Category Archives: RSCA & Start-Up

Faculty Research Expenditure Tracking

As a reminder, all divisions are required to track research expenditures for reporting purposes. The Academic Affairs Division implemented two new fund numbers -70026 Faculty Start-Up and 70031 RSCA Programs- intended to separate start-up and select RSCA expenditures from our ordinary operating budget and introduced the systematic use of faculty class code for expenditure tracking. Departments were asked in July 2022 to track all other research expenditures in a similar manner.

Just-in-time Research Expenditures

Please continue to use Program Code R07 with your primary department ID and fund number for any transactions related to research. This includes all just-in-time research expenses that are covered by a department’s CSU Operating Fund budget and/or PaCE funds. The use of faculty class codes is optional.

College and Department-Wide RSCA Programs

Colleges may deposit CSU Operating Funds into Fund 70031 for any organized college- or department-wide RSCA programs, travel and professional development grants, and retention grants offered to their faculty. As with all other RSCA grants in 70031, grant award deadlines may cross fiscal years, and award funds may be carried forward without year-end restrictions. Grant activities will be tracked using Program Code R07 and faculty class codes.

Any questions and concerns should be directed to your college Director of Resources and Operations and college resource and financial analysts.

The original blog announcement from July 2022 can be referenced here.

Allocating Start-Up or RSCA funds to faculty from your college or department budgets

If you’d like to allocate Start-Up or RSCA funds to faculty from your college or department budgets, a transfer can be requested using a new quick and easy method.  To make a request, use the College or Dept. Issued Start-Up, RSCA, or Professional Development Funds Google Form on the AA Resource Hub. 

 

  • Department-level requests should be coordinated with Dean’s office prior to submission. 
  • If funds will be transferred, factor it into your 2022-23 year-end reporting. Please submit requests by June 16, 2023 which allows for two-weeks of processing time by the fiscal year-end. 
  • This form will accept single or multiple requests.  If submitting multiple requests, please use the template that is linked in the Google form. 

This form is available under the Budget and Finance menu, under the RSCA or Faculty Start-Up categories:

 

If you have questions, please contact Connie Kim at connie.kim01@sjsu.edu.

 

Internal RSCA Grant Award Process Improvements

Research & Innovation has made some process improvements intended to alleviate the workload both at the college and department levels effective with the 2023-24 grants that were recently awarded.

  1. All faculty internal grants (Seed, Level-Up, Mid-Career) will be awarded for two years.  No spending extension will be granted except for a compelling reason (e.g. illness, pandemic).
  2. Internal grant funds will be allocated in two categories only to eliminate (1) the minutia of tracking expenses by account and (2) the need for reallocation requests.  The two categories are Summer Fellowships and Operating Expenses (OE).  Per past practice, Summer Fellowships funding will remain with the Office of Research, and we will work with University Personnel to have summer payments issued.  OE will act as a catchall to include Student Assistant, Equipment, Travel, Supplies, etc.  We trust faculty to use their grant money in a manner that allows them to meet the original goal of their proposal and we will review their progress when they submit a report at the end of their grant period.
  3. Grants expiring in 2023 will automatically be extended for one additional year only if an extension is submitted.
  4. Small awards (e.g. $500 in professional development funds) are being phased out though you may see a few more being issued due to commitments already made.

Please refer to this Q&A for more information.

 

The AA Resource Hub now has a new Faculty Start-Up Summary dashboard!

 To help colleges and departments manage their faculty’s start-up funds, ABSO is introducing a new dashboard, where start-up account information can easily be retrieved by DeptID, Department, College, Faculty Name, or Class Code.

What does the new Start-Up Summary dashboard show?

  • General faculty information
  • Original spend deadline date; possible values include:
    • Absolute date = date given in offer letter
    • N/A = not specified.  For more information, consult your Dean’s office. 
    • End of Probation = funds are available until the end of the faculty’s probation period
  • Extended spend deadline date; possible values include:
    • Absolute date = approved extension date 
    • Blank = no request for an extension was submitted, or an extension was not approved
  • Expired/Depleted status – “No” or “Yes”

By design, start-up fund balances are not displayed in this dashboard. To find the balance, use Data Warehouse.

When is the dashboard updated?

  • When new start up accounts are established
  • When the expired status changes from No to Yes

New start-up accounts shown in the dashboard may take an additional day or two to show in Data Warehouse.

How to navigate there:

  1. On the AA Resource Hub, on the top menu bar, select “Budget and Finance”.
  2. Under Faculty Start-Up, select “Faculty Start-Up Expiration Dates”.

Did you know…?

Earlier this week, ABSO announced a new DocuSign template to facilitate the approval process for extending faculty start-up funds.  Please refer to the Faculty Startup page on the Hub for more information. 

For questions about start-up funds, please contact  Connie Kim at connie.kim01@sjsu.edu.  For other questions or issues, please contact academic-budgets@sjsu.edu.

Extension Request for Faculty Startup

To streamline the way startup extension is granted, ABSO has created a DocuSign template to facilitate the approval process.  Faculty who wish to request to request an extension of time to expend against their startup funds should complete the form at least 30 days before the expiration date.  Please be reminded that startup funds cannot be extended beyond the end of a faculty member’s probationary period except for a compelling reason.  In addition, expenditures that exceed the startup budget will be the responsibility of the faculty member’s home department.  Refer to the AAD Startup Funds Guidelines for additional information.

 

The Extension Request form has embedded conditional routing.  It will be routed to the designated reviewers and approvers based on the faculty’s home college.  Users will only need to enter the name and email of their Department Chair and Admin when initiating the form.

 

To learn more about the management of startup funds, please refer to the Faculty Startup page on the Hub.  If you have any issues or questions, please contact academic-budgets@sjsu.edu.

 

Please feel free to share this information with any staff or faculty as appropriate.