Embracing Innovation: AI-Powered Support at Rice

Rice University is leaning into the future of research administration. Staff at Rice have been issued licensed access to advanced AI tools.

“…We’re excited to see how these tools will support the collective work of the campus community and how they might inspire new ways to collaborate and innovate,” said Kelly Fox, executive vice president for operations, finance and support. “This initiative reflects Rice’s commitment to integrating cutting-edge technology to empower our campus with advanced AI capabilities across teaching, research and administrative work.”

Research and Cost Accounting (RCA) has been highly engaged in exploring ways to leverage these exciting new tools to streamline operations and ensure compliance, while also strictly adhering to Rice’s guidelines for responsible use, data privacy, and attribution.

Navigating the rules for Cost Transfers – especially involving federal funds – can be complex. One of the most important parts of ensuring that the justification text within cost transfers is compliant.

Crafting Stronger Justifications

Transactions involving federal funds are subject to strict scrutiny. This AI tool empowers you to evaluate and articulate the pillars of a strong justification – essential for RCA approval:

1. Root Cause: Accurately identifying why the error occurred.

2. Prevention: Articulating the corrective actions to stop recurrence.

3. Allocability: Proving the expense directly benefits the destination project.

4. Untimeliness: If a cost transfer is untimely, identify the extenuating circumstances and the changes you will make to internal controls.

What AI support is not?

This RCA support tool is not a final authority, nor is it a pre-approval of a cost transfer by RCA. It is designed to assist staff at Rice by assessing the narrative completeness of the justification.

How to Access?

These tools are integrated directly into your existing tools.

• Via Templates: You will find a direct access link on the current versions of the Non-Labor Cost Transfer template cover page. There are two links to two different tools. One that can be used to review the completeness of the main justification, and one that can be used to review the completeness of supplementary justifications that are necessary when cost transfers are untimely.

• Guidance on how to use the tools can be found here.

Secure and Private

We take security seriously. While the guidance documentation is open to all, access to this tool is strictly controlled via your Rice NetID. You can only access these tools if you are logged in to your browser with your Rice NetID.

• Your Data is Yours: Each user has a persistent, private chat history. Your queries and findings are visible only to you; there is no “cross-pollination” of data between users of these tools.

OTBI dashboards (ROBI) developed in 2021 had the capacity to review Faculty Fund balances by task line. For those users who continue to use ROBI because of this view, and worry that this view will be lost to them when the tool is ultimately decommissioned, we have good news.

Faculty Fund balances by task line can be replicated exactly in iO using the SPFF Budget to Actuals Dashboard.

Processing NLCTs (The Basics)

When processing Non Labor Cost Transfers, the template you use to submit the transfer depends on the origin data.

When the origin data is a cost on a project, use the PPM template.

When the origin data is a cost that is not on a project, use the COA template.

Both templates have a similar appearance, and they operate very similarly, but their internal workings are different and are thus not interchangeable. For full step-by-step guidance use this guide.

COA Template. Version 1.12. (An Update)

Several submitters noticed a bug within earlier versions where uploaded lines to the ‘TNC2 data’ tab were not appearing in the ‘TNC2’ tab upon refresh. The cause of this rare issue has been identified and the template has now been fixed in version 1.12.

Cost Transfer Compliance (A Reminder)

Approvals for NLCTs MUST ALWAYS be added to iO tickets prior to submission (unless the submitter is also both the origin and destination approver in which case no approval is needed). The approvals should take the form of the adobe sign PDF, signed by both origin and destination approvers, as indicated in the instructions within in the templates.

As detailed in box 2 of the cover page of each of the templates, and in Rice policy 302, there are some clear compliance expectations that MUST ALWAYS be met by cost transfer submitters when justifying a cost transfer in box 3 of the cover page.

PPM Template (excerpts from cover page):

1) How were the original costs miscategorized, charged to the wrong project(s), or allocated to the wrong task(s)?

2) If type is PPM-PPM, are the costs allowable and allocable to the receiving project(s)? (i.e does each line of the transfer meet cost principles, funder rules, and is within bounds of funder approved budget categories)?

3) What steps will be taken to prevent recurrence?

COA Template (excerpts from cover page):

1) Why were the original costs mischarged?

2) Are the costs allowable and allocable to the receiving project(s) and/or COA string locations? Does each line of the transfer that has a PPM destination meet corresponding cost principles, funder rules, and remain within bounds of funder approved budget categories)?

3) What steps will be taken to prevent recurrence?

Policy 302 (excerpts from policy page)

“Unallowable or inappropriate charges that appear on a sponsored project fund must be moved promptly to an appropriate fund. Cost transfers must be timely, well-documented and properly approved.”

“Charges to a sponsored project fund should be reviewed periodically by the PI and reconciled regularly by staff within each department or school so that erroneous charges may be identified and corrected promptly. Timely means that a transfer should be initiated as soon as an error is detected but normally within 90 days following the last day of the month in which the charge first appears on the fund.”