Reviewing Other Support using the Other Support Tool: Step-by-step guidance

The Other Support Tool is accessed by searching for the Investigator under My Researchers in myRESEARCHhome.

Once you have selected an Investigator you will see their summary page including appointment information, compliance requirements, and active and pending projects. 
 

To the left of the page select “View Effort Summary”

This will open the Effort & Commitment Summary page, where you can see the Investigator’s Current Effort Allocation summary by Sponsored Projects, Clinical, and Other categories. Using these figures to calculate the total PM available for sponsored research. This figure will be compared to the total effort in the Other Support document to ensure there is no commitment overlap.

The Current Effort Summary provides current allocated effort assignments utilizing the formula Total PM at Duke less Clinical time less protected time 0.6 CM (minimal) to calculate the sponsored Research Activities.  The Sponsored Projects total represents the current month’s allocated effort in iForms.

Protected Administrative time may be reflected in the Current Effort Summary in the Other category and must be accounted for when calculating available effort. Internal Duke research projects with assigned effort will also be reported in the Other category.  The total effort available may not match the Sponsored Projects figure in the Current Effort Summary as faculty may have time allocated to Duke funds (departmental, professorships, etc.) that could be committed to sponsored research.

In the example above the Investigator currently has 6.6 CM assigned to sponsored research so the total effort in the Other Support document must not exceed that amount without an overlap statement or approved Salary, Effort, or Appointment (SEA) change.

After confirming the available effort, select “Other Support Tool” to open Effort Management.

This review will look at Active Projects, Submitted Proposals, and Outside Interests where applicable.

Select “Expand All” to open the detail for all records. 

Open the Other Support document submitted by the Department.

The Investigator’s name should be listed at the top of the Other Support document followed by the eRA Commons ID if submitting to NIH. The Commons ID is displayed in the top portion of Effort Management.  

This space can also be used to explain any particularities about the investigator’s appointment such as  less than full time at Duke or dual appointment with VAMC.  This information should be confirmed with the Effort Management summary.  

Active Support

Compare each entry in the Other Support document to the records in the Other Support Tool.  (If you used the Other Support Tool to create the Other Support document, the records should be ordered the same.)  Designate which entry is for “This RPPR”.]

Other Support Tool	Other Support Document

Any edits or comments can be made to the Other Support document using Track Changes.

If any information in the Tool is missing or incorrect, please contact the Effort Management Team at EffortMGMT@duke.edu. 

Items to note during the review process

1. Link to award record in SPS.
2. Verify prefix and suffix of award number. For RPPRs the department should update to the next budget period for the relevant award.
3. If Duke is a subrecipient, the Prime PI should be listed here. The OS Tool pulls from the SPS record, which will import the Duke PI so this needs to be manually updated.
4. The project period dates should be for the current competing period segment.
5. The OS Tool cannot currently calculate the total award amount but links to the NOA for this information. This should be the total award amount, including directs and F&A funds received since the beginning of the current competing period segment and all anticipated future budget periods. Make sure to check and update this figure based on the latest NOA.
   1. For subawards this should be the Duke awarded portion only. Do not include anticipated future funding in the total for subawards.
   2. For PPGs and other multi-project awards issued directly to Duke, the total amounts for individual minis may be listed; however, effort commitments should be the combined amount across all minis.
6. Do not include current budget period effort for the RPPR project on the Other Support document, this effort will be reported in the All Personnel Report.
   For all other projects (non-RPPR project), the current budget period effort should be the projected effort for that period or the current allocation if within the 25% allowance. The out years should show at the Committed Effort level for each period. The department may manually calculate a different projected effort using the Projection Effort Calculator if there is an effort change planned and not yet reflected in the system.  The Projected Effort cannot be reduced => 25%* from the Committed Effort (this requires prior approval if Senior/Key). See Flow Chart in Appendix A.
7. For the next year’s budget – the year for which we are requesting funds  – the OS effort should match the budgeted effort in the budget worksheet and budget justification. The budgeted effort should be either the committed effort as originally proposed or within the allowable threshold of change (for NIH, less than a 25% change*). Future effort should be listed as originally committed effort.  
   If the effort budgeted is => 25%* reduction for the next period and if any outyear effort needs to be changed for the RPPR project, then Section D.2.a must include a scientific justification for the effort reduction and the time period of the change. ORA staff evaluates the reduction justification to determine allowability for submission. The documented justification will serve as prior approval review and will be entered into Effort Management by ORA representative.

* Certain sponsors or programs may have published minimum effort policies which are excluded from the 25% threshold guidelines. If a minimum effort level is mandated, no effort reduction can be requested through the RPPR and must go through the prior approval process using the Commitment Change Request form.
 

If the RPPR was for Dr. Wu’s award (in the screenshot above), it should appear in the Other Support document as follows:

If the RPPR was for another award, then Dr. Wu’s award should appear in the Other Support document as follows: 

Multi-Year Funded Awards

Certain awards may have a single budget period that spans multiple years. In these cases, the Projected Effort Allocation in the Other Support Tool is calculated as the average from the beginning of the budget period through the end of the current commitment. There are also no future budget periods listed. 

For these awards Grant Managers should break out the commitment by year to create a chart similar to multi-budget period awards and recalculate the Projected Effort Allocation based on the current year.

No Cost Extensions

Projects that are in No Cost Extension (NCE) should be identified in both the Other Support Tool (NIH only) and the Other Support Document.

Most sponsors do not require effort reporting during a NCE period and changes in effort are often not submitted to the sponsor. As a result, changes in effort during a NCE period are typically not considered changes in commitment and are therefore not processed in the Effort Management System.

The NCE extends the final budget period / commitment period for additional months and the Other Support Tool uses the commitment period to calculate the projected effort. This may result in the appearance of an overcommitment of effort when that is not the case.  

Thus, to report effort during an approved NCE, the Current Effort Allocation should be reported on the Other Support document. 

If an Investigator’s effort has ended during the NCE period, the project may still appear in the Other Support Tool under Active Projects, but does not need to be included in the Other Support document if the current allocation is 0. The project should be included under ended effort in the change statement.

Projects with Zero Effort

The Other Support Tool may also show projects under Active support with zero effort due to the Investigator’s role on project – these are excluded from Other Support Disclosure.

Any projects that appear in the Other Support Tool but not in the OS document or vice versa need follow up by the department to determine the cause. In many cases an award has moved from Pending to Active or Active to Completed and has not been updated in the Other Support Document.

The Other Support Tool may have projects with zero effort that are required to have measurable effort under the SOM Policy on Measurable Effort for Key Personnel. During the transition, some projects were updated with 0.12 CM for the departments to evaluate. There are projects at zero effort that need to be updated to the appropriate measurable effort. Sometimes these show in the Effort & Commitment Summary and others only show in the MRH cards.

Pending Support

Only proposals that have been submitted and appear under “Submitted Proposals” in the Other Support Tool should be included in the Other Support document. All the information in the Other Support Tool and the Other Support Document should match the proposal.

SPS data changes are made daily by staff and systems while Other Support documents are a snapshot of a point in time.  Projects may appear (new awards) or disappear (unfunded/withdrawn) and occasionally “hide” when a subaward has completed one year and there is no SPS record for the next year.   Reconciliation is required between the Other Support Tool and the Other Support document, as well as any available knowledge from the faculty, the grant manager, and the ORA staff to ensure full disclosure of all activities in support of an individual’s research endeavors.   

If a project appears in the Other Support document but not in the Other Support Tool it was likely unfunded. These discrepancies may be verified in SPS or confirmed by the department.

Awards with a pending competing renewal may appear under both Active and Pending Support.

In-Kind Support

In-kind contributions disclosed in Duke's COI system are viewable in the "myResearchers" widget in myRESEARCHhome. There may be additional contributions that have not been disclosed in the COI system but should be included in the Other Support.

Contributions that should be disclosed in Other Support include resources uniquely available to the Investigator, including resources made available from Duke, via third party, or directly to the Investigator. If there is no time commitment, a reasonable estimated dollar value of the contribution should be listed.

Resources specific to the proposed project or institutional resources made broadly available to researchers should be included in the Facilities and Other Resources or Equipment sections at the proposal stage.

Outside Interests (COI)

Include a statement of any FCOI activities that were not included in the Biosketch at the time of proposal.

Total Support

Add up the total Person Months effort under Active Support. This figure should not exceed the available effort previously calculated (Total Person Months at Duke less Clinical time less protected time). Total effort in the Other Support document must not exceed that amount without an overlap statement or approved SEA change.

If there is potential scientific, budgetary, or commitment overlap, the PI must include a statement to resolve the overlap. Overlap is not expected for an Other Support submitted with an RPPR as potential overlap would have been addressed at JIT.

Include statement if there is no overlap:  No scientific, budgetary, or commitment overlap.

The Other Support Document must include the certification statement and line for PI signature/date.

The format and process for Other Support at Just in Time is similar to Other Support for RPPRs. The following differences apply:

There is no change statement included in JIT Other Support documents as Other Support has not been previously reported. This space can be used, however, to explain any particularities about the investigator’s appointment (e.g.- less than full time at Duke, dual appointment with VAMC).

Active Support

Effort for all active projects should begin with the current budget period using the Committed Effort.

Pending Support

The project for the JIT request will appear under Pending Support and should be identified as such. The effort for the JIT project and all other pending projects should match the committed amounts from the proposal.

Total Support

Add up the total Person Months effort under Active Support and the JIT project. This total should not exceed the available effort previously calculated (Total PM at Duke less Clinical time less protected time).

If there is potential scientific, budgetary, or commitment overlap, the PI must include a statement to resolve the overlap. Overlap statements for JIT requests should include specific details regarding the plan to resolve the overlap.

Current and Pending Support for NSF awards is only required at the time of proposal submission. If Current and Pending Support changes between the time of submission and award, the Investigator should submit an updated version at the time of award. 

The document should include all Current and Pending projects, including the proposed project. In-kind contributions should only be included if they have an associated time commitment, otherwise they should be added to the Facilities, Equipment, and Other Resources section of the proposal. There is no overlap statement required.
 

Previous/Current/Pending Support for DoD awards is required at the time of proposal submission. An updated document will be required at the time of funding. DoD requires additional sections to the document:

Positions and Scientific Appointments

List all positions and scientific appointments, both domestic and foreign (including affiliations with foreign entities or governments), held by the PI and all senior/key personnel.

Previous Support

List all projects that have ended within the past five years. This information is found under the “Completed Projects” section of the Other Support Tool.

For all projects listed under previous, current, and pending support, the following information is required for each project:

• Title
• Time commitments (in Person Months)
• Supporting Agency
• Name and address of the funding agency’s procuring Contracting/Grants Officer*
• Performance period
• Level of funding
• Brief description of the project’s goals
• List of the specific aims.
• Proposed project overlaps with other existing and pending research projects. Clearly state if there is no overlap.

*This information is not in the Other Support Tool but can typically be found on the NOA/contract in SPS.

Do not include the proposed project under Pending Support.

Resources

Report all other support including resources made available to a researcher in support of and/or related to all of their research endeavors, regardless of monetary value.

Other Projects and Activities

Report all current projects and activities that involve the PI and all senior/key personnel, even if the support received is only in-kind.

Certification Statement

Like NIH Other Support, the document must include a certification statement and Investigator signature.