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[pelican]

Hi all,
I am thrilled to have landed my first tenure-track job (at a near-Ivy R1) which I begin this summer--and also to report that I've landed a large, multi-year grant that will cover my research expenses as I transform my humanities-field dissertation into a book. The grant needs to be "administered"--unclear what exactly this means, except that the adminstrator garnishes some of the funds--by either the granting agency or my new university. When I wrote to the granting agency for clarification on this process, they said that they usually administer the funds themselves, but that some universities insist that they administer all faculty grants directly. How do I figure out whether my university falls in this category? It doesn't seem to have a Grants and Contracts office; would this be an appropriate thing to contact my chair about? As a new faculty member who doesn't yet know the administrative ropes, I don't want to come off as needy or clueless.
And by the way, should one always notify his/her chair or dean when he/she receives an external award? What is standard protocol in this case?
Thanks in advance for your help.

[pgher]

It is unimaginable that a "near-Ivy R1" does not have an office to take care of these things.  It might be called something else, though--sponsored programs, for example.  I suggest you start by looking at the new U's web site under "research" until you find a vice provost/chancellor for research, then contact his/her office.

[larryc]

Absolutely begin by asking your chair for guidance. She might be pissed if you don't.


There is a huge variation in how institution deal with external funding, from micromanagement and siphoning off half the money to anything goes. Your chair will know the ropes.

[pelican]

Thanks to you both!

[pgher]

Something occurred to me later.  I'm in engineering, so my research expenses include hiring GRAs, buying equipment, using university facilities, paying my own salary and benefits, and so forth.  In your case, if all the work is performed off-campus by you during summers (like traveling to libraries or whatever), and you received the grant before your start date, it is POSSIBLE that you can avoid going through the local sponsored programs office.  I don't know how things work in the humanities.  Your sponsor will probably need some statement from your university stating that it is acceptable for the sponsor to administer directly, though.  FWIW, I have a colleague (in engineering) who spends every summer elsewhere doing research, and I don't believe that goes through our sponsored programs office.

[dellaroux]

Also, some types of grants can be exempted from paying the "fringe" (which is what the % the school pays itself for admin is usually called) in some places.

Grants I once administered through the OSR were primarily for projects that were seen as non-profit activities, and were usually in conjunction with NGOs overseas where the primary result of the grant activity was not financially remunerative (think, providing computers and adequate teacher training for their use to third-world countries, for example.)

Grants I've had in the humanities for research-related travel and the purchase of a laptop for use in archives and libraries were likewise not considered to be revenue-generating and no fringe was taken out there, either.

But that was more than a bit ago, and the art of siphoning up even tiny bits of money has recently become more attractive to schools, so that well could have changed.

There should be policy on this somewhere; you could even Google within your school site using the terms "grant" and "fringe" together and see if that doesn't lead to your Ofc.Spons.Programs/OSResearch site.

Or talk to your department staff assistant, they usually get some of the paperwork on such things and probably know what office it comes from.