- Am I required to work with one of the ORIC or Center Grants Managers when submitting a proposal?
- Do I qualify for PI Status?
- As a faculty member, in what ways can I be compensated on a sponsored project?
- As a staff member, in what ways can I be compensated on a sponsored project?
- Can you help me gather letters of participation/support for my upcoming proposal submission?
- What are facility and administrative (F&A) costs? What are the current F&A cost rates at OSU?
- What is a fringe benefit rate? What are the current fringe benefit rates for employees working on sponsored projects?
Am I required to work with one of the ORIC or Center Grants Managers when submitting a proposal?
Yes. ORIC requires that faculty/research staff work with grants managers in the development and submission of proposals. For departmental and Office of Research submissions, contact Niraj Gupta or Essence Vaughn. For CETE submissions, contact Bess Dunlop and for CCEC and Schoenbaum Family Center (SFC) submissions, contact Eric Schwenderman.
Do I qualify for PI Status?
PI status is automatically granted for many titles including: professor, associate professor, assistant professor, research professor, research associate professor, research assistant professor and instructor. Some non-academic titles may also serve as principal investigators such as director, associate director, and assistant director.
Doctoral students or postdoctoral researchers seeking funding for fellowships, dissertation support, and/or grants from local health agencies may also qualify for PI status. However, a regular faculty member must be named on the project as the responsible party.
All others need to request an exception in writing to the University Senior Associate Vice President for Research. A request letter on department letterhead (from the dean, a chair or director) and the approval of the EHE Associate Dean for Research are required.
See additional information and templates of the letters that need to be generated.
As a faculty member, in what ways can I be compensated on a sponsored project?
For a sponsored project which OSU is the lead, you can be directly appointed to the project as a percentage of your time during the academic year usually designated “release time” and up to three months of off-duty pay.
If OSU is not the lead, it is possible to be PI on a subaward or a consultant on the project. If you lead a subaward on a proposal that is submitted by another organization, you will want to talk to an EHE grants manager about the processes involved in setting up this type of collaboration.
As a consultant, the faculty member may not use the university name or the fact that they are affiliated with OSU, letterhead, university facilities unless the university is compensated, or university Institutional Review Boards (IRBs). Additional information can be found in the Faculty Paid External Consulting Policy
(PDF)
. In addition, the faculty member must submit a Paid External Consulting Approval Form
(PDF)
to the tenure initiating unit (TIU) and be approved by the TIU chair and dean before the work may start.
As a staff member, in what ways can I be compensated on a sponsored project?
For a sponsored project which OSU is the lead, you can be directly appointed to the project as a percentage of your time during the academic year usually designated “release time” and up to three months of off-duty pay.
If OSU is not the lead, it is possible to be PI on a subaward or a consultant on the project. If you lead a subaward on a proposal that is submitted by another organization, you will want to talk to an EHE grants manager about the processes involved in setting up this type of collaboration.
As a consultant, the staff member may not use the university name or the fact that they are affiliated with OSU, letterhead, university facilities unless the university is compensated, or university Institutional Review Boards (IRBs).
Additional information can be found in the Conflict of Interest and Work Outside the University Policy 1.30. In addition, the staff member must submit a Staff External Work Approval Request to their supervisor and be approved before the work may start.
Can you help me gather letters of participation/support for my upcoming proposal submission?
ORIC can help in gathering letters of participation/support from Central Ohio school districts. The following documents are needed:
- A short overview of the project
- What you are asking the school districts to do
- The specific school districts you want to include
- A letter template that school district personnel can use to write the letter
- The date you need the letters
Contact Nicole Luthy at 614-688-3485 to discuss your request.
What are facility and administrative (F&A) costs? What are the current F&A cost rates at OSU?
Facilities & Administrative (F&A) costs (also called indirect costs or IDC) are those costs associated with providing and maintaining the infrastructure that supports the research enterprise (buildings and their maintenance, libraries, etc.) that cannot easily be identified with a specific project. The university encourages including the appropriate F&A costs in all proposal budgets, unless the sponsor specifically prohibits them, and it expects that F&A costs will be recovered to the maximum extent possible. The F&A costs rates vary based on the nature of the sponsored project, i.e. research, instruction, and other sponsored activities, and where the research is to be conducted, i.e. on-campus or off-campus. The current F&A rates can be found here.
What is a fringe benefit rate? What are the current fringe benefit rates for employees working on sponsored projects?
Fringe benefits include employer-paid contributions for retirement, health care, life insurance, etc. The cost of these benefits is calculated as a percentage of salary. Since benefits differ for different categories of personnel, there are a number of different fringe benefit rates. The current fringe benefit rates for OSU employees appointed on sponsor projects can be found here.
