At the risk of being thrown off this list, there are other ways to look at this. Robert P. Bloomberg Director, Office of Grants & Contracts Tufts Medical Center 800 Washington Street (Tupper 10) Boston, MA 02111 Tel. 617.636.1142 Fax. 617.636.8568 > -----Original Message----- > From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@hrinet.org] On Behalf > Of Lesley Zajac > Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 5:13 PM > To: xxxxxx@hrinet.org > Subject: Re: [RESADM-L] incredibly irritated was FedConnect > > Bob: > > Feel free to rant any time you want!! You make excellent points but > until we start making a lot of noise, no-one will listen. We need to go > to the top - if President Obama wants this to be open and transparent to > all, then they have to make it work for those on the front lines. > > Lesley S. Zajac > Director, Research Administration > Jaeb Center for Health Research > 15310 Amberly Drive, Ste 350 > Tampa, FL 33647 > Tel: 813.975.8690 > Fax: 813.975.8761 > email: xxxxxx@jaeb.org > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@hrinet.org] On > Behalf Of Bob Beattie > Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 4:42 PM > To: xxxxxx@hrinet.org > Subject: [RESADM-L] incredibly irritated was FedConnect > > Thanks Tina, now you have got me going: rant on -- > > I have just been watching the GPC webcast about all of this and it is > distressing. > > I think the recent decision by the Director of the Office of > Management and Budget to allow all agencies to ignore Grants.gov and > use any system they want to receive applications is the worst example > of government waste I have seen. Universities have put millions of > dollars -- maybe all of us together, a hundred million -- into > systems and procedures for dealing with Grants.gov. Yes, the system > has programming problems and needs more capacity, but we know it and > we know how to deal with it. > > A bit more capacity and it might work just fine, and a little program > fix. Many agencies have not been supportive of Grants.gov. Compare > NIH receiving 86,000 applications through Grants.gov to NASA's paltry > 121, or even NSF taking in only 600 of the tens of thousands they > get. All agencies were required to contribute to Grants.gov, even if > they wanted it to fail. Now maybe they will seek to not support > it. Tom Cooley, head of GPC, and CFO at NSF said on the webcast that > agencies could allow people to use systems other than Grants.gov but > that was optional. We know this is not true, as Tina says, Energy is > requiring FedConnect or IIPS. FedConnect was installed as the Energy > Department's GMLOB system, not to be converted into a submission system. > > So using the ARRA as an excuse, and instead of fixing Grants.gov for > all of us, the Director of OMB says it is ok to move away from > Grants.gov. So Energy, which just made a huge investment in > FedConnect as their exception to the Grants Management Line of > Business process, decides to now use it to replace Grants.gov, and > worse, they are still using IIPS -- two bad systems. We might > accept FastLane or even INSPIRES as they don't work too badly. But > the Energy choices are clearly worse than Grants.gov, once you can > even figure out how to use them. Don't we really want just one > system, for all grants, anyway. I do not like many aspects of > Grants.gov but I want it to succeed. > > So what to do? You could write your congress people to complain that > you want one portal for grants submissions, and you have made a large > investment already in Grants.gov. Write too, to support Senate Bill > 303 now in the House, to renew Grants.gov with some stronger > components. One being required user input. We must complain about > the roller coaster ride we are being put on -- Grants.gov problems, > not fixed, new systems to learn, what next - 26 systems, or PAPER!? > > Do we think that all agencies must accept Grants.gov, or their own > but the latter must optional. We should not be required to use > FedConnect. > > Consider writing to the OMB person who seems to be in charge of the > Grants.gov reduction, xxxxxx@omb.eop.gov > > If you are upset with Grants.gov reductions in use, and with any > aspect, maybe he will listen. > > If you want to go higher, > http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ > As the site says, President Obama is committed to creating the most > open and accessible administration in American history. Open but > will anybody listen to us? > > The FDP and COGR are working on this problem of lack of Grants.gov > support and attempts to move away from it. I have heard that the > administration thinks of Grants.gov as a Bush Initiative, so > something to change. What they do not realize is that it is a > College/University Initiative that was started during the Clinton > administration as the Federal Commons. Be sure to let your reps to > FDP and COGR know what you want (if you are not them) and keep those > organizations pushing. Consider contacting your state Grants people, > as they are also impacted. They work through the National Grants > Partnership. > > Are we as mad as h*** and not going to take it anymore, yet? Tina > is mild in her comment: > > "We are incredibly irritated here that we and our PIs have to learn > yet another system." > > That does makes a good slogan, doesn't. Tell Mr. Werfel, "We are > incredibly irritated to have to learn another system." > > rant off > > keep the applications flowing :) > > > Bob > ------------------------------ > Robert Beattie > University of Michigan > xxxxxx@umich.edu (734) 936-1283 > > On Apr 21, 2009, at 2:30 PM, Tina L. Cunningham wrote: > > Hi Bob, > > We are now seeing proposals submissions being required to go through > FedConnect (our first one is due the end of the month) and so I > searched the list serv to see what had been discussed and found this > thread (hard to believe it is over a year ago!). I know that we are > stuck with what the RFP tells us to do, but is it truly proper to > require us to use a new system over Grants.gov? We are incredibly > irritated here that we and our PIs have to learn yet another system. > > Thanks! > > Tina > > ******************************** > Tina L. Cunningham, J.D., CRA > Administrator > Sponsored Programs Administration > Mississippi State University > 133 Etheredge Hall > 449 Hardy Road > P.O. Box 6156 > Mississippi State, MS 39762 > > Phone: 662-325-7395 > Fax: 662-325-3803 > Email: xxxxxx@spa.msstate.edu > > > > > > > >>> > From: Bob Beattie <xxxxxx@UMICH.EDU> > To: <xxxxxx@hrinet.org> > Date: 2/18/2008 1:46 PM > Subject: Re: [RESADM-L] FedConnect > > FedConnect is a change from IIPS. > > It will be a post submission management > system, like Reserch.gov, NIH eRA Commons and other such operations. > As folks > may know there is a move within granting agencies to come up with a > limited number > of post submission management systems. This is under auspices of > OMB. The general > project is called "Grants Management Line of Business - GMLOB. There > are now three but > agencies can get an exemption, NIH has, for example. Also DoEnergy > > > Here is an overview of the whole process from 2005 at FDP site > http://thefdp.org/Meeting_Sep2005.html > > Read about NSF's project - Research.gov > http://thefdp.org/Jan_2008_meeting.html > > For some details on FedConnect itself, go here > http://e-center.doe.gov/doebiz.nsf/Special+Notices?OpenView > and then here > DOE Transitioning To Electronic Procurement System > > So FedConnect is not a grants submission system, maybe will be for > contract applications. > Below is a comment I got when I asked someone in DOE what this is about. > > "DOE is not going to use one of the GMLOB consortia. We received an > exception from OMB early last calendar year to add the financial > assistance module to our new acquisition mgmt system. This decision had > many facets to it (and no it was not mine.) The short story is none of > the other three gave us what we needed. > > This system will be standardized across DOE and offices will have > limited abilities to do things their own way. Most of the changes with > this new system will be internal and not will affect applicants and > recipients. We will continue to use Grants.gov to post FOAs and receive > applications. All pre-award, admin, and post award communications will > be through the fedconnect portal. This includes making the award, > amendments and letters from DOE and reports submission and > communications from you. > > We are still working out some of the details and the implementation > schedule, transition is scheduled to begin in April and last for 6-9 > months. Right now the biggest change is for you to register at > FEDConnect. I believe NASA and parts of DHS and DOT are also going to > use this system for grants. For acquisition, there are lots of agencies > going with Compusearch." > > Hope this is helpful. Maybe more than most people wanted to know :) > > Bob > xxxxxx@umich.edu > 734 936-1283 > > > > > > > On Feb 18, 2008, at 11:38 AM, Giarrusso, Gary wrote: > > A few weeks ago, we received an email from the Department of Energy > requiring us to register on FedConnect for the purposes of submitting > proposals and general award administration. I was wondering if > anyone had information as to why DOE is not using Grants.gov. It > would seem to me that this application is in competition with > Grants.gov. Thanks. > > Gary Giarrusso, CPA > Manager of Sponsored Programs Accounting and Financial Compliance > University of New Hampshire > Office of Sponsored Research > Service Building, 51 College Road > Durham, NH 03824 > Tel (603) 862-0609 > Fax (603) 862-3564 > xxxxxx@unh.edu > > ====================================================================== I > nstructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including > subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available > via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists") > ====================================================================== > > > ====================================================================== > Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including > subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available > via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists") > ====================================================================== > > > ====================================================================== > Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including > subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available > via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists") > ====================================================================== > > > ====================================================================== > Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including > subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available > via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists") > ====================================================================== > > > ====================================================================== > Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including > subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available > via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists") > ====================================================================== ====================================================================== Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists") ======================================================================
