PACUR Explained

      WHAT IS PRESIDENT'S ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON UNIVERSITY RELATIONS (PACUR)                           

The President’s Advisory Committee on University Relations (PACUR) is a committee of individuals from our member universities that helps maintain good communication and relationships between the Corporation and members. The PACUR acts as an advisory committee to the UCAR President, proposing agenda items for members' meetings and proposing activities and programs for UCAR to undertake.

To ensure that NCAR maintains an alliance with the community when proposing for funding over and beyond its NSF core support, a process was established to review NCAR’s non-core proposals. This review process is important for several reasons: it provides a method to verify NCAR’s compliance with the established criteria, provides an assurance to the university community that there is no unfair competition, serves as a mechanism to encourage collaboration between NCAR and the university community, and allows the committee to make recommendations on improving UCAR’s internal review process.

This review is currently administered by a subcommittee of PACUR, which was appointed in April 1993. The rotating subcommittee, usually comprised of three to four university members, conducts a biannual retrospective review of all non-NSF and NSF competed proposals over $100,000. The proposals are reviewed against an established set of criteria, developed in collaboration with PACUR, NCAR, UCAR and NSF. The subcommittee selects a representative sample of proposals across all divisions/labs and collaboration levels for review.

In addition to reviewing non-core proposal documents, the subcommittee reviews proposal trends and metrics to determine areas of improvement, such as collaboration with the university community, graduate student involvement in projects, etc.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF PACUR?

NSF recognizes that it may be appropriate for NCAR personnel and/or facilities to be used for other projects that contribute to the overall advancement of the atmospheric and related sciences.  Such activities must fall within the mission of NCAR, and shall not impact negatively on NSF-sponsored activities.  NSF and NCAR are concerned about unfair advantages that the use of NCAR staff and facilities may have on the ability of the university community and others to obtain funding.

• NCAR is required to involve the members of the community in a retrospective review of non-NSF and NSF Grant funded proposals.  The external committee tasked with the semi-annual retrospective review of proposal submissions is known as the President’s Advisory Committee on University Relations (PACUR).  The committee holds two conferences per year to review a selection of proposals over $100k to ensure NCAR is adhering to the required criteria.  The PACUR review process serves as an assurance to the university community that no unfair competition exists, serves as a mechanism to encourage collaboration with the university community, and allows the committee to make recommendations on improving UCAR’s internal review process.  
• This retrospective review replaces past NSF processes, where NSF would review and approve all proposals before they were submitted to a sponsor.

The PACUR serves several purposes:

• The PACUR Form is required as part of the NCAR Directorate internal review to ensure proposals for activities outside of NSF base funds fall within the mission of NCAR, do not compete unfairly with the university community, have significant collaboration with a university or provide facilities to the community and use NSF/NCAR resources appropriately. 
• NSF receives a copy of the PACUR information via email for all proposal activities greater than or equal to $1 million and all activities where the proposal is submitted to an international organization.
• NSF periodically reviews the PACUR Workspace and/or NCAR’s database to fulfill their oversight responsibilities and monitor the extent of NCAR’s obligations involving the use of NCAR personnel and/or facilities for non-NSF and NSF Grant funded projects.

WHO SHOULD COMPLETE THE PACUR?

Completion of the PACUR SmartForm is usually a joint effort between the principal investigator and the administrator.  Specifics for completing the form are decided within each division/lab.  However, NCAR recommends that the four criteria within the PACUR SmartForm be completed by the NCAR PI instead of the division/lab administrator.   The PI is most familiar with the research and the particular project, thus the most knowledgeable to address the criteria. 

It is important to note that the PACUR subcommittee does not receive copies of the full proposal during their biannual review.  Rather, the subcommittee receives a copy of the proposal budget, agency cover pages and collaboration letters (if applicable).  In addition, the subcommittee is limited to three or four people; so not all atmospheric disciplines are represented.  Therefore, the responses to the criteria need to be very clear, providing sufficient explanation to each of the four criteria.  Please also spell out all acronyms.