Hi Theresa,

We have had proposals and awards a Federal employee is a co-PI.  I don't know who your sponsor is, but some funding opportunities do indicate they want a Federal employee as a co-PI or co-Investigator.

The Federal employee cannot receive salary from a grant, but the grant can pay travel, supplies, specialized equipment usage, etc.    Depending on the project, we have written a sub, but we've also had awards where we haven't written subs.

This is where I trust the judgment of the lead PI (who is one of our faculty) to monitor work performed by the Federal co-PI.    Good communication is key.

In addition, if you have a letter of support from his/her superiors, it is likely that the Federal employee will have his/her work on the grant as part of their annual performance review (Federal employees receive performance evaluations twice a year).

In terms of current and pending support, what do the proposal guidelines indicate?  If there's nothing there, ask the Program Officer for guidance on completing that part.

Pat

Patricia A. Hawk
Director
Office of Sponsored Programs
Oregon State University
308 Kerr Administration Building
Corvallis, OR  97331-2140
541-737-6699 (voice)
541-737-3093 (fax)

-----Original Message-----
From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org] On Behalf Of Carol Sprague
Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2011 9:11 AM
To: xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org
Subject: [RESADM-L] Question regarding Federal employees requesting Co-PI status

Has anyone had experience with a proposal where there will be
significant contribution from a federal agency employee who is
providing time and resources as encouraged and required by the prime
sponsor, but whose said contributions will not be eligible for funding
through a subcontract, not considered formal cost sharing, and for which
there will be no contractual agreement between the institution and the
contributing agency.

In our circumstance the federal employee wants to be listed as a Co-PI
on our proposal which we would normally do only if we had a
subcontract.

This federal employee has told us that with other institutions that he
has dealt with, he submits with the proposal a letter of commitment
detailing the support and his role and he is named on that proposal, and
on the subsequent award as a Co-Investigator, but because there
is no contractual agreement with the institution, there are no
requirements that would normally be associated with a sub.   The benefit
is to the federal employee in terms of documenting his professional
effort adding to his liklihood of winning his own grants.

Our concerns are, how do we verify his current and pending support, what
if he doesn't deliver or live up to the responsibilities that are
associated with having Co-PI status?  What if he leaves that
institution? If there is not a contractual relationship, what recourse
or protection do we have?

So, wondering if any one else has dealt with a similar scenario and how
they have handled.
--

Theresa Girardi, CRA
Assistant Director
Office of Grant&  Contract Administration
Research Administration Building
70 Butterfield Terrace
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003
(413) 545-0759	FAX (413) 577-1595
http:://www.umass.edu/research/ogca

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