1. Office of Sponsored Projects & Industry Partnerships 1 WFO ARRA FAQs Cynthia Sylvester Office of Sponsored Projects & Industry Partnerships Lee Haynes Budget Office

2. Office of Sponsored Projects & Industry Partnerships 2 NCE on ARRA Awards Can I request a NCE on my NIH ARRA award? Yes, the same NIH policies apply to ARRA awards as to non-ARRA awards.

3. Office of Sponsored Projects & Industry Partnerships 3 NCE on ARRA Supplement Awards Can I request a NCE on my NIH ARRA award that is a supplement ? Yes, but the NCE end date of the supplement must still be on or before the end date of the parent award. (see the NIH NCE Decision Tree for help about what actions need to be taken in different situations)

4. Office of Sponsored Projects & Industry Partnerships 4 LDRD LBNL is a subcontract to a university for an ARRA award. Am I still restricted from paying LDRD even if we are a subcontract ? Yes, if we are an ARRA award either primary, secondary, or tertiary we are restricted from paying LDRD. The same applies to FAC.

5. Office of Sponsored Projects & Industry Partnerships 5 ARRA Header Data Entry I know we received the Notice of Award for ARRA. When can I enter the information in the ARRA Header ? The ARRA Header can be updated after the award is generated in RAPID by the OSPIP CO.

6. Office of Sponsored Projects & Industry Partnerships 6 Weird Characters Why are there weird characters in the abstract in the ARRA Header? FMS uses what is called the “ASCII Character-Set” to send information between computers –ASCII is a 7-bit character set containing 128 characters ASCII Character-Set –Numbers from 0-9, uppercase and lowercase English letters from A to Z –Special Characters If any other characters are used besides the “ASCII Character-Set”, FMS will change the character to a question mark (?) or a (box) when the reports are created. Mostly found in: –Description of Project Activity from RAPID –Quarterly Activities

7. Office of Sponsored Projects & Industry Partnerships 7 What special characters can I use?

8. Office of Sponsored Projects & Industry Partnerships 8 Fix the Weird Characters How do I fix the weird characters? If the weird characters are in the Description of Project Activity, contact the OSPIP CO for correction in RAPID If the weird characters are inn Quarterly Activities, make the correction directly in the ARRA Header

9. Office of Sponsored Projects & Industry Partnerships 9 ARRA Award Process What is the current process for new ARRA awards? The process has evolved since the first awards arrived last fall. In many places the process has been streamlined. (see OSPIP website under procedures)

10. Office of Sponsored Projects & Industry Partnerships 10 Process Continues to Evolve September 2009 March 2010 Latest Draft

11. Office of Sponsored Projects & Industry Partnerships 11 Additional Questions