Reminder

Compliance protocols MUST be approved and linked in SeRA to a SPO project record prior to award acceptance. 

See ORA's Award Acceptance Resources for additional information.
Stanford
Office of Research Administration

Negotiation Status - Activity Tracking

  • Did you just submit a Research Related Agreement (RRA) request that’s been completed and now under review?
  • Are you wondering which internal compliance checks are being performed relative to your RRA request?
  • Are you curious what issues may be holding up your agreement?
  • Is there a way to track ongoing negotiations with the other party?

 

The Stanford Electronic Research Administration (SeRA) system is here to support you.

Viewing the Activity Tracking page of a SeRA RRA Transaction to Check on its Status

SeRA stores a wealth of research related agreement information that can be leveraged to answer many departmental research inquiries and data needs.

The SeRA Activity Tracking page is a quick and easy way to see the status of any in-progress SeRA RRA transactions. The OSR Contract Officers (CO) track negotiation status and other internal reviews or escalations as they work through the process of reviewing, drafting, and negotiating DUAs and other RRAs. This feature is an excellent way for you to check on the status of an in-process transaction without having to email your CO for an update.

Let’s Do This!

  1. Log into SeRA
  2. Search for the relevant RRA using the RRA # assigned to your request or other RRA transaction
  3. From the RRA Summary page, scroll down to Recent Transactions and click on the link for the open RRA transaction
Viewing activity of a RRA transaction by using the Recent Transactions section
  1. From the open RRA transaction, click on Activity Tracking from the left-hand navigation menu.  You can scroll through the regions of the Activity Tracking to view any notes and dates your OSR CO has entered in relation to issue, negotiation and signature tracking, internal tracking, agreement on hold status, and, as appropriate, additional transaction comments.
Viewing details in the Activity Tracking page of an RRA transaction 

 

RRA Status and Approval FAQs:

Q: I see that the Research Related Request (RRR) has been completed. Does this mean my agreement is complete?

A: No. A “completed” RRR means your request has been reviewed and completed and a new transaction (RRA-New) has been created to track and record the review, negotiation, and signature of your agreement request.

Q: The Recent Transaction section of the RRA Summary Page indicates the RRA-New has “Multiple” assignees. What does this mean?

A: “Multiple” assignees indicates the RRA-New has been assigned to a CO and an additional task(s) has been assigned to one or more Stanford Investigator by the CO.

Q: The RRA negotiation seems to be taking a long time, and the Activity Tracking page says “Redline Sent to Party” with a date. I’m not sure what that means. Should I submit a Central Office Request Form to find out what’s going on?

A: If the Activity Tracking page indicates that action has occurred recently, it means the Officer is actively engaged with the party and will let you know if anything is needed. That specific status means that your Officer has contacted the party to request changes to the agreement’s terms and conditions. If you are unable to determine the status from the Activity Tracking page or if it doesn’t appear to have changed at any point, please email the assigned CO. Please do not submit a Central Office Request Form to check the status of an in-process RRA or any other SeRA transaction.

Q: The Issues section of the Activity Tracking page indicates that the RRA is Pending Protocol Approval(s). What does that mean?

A: If an RRA involves compliance protocols such as IRB or APLAC, an approved protocol must be added to the RRA and approved by the applicable compliance team before an agreement can be signed. A “Pending Protocol Approval” in the Issues section can indicate that either a protocol is needed but has not been submitted, a protocol has been submitted but is still under review, or that a protocol is undergoing necessary revisions.

Q: I don’t understand why it takes such a long time for a DUA to be finalized in SeRA. My PI really wants this done. Don’t Officers just sign agreements? What could possibly be taking so long?

A: Your CO is reviewing the RRA against internal compliance requirements or protocols, negotiating any terms that do not align with Stanford policy, coordinating as needed with other offices on campus, updating SeRA to include the correct internal and external tracking details, and as noted above, checking that any relevant compliance protocols are approved and appropriately linked to the transaction. This process can take a while and is often dependent on outside party timelines and those of other Stanford offices. Sometimes there are additional complexities such as the transfer of sensitive data or materials. OSR tries to keep the Activity Tracking page as updated as possible so that the current status is readily available to everyone.

Research Related Agreement and SeRA Resources:

Need further SeRA assistance? Have questions, feedback, or experiencing other issues? Submit a HelpSU ticket to the SeRA Support Team and a SeRA Support Analyst will contact you shortly.