Re: Remote PI? Jon Hart 11 Feb 2005 15:23 EST
Boy, I'm with you. If this were an NIH grant it would not be legal to have such "pass-through" funds. Normally the prime grantee must do the core work on the project, with subcontractors (of any stripe) doing important, but complementary/secondary work. Also, as you mentioned, the compliance issues boggle the mind. I don't know how you could have an investigator comply with your institution's policies if he/she must company with the new institution's policies. And if the person isn't an employee, how can they be accountable to you? What astonishes me is that this was approved at all, in the past. Courage! Joni Jon Elizabeth Hart, MPA, CIP Senior Director, Sponsored Programs Administration Senior Director, Human Subjects Protections Program The Rockefeller University 1230 York Ave., NY, NY 10021-6399 tel: (212) 327-8054; fax: (212) 327-8400 email: xxxxxx@rockefeller.edu -----Original Message----- From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@HRINET.ORG] On Behalf Of Patricia Hagen PhD Sent: Friday, February 11, 2005 2:59 PM To: xxxxxx@HRINET.ORG Subject: [RESADM-L] Remote PI? 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 ====================================================================== 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") ====================================================================== ====================================================================== 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") ======================================================================