Re: Remote PI? Baumann, John 11 Feb 2005 23:48 EST
I guess I am lodging a minority opinion here. I don't really see the problem. In fact, to some extent, why this is so much different than any other contract between a prime and a sub? I have been involved with a similar situation several times. A PI left my institution during the last year of a grant. NIH, rather than approving a transfer, requested that we sub with the PI at his new institution. We did so -- collected the appropriate IACUC approvals, financial disclosures, etc. The project went into no cost extension and the final reports, FSR and invention statement were submitted as easily as if from my institution. I have recently had the same situation in reverse -- a PI left another institution and joined the faculty here. He had two NIH awards: one was transferred and the other, in its last year, was not but a subcontract was developed to cover his effort and misc. costs. I have also been involved with projects wherein the application was submitted with the PI paid via a subcontract -- although in each of these cases s/he had joint appointments at both the prime and subcontracting institution. John John R. Baumann, Ph.D. Associate Vice Chancellor for Research Director, Office of Research Services 5100 Rockhill Road (US Postal Service) 5211 Rockhill Road (Courier Service) Kansas City, MO 64110 816.235.1303 (v) 816.235.6532 (f) -----Original Message----- From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@HRINET.ORG] On Behalf Of Patricia Hagen PhD Sent: Friday, February 11, 2005 1:59 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") ======================================================================