next »

[inthesun]

Dear forumites,

I know that institutions must set rigid criteria before accepting research to be conducted by either faculty members or external researchers. My question is: what are they?
 
I would appreciate some help as my department is new and we are starting everything from scratch.

Best wishes,
In the sun / rain

[resis]

The phrase in your post that I understand least is "before accepting research to be conducted by either faculty members or external researchers". In particular, what do you mean by "accepting" research?

[someone]

In these days and times you first need to concentrate on cost.

1. You need to establish what facilities, equipment, and personnel cost are. an example of this would be the UN Lake Ogallala research station where they have a breakdown of cost to use labs, trucks, and other equipment with both in and out of state rates. The same can be done for PC and software use or just about anything else.

2. You need to have university overhead in there as well.

3. You will need to establish policy on how shared resources such as administrative or maintenance staff are made available or not made available. I think in some cases some of these positions should just be off limits for use on outside research or the all time and effort required to calculate the cost of reimbursement would still probably not reflect the true cost.

4. Does this fit the scope of the department.

5. Who decides if it fits that scope.

6. Can animals or humans be used.

7. Compensation policies for those "studied" if applicable.

8. Policy on patents and commercialization.

9. Amount of time allowed dedicated to a single project vs. total amount of time available for research.

10. Safety and handling of any hazmat or potential hazmat and who is responsible for any final cleanup and disposal especially in the case of an accident.

From here it could drift endlessly into work place rights, moral and ethical issues, green requirements, race and gender requirements, involvement of the under served, and on and on. For these issues it would probably be wise to go with the attempted blanket cut and paste of university policy and or have those interested in inclusion of those items go directly to university legal council and work with them to craft a policy on those issues that can then be voted upon by the faculty. Hopefully the thought of the time and effort to go through that will dissuade them and you can go with "university policy".

 

[afm_man]

I know that institutions must set rigid criteria before accepting research to be conducted by either faculty members or external researchers. My question is: what are they?
 

Wow, what a broad question.  Do you have a sponsored programs office?  They should be able to tell you what you need to know.

One thing related to F&A (overhead) is that it can't be arbitrary.  Your institution has to negotiate the rates ahead of time for government funding (normally through the Department of Health and Human Services or Office of Naval Research).  A good link is here

http://www.research.psu.edu/osp/PSU/Proposal/indirect.htm