At the University of Southern Maine we limit the role of PI to employees
as our liability insurance covers them but not students.

Our policy is:

USM regular tenured faculty, tenure-track faculty, non-tenure-track
faculty members (including emeritus and research faculty) and regular
professional staff members are eligible to serve as principal
investigators (PIs) on sponsored projects. Other University employees
may serve as PIs if properly qualified and with the approval of their
department chair and college dean or equivalents (e.g., director or vice
president). Authorizing officials must confirm the eligibility of a PI
prior to the initiation of any proposal and so notify the Office of
Sponsored Programs. Students, postdoctoral appointees, adjunct or
visiting faculty who are not University employees, and temporary
employees may serve as co-PIs as sponsor/program guidelines encourage or
permit. In such cases an eligible PI must be assigned to supervise the
co-PI’s role within the project.

Larry

Sent from my Dell PC

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Larry Waxler, Director
Office of Sponsored Programs
University of Southern Maine
15 Baxter Boulevard
P.O. Box 9300
Portland, ME  04104-9300
Telephone: 207-780-4413
Telefax: 207-780-4927

>>> "Young, Katherine S" <xxxxxx@ILSTU.EDU> 5/16/2012 2:54 PM >>>
At my former institution we allowed graduate students, staff, and
research scientists (non-faculty appointments) to be PIs as long as the
Chair approved the proposal - this approval basically stated they had
the right to use the department facilities in the performance of the
work.  Initially, this started because of the number of non-teaching
units we had, but we expanded it to include students who were applying
for dissertation funding.  We further expanded it when funds for
organization development in systems and IP become available from
sponsors, such as Kauffman Foundation.  The award would remain at the
university if the person terminated their employment, unless it was very
specific to their own activity, such as a dissertation award.

We supported the practice with a memorandum out of our Vice Chancellor
for Research Office.  Note that if the sponsor limited eligibility to
faculty only, the party had to find someone appropriate to act as PI.

Kathy

Sent from my iPad

On May 16, 2012, at 11:52 AM, "Kris Wolff"
<xxxxxx@FORDHAM.EDU<mailto:xxxxxx@FORDHAM.EDU>> wrote:

Hi Folks,
We have some grad students with their own small grants from
organizations like Sigma Xi and the APA, where they are named by the
sponsor as the principal investigator.  Here at Fordham, they can’t be
named as the PI on the grant account, rather their faculty mentor is
named as the PI and they are the Co-PI.  Traditionally, students are not
given any signature authority for any grant accounts, but I’d like to
have an exception made for these students with their own small grants
– my argument is that this is a great opportunity for these
students to learn the responsibility of managing a grant budget.  We
would of course limit the items they can sign off on (never salary, for
example) and the amount of money they can sign for (most likely $100 or
less).

Our finance office is wondering how other schools treat this situation.
 When your grad students get their own external funding, are they
allowed to order their own supplies and authorize payments of invoices?
Or does their faculty mentor, department chair, etc. have to do this for
them?  And what are the reasons why they can or cannot?

Thank you for your help!
Kris

-----------------------------------------------
Kris Wolff, MA, CRA
Manager, Office of Sponsored Programs
718-817-4086

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