Yes, we had a number of CFF grants being processed for the Sept. 1
deadline.  I agree with most of the points you and others have made.  It
seems that this decision was made hastily without thinking through all the
ramifications.  One of our P.I.'s downloaded forms only a couple of months
ago, prepared her complete grant with them, and then found out that they
had all been changed and had to redo on the new electronic forms.  She had
trouble with the budget forms, and contacted GEPPS around mid-August.  I
just heard that they sent out an email Sept. 1 which extended the deadline
and answered a number of her questions under FAQ.  Of course, not knowing,
we had struggled to submit all of the grants by 8/31.

I don't understand all of what is required, because I'm in the central
department office and most of the "nitty-gritty" work is done within the
division.  From what I understand, with each P.I. having to have their own
password, I.D., etc., there were about 8 people all trying to work
individually to do their electronic submission!  This is not efficient.
Maybe if they had offered the electronic method as an option at first, and
given a future date where it would be mandatory, it would have been less
traumatic for everyone.

I strongly agree that this process should have been started with the
central grants & contracts offices, rather than at the investigator level.

At 10:30 AM 8/31/99 -0400, you wrote:
>        I was wondering if any one of you have had the "privilege" of
>utilizing the GEPPS (Grantmaker's Electronic Proposal Processing System)
>website? It is for electronic submission of CF and ACS applications. There
>is no research administration portion included in the site!
>
> UNFORTUNATELY, if investigators are submitting proposals to the Cystic
>Fibrosis Foundation they must utilize this site! Here's the deal: you must
>have 4.0 Acrobat OR Adobe Acrobat Exchange with Adobe Acrobat Reader!  I
>don't know about you folks, but most of us at our University have 3.0
>Acrobat! It gets better! Here's GEPPS "claim to fame"! And I'm quoting them
>directly-- "PI submits directly to sponsor WITHOUT going through any
>approval system"!  Our office is currently working with an investigator to
>submit for 9/1 CF deadline; luckily, she has come to our office for
>assistance. But, what about investigators who directly submit WITHOUT our
>assistance? I feel this site has made our job incredibly difficult! I would
>love to know how others feel.
>
>In closing, I accidentially typed "com" instead of  "org". This will bring
>an individual to a porn site! How appropriate from grant's administration to
>porn. OY!
>
>If you wish, you may e-mail me directly.
>
>Nancy Dean
>Research Administrator
>University of Conneticut Health Center
>xxxxxx@nso1.uchc.edu
>
>
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Judith E. Quin
Grants Manager
Department of Pediatrics
Rainbow Babies & Childrens Hospital
Room 787 Location 6003
Cleveland, OH  44106-6003
Phone:  216-844-3653
Fax:  216-844-5570
email:  xxxxxx@po.cwru.edu

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 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")
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