7:54 a.m.
Dear Colleagues,
As a follow-up to what I shared in the last college-wide faculty meeting, I want to
communicate that starting (effectively) in 2019, you will need to submit your completed
grant proposals 5 days before the funder’s deadline. In anticipation of that, please
notify the college and RSC of your intention to submit a proposal three or more weeks in
advance, using this link:
WuFoo Site: https://utsaresearch.wufoo.com/forms/colfa-business-coehd/
Attached is a copy of what information is requested at this WuFoo link, and a summary
description of what happens following the notification 3 weeks out, submission 5 days out,
and routing 2 days before the grant deadline. It is critical we follow these guidelines
to ensure timely submissions.
Just as some additional context to the importance of adhering to the University’s 5-2
rule, let me share that with the College now overseeing post-award administration, it is
critical that the College have sufficient time to review budgets (especially for adequate
administrative costs inclusion) well before the routing process begins. In the past, when
the RSC was within the College, this one-stop shop meant those who planned and who would
later implement grants were the same. As this is no longer the case, as well as with the
increasing number of collaborative, cross-college and inter-institutional projects being
submitted, much more time is needed to review project documentation.
Two more points, of particular importance for those who were not in attendance at the last
college-wide meeting, relate to running proposals through Research Centers and the
benefits of including course buyouts (e.g., instead of or in addition to summer salary) in
grants. Please read and think about these two points, and let me know what questions you
have.
Research Centers: I want to ask you to consider running your grants through an appropriate
Center/Institute, whenever possible, so that an extra 7% of the F&A can be retained by
the College, going to support administrative support in that Center. This is totally
separate from the 20% of F&A that is distributed to PI (5%), Dept (7%) and College
(8%). For instance, when a PI runs her project through the “Center for Comm. Based and
Applied Health Research” (as one example), that Center would get 7% of F&A, which
provides the PI and Center additional administrative support, effectively cost the PI
nothing. There are 4 such Research Centers in our College (see last page of attached
F&A policy) and we expect two more—the Urban Education Institute and ATE—designated as
such in Spring 2019.
Course buyout and salary savings: The Dean has decided to return to faculty some portion
of salary savings from course buyouts that are included in grants. We are not sure yet the
percentage (currently comparing other College’s policies to determine what fits with our
College’s new approach to centralized grant administration), but imagine that if your
course buyout was $12.5K and it cost $2.5K for an adjunct to cover your class, that would
leave $10K on the table, and if 25% of that salary savings was returned to the PI each
semester, you’d have generated an extra $5,000 for yourself to use (just like PI’s F&A
funds), at your discretion. (Equally helpful, of course, is that the rest to the
department and college to cover administrative supports like the statistical consultant we
are hiring in the spring and the grants and contracts staff person I hope we can bring in
to help us manage grants centrally from here on out.). So please think about including
course buyouts in your grants, whenever you can.
Please let me know your thoughts and share any questions you have regarding these changes,
plans and policies. And may I wish you happy holidays and a blessed new year to you and
your families.
Michael
Michael J. Karcher, Ed.D., Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Research
Professor of Educational Psychology
College of Education and Human Development, University of Texas at San Antonio
501 Cesar Chavez Blvd., Suite DB 4.337 (DT); MB 3.476 (Main Campus)
San Antonio, TX 78207
(210) 458-2032; 458-2650 (department)
michael.karcher(a)utsa.edu