Beginning in April 2021, UCSF will implement a new award verification procedure to support Principal Investigators (PIs) in meeting requirements under the Uniform Guidance for federal awards. A key goal of award verification is to reduce the time required of PIs for compliance activities. PIs will cease using the Effort Reporting System and will use a new online tool for award verification.
Why is UCSF implementing award verification?
Uniform Guidance reformed federal government procedures for assistance awards (e.g., grants and cooperative agreements) with the goal to increase accountability and transparency while reducing the administrative burden on award recipients. These changes provided UCSF with the opportunity to review the internal controls in place for awards and to consider changing or replacing current practices. As a result, UCSF decided to develop and implement a new award verification procedure that leverages current risk control practices and includes a new custom-built tool for the UCSF research community to meet the requirements of federal awards.
What is changing?
Award PIs, as recorded in UCSF’s Research Administration System (RAS), will be required to verify at least quarterly that awards from the federal government are spent in accordance with federal laws, rules, guidance and statutes. The Award Verification Tool will support collaboration between Award PIs, Project PIs, Program Managers, and RSAs during the verification process.
The award verification process combines quarterly use of a new Award Verification Tool with the existing monthly General Ledger verification conducted by departments. Certification of effort using the Effort Reporting System will be discontinued.
When will the new process take effect?
UCSF will adopt the new award verification process beginning in April 2021. To further validate the system design and to inform the campus wide rollout, a pilot group of PIs and RSAs began using the Award Verification Tool in December. The target campus wide go-live date is April 12, 2021.
To learn more about award verification:
- Watch a brief introduction to Award Verification (no longer available);
- Bookmark the Award Verification page on the Controller’s Office website. Beginning in February, more information including tool previews and training materials will be available;
- Look for additional communications in the coming months for updates and additional resources to help you prepare for the new process.
If you have questions, please send an email to [email protected]