Draft

To: Faculty Assembly

From: David Schmidt, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research

   And Tom Huber, Faculty Associate for Research

Date: September 30, 2004

Re: Policies Involving Research

As noted in the Strategic Plan for Research, presented by the Faculty Research Council, and approved by the full Faculty Assembly in December 2003, there is a need to develop and implement several campus policies related to research. Attached are the first seven of such proposed new policies presented to the Faculty Assembly for its approval. Additional proposed policies will be forthcoming and put before this body by the Faculty Research Council.

The purpose of establishing such policies includes the need to:

Strengthen the campus’s capacity to administer externally sponsored programs

Assure campus’s compliance with Federal and/or CU System policies

Provide appropriate incentives for securing external funding

Assure the wise use of campus resources

Assure sustainability of the research initiative

The initiative to increase/improve research on campus is one of the most critical things we are dealing with at this time. In addition, the complexity of regulations related to sponsored research throughout the nation is increasing. Without this suite of policies, the campus will be in danger of serious transgressions or violations of our fiscal responsibilities. These policies will also go a long way to make sure that all research faculty and programs are treated fairly and equitably.

Discussion: In the fall semester of 2003, the campus Faculty Assembly and the Executive Team both overwhelmingly approved Expanding Research Horizons, a “Concept for a Campus Strategic Plan for Research” developed by the Campus Faculty Research Council. The goal as stated in this plan is to maintain and accelerate the recent momentum we have attained in pursuing and obtaining externally sponsored research. To help the campus reach this stated goal, several things must take place. Some of the more obvious ones deal with promoting a culture of research and more fully incorporating research into the core values of our identity as a university. Some less obvious things that must occur are just as critical while being perceived as more mundane – these include developing a suite of policies that outline and give structure to the procedures and processes necessary to attaining the overall goal. This cover memo is meant to put the need for some of these policies into the perspective of the components of the Strategic Plan for Research.

Three points from the Background and Principles of the Strategic Plan are pertinent to this discussion: 1) sponsored research helps fund crucial functions of the campus and cover real costs involved in campus operations; 2) the pursuit of sponsored research should be consistent with the overriding educational roles of the university; and, 3) all research contributions from the faculty are valued whether funded or not.

The University of Colorado, Colorado Springs is at a critical time in our development – we are too big to deal with complex issues with a handshake and a promise. We must, whether we like it or not, regularize and give structure to the things that we took for granted in the past. This is why we developed a Policy on Policies to help us develop and standardize the ways we do things. All policies proposed for the research agenda will go through the vetting and approvals outlined in this over-arching document.

With particular reference to point 1) above, that research funds, especially F & A, are needed to cover real costs of running the campus, five proposed policies being considered interact. These are:

• Policy on F & A Distribution (Attachment A)
• Policy on F & A Waivers (Attachment B)
• Policy on IP Royalty Distribution (Attachment C)
• Policy on Grant Matches (under development)
• Policy on Additional Uses of ICR Revenues (under development)

The first three of these are included here for immediate consideration.

The Policy on F & A Distribution is a key policy addressing costs and incentives. Where do F & A funds go and for what purpose? Federal and System requirements must be heeded, and appropriate incentives are important to sustain any initiative.

F & A funds are crucial to so many functions of the campus, not the least of which is increasing the ability of the campus to continue to grow grant activity. Sometimes, however, grants are sought that do not or will not cover the full F & A costs. Because F & A funds are so critical, the campus cannot afford to waive F & A funds whenever requested. Plus, the federal government and the System require the campus to have a formal policy on waivers, and this policy must discourage the reduction of F & A costs budgeted. Thus a Policy on F & A Waivers has been developed to regularize what types of activities can have reduced F & A budgeted, and what repercussions are involved in not having full F & A costs budgeted.

The Policy on Grant Matches is under development and will address how grant matches may be funded. Also, a Policy on Additional Uses of Revenues is currently under consideration. Some ideas include increased funding for CRCW grants or new stipends/fellowships/awards for research faculty.

To strengthen the capacity of the institution to acquire and manage external programs, and to comply with System and Federal requirements, the following three policies are being presented:

• Policy on the Roles and Responsibilities for Sponsored Programs Administration (Attachment D)
• Policy on Principal Investigator Eligibility and Sponsored Programs (Attachment E)
• Policy on Fee-for-Service Activities in Academic Units (Attachment F)

The first policy defines how sponsored programs will be administered, and key lines of responsibility and authority are presented. This policy is consistent with a similar System policy. The second policy on eligibility is required to be consistent with System personnel rules. The third policy is needed for the campus to be able to assure compliance with Federal research regulations.

Two of the surest and most expedient ways to increase the capacity of the campus to gain external funding for research is to hire more research experienced and dedicated tenure track faculty, and to incentivise the acquisition of external funding. Therefore, a Policy for Hiring Tenure Track Faculty on Soft Money is being devised. Such faculty will be no different from the traditional tenure track faculty save for the source of funding for their positions. A Policy on Additional Remuneration and Salary Incentives is also under development that deals with allowing PIs to augment their salaries using their research funds. (This latter policy will also explore using other sources of funds for salary augmentation.)

The centers and institutes on the campus play an important role in acquiring external funding for research services or in community engagement. The following policy is being presented to help strengthen our centers, and to assure campus compliance with CU System policy.

• Policy for the Review of Centers and Institutes (Attachment G)

As a final note, currently all colleges have their own policies (at best) or long standing practices (at worst) concerning the cost involved for “buying out” of teaching a course. And these policies and practices differ widely. The campus needed Guidelines on Externally Funded Course Buyouts to make this practice more clear to all, and fair to the faculty, the unit, the college, and the campus. Such a guideline was endorsed by the Faculty Assembly last year, and will be put into place before the Spring 2005 semester.