Note: All PIs received an invitation very similar to the one below on March 3rd, 2016. For purposes of the accouncement, PIs are “account manager” on open accounts associated with awards.
From: Office of the Vice Provost for Research <vp_research@cornell.edu>
Date: Thu, Jan 28, 2016 at 2:17 PM
Subject: OVPR Announces PI Dashboard
To: "PIDashList@cornell.edu" <PIDashList@cornell.edu>
This message is being sent to individuals designated as “account manager” on open accounts associated with awards that are administered by the Research Division. A PDF copy of this message is attached for an alternative means of accessing the web links.
Dear Colleagues:
I am writing to announce the first release of the PI Dashboard (PI Dash), a web application to help you review and track your research project(s) financials, and to summarize the features that will be included in future releases of the dashboard as it is gradually built out to its final configuration.
The Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR) is building the PI Dash, under the oversight of a faculty steering committee and according to faculty specifications. The PI Dash is designed to be an easy to use, modern browser-compatible web user interface that, when it is fully implemented, faculty will be able to use as a single point for obtaining all the information needed to effectively manage the administrative aspects of their sponsored projects and their full financial portfolio, both sponsored accounts and other funds.
This first release provides financial status, spending rates, transaction information, and project documents for your research awards and other accounts. An overview of this release is included on the PI Dash site.
The next series of releases will add email functionality for ease of communication with your research administrative (RA) support staff and others regarding aspects of your research financial and administrative activities, and provide additional personnel and transaction detail.
In this series we will also deliver a financial “forecasting” or “projection” tool, the purpose of which is twofold. First, it will allow you to know how much money remains on a project after all planned expenditures are considered. It will accomplish this by allowing RAs to calculate, record, and manage these anticipated expenses, thereby incorporating that information in the PI Dash financial reports. Second, the projection tool will also be designed to give PIs the option to conduct “what if” analyses to assess the financial impact of various spending scenarios.
Future releases will include protocol-related information, proposal documents, and award negotiation status; activity and to-do lists; group member training assignments and status; current and pending (C&P) reports*, and access to disclosures and other Center for Technology Licensing (CTL) information related to your inventions. The current timeline with additional release details is at guide.pidash.cornell.edu.
RAs who have financial proxy (“act as”) access to a PI’s financial details will have the same access in the PI Dash. Your department manager can help with you with questions that you might have regarding this “act as” function. This is in addition to the access that RAs currently have to the RA Dashboard. The RA Dash was designed specifically to meet RA needs and was rolled out by the OVPR in early 2015. You, too, can access the RA Dash, though you will likely find it less intuitive than the PI Dash. You can, however, use it for now to create editable C&P reports in NSF, NIH, and USDA format*.
We are hopeful that the PI Dash will make it easier and less time consuming for you to obtain answers to your questions and to administer your projects and finances; for you and your staff to communicate efficiently about this information; and when the financial projection capability is built in the future to allow retirement of the myriad of local systems maintained by RAs so they may instead provide you with other critical types of support.
You will be one of our earliest users. As a result, your feedback will be particularly helpful.
With best regards,
Bob
Robert A. Buhrman
Senior Vice Provost for Research
222 Day Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca NY 14853-2501
Phone: (607) 255-7200
*To obtain your C&P report go to the RA Dashboard, enter your NetID and password. Once on the homepage click on the Current and Pending Report link at the bottom of the list on the left hand column. On the next page enter your NetID in the box beneath Investigator Name/NetID and press enter or click outside the field. Your C&P records should be displayed. Click “Download Data in Agency Template” at the top of the page to choose which of the three templates (NSF, NIH, or USDA) to preview. On the preview page click Download Report (editable Word document). This will open a popup window to download the C&P report. For this to work, you must have turned off the popup blocker in your browser. If you have difficulty accessing the RA Dash or if following these instructions doesn’t work, your RA can run a C&P report for you.
Cc: Research Division Administrative Directors