Academic and Research Excellence Update
Special Edition
September 17, 2024

Dear Colleagues,

Based on faculty input, Purdue has made a significant investment to provide you with a centralized platform for grant related activities. That platform, Purdue Excellence in Research Administration (PERA), provides greater efficiency and transparency and will serve as your one stop shop for workflow, many approvals, and communications.

PERA automates many processes involved with submitting grant proposals, managing research funding, and applying to IACUC and IRB. It will replace COEUS and other antiquated tools.

Beginning Oct. 7, when PERA’s first three modules go live, all individuals must use this system to submit grants. Additional modules will be introduced over the next 15 months.

The PERA project team has done a wonderful job bringing us to this point. We now need everyone’s patience, cooperation and understanding as we work together to make PERA’s rollout a success.

With best wishes,

Karen Plaut, Executive Vice President for Research
Chris Ruhl, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer
Patrick Wolfe, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Diversity

Message from PERA’s Project Director

Dear Colleagues,

After more than a year of preparation, the PERA Project Team is pleased to bring this major new advancement to Purdue. PERA is the result of feedback and requests from faculty and staff to integrate our current research systems under one platform. By addressing this critical need and offering greater efficiency and transparency, PERA is an important step toward research excellence at scale.

To assist with the Oct. 7 transition from current systems to PERA’s unified platform, we have developed several tools, resources and training sessions for research teams that are detailed below. In addition, I want to share a PERA video message from Karen Plaut and a recent article, “Talking PERA,” in which two PERA sponsors answer many questions about what PERA is, how it will benefit teams, training opportunities and more.

Please remember that PERA is a major upgrade. While we have tried to anticipate and prepare for all possible issues during migration, the system may not be perfect on day one. Please be patient as we learn this new software system and new way of doing business. We are all excited about PERA and its potential to transform our research operations.

Thanks,

Jessica Lawrence,
Executive Director of Strategic Research Operations

What is PERA and how will it benefit research teams? PERA addresses a key need to advance our capacity for research excellence at scale. It is a customized system that will integrate several present-day research administration systems under one platform.

Once fully implemented, researchers will use the PERA platform to submit grant proposals, manage research funding and contracts, and navigate regulatory requirements for committees such as the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) and Institutional Review Board (note that IRB will go live in 2025 and Cayuse should continue to be used until that time).

PERA’s benefits for research teams include:

• A unified platform for managing and monitoring research projects.
• An enhanced transparency for the Purdue research community.
• An automated business processes, workflow, routing, approvals and communication.

New Research Account Dashboard – Accessing accounts and balances
The PERA project team recognized that investigators want to see the financial information related to their grants and thus created the PERA research account dashboard (RAD). With SAP continuing as Purdue’s financial system of record, RAD will enable teams working within PERA to view details on grants, sponsored programs and faculty allocations. RAD’s purpose is to enable easy access without exiting PERA. Find more information about the Research Account Dashboard.

What activity modules will PERA have? PERA will consist of eight modules. The first three are Grants (pre-/post-award), Agreements and Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).

Additional PERA modules that will roll out over the next 15 months include:

• Export Control.
• Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC).
• Conflict of Interest and Conflict of Commitment.
• Financial Forecasting.
• Institutional Review Board (continue using Cayuse until further notice).

When are the PERA training sessions? Faculty and staff are invited to attend in-person or virtual training sessions. More sessions will be announced on the PERA website soon.

QUESTIONS? Send the PERA team an email - PeraComms@purdue.edu.

How will activities and deadlines be impacted when PERA goes live? Data from Coeus, Proposal Information Portal (PIP) and other systems will be transferred to PERA Oct. 1 to Oct. 7. NOTE: Grant proposal submissions, post-award set up, contracting and IACUC will be impacted during this time. Review the following guidance or contact your pre-award specialist and other specialists.

Proposal Submissions:

• Proposals due Sept. 30-Oct. 11: Faculty may continue to work on scientific portions of proposals during this time. No changes in proposal budgets will be permitted after Sept. 27 for submissions due Sept. 30-Oct. 11.

  • These submissions must have a final title and final budget with Pre-Award by Sept. 27.

• Proposals due after Oct. 11: PIs should complete this form to initiate these submissions rather than using the PIP – which was decommissioned on Sept. 13. Pre-Award will work with faculty on a plan to begin the work now and complete it within PERA, as necessary.

Post Award:

• Impacts to award set-up: To allow for data conversion, awards will not be entered into SAP during Oct. 1-6.

Contracting:

• Unfunded agreements (e.g., Non-Disclosure Agreements, Material Transfer Agreements and Data Use Agreements): if needed prior to Oct. 7, researchers should contact SPS Contracting (spscontr@purdue.edu).

Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC):

• There is a moratorium on submissions to the IACUC office from Sept. 12 to Oct. 6.
• IACUC will begin accepting and processing new submissions in PERA on Oct. 7.

If you need help, email your pre-award specialist or our general PERA mailbox, PERAComms@purdue.edu, and we will connect you with a specialist.

What key changes to business processes can researchers expect? As PERA’s functionality has some limitations it was necessary to change some processes, including the way we capture proposal credit splits and management of prior approvals for several activities. To assist research teams in navigating these changes, detailed guidance is available at these links:

• Funding proposal credit.
• Prior approval of proposals and post-award activity.

How can research teams get started in PERA? All Purdue faculty, staff, and graduate researchers will have access to the PERA system when it goes live on Oct. 7. The PERA team has developed resource materials and multiple training opportunities during September and October. In addition, immediate support is available at PERA Help.

Who oversees the PERA project? The PERA Project Staff are led by Jessica Lawrence, Kim Gascho, Julie Miller and Kristi Reynolds. There also is a dedicated team of more than 50 individuals across multiple business and technical areas. Strategic oversight is provided by PERA executive sponsors (Karen Plaut, Chris Ruhl, Christian Theumer), and PERA sponsors (John Higgins, Jamie Mohler, Jim Motta, Alysa Rollock and Ken Sandel).

In addition, the PERA User Group, consisting of research faculty and staff from various colleges, is helping optimize PERA’s transition by testing PERA and providing feedback on its various components.

Who will provide daily oversight of the PERA system during and after launch? The Electronic Research Administration (eRA) team within Sponsored Program Services will support researchers across Purdue with technical support. Contact PERA Help. More details about the eRA team are highlighted in this recent Staff Excellence article.

What PERA resources should research teams reference for more information?

• PERA website
• PERA overview slides
• PERA training page
• PERA information session recording
• Navigating PERA training website video