Tag: Faculty

Phase III of UFIRST Service Available July 6

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Phase III of UFIRST went live on July 6 and brings the post-awards business process online. UFIRST Awards creates a more efficient award management process for researchers and administrators and introduces a streamlined environment for the $700+ million in research funding currently managed at UF.

Completed in nine months, the new functionality represents the third and final phase of the UFIRST initiative. Phase III also introduced a new proposal management system with electronic integration to grants.gov for federal submissions. This has enabled the Office of Research to retire Cayuse, its previous software for electronic grants submissions, resulting in savings of $180,000 per year. The entire grants management process is now more transparent, as relevant information for the processing of awards is visible in one location.

There are multiple resources to help research staff with the transition to UFIRST Awards. Training is available as are instruction guides located in myUFL’s Grants Toolkit. An article covering more specific dates, training requirements, and the functionalities of the UFIRST service was published in FYI. Anyone with questions about using UFIRST may email ufirst@research.ufl.edu.

UFIRST – New Grants Proposal System

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UFIT has been working with the Office of Research on the University of Florida Integrated Research Support Tool (UFIRST). A new proposal routing system for the university, the first phase of the UFIRST implementation, goes live March 23.

UFIRST will significantly improve the way research is administered at UF, from proposal submissions through the awards process. Among the improvements is a streamlined workflow process designed to improve transparency, tracking, and reporting throughout the life-cycle of the proposal.

This is not the end of UFIT’s work in support of this new Office of Research system. Subsequent stages of implementation will occur in fall 2015, when UFIRST replaces Cayuse as the submission tool to http://www.grants.gov/, and the new awards system, expected to go live in spring 2016.

Resources for UFIRST, including information on training and security roles needed to use the system, are available via the UFIRST website. The UF research community is invited to submit questions, suggestions for any of the implementation phases, or general feedback to the UFIRST project team.

Faculty and Staff Can Get Multiple Free Downloads of Office 365

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This morning UFIT went live with the Office 365 ProPlus program for faculty and staff. The program provides multiple free downloads of Office 365 to personal devices.

Microsoft made the decision to expand Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus for Education, a multiple-download program benefit which has been available to students since April 2014, to include faculty and staff. The program allows for multiple full downloads to personal devices (desktops and laptops) of Office 2013 Professional Plus, Office 2011 for Mac, and Office for iPad at no charge. In addition, UF faculty and staff can also download full software copies on up to five tablets for free and run personal copies of Office Mobile for iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone on unlimited devices.

The program website has additional information about what’s included, the links necessary to download free copies, and Office 365 training resources. Members of the university community with questions about the program or who need download assistance should email or call the UF Computing Help Desk (352-392-HELP/4357).