September 2019 SAGE Maintenance Release
Products Updated
SAGE eGC1
New Project Types added to eGC1
Two new project types have been added to the eGC1. Users can now select “Cooperative Agreement” or “Other Transaction Authority” (a federal designation) from the list, in addition to the current options.
FIX: Sponsor Deadline warning displays when it should not
SAGE and SPAERC users were seeing a sponsor deadline warning message in cases where the deadline had not exceeded our internal due date, causing confusion. The issue was occurring due to time zone differences between east and west coast, and has now been resolved to disregard time of day when comparing the dates.
Update to Read-Only Non-Fiscal Compliance Page for EHS-1 and D-1
In a prior release, an update was made to the Non-Fiscal Compliance page of the eGC1, in order to display the full list of options a user was asked to choose from when responding to the Environment Health and Safety and Data and Technology questions. The display caused confusion for users and has now been updated with a more intuitive presentation of the responses, for added clarity.
Removal of Grant Runner attachment validation for spaces in file name
An old Grant Runner validation disallowing spaces in file names has been removed, to align with NIH current rules for file naming conventions. For details on all allowable characters, see the eGC1 and Grant Runner Attachments article.
Validation Update for Grant Runner
A validation has been added to Grant Runner, to indicate that the RR Research Plan attachment “Program Report Publication List” is required for Renewal applications. This coincides with a recent NIH update of the same.
Applicant PI Added to Email Notifications – Part 2
When an Applicant PI is identified in the personnel listing of an eGC1, that individual will now receive all priority notifications that the primary PI receives. This work was divided across two releases due to the volume of updates to be made, and work is now completed.
SAGE Suite-Wide
Caching Updates to Improve Releases
In the past, certain types of system updates would require the user’s cache to be reset before the change would be visible or to prevent unexpected behavior. The cache was automatically reset every 24 hours, but at times caused help desk calls the day after a release. Technical improvements have been made across the SAGE Suite that will no longer require users to clear cache to see certain changes.
SAGE Budget
FIX: Error on selection of staff with no salary or effort in Workday
An update has been made so that staff with no salary or effort in Workday will still be selectable in SAGE Budget, with a default of 0 in both salary and FTE fields. The user can manually update both salary and FTE as necessary, to project future salary for the individual.
FIX: Excluding Compensation Allocations with Earning Codes
Some personnel with special earning codes related to APL work were flowing through to SAGE Budget with multiple distribution rows, all at 100%. An update has been made to filter out these special APL Workday entries, so that the appropriate Institutional Base Salary is represented in SAGE Budget.
FIX: $25k cap for Subawards incorrectly applied to TDC budgets
For budgets using the base type Total Direct Costs (TDC), when an 03-62 subcontract expense was entered as a line item on the parent budget (and not as its own sub budget), the $25k cap on amount subject to F&A for subawards was incorrectly being applied. The total amount subject to F&A for the 03-62 line item was also showing an incorrect figure. Neither issue occurred when using sub budgets for subaward expenses. These issues have now been fixed.
SPAERC & SERA
Updates to Post-Award Change (PAC)
In order to improve the data quality, reporting, and analytics around award data, the following changes have been made to the Post-Award Change in SPAERC and SERA:
- Addition of Revised Start Date field, displayed for the PAC Requested Change type “Start Date Change”
- Addition of Revised End Date field, displayed for PAC Requested Change types “Extension”, “Early Termination”, or “Relinquishment”
- Addition of Temporary End Date field, displayed for PAC Requested Change type “Temporary Budget Extension” (formerly called “Advanced Extension”)
- Addition of Modification Number field
- Addition of Originating Sponsor Award Number field, which will pre-populate from the parent FA data, when present.
Updates to PAC Notification PDF
The above new PAC fields will also be displayed on the PDF attachment that is sent to campus when a PAC has been processed.
Updates to Pending Actions Report
The above new PAC fields are also included on the GCA Pending Actions Report
PAC Requested Change Type Updates
The following changes have been made to existing PAC types:
- “Advanced Extension” is now relabeled as “Temporary Budget Extension”
- “Significant Financial Interest” has been removed
- “Create Program Income” has been removed
- “Change of Award” has been removed
- “Change in Authorized Action” has been removed
The removed PAC Requested Change types will continue to display on historical PACs.
Update to Cycle View of PAC Data
When in the SPAERC or SERA Cycle view, the PAC row will now display the new Revised Start Date, Revised End Date, and Temporary End Date fields when populated.
Intellectual Property Provisions validation message update
The validation message that appears when the Intellectual Property Provisions question is not answered will now match the current question label, for added clarity.
SERA only: Future budget biennium selection removed
The Budget Biennium field, updated by GCA in many of the items in SERA, will no longer show future biennium dates for selection. This change will help prevent erroneous biennium selections.
SPAERC only: Grant Runner Submit no longer displays timeout error
Upon submission of Grant Runner applications in SPAERC, the system was displaying time-out errors that were misleading and likely to cause unnecessary alarm or confusion. The error tracking has been updated to improve the quality of the messages received by OSP on submission.
SPAERC only: Activity Locations Page Expanded by Default
The eGC1 Activity Locations page in SPAERC will now display as expanded by default, for easier viewing of relevant data without additional clicks.
AUMS
Automation of AUMS Renewal Reminders
In order to streamline processes for the Office of Animal Welfare (OAW) and Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S), the renewal reminders for AUMS screening will now be system-generated. The email notifications will be delivered as follows: For existing AUMS applicants who are still working with animals or whose animal exposure status is unknown, reminder emails will be sent on the following cycles, unless a new application is submitted prior:
- 35 days prior to renewal date (to applicant only)
- 7 days prior to renewal date (to applicant only)
- 1 day past renewal date (to applicant and their supervisor, when the applicant is an active employee.)
Applicants who are former staff, now inactive in Workday, will also receive the reminder notifications, since these individuals may continue to work with animals either on a voluntary basis or through an affiliation with the UW.
If the applicant no longer works with animals, the email will direct them to change their animal exposure status accordingly. (See next entry). When their animal exposure status is marked as “Inactive. No further work with or around animals”, no more reminders will be sent.
AUMS Status for No Further Work with Animals
The AUMS Profile now includes a field to indicate Animal Exposure Status. This will allow existing applicants to communicate to EHS & OAW that they no longer work with animals, or are again working with animals. When the exposure status is set to “Inactive. No further work with or around animals”, the individual will no longer receive any renewal reminders.
Profile History Display in AUMS OHN Module
When an AUMS applicant changes their animal exposure status in any way, the AUMS system will log the change, and the history of changes will be visible to the Occupational Health Nurses in EH&S and other authorized AUMS administrators. This will provide a helpful trail of when exposure status has changed for an applicant.
AUMS Ergonomic Questions now trigger “Consult Required” Review Action automatically
When an applicant has responded in the affirmative on any of the ergonomics questions on the AUMS questionnaire, the application’s Review Action will be automatically set to “Consult Required” to ensure an occupational health nurse reviews the application appropriately.
FIX: Can’t update AUMS Supervisor
An issue preventing the changing of an applicant’s supervisor in both the AUMS Applicant and OHN modules has been resolved.
FIDS
SFI Entity Type update
A change has been made to the Entity Type field when users are adding or updating SFI in FIDS. The “Foreign Government” entity type is now relabeled as “Foreign Government/Institution of Higher Ed” to better align with NIH disclosure requirements.
FIDS Reviewer: Update to Related Sponsored Research display
To better assist FIDS reviewers in monitoring compliance, a change has been made to the display of Related Sponsored Research (eGC1s). For eGC1’s that are in “Awarded” status the system will now show the most current and relevant related eGC1s based on the end date of the Funding Action instead of the end date of the eGC1. This will mitigate the accidental omissions of eGC1s whose anticipated start and end dates differ greatly from the Funding Action start and end dates.
For additional helpful context, the start and end dates of eGC1s will display in the list, when the eGC1 has not yet been awarded. Once awarded, then the Funding Action start and end dates will display in the list, along with the FA Number for reference.
MyResearch Integrations
SAGE Data Integrations with MyResearch
The following SAGE data was added to a web service to enable MyResearch future work.
- eGC1 data needed for Current and Pending Support generation
- New PAC fields mentioned above, for use in Award View
- Carryover funding action field and new PAC fields in the SAGE web service will also enable GCA automation of award setup and changes in the financial system