Diane,
Your response from Paul Rodman regarding signed paper copies of proposals
is interesting and not true based on first hand information.

Last week NCURA asked me to write a Cyberplace article about the Foundation
Commons. The article was designed to be informative and not opinionated.

I spoke with several people to get information for the article including
two GEPPS consortium member representatives ( ACS and Alzheimer's
Association) and Paul Rodman.

As coincidence would have it, just a few minutes ago I received a call from
the person I spoke with at the Alzheimer's Assoc.  She wanted a copy of my
article for her boss to review. I explained that it had gone to the presses
and that there was nothing in the article that directly quoted her.

During our conversation this women provided further details about how
Alzheimer's uses this electronic submission system:

All proposals are submitted electronically directly from the PI. They are
then reviewed. After Alzheimer's decides whose projects they will fund,
they contact the PI and ask for a hard copy of the proposal with the
appropriate institutional signatures.  (The fact that award notification
goes directly to the PI before any institutional information is received
was not made clear to me until now.)

You can bet that I proceeded to have a pretty darn lively conversation with
this person. It is painfully clear that they don't have any understanding
of what goes on at a research institution. The Foundation Commons may end
up creating far more problems than it was supposed to alleviate.

It's unfortunate (to say the least) that input from the research
administration community wasn't actively sought prior to going "live".

Sue Keehn, Associate Director
Office of Research and Sponsored Programs
University of Arkansas at Little Rock

At 11:16 AM 12/17/1999 -0600, you wrote:

>We were also concerned about the ACS system.  I contacted Paul Rodman at
>Research and
>Management Systems, Inc. (RAMS) and received the following message.
>
>***begin message***
>From: Paul Rodman <xxxxxx@rams.com>
>To: "'Diane M Meyer '" <xxxxxx@iastate.edu>
>Subject: RE: American Cancer Society Electronic Application System
>Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1999 11:54:50 -0500
>:
>
>  Hi Diane,
>
>Currently the foundations require at least one signed copy before the
>proposal is "Accepted".  Without the institutional signatures the
>application is not considered.
>
>We were concerned with imposing yet another system for you and your staff to
>learn.  Our President, John Rodman, is a former Director of Research Admin
>and past president of SRA, so we are very aware of your value.  The
>Foundations also want a relationship with the Administrators.  We have
>presented the Foundation Commons at the last 2 NCURA ERA meetings and will
>be at some regional meetings next year.
>
>The only interaction with the "system" is downloading the forms and
>submitting the completed forms.  We developed everything in Adobe so the
>work could be done off line.  This provides maximum flexibility for the
>applicant.
>
>Also, anyone, including the research admin office, can initiate a proposal.
>The foundations did not want to limit the system because they didn't want to
>discriminate against applicants that do not have a research office.  The
>signiture requirement ensures your institutional approval.
>
>If you have any further questions do not hesitate to get in touch.  I hope
>you take advantage of the opportunity to explore the system and give your
>feedback.
>
>Thanks for your input.
>
>Paul Rodman
>***end message***
>
>
>Diane M. Meyer |-| Budget/COS/FastLane Specialist
>Contracts & Grants, Iowa State University
>221 Beardshear Hall
>Ames, Iowa  50011
>515-294-4567 (voice)  515-294-8000 (fax)
>http://grants-svr.admin.iastate.edu/candg.html
>W-W-W < =====<<
>
>
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