Award Staffing

The University and sponsoring agencies have specific guidelines governing staff requirements, level of involvement and sponsored projects status. Researchers and research staff must abide by these guidelines in order to properly and legally conduct research, submit proposals and proposal budgets, and obtain additional staff. The links below detail some of those requirements.

Resource/Topic	Description
Research Appointment Policies	Policies regarding the appointment of research staff Defines what staff is covered by the policy and what staff is not covered by the policy
Health Insurance Plan for Visiting Personnel HR Benefits Plan Information	The federal government mandates health insurance coverage for visiting scholars and their dependents. To facilitate University compliance, the Office of Risk Management has established minimum health insurance requirements for visiting scholars.
Fringe Benefit Rates	New FY 2008 employee benefit rates - these rates should be used on all proposal budgets.
Salary Limitation on Grants and Contracts	Information regarding the applicability of NIH salary caps
Continued Principal Investigator Status Following Retirement from a Tenured Faculty Position	This policy applies to Northwestern faculty members who have formally separated from their tenure track positions and are interested in continuing their externally funded research.
Significant Absence of a Principal Investigator	Policies regarding the absence of a principal investigator (PI) for the period of three months or longer, which is considered "significant" by many sponsors
Staff Status for Postdoctoral Fellows	Postdoctoral fellows paid by or through the University have the status of University staff, with the same policies and programs applicable to them as are applicable to research associates Details the policies and programs
Requirements for Research Assistants Supported by Research Assistant Scholarship (RAS)	Requirements and application for the RAS

Engaging McGaw Medical Center Staff to Work on University Sponsored Projects

Principal Investigators (PIs) may wish to use the services of nurses, technicians, or other non-faculty research staff employed by Northwestern's affiliates - i.e., NMH, NMFF, ENH, CMH, or RIC- - on research projects conducted through the University. When this is desired, PIs and their departments are responsible for developing a budget that accurately reflects both the direct and F&A costs that should be paid to the affiliate, obtaining the proper endorsement of the affiliate's sponsored projects/research office, and incorporating the affiliate's total cost on the "consortium/contractual services" line of the budget that Northwestern will send to the sponsor. In accordance with its federally negotiated F&A rate agreement, Northwestern will also recover its own F&A costs on the first $25,000 of each subcontract. Payments for services of McGaw affiliate institutions' staff on University sponsored projects cannot be made without a formal subagreement. Invoices or purchase orders are not adequate for this purpose.

If a PI is uncertain whether an individual whose services are needed on a sponsored project is an employee of the University or an affiliate, he/she should consult with the employee directly or with the department administrator responsible for personnel matters. If there is a shortage of funds on an award due to a PI having failed to correctly identify the legal employers of the staff listed on his/her proposal budget, the investigator will be expected to either rebudget within available direct cost funds to ensure that the affiliate's total costs - direct and F&A - are properly paid or cost-share those expenses with funds from a non-sponsored account. Because a commitment was made to a sponsor in the original proposal, it would not be appropriate to reduce the project scope of work to accommodate the deficit.

Click on this link for more information:
www.medschool.northwestern.edu/faculty-staff/