Dear Colleagues,

PRA is back by popular demand!

After a one-year hiatus, NCURA is bringing back its Pre-award Research Administration conference. Most of us have come to realize that the components of pre-award: a properly matched sponsor; a well-developed budget; and a proposal narrative which is responsive to agency guidelines and regulatory compliance, all set the stage for fewer problems in the post-award arena. More and more, we are seeing pre- and post-award as one continuing process where the hand-off between the two units must be coordinated and seamless.

The theme for PRA4 flows from this notion that a PRO-ACTIVE pre-award research administrator is the best line of defense against an audit finding. In keeping with that concept, we will kick off our conference with Tales from the Audit told by colleagues who have experienced them firsthand. The take-home lessons will be the steps pre-award folks can take to avoid problems once a project is underway. We have pictured our profession as a game board with the various squares being the pitfalls we encounter every day. The goal of this conference is to provide the skill set to pre-emptively avoid those pitfalls as we advance around the board.

PRA4 begins with 6 workshops which are being led by the faculty who have received the highest evaluations from all of you. And the topics they have chosen are the most relevant to our day-to-day operations: Responsible Conduct of Research; Legal/Contractual Issues; Cost Sharing; Care and Feeding of PIs; Post-award Issues for Pre-award Administrators; and the ever popular, OMB Circulars. For our senior level PRAers, there will be a Forum with the Feds incorporated into our regular concurrent sessions.

Our day and a half conference consists of a variety of types of offerings including the traditional 90 minute slots mixed with shorter sessions. And we will have concurrent sessions, discussion groups, as well as breakfast roundtables. In addition to the tracks you are accustomed to seeing for our usual constituencies, we have added one called, "Soup to Nuts". This is a basic track which will give the new research administrator a taste of the various areas one needs to master in our field. Taking the sessions sequentially will provide attendees with a kind of mini-Fundamentals experience.

Our game board vision reminds us that life can never be all work and no play. And therefore we have chosen a wonderful setting for PRA4. Providence, Rhode Island is home to some of the best restaurants, artists, retail and service establishments worldwide. And don't miss Water Fire, the award-winning sculpture installed on the three rivers of downtown Providence, with its one hundred sparkling bonfires. Finally, Providence is the gateway to summer destinations such as Cape Cod and Block Island, so when you leave the conference you can spend a few days on the best ocean beaches in the country.

Marti L. Dunne, New York University
Brian N. Squilla, University of Pennsylvania