Dean of the Faculty

Faculty Handbook

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VIII. N. PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR ELIGIBILITY POLICY

(Source: Office of the Dean of the Faculty, September 24, 2015)

A principal investigator on a research project (a “PI”) bears responsibility for the conduct of the research project, including its completion, its ethical and intellectual conduct, compliance with relevant regulations, and the stewardship of the funds. In any externally sponsored research grant, however, Reed College also assumes certain legal and financial liabilities. For these reasons, PIs among the academic staff must either be in a faculty position or be supervised by a faculty sponsor.

PI or Co-PI status is automatically granted to current Reed faculty members in tenuretrack or tenured positions, or contract-renewable or visiting faculty positions. Automatic eligibility for PI and Co-PI status terminates upon separation from Reed College. At this time, a PI or Co-PI must initiate the grant transfer process. 

PIs are asked to inform the Corporate, Foundation, and Government Support office (Jeremy Niculescu and David Gruber) of their intention to apply for a grant three months prior to the deadline for application. 

Postdoctoral Eligibility:

Reed will support postdocs’ applications for grants as time and resources permit, but, because of their particular status within the college, postdocs must comply with the following requirements:

1. Postdocs must have a faculty sponsor; 
2. The faculty sponsor must be involved in the drafting of the grant; 
3. The faculty sponsor must assume oversight of the budget; 
4. In the case (such as NRSA grants) where the grant does not cover regular college benefits, the faculty sponsor must agree to cover the remaining benefits through departmental funds or other resources; 
5. The approval of a grant does not confer a right to space at the college; if the faculty sponsor leaves the college, the postdoc needs to leave also.
6. Postdocs who want to apply to NIH NRSA must attend a one-hour scheduled application workshop, ideally with their faculty sponsor, at least 3 weeks prior to the deadline to which they wish to apply. The faculty grants manager and a faculty member will lead the session, with the former covering technical elements of the application, and the latter providing guidance on how to best present their research and training plan. We will try to be flexible in scheduling the session, to ensure that people can attend. A postdoc who is resubmitting a proposal does not need to attend this session. Postdocs who are in another lab, and applying to join a Reed lab will be asked to participate by conference call.

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