The new fringe benefit rates should be used in sponsored proposal budgets for work that will be conducted on or after July 1, 2013. All proposals submitted to SPA on or after Feb. 11, 2013, will be expected to use the new fringe benefit rates shown below.

New fringe benefit rates effective in fiscal 2014:
Academic = 33.6%
Civil Service = 36.8%
Graduate Assistant = 23.1%

As reference, the current fringe benefit rates effective until the end of fiscal 2013 are:
Academic =34.9%
Civil Service = 39.6%
Graduate Assistant = 24.1%

EGMS will be updated shortly to reflect the new fringe benefit rates. The fringe rate matrix will also be posted to the appendices section of the budget policy page.

For researchers who are working on a proposal that includes equipment with a budgeted cost between $2,500 and $4,999.99, if the expense will be incurred after July 1, 2013, that item must now be included in the proposal budget, and in the PeopleSoft-friendly award budget, as non-capital equipment using account code 750100.

Submitted by David Hagen, SPA.

The Academic Health Center provided additional budget to support the office. Along with reducing expenses in some areas and postponing some FY13 expenditures into FY14, the funding has allowed RAR to decrease many of its original projections for FY13 per diem rates.

Please use the revised FY13 rates when planning research budgets and grant applications.

Most rates are 10 to 12.5 percent higher than they were in fiscal 2012 due to overall increase in expenses, including payroll, food/bedding, transporation/fuel, infrastructure refurbishment/repair, and central cost pool charges such as utilities.

All University of Minnesota units and departments that employ graduate research assistants are required to abide by this cap and ensure compliance with the mandate. The U of M’s Research Integrity and Oversight Programs (RIOP) oversee the compensation paid to graduate RAs on an annual basis. Those exceeding the cap will be required to transfer any excess compensation to non-sponsored programs.

As per the table in the NIH notice, the fiscal 2012 compensation cap for U of M graduate RAs is $39,264.

Based on input from faculty, we have re-engineered the reports available to faculty, improving visibility, utility and performance. We’re pleased to announce that these new reports are now available for use. You can access them via UM Reports in a new section designed for faculty/PI financial reporting; instructions on how to use the reports are available here. The reports, which now combine sponsored and non-sponsored account data as well as payroll data,  provide users with the option of reviewing high-level categorical summaries or drilling down into data to the level of individual transactions. We’re confident that these changes will significantly improve access to account data, thereby assisting faculty in managing their accounts in a thorough and timely way.

Over the summer months, other aspects of the EFS improvement initiative have also seen significant progress. A pilot of a new business intelligence (BI) tool will start soon. The BI toolset, known as UM Analytics, will enable users to create standardized and custom reports and will offer analytical capabilities for forecasting and predictive modeling.  A representative group of volunteers from various employee groups, business roles and colleges/departments has been recruited to participate in the 3-month-long pilot, focusing on financial reporting.  Ultimately, the additional analytical capabilities of the BI tool will complement the improvements made in the new suite of reports.

As with the implementation of any major system, the list of fixes and requests for changes (often referred to as “the punch list”) is lengthy.  The EFS implementation has been no different.  To help with evaluation and prioritization of these many items, we have appointed a committee of experienced end-users to advise the EFS team on functional needs and offer recommendations for further improvements.  The Financial System User Network (FSUN) Board has also reviewed the current list of items on the punch list and provided recommendations on the priorities from their members’ perspective.  These groups have already identified beneficial improvements and continue to work with us as we prioritize additional needs and fixes.

We appointed a group of 10 senior finance managers from across the university to conduct a review of the fundamental decisions made and implemented with EFS, including design elements such as: the structure of the chart of accounts; system workflows, particularly those related to purchasing; and interfaces with EFS. They’ll offer their recommendations for possible design modifications that might improve performance and make the system more efficient.  The committee is already working with OIT to identify and eliminate system performance bottlenecks for processing high-volume transactions.

We hope that the improvements to date will aid faculty and staff in performing their roles and responsibilities.  We also want to express our immense gratitude for your ongoing patience and continued commitment to helping us improve the EFS system.  We appreciate the level of your engagement in our efforts, and we’ll keep you apprised about further developments as this important project  continues.

Stay tuned.

Enhanced eRA Commons

Research Performance Progress Report

• Every dollar invested in the university by the state generates $13.20 in the statewide economy.
• The university’s overall economic impact in Minnesota totals $8.6 billion annually.
• A total of 79,497 jobs in Minnesota are supported by the U of M, including 37,178 jobs in communities across the state through university spending.
• Research at the university plays a major role in the state’s economy, generating $1.5 billion in annual economic impact and supporting 16,193 jobs.

“Since its earliest days, we know that the University of Minnesota has played a vital role in Minnesota’s economy,” said president Robert Bruininks. “Now we have concrete data to prove that point and demonstrate the significant return on investment that the university provides on the taxpayer dollars that are entrusted to us.”

The study was conducted by Tripp Umbach, a national leader in providing economic impact analyses to leading research institutes, universities, hospitals and academic medical centers. Tripp Umbach has completed more than 100 economic impact studies over the past decade, including the University of Washington, Penn State, Ohio State and the Mayo Clinic.

“The University of Minnesota is a major contributor to Minnesota’s economy in terms of employment, education, innovation and economic development,” said Paul Umbach, senior principal at Tripp Umbach. “Our analysis shows that the university’s true impact goes far beyond the $8.6 billion in annual economic impact and includes quality of life impacts such as volunteerism and charitable donations of staff, faculty and students, as well as arts and culture.”

Additional findings from the report will be discussed during a work session at the Board of Regents meeting on March 11, 2011. Click here for more results from the study.

• The latest annual survey conducted by the NSF, covering research performance for 2009, shows that the university posted an 8.5 percent increase in research and development (R&D) expenditures to a total of $741 million
  • Since 2004 the university has increased R&D expenditures by 41 percent, 1.5 times the average increase posted by the nation’s top 20 universities
  • The NSF survey ranked the university eighth among public research universities in the nation and 10th among all public and private research universities, an improvement of one position in both groups
• Grants and contracts awarded to university researchers topped $823 million in fiscal year 2010, marking a 36 percent increase over the previous year’s total. Even after excluding the contribution of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) awards, the fiscal year 2010 sponsored awards total increased 23 percent
• Faculty and staff have mounted strong responses to new funding opportunities associated with ARRA since it was announced in 2009, submitting 963 applications and securing 348 awards totaling more than $208 million
• Despite a decline in gross revenue to $75.2 million, the Office for Technology Commercialization reported increases in several key metrics that are used to track the performance of the university’s technology transfer program. The revenue decline was anticipated and is due to patents expiring on Ziagen, the blockbuster AIDS treatment that has accounted for the majority of university commercialization revenue for a number of years.

Mulcahy summarized the past year’s results:

Fiscal year 2010 was clearly a great year for the University of Minnesota and its journey toward its goal to be one of the best public research universities in the world. All the accomplishments outlined in this report to the Regents clearly show that the university has not only retained a position among the elite public research universities in the country, it has improved its standings among this esteemed cohort.

Mulcahy will report on the past year’s progress on key research performance metrics and technology commercialization results, both of which continue a positive trajectory.

All Board of Regents meetings can be viewed live via webcast; see the Board website for more information.

• Gifts are identified as dealings with no requirements made in exchange by the University.
• External Sales has several obligations and must meet the criteria set forth in the Board of Regents policy Direct Sales of Goods and Services.
• Sponsored Projects is a non-excluded transaction that must meet several criteria.

The definitions provided in the document spell out whether the funds are administered by the University of Minnesota Foundation or Minnesota Medical Foundation (gifts), SPA (sponsored projects), or the External Sales Office (external sales).

Questions on a transaction are handled by a transaction classification group comprised of representatives from SPA, External Sales, and both of the foundations.  If you cannot determine the appropriate category, send a copy of the statement of work, budget, and performance dates, along with contact information, to classification@umn.edu.  A decision will be provided within 3 business days.

Submitted by Frances Spalding