Research Administration & Compliance Systems - November Updates

Click through for the latest information about the Data Safety Application (which will have its soft launch on December 5), ESTR-IRB, Agreements – DUA, ecrt, and GMAS.

 

Data Safety Application

December 5 is the soft launch of the new Data Safety Application!

The research administration and compliance team has been working with the Office of the Vice Provost of Research and Harvard University Information Technology to develop a Data Safety system to support the review and implementation of research data management plans. The soft launch of the Data Safety application on December 5 will provide a period where SSOs can use the system to complete reviews and work with research teams to gather feedback. Based on this period of feedback, we will continue to refine system functionality and make improvements to the security review process.

What is Data Safety? It is a new application intended to support tracking, monitoring, and compliance associated with to the data security requirements for research data sets (sensitive information collected as part of research, or obtained or shared under a Data Use Agreement or sponsored award).

Please visit the Research Administration and Compliance Systems page for system and policy information or register for an upcoming information session.

 

ESTR-IRB

The ESTR support team announces its December release. This configuration release brings exciting improvements to Harvard’s increasingly integrated research administration systems.

ESTR will be unavailable on Thursday, December 5 from 6:00-9:00 pm ET to allow for system updates.

As part of the December release, a new Data Safety and Security application will be made available in our system and it will be possible to establish and display relationships between studies and submissions in ESTR-IRB, Agreements-DUA, and the Data Safety systems. This new option to relate projects in all three systems will allow researchers and administrators to quickly access related projects in other systems. Although proposed revisions to the Harvard Research Data Security Policy are still under review, the Safety system will have its soft launch in December to support the security review process. Future enhancements will support even greater improvements to the process.

Additional release highlights include:

• Updates to Data Security Level options to accommodate the Research Data Security Policy-based process revisions;
• Updates to notifications for both the reliance anniversary reminder and reliance expiration reminder;
• The addition of HRP-108-SOP-HLC QIP Referral to the IRB Library; and
• New reports to show studies involving GDPR and external IRB studies that have lapsed or been active more than three years.

Please visit the ESTR Support site to view more details regarding what is included in the release or contact the ESTR Help Desk with any questions or concerns.

And don’t forget - the GMAS release on November 18, 2019 includes integration with ESTR. What this means for you:

• Continue to associate GMAS projects with your IRB submission during review.
• The link you create will be visible on the GMAS record so that you can navigate between the two systems more easily.

Since there are no changes to IRB policy, process, or system features with this update, please view the GMAS full release notes for changes to GMAS functionality on our website.

 

Agreements - DUA

The Agreements support team announces its December release. This configuration release brings exciting improvements to Harvard’s increasingly integrated research administration systems.

Agreements will be unavailable on Thursday, December 5 from 6:00-9:00 pm ET to allow for system updates.

As part of the December release, a new Data Safety and Security application will be made available in our system and it will be possible to establish and display relationships between studies and submissions in ESTR-IRB, Agreements-DUA, and the Data Safety systems. This new option to relate projects in all three systems will allow researchers and administrators to quickly access related projects in other systems. Although proposed revisions to the Harvard Research Data Security Policy are still under review, the Safety system will have its soft launch in December to support the security review process. Future enhancements will support even greater improvements to the process.

Please visit the Agreements Support site to view more details regarding what is included in the release or contact the DUA Help Desk with any questions or concerns.

 

ecrt

Important dates for the FY20 Q1 project statements:

• Review period: 10/29/19 to 11/18/19
• Certification period: 11/19/19 to 12/18/19

Please reach out to ecrt@harvard.edu with any questions.

 

GMAS

GMAS has a scheduled release this weekend and will be unavailable starting at 7PM on Friday, November 15^th. The new release will be available at the start of business on Monday, November 18^th. This release includes integration with ESTR, adding project summary to the initial and renewal request entry screen, making the A21 code visible at the top of the segment homepage, and more. For full release notes, please visit GMAS Release 1_52 for more details.

Changes coming to cost sharing in GMAS

The GMAS team is working closely with the Cost Sharing Committee to enhance cost sharing functionality in GMAS, with a release date expected in Winter 2020.

This effort has included multiple outreach sessions with department and school representatives to identify issues, gather ideas, and meet the goals of:

• Aligning functionality and terminology in GMAS with the Cost Share Policy (it should be noted that there is no change to the policy)
• Fixing the system – making it easier to use and understand
• Aligning one process across all research areas

Key components of this enhancement will include:

• A streamlined cost share form in GMAS for use by all areas
• Ability to review and confirm committed cost share at award
• Ability to track and monitor actual cost share expenses vs. the recorded commitment in GMAS, reducing the need for shadow systems

Additional information will be shared as the release date gets closer. In the meantime, if you have questions or thoughts on Cost Share in GMAS, please feel free to reach out to your Cost Share Committee Member:

 

School/Organization	Name	Email Address
FAS	Jen Lech	jennifer_lech@harvard.edu
GMAS Team	Andrew Malone, Jessica Perreault	contactgmas@harvard.edu
GSE	Chris Potter	christopher_potter@gse.harvard.edu
HMS	Rita Bergemann	rita_bergemann@hms.harvard.edu
HMS	Melissa Chu	Melissa_Chu@hms.harvard.edu
HMS	Barbara Rankin	barbara_rankin@hms.harvard.edu
HSPH	Kristie Froman	kfroman@hsph.harvard.edu
OSP	Joel Egland	joel_egland@harvard.edu
OSP	Cynthia Martini	cynthia_martini@harvard.edu
OSP	Marc Todesco	marc_todesco@harvard.edu
OSP	Lee Zagorski	lee_zagorski@harvard.edu
SEAS	Pamela Baker-Webber	bakerwebber@fas.harvard.edu