On March 17, 2020, Duke University issued directives that limited access to laboratory research activities in Duke-owned and Duke–leased facilities to only those activities essential to preserving the future viability of research.
At that time, several federal sponsors (and some non-federal sponsors) issued guidance related to the allowability of project expenses while in a remote work status – particularly salaries when research productivity was impacted (or what we are terming here as “idle effort”). On June 18, federal sponsors released updated guidance which imposed two major limitations on universities who had been previously charging idle effort to federal awards:
- It must be consistent with institutional policies to fund all salaries from all fund sources and,
- The University must exhaust other available funding sources.
Given these imposed limitations, effective June 17, 2020, Duke will only apply charges for grant-related work to externally funded grants and contracts (federal and non-federal) when the work can be performed.
Projects are still required to track and report idle effort for compliance and auditing purposes, by reviewing and reporting personnel effort in myRESEARCHhome.
The information included on these webpages is intended to assist Principal Investigators (PIs) and grant managers in identifying, verifying, and reporting the effects of COVID-19 on planned and committed effort on sponsored projects at Duke University.
Throughout these webpages, the term “idle effort” is used not to suggest that project staff are unproductive or not working at all, but to describe project activities that cannot be carried out because access to needed facilities and resources is limited.
Additional resources:
- The recording from Duke’s Office of Scientific Virtual Research Town Hall update on Change in Policy Regarding Funding Idle Effort on Sponsored Research, 8/3/2020.
- For information specific to the Principal Investigator’s role, click here.
- For information specific to the Grant Manager’s role, click here.
Note: Idle effort information should be provided contemporaneously, so projects should follow the below timeline for collecting and entering idle effort information to University systems:
March - April | May | June | July | August | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Idle effort provided by: | May 15 | June 26 | July 24 | August 10 | September 9 |
iForms entered by: | June iForms deadline | July iForms deadline | August iForms deadline | Aug/Sept iForms deadlines | September iForms deadline |
QUESTIONS?
If you have a project-specific or a unique situation that you need help with, contact your unit grant manager or submit your question via the Ask a Question feature in the Research Help widget in myRESEARCHhome. You can access myRESEARCHhome by visiting: mrh.duke.edu and logging in using your Duke NetID credentials. Questions are monitored closely and one of the myRESEARCHnavigators will be in touch with answers to your questions.