NIH Principals Administrative Officers: Alternates

Don Bortner, NIA Trudy Welsh, NHGRI

Richard Freed, NIAID Lynda Ray, CC

Marsh Hennings, NIAMS

Carroll Hanson, NHLBI

Brenda Sandler, NIAAA

Carol Smith, NINDS

Ana Ferreira, NINR

Brenda Sandler, NIAAA

Susan Harrelson, NIDDK

Corrine Abbott, NIDCD

Evelyn Burrell, NICHD

Robert Dennis, NIMH

Pam Pearson-Green, NIMH

Edie Smith, CIT

Janis Mulaney, OD/OIR Liason

Meeting of Principal Administrative Officers (closed session)

Discussion – Bob Dennis

I. Retreat – Information from the work group

Rich Freed spoke for the work group, confirming that the retreat is scheduled to start at 10:00 a.m. on May 24th and finish at about 3:00 p.m. on May 25th, at the Windham Hotel in Baltimore. So far, there are 16 acceptances and 7 declinations. He requested confirmations and indications of any substitutes who might attend for Principal AOs.

Don Bortner (NIA) is taking the lead on the topic of "experimental lab," and any comments or suggestions should be sent directly to Don by 4/26. On the topic of "best practices," Rich asked for comments and suggestions, as well as volunteers for leaders of discussions/demos by 4/26.

Each Administrative Officer attending will be responsible for their own travel orders. A block of rooms have been reserved. If you are planning to stay at the hotel, please contact Rich Freed or Linda Adams to hold one of the blocked rooms for you.

II. Foreign Travel – New clearance procedures

Everyone seemed clear about NIH procedures for meeting the new HHS requirements. It was noted FIC still needs to be notified of foreign travel, which can be done by the AO or the Executive Officer, via a copy of the e-mail that is forwarded to HHS, but a duplication of effort should be avoided. Most are choosing for the documentation to flow through the Administrative Officer to ensure proper logging/tracking of the travel and for quality assurance prior to forwarding to the EO. It was agreed that attendance at a conference that might include a HHS-specified topic (such as AIDS) on the agenda does not require advance approval unless our traveler is the presenter of that topic.

III. From ODIR – Janis Mullaney

Staff Scientists – OIR needs notification of appointments, and ICs should send OIR a cc of the cover letter for the approval package or the offer letter.

Fellowship Payment System – She suggested that ICs, get as many cases into the system as possible, in order to gain the advantages of the system.

SDs' Retreat – Scheduled to include IC Directors, for the purpose of sharing SD issues with the IC Directors. There is much data being distributed in association with the retreat (copies given to the IAO group). It was pointed out that the FTE data may not be consistent with AO expectations, and the background for the data should be made known. Janis will check on it.

Open Session

I. Foreign Exchange Program

Betty Calhoun of DynaCorp made the presentation. She was introduced by Rob Weymouth, OD, and accompanied by Valerie Katsouros, Acting Director, FIC. She provided a brief overview of highlights of the 40+ recommendations made for improving the Foreign Exchange Program. The report reflected consideration of private and public organizations and especially those with medical schools. The report and executive summary are available through Rob Weymouth.

She noted that separate provisions exist for 2-year initial fellowship appointments (Title 42) and 3-year periods for J-1 visas (in visa regulations). Therefore, it would be better if we could issue 3-year fellowship appointments. NIH is now requesting authority to approve 4th and 5th year visa renewals.

Owners of information should be held responsible for data entered in the application forms – the fellow for personal information, and the IC for program information. The clock for processing time should not start until a "complete" application is submitted. Note that FIC does not require resumes or diplomas, but these have been needed in the past to allow all needed information to be collected. A suggested on-line system would ensure that critical data would be entered before the application would be processed.

There were other suggestions about organizational location, space requirements, staffing, and the use of a single database. Any comments or suggestions should be sent to Rob Weymouth, Janis Mullaney, or to Phil Chen.

Implementation of improvements depends on funding and the will to change. Changes will go through phases, initially meeting basic database requirements, but allowing for web-enabled versions later. Although the quality of service is a consistent goal, the timeliness of most visa approvals will not be improved. For example, H-1 and O-1 visas will not be any quicker, since most of the time is consumed in the Department of Labor and INS.

II. Electronic Guide to NIH Acquisition System

Bessie Hoskins and Gregory Pryor, OAMP/DAPE, Patti Barnett, Roger Romack and Mike Sherman, Analytical Science Corporation

The NIH-wide acquisition processes have been mapped. This provides a schematic overview of the process flows and decision points in the purchasing of goods and services, based on standard Federal laws and regulations and NIH-wide policies and procedures. This effort was partially motivated by the need to be able to inform auditors of procedures that should be followed. It is also a necessary base for collecting additional information and understanding processing variations that are within the latitude of each IC. The work group is now interested in working with each IC to collect that information. Comments and questions can be directed to Gregory Pryor.

III. Graduate Program Partnership

Mary DeLong, Director, Graduate Program Partnership at NIH

The Graduate Program Partnership is for pre-doctoral students who come to NIH by virtue of partnerships with domestic and international colleges and universities. Trainees must be enrolled in Ph.D. programs, and their training at NIH contributes toward their degrees from the sponsoring colleges or universities. NIH currently brings on about 180 students per year, and expects to bring on about 18 new students in 2001. But, there are obstacles, including the perception that students sent to NIH get "lost."

Mary's goals for the program include: 1) That the number of partnerships will increase to about 10 to 12, which would triple the number of students; 2) That there will be an improved infrastructure, with courses, web sites, and tracking for fulfillment of course requirements; and 3) That there will be a "community" for students.

Regarding funding; foreign students are funded by their foreign universities and are appointed here as Student Volunteers. Non-foreign students are funded by NIH for their first year and by the sponsoring laboratory after the first year. In both cases, funding is through a formula of $3,000 for the first $3,000 plus 60% of any tuition above that.

The next meeting is scheduled for May 3, 2001.