Let me throw in a philosophical comment, as background for whatever you do.

The first goal of an Office of Sponsored Programs is to provide
consistency, control and protection to the institution.  Obviously a lot of
compliance can be handled by other offices, but OSP should keep aware of
their activities and coordinate.  Your institution may have policies which
affect the acceptance of certain clauses in agreements; you need to enforce
these consistently, but be sure that they are written somewhere.  And they
may be externally imposed; e.g., many state institutions cannot accept
indemnification/hold harmless language because of the sovereign powers of
the state.

The second goal of OSP is assist the faculty in general and as individuals
in obtaining and executing sponsored projects.  This starts with providing
some "source of funding" information; easiest way for a new office is
probably to subscribe to a standard service available to all without
hands-on attention by OSP.  Some help and guidance for preparing a good
proposal is appropriate, though someone other than OSP may provide it; if a
new OSP has to, the place to start is putting good written guidance on a
web site.  "How to prepare the administrative stuff" guidance needs to be
consistent; specific guidance on budget preparation is needed and if you
are a new shop, OSP may have to do it; for sure, if other offices are
involved, OSP should work with them to ensure that practices are consistent
and appropriate (federal guidelines should be the core, simply because
that's where the $ usually is!)  It continues through being sure that
agreements do not have clauses that inhibit the specific researcher's
ability to do the specific research; with federal grants that is very
seldom a problem, but other sponsors may have language that is a
bother.  And so forth.

So, underlying all you do, are the principles of protecting the institution
and of service to the researchers.  Beyond that, what you do is very
situation specific (including budget specific).  But be sure the way you do
it is perceived by most -- there are always a few faculty members who will
never be satisfied! -- as service/assistance rather
thanbureaqucracy/roadblocks.

Good Luck!!

Chuck

At 03:43 PM 8/9/2004, you wrote:
>I am starting a new Sponsored Programs Office, basically from scratch. If
>each of you had that chance what pitfalls would you avoid and what
>administrative processes are an absolute must?
>
>I know this is a rather broad question and I look forward to the responses.
>
>Thanks
>
>
>Do you Yahoo!?
>
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Herbert B. Chermside, CRA
Special Asst. to VP-Research
Virginia Commonwealth University
PO BOX 980568
Richmond, VA  23298-0568
Voice:  804-827-6036
Fax     804-828-2051
e-mail xxxxxx@vcu.edu

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