March 1, 2017
Dear Colleagues,
As many of you know, changes have been underway in the units previously known as the Sponsored Projects Office and Research Accounting Services, Sponsored Research Services has been created to combine these two functional areas into one. Moving forward these units will be moving away from using their previous monikers in favor of SRS. With this in mind, additional changes to roles within the office have been made with the goal of creating efficiencies and providing the most effective support to campus.
Beginning March 1st, SRS will have completed its first major reassignment of duties. The unit previously known as Research Accounting Services is now referred to as Awards, Sponsored Research Services Office. This newly formed Awards office will be responsible for all post-proposal activities, including Just In Time requests, award negotiation and acceptance, all central office financial management, progress report tracking, and all central office closeout activities. Please note that this list is meant only to highlight their major duties and is not exhaustive. There are currently two positions being recruited for this office, bringing it to a total of four staff. Lindsay Daniels will continue in her role as Assistant Director. The remaining staff will be assigned based on sponsor type and, after some evaluation, also by agreement complexity. The assignments will be on our website once the two open recruitments are filled. A new email address has been created for this unit, awards@ucmerced.edu Please begin using this email address for post-proposal related matters in place of ras@ucmerced.edu.
The unit previously known as the Sponsored Projects Office is now referred to as Proposals, Sponsored Research Services Office. This unit is responsible for the review and submission of proposals, including proposals resulting from After the Fact awards. Maggie Hollinger is retiring as of February 28th. The replacement position is currently with HR for review and posting. Until Maggie’s position is filled, Renu remains responsible for School of Engineering and School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts while Ana will be responsible for School of Natural Sciences and the ORU’s. I will act as backup when needed. A new email address has also been created for this unit, proposals@ucmerced.edu. Please begin using this email address for proposal related matters in place of spo@ucmerced.edu.
Christina Christensen will continue in her role as Subaward Manager. All subawards issued by UC Merced are handled by her unit as are all intercampus and subaward proposals and agreements. A new email address has been established for her unit, subawards@ucmerced.edu. Currently only information related to outgoing subawards should be routed to this email address.
Sponsored Research Services is working to develop a website that will replace the RAS, SPO and Cayuse websites, providing campus with a central location for all information related to the proposal and award activities for which the office is responsible. We will notify you once this website has been activated and will have the other websites taken down.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Warm Regards,
Autumn
