For direct information from the Office of Research regarding effort reporting, please check out UCF Research & Commercialization | Compliance
What is ECC and why do I have to certify?
The Employee Compensation Compliance (ECC) system is designed to help comply with the provisions of UCF’s Time and Effort policy, federal policy (Uniform Guidance, Subpart E – Cost Principles §200.430), NIH Salary Limitation on Grants, and other relevant agency policies that govern the need to provide certification of an individual’s effort pursuant to his/her sponsored and non-sponsored programs.
Does everyone need to certify? Can someone certify for me?
All A&P, USPS, Post Doc, Adjunct Faculty and contracted employees who work on sponsored research must certify their effort. A PI must also certify the effort of their employees (students, etc.)
Certification needs to be done by the individual faculty member; they can have a designee certify for them if they cannot certify for themselves due to mitigating circumstances. A department chair can certify for a faculty member IF the faculty member has been terminated or has left the university.
Any effort that falls under the following categories should not be certified:
- Dual Compensation
- Equipment Projects
- Dissertations
- Student Augmentation. (Projects that are meant to increase a demographic of student in the field.)
How does it calculate my effort?
The statements are based on your costing allocation at the time, either directly on the grant number or indirectly, but flagged on a non-sponsored account (cost share).
How often do I have to certify and how will I know when it’s time?
Effort should be certified every semester; the Office of Research will release the semesters for certification.
Faculty should be notified by their department administrator when it is time to certify their effort. The ECC system will also send out automated notifications once certification has opened. In addition, the dates for the ECC windows can be checked in our calendar section. If faculty have an account with an online calendar service, they can subscribe to our calendar and get an alert when it is time to certify.
Need additional training or have questions?
Please contact COS Post-Award for assistance. If you would like group or one-on-one training with Office of Research-Compliance, we can make the arrangements.