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VOL.449 NO.7162 DATED 04 OCTOBER 2007
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News: Keeping track of scientists’ time
In a news story this week, Nature reports on how the National Science Foundation (NSF) is looking into how researchers account for time spent on federally funded projects. Auditors have found that the records kept are often not accurate, undermining the ability of the NSF to ensure that its grants are spent appropriately.
Although the audits may simply reflect record-keeping lapses, they could have significant financial impacts. For instance, in a grant-rich school such as the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, cutting back on indirect costs by just 0.5% would save $600,000.
The universities undergoing the next round of audits are the University of California in Berkeley; the University of California in San Diego; the University of Utah in Salt Lake City; the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign; and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Audits have been completed at Caltech and at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia.
The Caltech audit found, for instance, that one faculty member did not keep complete records of how much time he spent working on seven federal grants — five from the NSF and one each from the Army and the Air Force. At Pennsylvania, project managers routinely approved reports without verifying that the time had been properly accounted for.
In an era of tightening agency budgets, researchers are likely to face closer scrutiny of how they spend their time on federally funded projects.
Contact for background information:
Rex Dalton (Journalist, Nature)
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