eTRACS – What’s Changing?

eTRACS	RAMSeS	Comment
Completed Proposals for Final Routing	Partially Completed Proposals for Final Routing	Proposal error checks built into eTRACS require that all proposals for all sponsors be complete before final routing.
PI Certification Required to Advance Routing	PI Certification Optional for Routing	Proposals will route initially to the PI and will not proceed through routing until the PI has certified.
Program Type	Chess Code	Program Type is chosen in the Setup Questions tab of a proposal and drives the F&A rate/scheme used in the budget F&A tab
System-to-System (S2S)	Various sponsor sites.	All *Federal* proposals will be submitted within eTRACS via System-to-System communication at Grants.gov - replacing sponsor portals such as NSF Fastlane and NIH Assist (in addition to replacing Grants.gov PDF packages and workspaces).
Budget developed within Proposal	Budget developed in ORA Budget Spreadsheet	Because a robust budgeting tool is available within eTRACS, the ORA budget spreadsheet will no longer be available or accepted.
Change Request Module	Paper Forms	The Change Request Module will include electronic forms for post-award management that were previously paper processes or web page forms. The forms being adapted within the Change Request Module will route within eTRACS for approval and be electronically linked to existing project records. The available forms are: Pre-Spending Request PI/Admin Department Change No Cost Extension Budget Modification Subaward Initiation Subaward Modification
Standard 3% Inflation	No Detail Budget	Standard 3% inflation is applied automatically to out years, including year 1 if it starts in a future fiscal year.
Subaward budget developed within budget tab	Subaward budgets developed as separate documents and attached	Subaward budgets are developed within the eTRACS proposal budget.
Salary Imports	Salaries retrieved outside of RAMSeS and used in the ORA Budget Spreadsheet	Institutional Base Salaries will be imported to eTRACS as personnel are added. Note that 9-month salaries are annualized when they are imported - but will calculate correctly when effort is assigned to either the academic year or the summer.
GENIUS Profiles	No RAMSeS Equivalent	Investigators may store frequently used documents (biosketch, collaborators, current and pending support, etc.) in their GENIUS profile for convenient re-use. Sponsor credentials (NIH & NSF) must also be saved and stored in the GENIUS profile for federal S2S submissions.
Separate lists of Departments and Centers/Programs and Research Clusters	Single department list that includes all unit types	Centers and Research Clusters are listed in a separate “Centers/Programs” listing in eTRACS. “Centers” indicates centers/institutes that can recover F&A (These Centers are also listed again in the departmental listing because they are often a home department for some personnel) “Programs” are centers/institutes that play a role in a project but are not eligible to receive recovered F&A. Research Clusters are categorized as “Centers” in the eTRACS Centers/Programs list because they can accrue F&A.
Pre-Review Proposal Routes	No RAMSeS Equivalent	Three pre-review questions must be answered for every proposal and submitted for routing. If any actions requiring pre-review are applicable, they will be routed for review and approval. If they are not applicable, the route completes immediately. Work on the proposal may occur while the pre-reviews are routing, but the final proposal route cannot be initiated until the pre-review route is completed.
Pre-Review of F&A Waiver in Proposal	Paper Form	F&A waiver requests will be reviewed earlier in the proposal development process to facilitate efficient budget development.
Pre-Review of Cost Share	No RAMSeS Equivalent	Proposed cost share questions will be captured in a pre-review process, with a source Banner fund identified, and routed for appropriate pre-approvals.
Off-Campus Rate Determination	Communicated to ORA Sponsored Program Officer outside of RAMSeS	Projects that may require use of the off-campus F&A rate will be identified for pre-review. Information provided will be routed to ORA for rate determination.
Cost Share budgets developed within budget tab	Cost Share information attached	Cost Share budgets are developed within the eTRACS proposal budget.
F&A Distribution & Credit Allocation	Allocated in the ORA Budget Spreadsheet	Allocated in a separate F&A Dist/Credit Allocation tab of the proposal.
Using Default Sponsor for new unlisted sponsors	Type new sponsor name as free text	If a sponsor is not in the eTRACS sponsor list, choose “Default Sponsor” as the proposal sponsor. This will trigger a report to the system administrator who will add the new sponsor to the sponsor list and the proposal record. The proposal developer will be prompted in the “Pre-Review Info” tab for the new sponsor name.
Different Proposal Templates	One proposal template; Uploaded documents	eTRACS utilizes and configures the proposal tabs that are available for each submission. Forms specific to federal opportunities will auto-populate the proposal template.
NIH & NSF Forms Developed and Submitted in eTRACS	Submission Package attached in RAMSes, routed for approval, submitted through Grants.gov	At proposal initiation, the proposal developer will identify the funding opportunity, which will auto-populate required proposal sections as tabs in the proposal. The tabs replace RAMSeS uploads. eTRACS will create a final submission package and submit directly to Grants.gov.
Award Numbering	Award Numbering	Proposal numbering will remain the same. The award number in eTRACS will be the same number with an "AWD" prefix (e.g., Proposal 19-0222 becomes AWD-19-0222).
Associate Centers	Affiliate Centers	Associated Centers, a section in the Setup Questions tab of the eTRACS proposal, allows the user to associate a project with a center or institute.
E-Mail Fetching	No RAMSeS Equivalent	E-mail correspondence and attachments can be copied to eTRACS and included automatically in the eTRACS record.