First, consider that a consultant provides his/her professional services as
a private entity, not drawing on the resources of his/her institution.  Can
the effort proposed for this person be performed privately?  It might be
wise to get a letter of commitment from the purported consultant which
clearly indicates that the consulting does not involve his/her home
institution.  And, can the work be accomplished without institutional
resources?

Second, consider the cost of that proposed consultancy.  Might someone else
perform equally as well at a lower cost.  Hiring a consultant is a
procurement -- usually sole source because the expertise is unique -- but
applying procurement tests often roots out situations where "consultant" is
being used to get around various system problems.

Chuck

At 03:29 PM 2/13/2002 -0600, you wrote:
>One of our PIs wants to engage a faculty member at another school as a
>collaborator.  That faculty member already has 90% of her effort committed
>to grant-funded projects, and the remaining 10% is not sufficient to make
>the proposed collaboration convincing to the proposed sponsor.  The solution
>proposed by the two investigators is list the collaborator as a consultant
>for ~$20,000.
>
>Is it a common practice to use the consulting mechanism to engage
>collaborators whose is effort fully committed to other projects?
>
>
>Peter J. Dolce, Ph.D., Director
>Office of Research Support Services
>Meharry Medical College
>1005 DB Todd Boulevard
>Nashville, TN  37208
>V 615 327 6703
>F 615 327 6716
>
>
>======================================================================
>  Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including
>  subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available
>  via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists")
>======================================================================

Herbert B. Chermside, CRA
Director, Sponsored Programs Administration
Virginia Commonwealth University
PO BOX 980568
Richmond, VA  23298-0568
Express Delivery Only:
 Sanger Hall, Rm. 1-032A
 11th & Marshall Streets
 Richmond, VA  23219
Voice:  804-828-6772
Fax     804-828-2521
OFFICE e-mail   xxxxxx@VCU.EDU
Personal e-mail xxxxxx@vcu.edu
http://views.vcu.edu/ospa/

======================================================================
 Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including
 subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available
 via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists")
======================================================================