Good afternoon friends.
One of the more creative divisions of our university has come up with an
interesting new twist to avoiding grant transfers.  It's called the
"remote PI."

What this means is that when a faculty member leaves the institution to
take a faculty position at another institution, this division proposes
to keep the grant here at our institution and subcontract the PI work to
the new institution.  Then, one doesn't have to go through "bothersome"
grant transfer paperwork and also we get to keep paying people at the
original institution off the grant.

I think the whole concept is LOONY.  I see all kinds of compliance
worries related to the situation where the institution which is
responsible for the grant has a P.I. which is no longer its employee.

The latest attempt at this creative approach involves a Department of
State grant.  A predecessor approved the "remote pi" idea for this
particular grant, but the Department of State is not completely
comfortable with this, so they've come up with yet another
alternative--they'll approve the "remote PI" situation if our
institution contracts the work directly to the individual faculty
member, and not to her new institution.  They could care less if the two
institutions contract with one another!  Oy vey!  Am I on another planet?

Please, colleagues, am I being too overcautious when I shout "NO!" into
the phone?  Be honest.  I am all about service.

Thanks,
Patty Hagen
Saint Louis University

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