Effort System
The Effort System will raise awareness of effort and commitment issues and their importance (the official UW reporting process to agencies), improve business processes in all phases of the Effort Life Cycle, and launch a new information system for certifying effort (to replace the PAR system).
The Effort project is not without its challenges for end-users. To be successful, faculty and staff will be expected to know more about the process than in the past. The Effort coordinator's job will also be more complex than it used to be. In the end, the UW-Madison will benefit from improved reporting and monitoring of its work.
Who will use it?
- Faculty and academic staff at Madison, Milwaukee, and Extension who work on sponsored projects (approximately 10,000 employees at all three business units combined)
- Department-level Effort coordinators (approximately 500 employees at all three business units combined)
- Research administrators at the level of the Dean's Offices
- Central campus research administrators:
- Madison – Research and Sponsored Programs
- Milwaukee – Research Services and Administration
- Extension – Office of Extramural Support
Goals
- Improve the completion rate for Effort certification
- Improve the timeliness of Effort certification
- Improve the extent to which Effort is certified in a compliant manner
- Improve the monitoring and tracking of overall commitment levels to sponsored projects for faculty and staff
- Improve the monitoring of faculty and staff members' progress toward meeting effort commitments to individual sponsored projects
- Reduce requests for retroactive adjustments to certified Effort statements
- Improve understanding of Effort issues among faculty and staff, administrators, and institutional leadership
Timeline
- October 2006-August 2007: Effort System development and testing
- October 2006-September 2007: Policy and business process improvements
- September-October 2007: System and policy/procedure training for Effort coordinators
- November 2007: Full rollout to all certifiers at Madison, Milwaukee, and Extension, with system and policy/procedure training
Benefits
For faculty and staff:
- No more paper PAR forms!
- Clear information about expectations
- Clear information about how to manage business processes in all phases of the Effort Life Cycle
- Easily-accessible, on-line Web-based training in Effort policies and procedures
- Easily-accessible, on-line demonstration videos that explain how to use the Effort certification system
For Effort coordinators:
- Tools for monitoring faculty and staff progress towards fulfillment of certification requirements
- Tools for managing tasks in the certification review process
- Clear information about expectations
- Clear information about how to manage business processes
For the institution:
- Improved compliance with federal Effort reporting requirements
- Reduced risk of exposure in the event of an audit by representatives of the Offices of Inspectors General from federal agencies
Questions about Effort can be sent to: effort@rsp.wisc.edu.