Principal Investigator Effort Training

1. Principal Investigator Effort Training Created 07/2010 by Sponsored Projects Administration

2. What are Effort Certification Statements? • Effort Certification Statements are documentation of effort (the amount of personnel work) expended on federally sponsored projects.

3. What is on an Effort Statements? Statements include: Information about who the statement is for and the effort period (the dates) it covers.

4. Statements include: The accounts listed on a statement are in relation to the covered individual’s payroll distributions during the time period of the statement covers. GL and OGA related accounts are included.

5. Statements include: Oracle divides the “effort related” payroll paid during the period for each account by the total effort related payroll the individual received. This is then represented as a percentage on the statement.

6. It is worth noting, that a projects start and end date in relation to the start and end date of the effort period can effect how the covered individual’s % of payroll distribution is represented.

8. Statements include: Cost sharing activities (that are not already being represented by a cost sharing companion account) are accounted for by being written in on the statement in this column.

9. Statements include: The covered individual’s total effort for each account is written in here and must equal a 100% when added together.

10. Statements include: The actual statement on the form that a the signer is certifying to.

11. The statement again, this time in a readable size font: “I certify that I have reasonable means of verifying the activities performed by the above mentioned employee and that the distribution of effort represents a reasonable estimate of the actual work performed by the employee during the period covered by this report.”

12. What Does “Reasonable” Mean? • Reasonable means OHSU allows for a 5% variance per line on an effort statement when it is certified. • For example, if a statement is certified with 10% on a particular project, this implies that the covered individual’s effort for that project was between 5-15%.

13. A person who is able to agree that statement and sign the form are: • The covered individual • The Principal Investigator for the project’s represented. • A supervisor who has direct knowledge of the covered individual’s activities Statements include:

14. Why Do We Certify Effort? • OHSU’s Effort Certification system was developed in direct response to the Federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-21 (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars_a021_2004/).

15. What is A-21? • A-21 aims to ensure that the Federal Government bears its fair share of total costs. • A-21 recognizes that in an academic setting, teaching, research, service, and administration are often inextricably intermingled. A precise assessment of factors that contribute to costs is not always feasible nor is it expected. Reliance therefore is placed on estimates in which a degree of tolerance is appropriate.

16. What is A-21? • Effort is auditable and failure to comply with A-21 can have very serious consequences.

17. Who needs to have their effort certified? • An employee is required to complete an Effort Certification Statement if they have: • Activity that is partially or totally devoted to a federally sponsored agreement. • AND, pay that is partially or totally paid from such an agreement, OR is represented as cost sharing

18. When Do We Certify Effort? • OHSU certifies effort on a semi-annual basis. • OHSU effort periods are from: • Jan 1-Jun 30 • July 1-Dec 31

19. Statements are generated and distributed approximately 30 business days after the end of an effort period. • The delay is to provide Departments additional time to work with PI’s to ensure that the payroll distributions for a project in Oracle are correct.

20. What are a PI’s Responsibilities at OHSU for Effort Reporting?

21. Review, Understand, and Certify • As a PI you are responsible for: • Understanding Effort Certification Policies and Procedures. This information is posted on the Sponsored Projects Administration website at http://www.ohsu.edu/research/rda/spa/effortcert.shtml. • Working with your Department Effort Coordinators to review, understand, and certify your own statement and when appropriate your project staff’s statements.

22. Ensuring Payroll Charges are Appropriate • As a PI you are also responsible for ensuring that the charges on your sponsored accounts are accurate and appropriate. • This includes being aware if you are affected by a federal salary cap and working with your department to ensure that your salary over the cap is being supported as cost share by a non-sponsored account.

23. At times a rounding error in the Payroll Distribution % column can occur within Oracle. This can cause the Payroll Distribution % to show slightly more or less than 100%. • This rounding error falls within the 5% variance allowed for statements and is acceptable.

24. Keeping Track of Your Committed Effort • Principal Investigators are responsible for making sure that your total effort commitment does not exceed 100%.

25. All Research?All the Time? • If you have100% of your effort charged to sponsored agreement(s) than you must have a letter that has been signed by your Dean or Director that specifies that you are dedicated 100% to research and not responsible for any administrative, teaching, or clinical duties at OHSU.

26. Getting Sponsor Approval for Changes • As a PI you must obtain prior approval from the appropriate institutional and agency authority to make a change to the committed effort(s) to a project award. • Also, you need to be aware if there are special effort related terms and conditions to a particular project award.

27. Contacts for Effort Related Questions? • Your first resource for effort related questions is your Department Effort Coordinator. • Your second resource is the Sponsored Project Administration’s Institutional Effort Coordinator who can be reached at spaeffrt@ohsu.edu or ext 4-6984.