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Status Problem Due to Returning an eGC1 with an Ad Hoc OSP Approver

June 8, 2015

Issue: When an eGC1 has reached a status of In OSP, the standard OSP approval node will have an approval status of Waiting Approval. If OSP adds a colleague as an “ad hoc” Approver by name, for a second opinion or purposes of training, both the ad hoc Approver node and the standard OSP node will have a status of “Waiting Approval.”

When the application is returned by OSP before the ad hoc node is approved, and campus re-completes the application, the graph’s logic changes. When it is redrawn upon re-completion, the ad hoc OSP Approver node is considered to be a campus approver with an approval status of Waiting Approval, and the standard OSP node will have an approval status of En Route. Therefore, the status of the eGC1 is set to Routing rather than back to In OSP as expected. Unless the OSP staff have included eGC1s with a status of Routing in their tasklist view, the application will not appear on their tasklist.

This causes confusion for both the campus user who can verify that the eGC1 has been re-completed and the OSP Administrator who cannot see the eGC1 because of the unexpected status change.

Note: Once the ad hoc OSP Approver node is “approved” the status of the application will change from Routing to In OSP.

Solution: When an eGC1 does not show up on the Tasklist for an Administrator in OSP but Campus asserts to have Re-Completed it, have OSP include “Routing” on their tasklist filtering, or search for the specific application.

Which e-mail alerts are automatically generated and to whom are they sent?

The SAGE/SPAERC system automatically generates and sends several email messages during eGC1 routing and after OSP approval.

For information about email messages associated with approvals, review Approvals: Reviewer Notifications.

Also review the following sections in the Communications chapter:

SPAERC automatically generates documents which SPAERC users may customize and send. These documents are covered in Communications: Auto Generated Documents and Ready for Pickup.

When is the Office of Animal Welfare added to the approval graph of an eGC1?

The application would be one that involves the use of vertebrate animals (non-fiscal compliance question AU-1 = Yes). The Animal Subjects node appears as an approver if the application is After-the-Fact (ATF).  If not ATF, then if the Application Type is Transfer from Another Institution or Supplement and Extension.

Otherwise, the node is added “just-in-time” when the sponsor notifies the PI that the proposal has received a fundable score. The PI or other application owner adds Animal Subjects to the Approval Graph as an ad hoc Watcher. This sends an email notification to the Animal Subjects reviewers and gives them access to the application.

Just-in-time application types are:

  • Pre-Application
  • New
  • Competing Renewal
  • Competing Resubmission
  • Competing Supplement

For more information, see Approvals: Compliance Reviewers.

How the Flow is Generated

The system adds reviewers to the Approval Flow based on a combination of the selected or primary position units specified in the eGC1 and the individual routing rules of those units.

  • The organization receiving funding
  • The principal investigator’s primary position unit, and possibly the selected unit in cases where the PI has more than one job
  • The primary position and selected UW organization code of any additional research personnel
  • Any UW unit with a cost sharing commitment
  • The academic units or central offices connected to certain compliance question explanations (See Compliance Reviewers for more details.)
  • The additional organization unit reviewers added on the PI, Personnel, & Organizations page

Each unit at the UW determines its own routing rules. For example, one academic unit may require approval from the division, department, and Dean while another unit may require approval only from the Dean.

Note: The eGC1 preparer or any reviewer can add an additional node (called an ad hoc reviewer) for an individual or role (for example, Dean’s Reviewer) to the approval flow once the eGC1 is routing.

History & Comments

The History & Comments page provides an overview of all actions related to approvals, from when the application is first completed to when it is approved by OSP, including withdrawals, returns and re-completions. For Grant Runner and Adobe package applications, submission status information is also displayed here.

This page also displays any comments previously entered by campus reviewers or OSP when processing the application. Comments are:

  • optional when you or another reviewer approve an application*
  • optional when a preparer re-completes an application*
  • required when you or another reviewer returns an application
  • required when you add an ad hoc approver or watcher

*OSP’s business rule is to always give reviewer comments even when the system does not require them.

The system adds a standard comment when the preparer created the current eGC1 by copying another.

Notes:

  • Comments entered by OSP when approving only appear on the OSP Notes and Status pages. A standard comment of “Approved by OSP” appears on the History & Comments page.
  • All contents of the History & Comments page are visible to the owners of the application as well as OSP.
    • To access the History & Comments page of an application, click History & Comments in the left-hand navigation menu.

The History & Comments page lists completed actions and includes, reading from left to right:

  • Name: the person taking the action
  • Rule Type: the person’s relationship to the application
  • Budget Version: if a budget is connected
  • Action Taken: Completed, Withdrawn, Returned, Approved, Watched
  • Date: when the action occurred
  • Comments: included system-generated and user-entered comments
  • For approvers, there are also links to Approved Attachments and an eGC1 Snapshot, to show the state of the application at the time of approval.

The following image shows an example of this page.

approvals history and comments

For Grant Runner applications, there is also a link to Approved Sponsor Forms.

link from approvals to grant runner forms

Upcoming Approvals lists the units or reviewers who have not yet approved (or watched), their approval status, and a link to view the list of authorized reviewers for that unit.

upcoming approvals list
Possible approval statuses are:

  • Waiting Approval indicates the eGC1 is ready for this Reviewer to approve.
  • En Route indicates a prior Reviewer on the graph (to the left) has yet to approve.
  • Watching indicates a reviewer who is not required to approve the eGC1, but who may need to review it.