The function of this core is to provide the project leaders with administrative and biostatistical/data management support. The administrative component provides direct support to each project leader with administration of funds for both budgeting and purchasing, clerical support, archiving publications in an easy retrieval process, preparation of progress reports, and travel coordination for the faculty when presenting their findings at scientific society meetings. This support is carried out through the resources of the ancillary and service departments of the Medical Center according to their policy and procedures. Ms. Sarah Smith, CPS, will continue to carry out requests of the faculty utilizing her skills in office technology and coordination of efforts. The purchasing system established at the Medical Center is an electronic PC based tool that allows the investigators to make their request through the core unit, gain administrative approval, and have a purchasing agent acquisition the request the same day. If a purchase proposal is greater than $500 the divisional administrator must give approval. The institutional approval comes from the controller's office who ensures that sufficient funds are available and that purchasing requests meet NIH guidelines. This process allows for timely receipt and importantly verification of need and relevance of the purchase. An assessment can be made of duplications among projects since all requests come through the administrative core. Reports of expenditures are generated and Ms. Smith distributes them among the project leaders for monitoring of expenses on a monthly basis. Through the Division of Surgical Sciences, the home department for the Project Leaders, a Local Area Network is managed by a member of the administrative staff for use by the department. The network is running Novell NetWare on a PC-base file server. The network is critical to the communications among the laboratories, faculty offices, and administrative core since they are in different buildings on the campus. Passing documents and data between computer users is also enhanced by the use of electronic mail over the network. The local area network is connected to a fiber optic backbone which allows mail to be sent to all members of the institution. Access to the Internet is available on all faculty and support staff PCs. This communications link allows for access to a shared reference database maintained by the core secretary. All publications of investigators are banked in this database as well as references of shared interest. This access assists the investigators in keeping up to date information on results and new findings. Progress reports are prepared by the administrative core by collection of each project progress report. Ms. Smith prepares the final application in accordance of NIH guidelines and routes through the institutional approval process before submission. She is responsible for preparation of annual renewal budgets and communication with NIH about any questions due to changes in use of funds. Travel is initiated by a travel request to the principal investigator for approval. This process allows for an estimate of travel funds to be secured for the traveler. Secretarial support is provided for coordination of schedules and arrangements. After travel reimbursement processes allows for actual expense of travel funds. This is monitored by the administrative core for guidelines set by the institution.
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