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UI eRA Introductory Message
Highlights
Electronic research administration (eRA) is the future for research administration. eRA encompasses everything from searching for funding opportunities to submitting proposals electronically to tracking their progress.
Currently, some federal agencies (including the National Science Foundation and Department of Defense) and other sponsors have mandated the electronic submission of proposals. The number of federal agencies requiring electronic submission is expected to increase in the next few years as a result of a congressional mandate requiring agencies to move from paper to electronic systems. Non-federal organizations also continue to move toward electronic systems in an effort to streamline the proposal process.
In response to these changes, and as the University strives to streamline the administration of sponsored projects and the submission of electronic proposals, the University of Illinois has chosen the InfoEd software suite to administer its pre-award eRA system. The project to deploy the pre-award system to the University community has been named UI eRA, and it has several distinct modules and phases.
Proposal Tracking (PT)
Proposal Tracking allows users to monitor information pertaining to proposals
and awards that are processed through the central sponsored projects
office on each campus. PT is currently operational in the following offices:
- UIC Grants and Contracts
- UIC Office of Research Services (Chicago/Peoria/Rockford Campuses)
- UIS Grants and Contracts
- UIUC Grants and Contracts
A team representing all three campuses is finalizing and documenting the business processes for utilizing the Proposal Tracking module in order to ensure consistency of data among the campuses. Before the end of fiscal year 2005, the PT module will be piloted to a select number of units representing all three campuses.
Proposal Development (PD)
Proposal Development is a front-end module that feeds pre-award information
into the Proposal Tracking module. Combined with SPINPlus (described below),
PD offers users a fully integrated method of searching for funding, creating
a proposal, and routing it electronically for internal approvals. The UI
eRA business team will begin testing this module in the spring of 2005.
Business processes will be documented and training materials developed.
A phased rollout of the PD module, and many of the features of the PT module,
to the University community is tentatively scheduled for July 1, 2006.
The UI eRA system also provides access to SPINPlus, which includes:
SPIN -- a funding opportunities database designed to provide up-to-date information on current national and international government and private funding sources. All of the data in SPIN is obtained directly from the sponsoring agencies to ensure the integrity of the information. A funding opportunity selected from SPIN will automatically populate some of the data fields in the Proposal Development module.
GENIUS -- a global web network and database of scientific and scholarly expertise. The system contains profiles entered and maintained by scholars and researchers at universities and research institutions throughout the world. GENIUS serves as a registry of institutional talent and expertise to be used by industry and academia and provides a searchable resource for identifying interest and expertise for industry/university partnering, global partnering, and sponsored funding matches.
SMARTS -- an electronic matching and funding opportunity notification system which provides investigators with a direct and targeted electronic link to comprehensive, current, and available national and international research funding information. The investigator profile information is collected via forms in GENIUS and used for matching with the SPIN database. Matching is conducted on a daily basis and all funding matches are automatically emailed to individual researchers who have created a profile in GENIUS.
UI eRA, in its final form, will include the following
- Electronic routing for internal approval(s)
- Electronic storage of proposals
- Electronic submission (where possible)
- Electronic storage of award information
- User access to information, including proposal status
- In most cases, one-time budget entry with a seamless interface to post award accounting in Banner
- Automatic form development for many agency required forms
- Ability for users to develop and run their own reports, plus access to canned reports
- Integration with some compliance modules (e.g. animal use, human subjects, etc.)
As the project progresses, more information will appear on the UI eRA website (currently under development). Please email any questions or comments to uiera@uillinois.edu.
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