The recent announcement from FastLane has obviously raised concerns in the
SRO community.  Much of the concern may be due to the fact that the
announcement left so many questions unanswered.

1.  How will the user registration process work?  Will that still be done
through the SRO Office?

2.  If passwords change every 180 days, and a faculty member only writes
one grant a year (I'm at a primarily teaching institution, not a research
institution.), the odds are the faculty member will neglect to change the
password and/or forget it.   If they don't change it, will they be kicked
out of the database?  Does that mean they will have to re-register as
users?

3.  If the PI forgets to give the SRO access to the proposal (a common
mistake), will there be any way the SRO can gain "emergency" access for
submission purposes?

4.  I currently maintain a list of all PINs, because faculty often ask me
for their PIN number (and some co-PIs, who seldom work on the proposals
on-line, but must still be registered in the database, have no idea they
even have a PIN).  Could the SRO Office receive notification of password
changes and passwords?

5.  How are you going to secure electronic signatures for institutional
approvals?  I have 6 individuals on campus who are legally authorized to
sign-off on grant applications.  Will each one have to be registered some
how?  Will they have to keep track of changing passwords?  (Having
Presidents and Vice Presidents changing and keeping track of passwords
is...well...I can't imagine it.)

I have really appreciated the "user-friendly" character of the FastLane
system.    But, the changes proposed as described do appear to be unduly
cumbersome and problematic.  Perhaps responses to the questions above may
help us better understand how the new system will work.

**************************************************************************

Nancy Kay Peterson
Director of Grants & Sponsored Projects
Somsen Hall Room 202-C
Winona State University
Winona, MN  55987

Phone:  507.457.5519
Fax:       507.457.2415
xxxxxx@winona.msus.edu
http://www.winona.msus.edu/grants/

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