CRIS Forms NEWS
2000 postings since July 1

August 16, 2000
Unless you have specifially requested your 2000 Checklist early, what you see when you access any AD-421 or AD-419 process is still the 1999 Checklist. By now, that is getting pretty old. Your Project list as seen in Manage project info is current. If you see projects on this Project list that require AD-421s (terminations for example) but they are not on your 1999 Checklist, contact Sue Lang (slang@zoo.uvm.edu) or Pat Downer (pdowner@zoo.uvm.edu) and we can give you an "Add to Chklst" button so you can put it on your 1999 Checklist. Alternatively, you can verify that your Project list is correct and then request your 2000 Checklist early.

Your 2000 Checklist replaces the 1999 Checklist, so you will no longer be able to view 1999 AD-421 reports using the Web forms (you will have to use CRIS Search to view or download them).

August 1, 2000
The new project lists from CRIS are now available. These lists reflect the current status of all projects in the CRIS system up to noon on Friday, July 28, 2000. You can view these lists using the Administrative function Manage project information. If you submitted projects between noon on July 28 and noon on August 1, these projects will probably not appear on your list because the lists were in the process of being generated during that time. They will be added in the next weekly update from CRIS.

July 25, 2000
On August 1, your current project list (the list you work with in Manage project info) will be replaced with a new list directly from the CRIS database. We will not replace your list, however, if you have made changes to your project list that have not been submitted to CRIS. Please check in Manage project info to be sure you have submitted to CRIS any changes that you have made to project information.

June 15, 2000
AD-416/417 Web forms are now available for non-state-cooperator grantees to complete their CRIS forms using the Web on a test basis.

May 31, 2000
We have implemented a new way for investigators and dept reps to select their site. Using a graphic of the US and territories, site users will now select their state/territory which will display a list of sites for that state only. This should be much easier than selecting from what has grown to be a very long pick list of participating sites. This list also displays the name and email address of the site contact and indicates in red when a site is not currently available for AD-416/417s or AD-421s.

Also new is information that links the RPA with GPRA goals and objectives. Because CRIS generates certain reports for CSREES based on this cross- linkage, the only way you can specify which goal a project should fall in is to select an RPA that falls in that goal. So, we are now displaying the GPRA goals and objectives along with the RPAs on the AD-417 form and in the Classification Assistance function. In the near future we will provide project selection options based on GPRA goals.

May 8, 2000
It was fun to see so many of you at the CSREES Administrative Officer's Conference in Buffalo! For those of you who could not attend, and for those who did not get a handout, I've put a summary of information flow between CRIS and the Web forms and within the Web forms from the CRIS session presentation.

April 5, 2000
The new home page is now in place. Be sure to delete all your old bookmarks.

A new function for displaying publications is available in the option to Display AD-421 Reports in-progress.

March 24, 2000
Remember, the home page will have a new home starting April 5, which means all of your current bookmarks will need to be changed. We'll provide details on April 5. The homepage itself will also have a new look.

The checklist statistics function, formerly a button at the top of the "Display Checklist" page, is now an output option instead. While the default selections display just projects that still need AD-421 reports, you can instead ask for all projects whether reports have been submitted or not. At a glance, you can see how many projects are still remaining on the checklist in each department. This new feature is also helpful in determining whether or not department assignments are correct, even after you have submitted some or all of your AD-421 reports.

March 2, 2000
Ok, the Special Grants offices are not providing proposal numbers -- the problem is, that in order to put anything in a database and be able to work with it, it must have a unique identifier, and that has been determined to be a "proposal number" -- all NRI grants have them, but the Special Grants offices apparently will not assign them until they receive the proposal, so we have a cart before the horse problem here. You can do what was explained below, which is to enter and print the AD-416/417 to send along with the proposal, and NOT submit it to CRIS. OR, if you want to submit it to CRIS electronically, enter this into the required proposal field: 2000-SG. This will allow you to submit the AD-416/417 for a special grant to CRIS.

February 25, 2000
Here are some more minor changes implemented today:

  • all reference to reclassification is now history! Thanks to all of you who participated and helped with the effort of reclassifying all those projects!

  • The function to submit the Program of Research / Preliminary Checklist has been removed until it is needed again next summer.

  • On AD-416s, you can no longer leave blank objectives, approach, or keywords

  • Proposal number is now required on AD-416s for all grants and cooperative agreements. The proposal number is found on the award letter, the agreement face sheet, and all correspondence from CSREES regarding the grant. If you are asked to complete an AD-416/417 with a proposal that does not yet have an assigned proposal number, you can still complete the form on the Web, print it and submit the printed copy as requested. BUT you will not be able to submit it to CRIS electronically unless and until you have a proposal number. CRIS is unable to process a grant AD-416 anyway without other information that accompanies the proposal number. We are working on a way to improve this situation.

  • You cannot "revise" a grant -- grants may be "renewed" but that process must be done by the grant office. Renewed grant information will be automatically entered in your Web forms project list via updates from CRIS.

    February 23, 2000
    BUG FIX: There was an error in the total publications count for display of AD-421 reports in progress, only IF you selected "All projects" under the section "Select in-progress and/or submitted reports", AND the subgroup selected under "Select the content to be included" contained any projects that had terminated during FY 99. This has now been corrected... if you were relying on an exact publications count that might have met the above criteria, you should redo any reports you may have done before today. Sorry about the bug and thanks to Alecia Arnold in TEX for discovering it!

    MINOR CHANGES: The checklist statistics table has been updated.

    REMINDER: changes made using Manage Project info are not applied to the checklist until you submit the changes to CRIS.

    January 20, 2000
    On April 5, we will be moving the CRIS Forms Assistance Web site to a new location. You will be automatically redirected to the new site so that you can change any bookmarks at that time.