Effort Reporting: An Overview
This fall, UW-Milwaukee, in collaboration with UW-Madison and UW-Extension, will launch a new effort-reporting system to replace the current Personnel Activity Reporting (PAR) system used by all three institutions. The new system, known as Effort Certification and Reporting Technology (ECRT), is Web-based, a significant improvement from the cumbersome paper PAR forms.
The PAR system was launched more than 24 years ago. Federal requirements pertaining to effort have evolved significantly in recent years, and our technology has not evolved at the same rate. To improve our ability to comply with federal requirements, we need to upgrade our systems and business processes.
Simpler and easier
Faculty and staff will be able to sign into ECRT with their UWM PantherID from anywhere in the world. The Web-based software is easy to use and fully compliant with current federal regulations. It frees researchers from having to complete and route pieces of paper, and it improves the University's ability to track certification completeness and identify situations that may need follow-up.
Faculty (A-basis or C-basis), academic staff, graduate students, and postdoctoral trainees will not receive any more PAR forms. In July, classified staff who work on sponsored projects received PAR forms for the final time, covering the second quarter of 2007 (payrolls for 4/1/07 through 6/23/07).
What will I need to do?
All faculty and staff except for classified staff will certify effort twice a year, for six months at a time. The new effort periods for all faculty, academic staff, graduate students, and postdoctoral trainees are (a) January through June and (b) July through December. Certification for classified staff will continue on a quarterly basis.
Certification with ECRT will begin on November 1, 2007. At that time:
- Faculty and academic staff will certify their own effort for January through June 2007.
- PIs will certify the effort for their graduate students and postdoctoral trainees for January through June 2007.
- PIs will certify the effort for classified staff who work on their sponsored projects for July through September 2007 (payrolls for 6/24/07 through 9/29/07).
Because of the longer than normal interval between the effort period (January - June 2007) and the certification (November 1), we recommend all those who must certify make notes regarding their research and other activities to help accurately remember the percent of effort expended on sponsored projects during the January - June 2007 time frame.
Certification will be required for all effort on federal and non-federal sponsored projects.
ECRT Training
Training will be provided for all faculty, academic staff, and PIs who work on sponsored projects, starting in November when certification commences. We will update the Research Services and Administration Web site with new information as it becomes available
If you have questions about the new effort-reporting system, please send e-mail to effort-project@uwm.edu.