A Message from Mike:
Dear Colleagues,
According to tradition, with Labor Day behind us, summer is over. While it’s hard to accept this, the fewer hours of daylight and the return of students to school confirm that change continues to abound. PAVIR is also experiencing change, with faculty, staff, student, and post-doc arrivals and departures, and new sponsored research awards for our research community. You can read about these elsewhere in this newsletter. We are pleased to welcome Drs. Daniel Ennis and Natalie Torok as new faculty members, and Lisa Clark as our new Director of Human Resources. We look forward to working with you and wish you success, fulfillment, and fun.
We will conclude FY18 at the end of September, and it’s been another year of significant scientific contributions by our research community with many impactful publications and increased participation in clinical trials. There is a constant change in funding, with new and expiring awards, and it currently appears that PAVIR’s sponsored research activity and funding will be approximately the same in FY17 (last fiscal year), FY18 (our current fiscal year), and FY19 (next fiscal year). As a result, our funding for core research support services, which are funded through indirect costs, will remain steady. This presents financial challenges to us as our personnel and fixed costs steadily increase. We will be working with Principal Investigators, the Board of Directors, and the VAPA Research Administration Office over the next several months to identify ways to increase our sponsored research activity, whether it be through faculty recruitments, ensuring that contracts and grants are appropriately managed by PAVIR rather than by Stanford, or increased space utilization. We will be asking for your ideas and support in identifying ways for PAVIR to increase its sponsored research activity and funding.
In my seven months at PAVIR, I’m grateful for the opportunities I’ve had to meet many of you, yet I remain eager to meet those of you I haven’t yet met. I constantly tell friends and colleagues that I feel fortunate to work at PAVIR in this role, and am encouraged and motivated by our mission to advance Veteran and public health through innovative research and your commitment to it.
I hope you make opportunities this fall to enjoy the changing season and colors, and to enjoy our collaborative work environment.
|
|
|
We are happy to introduce two new PAVIR employees!
Lisa Clark, HR Director
We are excited and pleased to announce the recruitment and appointment of PAVIR's new Director of Human Resources -- Lisa Clark. After an extensive national search, Lisa emerged as the most qualified and strongest candidate to lead our Human Resources initiatives and comes with superlative recommendations. Lisa has 25 years of increasingly responsible HR service delivery and leadership experience in several industries. Lisa's demonstrated success leading teams and programs and being an essential member of the executive team will serve PAVIR and its staff and employees well. Lisa's education includes a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Science from Golden Gate University.
Lisa can be reached at lclark@pavir.org.
Brandon Carter, FACS Director
We are delighted to inform everyone that we have appointed the next director of the FACS facility. Brandon Carter will assume the role of Director on October 1. Brandon comes to us with significant relevant experience and highly recommended. There was great enthusiasm from the search committee for his appointment. Brandon has worked in flow cytometry at Milyenyi Biotec, Stanford’s Shared FACS Facility, and UC-Santa Cruz. He has a Bachelor of Science from UC-Davis and a Master of Arts from UC-Santa Cruz.
 Thank you!
We are extremely grateful to Heather Ishak, Nicole Lazarus, Mike Wosczyna, Claire Gustafson, and John Pluvinage for their strong work keeping the facility functioning and available to the user community since early June. We are especially grateful to Heather, who served as the lead person responsible for the facility. Eugene Butcher, Jorg Goronzy, and Tom Rando served as the search committee, and we all thank them for their work and time on our behalf.
|
|
|
 New Procedure for Stanford Postdoctoral AppointmentsAll postdocs currently employed by PAVIR will be transferred over to Stanford, and funding will be managed via Joint Personnel Agreement (JPA).
These postdocs will no longer be PAVIR employees. HR will be facilitating the transition process for a separation date of October 31, 2018, with their first day at Stanford being November 1, 2018. There will be some extension exceptions for postdocs who have unique situations such as visas or LOAs. For these postdocs, HR will work on transitioning them to Stanford in a timeframe that is appropriate for their circumstances.
PAVIR HR will no longer be handling job posting requests for new postdoc recruitments. For any new postdoc positions, please refer to the Stanford OPA website:
https://postdocs.stanford.edu/faculty-mentors.
All postdocs must be appointed at Stanford first before being brought on to PAVIR via JPA. Postdocs who will work at the VA must still obtain a WOC, and JPAs cannot be done without one. New postdoc WOCs will be handled by the PI’s Service, and their Service must register them with the VA Research Service in order for them to be accessible in RDIS.
Administrative Funds Policy Change
PIs are currently allowed to spend distributions made to their administrative account in one fiscal year through March 31 of the following fiscal year. Effective October 1, 2018, PIs will be expected to spend distributions made between October, 2018, and July, 2019, no later than September 30, 2019. Any unspent funds on September 30, 2019, will be swept back to PAVIR Administration. This same schedule will apply in future years.
This change does not affect the amount received – accounts will continue to receive eight percentage points of the modified total direct cost (MTDC) expenditures made, less equipment and subawards over $25K. Nor will the timing of the distributions be changed; we will continue to distribute the funds four times per fiscal year: in October, January, April, and July.
We are making this change to align our indirect cost spending with the fiscal year in which it is earned. This change will clarify and support our annual indirect cost rate negotiations.
The allowable and eligible expenses are not changing. Examples of allowable and eligible expenses are found in the policy which can be viewed at http://pavir.net/policies/administrative-accounts-for-indirect-costs/.
If you have any questions or comments, please contact Mike Hindery at MHindery@pavir.org. |
|
|
2018 NIH Grant Application Fall Due Dates Approaching
The NIH Cycle III proposal submission due dates are right around the corner. Please contact Elaine Staats if you intend to submit a grant proposal to NIH for the October/November deadlines.
NIH Grant Application Due Dates
Connect with PAVIR Pre-Award!
PAVIR assigns a dedicated team member to proposal submissions on a rolling basis. We now have a new email group for investigators to contact our Pre-Award Team. Please connect with us at PreAward@pavir.org for anything pertaining to your grant proposal submissions. This is the best way to let us know about your new, resubmission, and renewal submissions so that we can let you know which team member will be working with you. We are also happy to receive and answer any other questions you may have about Pre-Award. Please connect with us. We look forward to hearing from you!
NIH Continuous Submission
Investigators who are members of NIH Study Sections, Councils, Committees and Boards, and Reviewers with recent substantial service (six times in an 18 month period) are eligible to submit R01, R21, and R34 applications later than the standard due dates as part of NIH’s Continuous Submission Policy. For more information about Continuous Submission including how to check your eligibility in your Commons Profile, deadlines, and which application types qualify please visit: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/peer/continuous_submission.htm
|
|
|
Research in Space! 
Dr. Ngan Huang is the recipient of a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), made jointly with the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), for fundamental biomedical engineering research onboard the International Space Station (ISS) U.S. National Laboratory for the benefit of life on Earth, specifically for tissue engineering research in microgravity.
Gravity is the principal source of mechanical forces that affect the growth and regeneration of tissues. Understanding the many ways tissues and cells respond to gravity, from cellular signaling to gene expression, can help overcome current stumbling blocks for tissue engineering and lead to new opportunities. Insights gained in the microgravity environment of space may enhance the development of complex tissue and blood supply for damaged or defective organs. Research onboard the ISS may also help create reliable, tissue-engineered models of muscles and other organs outside the body to enable future research in biology, engineering and medicine.
Dr. Huang's project, Tissue engineered muscle in microgravity as a novel platform to study sarcopenia, plans to test the efficacy of engineered skeletal muscle in microgravity to resemble salient characteristics of muscle with sarcopenia, and to apply this platform for testing drugs for treatment of sarcopenia.
Veteran college students will be recruited to Dr. Huang's lab for internships in which the students will conduct research experiments derived from the research project description. Together, these educational outreach activities will foster the interest of military Veterans to pursue a career in STEM fields.
|
|
|
Recent Awards
We would like to share our list of recently funded projects.
|
|
|
 Penalties for Final Checks
Please notify HR and Payroll at least one week in advance of an employee leaving your lab so that we can process the check on time. California law dictates that employees must receive their final paycheck, in full and on time, at the conclusion of their employment. If an employer misses the deadline, the employee is entitled to a penalty of one day's pay for each day the employer is late.
Updated Time & Attendance Guides
We have updated our Time & Attendance Guides on ADP. These guides are here to support you with your timecard, time off requests, and approvals. The Guides can be found by logging on to ADP and going to Resources > Company Information > Forms Library. You will find the links to the Guides under Payroll Forms. Should you have any questions regarding any of these subjects, please contact our Payroll department at payroll@pavir.org.
Travel Reimbursement Request - New Form
A new Travel Reimbursement Request form is now posted at http://pavir.net/forms/. Please use this new form for submitting your expense reimbursement to Accounts Payable. If you have any questions about this new form, please contact Nga Phan at (650)493-5000 x 67170 or payables@pavir.org.
Travel Policy
Our Support of Travel policy has also been updated and can be found at http://pavir.net/policies/pavir-support-of-travel/. According to Labor Laws, PAVIR is required to pay nonexempt employees during travel time to attend conferences or meetings that are offsite. Please consult Payroll at Payroll@pavir.org regarding the pay rules for business travel for nonexempt employees prior to the out of town business travel. In addition, please complete the Non-Exempt Employee Travel form at http://pavir.net/forms/ and submit the signed copy to Payroll@pavir.org by the due date of the pay cycle in which travel occurs. |
|
|
|
Upcoming Holidays
PAVIR follows the federal holiday schedule, so please mark your calendars with the following upcoming holidays:
• Monday, October 8, 2018 – Columbus Day
• Monday, November 12, 2018 – Veterans Day
The PAVIR administrative office will be closed on these dates.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
