to implement Financial Forecasting for primary use by the UW–Madison Budget Office and Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration (VCFA) units. Now that this tool has gone live, however, its use outside of central administration is being assessed, and further rollout across the UW-Madison campus is being analyzed.

Export Control

This implementation is not expected to start until October 2022, roughly. It’s anticipated that the rollout of this dedicated export control functionality will occur in conjunction with the Madison Grants and Agreements modules.

Workday

The Research Admin Strategy Team continues to make great progress in the Architect Stage of the Workday implementation. For grants management, specifically, July was very busy, and August looks to follow suit as we design the system for the future state.

In addition to future-state system and workflow design activities in July, the Research Administration Strategy Team held its first Playback session on July 25 covering the award setup process. What’s a Playback session? It’s an opportunity for the ATP team to share information about future state business processes and demo Workday to our stakeholders, as well as to collect stakeholder feedback.

August Sessions

  • August 1: Modify an Award
  • August 17: Workday Effort Reporting (UW comprehensive institutions only)

The research admin Workday team is also working on several design and implementation tasks, such as conversion mapping, reporting requirements, and configuration details. Additional tasks include:

  • New Sponsor Setup and Changes (not contacts)
  • Cost Share Setup and Changes
  • Sub Award Setup/Shared Grant Setup and Mods
  • Bill Schedule and Award Task Setup
  • Re-Budgeting Requests
  • Reprocess Award Costs
  • Letter of Credit Draw
  • Cost Reimbursable Batch Billing
  • Prepaid Billing
  • Ad Hoc billing
  • Award Final Review/Invoicing/Reporting
  • F&A Adjustments
  • Closeout
  • Sponsor Payment Processing/AR Application
  • Sponsored Aged AR and Collections
  • Sponsor Refunds
  • Residual Transfers
  • Clinical Trial Setup and Mods
  • Clinical Trial Billing
  • Clinical Trail AR and Collections
  • Clinical Trail Payment Processing

As these processes are designed, the Research Admin Strategy Team will communicate further details about when those can be reviewed.