The SeRA System received an update - the Sigma Release, on March 11th, 2017.  

This release includes a number of exciting new features including:

• New Create Requisition button within the Project Summary - Subawards screen to start iProcurement Standard Change Orders from within SeRA!
• Updates and reformatting of the Award Approval Notification (AAN) and Notice of Award (NOA) with Cost Sharing information, IDC base now displayed and new separate Attachment and Contact regions
• Upgrade to an new View PDRF for easier reading
• Update to Other Support Report - General format to be consistent with the NSF format with downloading options of Microsoft Word or Adobe .PDF.  Reports now pull only the active role of faculty if s/he switched roles on the project
• Refinement of Other Support Report - NIH format to match NIH requirements.  Prime agreement number now pulled into report; tuning on sponsor and prime sponsor, and Major Goals and Project Title displays 
• eProtocol integration with refreshing and updating of protocol information within the PDRF Project Questions page including scheduled review panel dates
• Conflict of Interest (COI) links updated corresponding to the Feb. 11, 2017 move of COI Training from STARS to OPACS.  Unless COI Training is completed, award funds cannot be released
• Validation of Statement of Work (SOW) attachment uploading for proposals requiring Export Control review
• Subaward attachments now integrated with SPO-Project level attachments with linking ability

* For the Sigma release, users should close and restart their browsers to make sure cached data in your browser prior to this release is cleared to prevent any issues new functionality . 

Please review the release notes for more detailed information.

A new version of SeRA was deployed on Saturday, October 8^th, 2016.   This release includes a upgrade for My Project which will now show all projects for a faculty member is participating in, regardless if they are the lead PI or collaborating in a different role.   The ability to enter, edit and maintain project major goals has been added.  The project goals will feed into the Other Support Report.  Further facilitating the management of the Other Support Report is a streamlined interface for faculty to reject submitted pending proposals from My Projects.

OSR Request Form transactions received quite a few updates.  The first update is the new Initiate New Transaction pop-up window once a request type is selected.  Request which are relates to Oracle PTAs will now create a PTA Transaction to prepare updates and pushed into Oracle.  Requests for a New Oracle Task will be facilitated by a PTA Transaction which provides PTA Configuration overview while allowing the requestor to add new tasks.  Budget Reallocation requests will also trigger a PTA Transaction in which users can select the familiar pencil edit icon to rebudget amongst tasks.

Requests for Cost Sharing Award-Task will prompt for the purpose type of cost sharing of either overdraft or PI effort and the related Oracle Award and Project to which the cost share award-task is related to.  The no-cost extension request form now provides estimated fund balance and commitment figures, extension request justification and description of work comment boxes, and an effort change flag to capture what was formerly submitted on the paper OSR Form 49 – no-cost extension request form.  OSR Request Form transactions can now be opened from the Advanced Search and Pipeline tab.

A new Project page has been added to capture contact information of external parties which will save users form searching and downloading attachments for contact information.  The Project Personnel has been renamed as the People page with two tabs – Contacts and Faculty where appropriate names and contact information are entered and stored.

Please review the Release Notes for details of the release and updates.

Additional resources for additional information:

OSR is hosting demos to showcase the updates:

• October 11^th - 10:00 am to 11:00 am - Encina Commons 124, 615 Crothers Way
• October 20^th - 9:30 am to 10:30 am - Clark Center S360, 318 Campus Drive

Both demos will also be available via BlueJeans video conferencing.  Note: you must use the Google Chrome web browser or BlueJeans App to join BlueJeans video conferences.

Download the BlueJeans App in advance at:  https://bluejeans.com/downloads

If you’ve downloaded the BlueJeans App, click here to join the meeting

If you’re using the Google Chrome web browser, cut and paste https://bluejeans.com/9313794753 into the address field then press enter

While the primary objective of the release was to improve system performance, there were a few new features implemented that you may be interested in:

Within the PDRF, you’ll now see a “Previous” button alongside the “Next” button for easier navigation.

Departmental Administrators and PIs can now mark their unfunded proposals as “Rejected” in the system.  This will help keep the Other Support report data up to date.  (note: there are other improvements on the horizon to make the Other Support reports more useable and maintainable.  Stay tuned.)

Departmental Administrators can now remove the auto-generated subaward tasks during Account setup transactions.

Details regarding the above items, as well as other enhancements and bug fixes that were part of the May 7th release, are included in the attached Release Notes document.