Section 3359-11-24 - Effort commitment and certification(A) The university of Akron (the university) recognizes the importance of providing good stewardship in managing extramural funds. The university's stewardship responsibilities include complying with federal requirements to certify faculty and staff effort on sponsored projects.(B) Support for the faculty's research goals is critical to the success of the university. The purpose of this document is to foster excellence in research by promoting the successful management of effort and commitments throughout the sponsored project life cycle. Activities during which effort issues are important include: (1) Establishing faculty and staff appointments and professional duties, including research, teaching, administration and clinical responsibilities.(2) Proposing effort in an application for a sponsored project.(3) Establishing effort commitments at the time an award is made.(4) Charging salary support, establishing and documenting cost sharing, and expending effort during the life of a project.(5) Monitoring progress toward the fulfillment of effort commitments to specific projects.(6) Managing an individual's total commitments across all projects.(7) Certifying that salary support charges are reasonable in relation to the work performed, and that commitments to sponsors have been met.(C) All researchers who engage in sponsored projects will comply with university rules, policies and procedures, sponsoring agency regulations and applicable law regarding the proposing, charging, and reporting of effort on those projects. The university assigns responsibility to the office of the associate vice president/controller for maintaining sponsored project accounting records; generating, distributing and recording effort reports; and administering procedures in furtherance of this policy.(D) Effort must be certified for all individuals who receive salary support from a sponsored project or who expend committed effort on a sponsored project without receiving salary support from the sponsor. Faculty and academic staff are required to certify their effort each semester. The time of the research staff reported and charged on sponsored projects will be certified by the principal investigators each semester. Effort must be certified in a timely manner. Effort is defined as: The proportion of time devoted to sponsored projects, teaching, clinical practice, and other activities, expressed as a percentage of total university activity, or one-hundred per cent effort. The denominator of the effort percentage must always be total university effort, irrespective of the total number of hours worked during the effort reporting period.
(E) The effort devoted to a sponsored project should be consistent with the plan that was proposed to the sponsoring agency and agreed to at the time of the award. All principal investigators, faculty and academic staff who are involved in proposing, executing, directing, or managing sponsored projects are responsible for: (1) Understanding the fundamentals of effort and commitment management and effort certification.(2) Proposing, expending, and managing effort in accordance with all sponsoring agency regulations, university rules, policies and procedures and applicable law.(3) Completing the required training and educational programs associated with effort reporting.(F) This policy is created in order to: (1) Comply with provisions of the federal office of management and budget's circular A-21 (cost principles for educational institutions) regarding effort certification and other relevant sponsor requirements.(2) Provide clear direction to faculty and staff for determining effort when preparing proposals and subsequently verifying effort.(3) Promote the best possible alignment between faculty and staff activity and funding sources and, in so doing, enhance work at the university of Akron.(4) Establish expectations for tracking and confirming the certification of effort by university personnel. Replaces: 3359-11-24
Ohio Admin. Code 3359-11-24
Effective: 1/31/2015
Promulgated Under: 111.15
Statutory Authority: 3359.01
Rule Amplifies: 3359.01
Prior Effective Dates: 12/31/09