Module 1. Introduction
This course is designed primarily for the University of Wisconsin - Madison research community.
It is mandatory for faculty and academic staff who work on sponsored projects, and for others
who serve as principal investigators on sponsored projects. Administrators and other members
of the campus research community may also find it useful.
The course was created by the office of Research and Sponsored Programs (RSP) at the
University of Wisconsin - Madison. RSP is responsible for ensuring that the university's
externally-funded projects are administered in a manner that complies with all applicable
policies and regulations.
Course goals
The goals of this course are:
| 1. | |
To explain the key principles of effort on sponsored projects
|
| 2. | |
To communicate the requirements that
apply in proposing, managing, and certifying effort on sponsored projects
|
| 3. | |
To provide training in how to certify effort
with the Effort Certification and Reporting Technology (ECRT) system
|
How this course is organized
The material is divided into ten modules. After some of the modules, there's
a quiz. You must achieve a passing grade on the quizzes to complete the course.
You can take each quiz as many times as you like.
Typically, it takes about an hour to complete this course. You are not required
to do it all at once. If you stop before finishing, you can resume where you left off.
After this introduction (Module #1), the nine remaining modules cover the
following topics:
| Module |
|
Purpose |
| 2. |
The basics of effort and sponsored projects |
|
Outline the fundamental principles of effort and commitments,
which are based on federal policy, so you understand what's required of
you when you certify effort |
| 3. |
UW Effort and activities that are allocable to sponsored projects |
| 4. |
Commitments to sponsored projects |
| 5. |
The basics of effort certification at UW-Madison |
|
Outline university policies regarding effort certification, and explain
how to apply the fundamental principles of effort to your specific situation |
| 6. |
Effort certification guidelines |
| 7. |
How to certify your effort with ECRT |
|
Explain the mechanics of using the ECRT system to certify effort |
| 8. |
How to certify effort for your project staff with ECRT |
| 9. |
Managing effort while working on your projects |
|
Explain the intersection of effort commitments, actual effort,
and salary charges during the lifetime of your project |
| 10. |
Course wrap-up |
|
Provide information about your next steps and where to go for assistance |
Why is it important to know this?
Each year, the university receives millions of dollars from organizations,
including the federal government, that sponsor research and other UW-Madison
activities. As the stewards of those funds, it is our obligation to comply
with federal and university requirements to certify faculty and staff effort on sponsored projects.
To certify effort accurately, we must understand some key principles that are
stipulated by the federal government. Many universities have paid multi-million
dollar fines for not certifying in accord with these principles. Currently,
effort certification is a hot topic among federal auditors. A failure to
propose, manage, and certify effort correctly could jeopardize the university's
federal funding and lead to penalties for the university.
Coming attractions
Here are some of the key points you'll encounter in this course:
| 1. | |
Effort is your work on a project,
whether the sponsor pays your salary or not.
|
| 2. | |
When you write yourself into a grant proposal,
you are committing your effort to the sponsor.
|
| 3. | |
If you reduce your effort, paid or cost-shared, on a
federal grant by 25% or more,
you must have agency approval. If you reduce your paid effort, you may
choose to document cost-sharing so that the total effort does not decrease.
|
| 4. | |
Many activities cannot be charged to a federally sponsored project. For example,
the time you spend on these activities cannot be charged:
| a. | |
Writing a proposal |
| b. | |
Serving on an IRB, IACUC or other research committee |
| c. | |
Serving on a departmental or university service committee |
|
| 5. | |
If you work on a sponsored project, you must certify your effort.
|
| 6. | |
Certifying effort is not the same as
certifying payroll.
|
| 7. | |
Certification must reasonably
reflect all the effort for all
the activities that are covered by your UW compensation.
|
| 8. | |
Effort is not based on a 40-hour work week.
|
| 9. | |
Effort must be certified by someone with a
suitable means of verifying that the work was performed.
|
| 10. | |
Any indication that certification was based on factors other
than actual, justifiable effort is a red flag for an auditor.
|
A word about terminology
Strictly speaking, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers receive
stipends rather than salary. In this course, the term salary is used to
refer to both salary for employees and stipends for graduate students
and postdoctoral researchers.
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