Key Contact

If you have questions, please contact your Department Administrator or Department Grant Support Staff.

Applicability

Policy Purpose and Description

CLAS follows the Grant Accounting Office’s Effort Reporting Policy and information regarding certification of effort and Personnel Activity Reports (PARs) may be found on their website.

Definitions

Personnel Activity Report (PAR) – web-based survey used to identify how faculty and selected student and staff effort is distributed across a broad variety of activities. 

Procedure

CLAS follows the procedures outlined on the Grant Accounting Office’s Effort Reporting webpage.

CLAS Roles:

The Director of the Grant Support office serves as the Org PAR Administrator. This role is is responsible for the general oversight of the effort certification process on Federally sponsored grants and contracts within the college/division.  This includes, but is not limited to, assuring departments are distributing and certifying quarterly and annual PARs promptly and complying with the various regulatory requirements of federal sponsors and the University as they apply to effort certification.  In the absence of a faculty member, the Org PAR Administrator may assign either the Departmental Executive Officer (DEO) or Dean as the Certifier for a Faculty PAR.

The Department Administrator serves as the Department PAR Administrator.  This role is responsible for direct oversight of the effort certification process on Federally sponsored grant and contracts within the department. The responsibilities of the Departmental PAR Administrator are:

• Serve as departmental liaison to University PAR Administrator.
• Verify and/or reassign individual PAR Certifiers. In the absence of a faculty member, the Dept PAR Administrator may assign either the DEO or Dean as the Certifier for a Faculty PAR.
• Distribute effort certification information and instructions to faculty and PAR Certifier staff as needed.
• Assist faculty and staff with questions about effort certification and PAR forms.
• Track PAR completion status and alert Org PAR Administrator, faculty, PAR Certifiers of delinquent PARs.

The Departmental PAR Coordinator is responsible for ensuring that all PARs for their department are completed by the deadline. Department PAR Coordinators help distribute information and instructions to faculty and staff and are responsible for assigning access to PARs for supervisory staff.

Forms

N/A

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do I have to complete a PAR?

The completed forms are used to certify individual effort on federally sponsored grant and contracts and are subject to audit by federal agencies. In addition, data retrieved from PARS are summarized and used to prepare reports for the Board of Regents and central, collegiate, and departmental administration. PAR reports are audited annually by the State Auditor’s Office.

Who should complete/submit the PARs?

A PAR must be completed for all faculty as well as select students and staff who are employed teaching or doing research at the University of Iowa. Whoever completes a PAR form for another individual must have full knowledge of that individual’s effort. Faculty forms may be filled out by departmental staff, but must be verified and submitted by the individual faculty member.  In rare cases, if this is not possible, the Grant Accounting Office can delegate the submission of faculty forms to the departmental DEO.

PARs for P&S Staff, Graduate Research Assistants, Teaching Assistants, Post Docs and Merit staff should be submitted by their supervising faculty member or the Principal Investigator (PI) on their project who has full knowledge of the individual’s effort. Forms may be verified by the supervising faculty member or PI prior to submission.  Documentation of the supervisor’s approval must be maintained.

Is this the same as PTEAP?

This is different from PTEAP, which only looks at Tenure-Track faculty and whether there is a change to the research/teaching/service allocation.

Related Information

ORG and Department PAR Administrator Guide

Revision History

Last updated 9/14/22