Congratulations to the ERSO first round SPOT Award winners for 2018!

• Glenn Chen
• Helena Gin
• Mark Bell
• Nicole Song
• Tracey Richards

NSF has awarded UC Berkeley's team led by Ion Stoica one of three $10 million grants to pursue large-scale, far-reaching and potentially transformative research in computer and information science and engineering. Given to the RISELab to address challenges in AI systems by developing open source platforms, tools and algorithms for Real-time, Intelligent, Secure, and Explainable (RISE) decisions. The other two award recipients are the University of Chicago, and Rice University.

Read the full NSF press release and Berkeley press release for more details.

The Grants.gov application package and the forms currently in use will be phased out after December 2017, and will be replaced by Grants.gov “Workspace” — a new way to create a federal grant application.

How PIs Register:

1. Go to Registration Form: https://apply07.grants.gov/apply/register.faces
2. Verify your email
3. Register yourself as an Organization Applicant using UC Berkeley’s DUNS number: 124726725

Federal agencies that previously required organizations and individuals to use Grants.gov to apply for federal funds in the past will require applications to be submitted via Workspace after the New Year.

Note: After the New Year proposals to NSF still may be submitted using FastLane. NIH proposals still must be submitted via ASSIST. NASA proposals will continue to be submitted using NSPIRES.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: SPO will be closed for extended period, so please keep in mind the Campus Proposal Submission deadlines: https://spo.berkeley.edu/procedures/winter_curtailment.html

UC offers a wealth of valuable benefits for faculty and staff, and Open Enrollment is your annual opportunity to review your UC benefits to make sure you have the best coverage for 2018.

Learn about benefit changes and details benefit plans for 2018 by visiting the UC Open Enrollment website. And don’t forget, you must enroll or re-enroll in the Health and/or Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA's) if you want to participate in 2018.

To make your Open Enrollment elections, visit the UC Open Enrollment website. The following resources are available if you have any questions during the Open Enrollment period.

Some members of the ERSO team enjoyed a great night of food, laughter and competition. The ERSO team cheered for the Cal women's volleyball team Friday, September 15th. Everyone enjoyed spending time with their colleagues outside of work. At the game the jumbo-tron even had a special welcoming message for ERSO. The smiles in the picture say it all!

Effort reporting is a process mandated by the federal government to verify that direct labor charges to, or cost shared on, sponsored projects are accurate, timely, and reflect the actual level of work performed. For more information on Effort Reporting, visit CGA’s website: http://controller.berkeley.edu/cga/effort-reporting

Deadlines are listed here:
09/01-09/13: ERC Review Period
09/14-10/01: RSO Reviewer Period
10/02/10/17: PI Review and Certification Period
10/18-10/28: Resolution of late and last minute issues
October 28, 2017: Hard deadline for final certification!

For specific questions about approving your effort reports, please contact your Research Administrator.

Newly hired or rehired GSRs, GSIs, Readers or Tutors will receive an email from the Human Resources team about attending a hiring session prior to your appointment start date. Hiring sessions are held:

Tuesdays: 8:30am-11:30am
Wednesday and Thursdays: 1-3pm

Contact ersohrops@erso.berkeley.edu with any questions about the hiring process.

The ERSO team of Damon Hinson, Elise Mills, Derek Johnson and Yulia Golubovskaya proudly present the poster they developed at RAC's Poster Session on June 14th. The team presented ERSO's unique and comprehensive Faculty Orientation Program. Their creativity and unique poster content interested many research administrators as well as research leaders at the session. The ERSO poster was selected as the winner out of 8 posters. Kudos to the team for representing ERSO well and for the great work on the poster.

The 2016-17 Campus Fiscal Close Checklist is available; the checklists includes both CSS and campus deadlines. ERSO will be observing the same published deadlines listed for CSS.

For more information, please visit the the Controller's website:
http://controller.berkeley.edu/accounting-controls/fiscal-close-information

Annie Ren sat for the Certified Research Administrator (CRA) test this last fall and passed. This exam is administered by the Research Administrators Certification Council. Now Annie is officially a CRA, joining the ranks of 3 others presently in ERSO. Kudos to Annie!