Virginia FOI and Research projects/agreements

Virginia's Freedom of Information Act excepts from access through Virginia
FOI procedures research data generated or collected at state colleges and
universities until publicly released, published, copyrighted or
patented.  However, this exception does not apply to the institution's
financial or administrative records.  As a matter of practice, we freely
publish and release the sponsor's name, the research project title, and the
total cost of each sponsored program, as those data fall under the
"financial or administrative records" category.

We notify commercial sponsors of this, as they may wish that the project
title be expressed in a way that the title does not reveal their
proprietary business information.  We consider the scope of work and
deliverables sponsor proprietary information.

VA's FOI act is at
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+TOC02020000037000000000000
and the exclusion for university research is detailed at
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+2.2-3705
scroll down to item 20.

Chuck

At 10:05 AM 3/7/2002 -0600, you wrote:
>This query is directed to public institutions:
>
>What information pertaining to your sponsored project contracts and grants
>is considered a matter of public record under your state open records or
>freedom of information laws?
>If a project description is part of the public record - where do you
>obtain the description (e.g., excerpt from the proposal, PI or
>administrator prepares a description, the sponsor provides it)?
>Do you explicitly notify private sponsors that this information is public
>record?
>
>Thank you in advance for your assistance.
>
>******************************************************************
>   Wendy L. Beaver
>   Associate Director              Phone:  319-335-2122
>   Sponsored Programs
>   2 Gilmore Hall                    Fax:    319-335-2130
>   The University of Iowa
>   Iowa City, IA 52242            xxxxxx@uiowa.edu
>******************************************************************
>
>
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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")
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