This policy explains the multifaceted approach Luddy uses to fund and support research within the school. This policy is jointly managed by the Senior Executive Associate Dean (SEAD) and the Associate Dean for Research(ADR).

This policy consolidates prior policies, standard operating procedures, and guidelines into a single document to provide clarity and guidance to faculty and administrators on Luddy funding of research activities.

Scope

The policy creates holistic oversight of all SICE funded research activities including, but not limited to:

• Indirect Cost Revenue sharing
• Research Centers/Labs/Groups
• Faculty Research and Teaching Service payments (FRATS)
• PhD Research Assistant tuition support
• Academic Year Salary Savings
• Cost Share

Indirect Costs, also known as Facilities and Administrative Overhead, are provided to research institutions, by funding agencies, to help offset the facility and administrative costs of the institution supporting the research. As a research oriented school, Luddy has invested heavily in creating an infrastructure to support PIs with their research. This includes:

An IT team with significant experience in supporting IT research

Labs and other spaces to accommodate PIs and their research teams

A central C&G team to manage pre-and post-award grant administration

Hiring lecturers/adjuncts to provide active researchers with class releases to focus on research

Business staff available to assist with purchasing research equipment and supplies

Payroll and HR staff to assist with the grant personnel needs

To help seed additional research activity Luddy also shares a portion of ICR with PIs.

All faculty incurring indirect costs on their grants will be eligible for a share of revenue back to their faculty research accounts. This amount will be approximately 7.5% but may vary slightly depending on available Luddy funds. These funds will be distributed in July/August of each year based on the prior year’s indirect costs.

To encourage faculty to collaborate in research groups, Luddy will also share an additional 7.5% with faculty groups with combined research expenditures over $500,000 for a given year. These funds can be pooled to invite speakers/visitors, fund students, and fund other activities that support the collaboration of the research group.

Luddy recognizes the need for additional personnel to support research groups in the school. In general, research groups’ personnel needs can include, but are not limited to:

• Basic administrative
  • Travel arrangements and reimbursements
  • Speaker/visitor scheduling
  • Meeting scheduling/calendar management
• Higher level administrative
  • Grant proposal assistance
  • Post-award grant finance management
  • Lab/center admin oversight
  • Managing projects to meet grant milestones
  • Outreach
• Technical support
  • Server administration
  • Programming/software development

To ensure research groups’ needs are met, annual negotiations will occur between the group director and the SEAD and ADR. Factors that will be considered during these discussions will include, but are not limited to:

• What is the size of the research group’s current funding portfolio?
• What, if any, prior commitments have been made to support the research group?
• Does the school have available personnel to provide the needed services to the research group?
• Does the research group have need for personnel that would be best assigned to, and under the control of, the research group?
• Should/could additional personnel be shared between groups that only have a need/volume for partial personnel?

Based on these negotiations the school will provide the research group with agreed upon personnel support.

Faculty are eligible for an annual FRATS payment beginning 5 years after the receipt of their start-up funding. These payments may vary based on available funding but will generally be approximately $2,500 per eligible faculty member. These funds will be deposited in faculty research accounts each July/August.

A small number of faculty that were hired without startup funding will continue to receive their usual FRATS payment of approximately $7,500. Again the exact amount will depend on available funding.

Luddy will establish a SRF for research initiatives within the school. Each year the ADRwill solicit ideas/proposals from faculty and research groups for research opportunities that could significantly enhance the research reputation and impact of the school.

The funding for the SRF will come from a shift in funding model for out of state student academic appointee (SAA) research assistants. Previously the school covered 100% of the out of state fee differential (~$20,000 for 24 Credit Hours) for SAA research assistants funded by grants and start-up funds. Starting spring 2019 the school will cover 90% (~$18,000) of the out of state fee differential for new grant proposals and startup* funds. The remaining 10% (~$2,000) will be used to create the SRF. It is estimated that this new funding model would, once fully implemented, provide $100,000 to $150,000 of research funding to the SRF. To simplify proposal creation, each year a flat fee will be calculated to apply to proposals and SAA appointments. This applies to both academic year and summer SAA appointments.

Startups provided to new faculty hires in the last four years will have a four year
grace period (from the date of hire) during which these funds will not be charged the additional 10%.

When creating grant proposals PIs sometimes have the opportunity to budget a portion of their academic year salary on the grant. Sometimes these funds are used to buyout of teaching a class (see Faculty Workload Guideline) and sometimes faculty continue to teach their full load in addition to placing a portion of their salary/effort on a grant, this creates salary savings.Generally salary savings are not returned to PIs. However, if the PI has a specific need to have access to a portion of the savings to support the grant, then the PI should meet with the ADR in the proposal stage of the grant discuss the need, and seek approval. All approvals for use of salary savings need to be documented in advance of the proposal submission.

Occasionally a PI will apply to a grant that either requires cost share, or the PI feels the grant would be reviewed more favorably if cost share is volunteered. In both of these situations cost share must be negotiated with the Associate Dean for Research during the proposal phase. Generally the school is only willing to assist with cost share if the PI is also willing to forfeit their share of ICR and apply it to the cost share as well.

For internal (IU) grant submissions that require a match from the school, all proposals must also be approved by the school before submission. If the total budget request (including matching funds) is less than 75k, faculty should seek approval from their departmental chairs. This would include regular programs such as FRSP. For programs where budgets can be greater than 75k (e.g. Grand Challenge, Major Scientific Equipment Fund), or are one-time submissions (e.g.
particular phases of a grand challenge), faculty should seek approval from the ADR. For these larger proposals, the ADR will release school submission deadlines for each call. In general, all letters of intent must be sent to the school by the campus LoI deadline, and the internal Luddy deadline will be at least two weeks before the campus deadline. Faculty are also encouraged to speak with the ADR during the proposal development stage to ensure their proposals are aligned with the school’s priorities prior to submission.