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Announcements Compliance, Integrity & Safety

The University of Georgia Institutional Review Board (IRB) has approved the following new Policies & Procedures and form templates:

These are also available in the eResearch IRB Portal Library .

We encourage you to peruse these new policies/procedures and form templates.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the HSO Director, Dr. Benilda Pooser at bpooser@uga.edu or 706.542.3199, or the IRB Chair, Dr. Larry Nackerud, at nackerud@uga.edu.

 

Categories
Announcements Compliance, Integrity & Safety

UGA users of the CITI online library, which provides mandatory IRB training for Human Subjects Research, Responsible Conduct of Research training and Conflict of Interest training, will no longer be able to use the Internet (IE) 7 browser to access the library, effective March 2015.

CITI currently offers full support for Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari;  these constitute 99 percent of CITI traffic. IE 7, which is now more than 8 years old, will be blocked. Site users will need to have IE 8 or later, or use a current version of Chrome, Firefox, or Safari. Older versions are often less secure and provide less functionality.

In the coming months, CITI will be adding several usability enhancements and new features.

Please update your browser accordingly and contact the Human Subjects Office at irb@uga.edu or the Office for Sponsored Programs at sponprog@uga.edu with questions or for additional information.

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Announcements
Effective October 19, 2014, all Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) grantees, exclusive of recipients of multi-year funded awards, will have the ability to use the eRA commons Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) module.  Effective January 1, 2015, AHRQ will require use of the RPPR module.  Also, effective October 19, 2014, AHRQ will standardize all annual progress report due dates.
See more at: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-HS-15-001.html#sthash.gmywxxWC.dpuf
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Announcements

As of October 17, 2014, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) requires grantees to submit all type 5 progress reports using the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) module in eRA Commons.   Annual progress reports submitted in any format other than the RPPR will not be processed by the NIH and will require resubmission through the RPPR.

This notice supersedes all references to the use of the PHS 2590 for annual non-competing continuation progress reports in Notices of Award.

NIH continues development of the RPPR for final progress reports and for administrative extensions (Type 4s – e.g., SBIR/STTR Fast-Track Phase II application) and will update the community as progress is made.

Additional information and resources on the RPPR, including the current RPPR Instruction Guide and training archives, can be found at: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/rppr/.

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Announcements Technology Commercialization

Master licensing agreements between UGA and Kerafast,  a company that sells rare and unique academic research tools to life science laboratories worldwide, is allowing UGA investigators to efficiently move research tools, from chemicals to biologic materials, from their labs to other universities, as well as non-profit and for-profit research institutions and organizations.

More than 50 products developed by UGA researchers have been made available to the scientific community through Kerafast, while many other materials are being considered for licensing by the company. Five UGA principal investigators are currently using Kerafast’s program:  Michelle Momany,  plant genetics; Michael W.W. Adams, biochemistry and molecular biology; Richard B. Meager, genetics; Duncan C. Ferguson, physiology, pharmacology and small-animal medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine; and  Michael P. Doyle, Department of Food Science & Technology, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

These agreements considerably reduce the need for transfer of materials to be preceded by Material Transfer Agreements. As part of these agreements, the company cites publications by UGA researchers that are pertinent to each UGA material the company distributes and also links those products to the researchers’ web pages, enhancing the visibility of UGA research programs.

Kerafast generates an additional funding source for laboratories and research programs by utilizing an online platform to license research materials and tools originating from research institutions. Proceeds from the sales of these materials are then shared between the investigators and the University of Georgia Research Foundation. Kerafast’s interests range from unique chemicals to complex biologic materials (including cells), including hard-to-make organic molecules, metal complexes with unusual properties and structures, antibodies, and GM cells, to name a few.

Nearly 30 UGA faculty, researchers, and scientists, and representatives of UGA’s BioBusiness Center resident companies, recently attended a presentation and luncheon hosted by the UGA Technology Commercialization Office and Kerafast. Access the presentation and learn more: Contact Gene Gama, Senior Licensing Manager, at GJG@uga.edu or 706-583-8088.

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Announcements

Effective October 1, departments will no longer be required to complete and route an administrative action request form (AARF) to access federally funded projects with automatic carryover while waiting for the next increment of funds to arrive. The Office for Sponsored Programs and Contracts & Grants Division have revised their processes to allow continued spending for these types of accounts.

This change was implemented to ease administrative burden and ensure that Principal Investigators can continue to access award funds to support work on their projects. The change will be accomplished by using the same budget and project end dates when processing awards. The change only applies to projects funded directly by federal agencies, not projects funded by federal flow-through from other entities.

Projects that were awarded prior to October 1, 2014, will need to be manually adjusted. Please contact your OSP representative if you have accounts that need to be adjusted. https://research.uga.edu/spa/find-sponsored-projects-team/

 

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Announcements
NIH annual progress reports received on/after October 1, 2014 must include a section to describe how individual development plans (IDPs) are used to identify and promote the career goals of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers associated with the award.
Read more.
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Announcements

MATLAB will be available on a campuswide license later this fall. MATLAB is a high-level language for numerical computational, visualation and application development tool that provides an interactive environment for iterative exploration, design, and problem solving.

Currently, there are about 175 individual licenses to MATLAB and its associated toolboxes among units across the University. The single campus license will give universal access to MATLAB and about 50 toolboxes for all UGA faculty and staff, as well as students in a lab environment. EITS is working with MathWorks, the provider of MATLAB, to transition existing MATLAB licenses at UGA to the campus-wide license. Additional details will be provided to participating units when available.

For more information about MATLAB, please contact Mike Lucas at mlucas@uga.edu by email.

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Announcements

The National Institutes of Health has issued a final NIH Genomic Data Sharing (GDS) policy to promote data sharing as a way to speed the translation of data into knowledge, products and procedures that improve health while protecting the privacy of research participants.

Starting with funding applications submitted for a Jan. 25, 2015, receipt date, the policy will apply to all NIH-funded, large-scale human and non-human projects that generate genomic data. This includes research conducted with the support of NIH grants and contracts and within the NIH Intramural Research Program. NIH officials finalized the policy after reviewing public comments on a draft released in September 2013.
The final policy was posted in the Federal Register Aug. 26, 2014 and published in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts Aug. 27, 2014.

See complete information about genomic data sharing and a link to the GDS policy.

Read more from NIH.

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Announcements

A new Research Events Calendar on the OVPR website now provides a single place to find what’s happening in research on the UGA campus — from research seminars to symposia and conferences.

UGA departments, centers and institutes are invited to add their research events to the calendar by linking to the OVPR calendar. Contact rcomm@uga.edu if you would like to arrange a link.

Alternatively, events can be submitted manually by sending the event date, time, title, details, and weblink to rcomm@uga.edu. Please provide contact information.