Please share this message with business and HR teams, and with faculty members who are paid summer salary from sponsored funds.
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In the coming weeks, a team from the Office of the Provost, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research & Innovation, and Illinois Human Resources will issue revised guidance on summer appointments for faculty paid from sponsored funds. Importantly, this will change the way many summer appointments are structured.
The bedrock principle underpinning this guidance is honest dealing with the federal government and compliance with Federal Uniform Guidance (UG).
The revised guidance:
- Allows a maximum of 2.85 months of full-time FTE paid 100% on sponsored funding over the three-month summer period.
- Removes the requirement to use non-sponsored (institutional) funds for the portion of any summer month dedicated to non-allowable activities (activities not allowed on sponsored project funds).
- Allows faculty to use their institutional funds (state, ICR, or gift funds) to fund effort on non-allowable activities, but this is not required.
- Reminds faculty to allocate a realistic amount of time for non-allowable activities in the summer. The minimum of 0.15 month for non-allowable activity over the three summer months may not be sufficient in all cases.
More information, frequently asked questions, examples of summer appointments, and a list of briefing sessions and training are available at https://research.illinois.edu/research-administration/effort-and-compensation-sponsored-projects. The Campus Administrative Manual policy will be revised to reflect this updated guidance.
It is important for both faculty members and unit staff to have a solid understanding of the complexities of summer appointments because of the financial and reputational implications for individual investigators as well as the institution as a whole. In cases where appointments are inappropriately structured, investigators may be required to reimburse the sponsor of their research project, and the university may incur penalties.
Thank you for your attention to this critical issue.
Sincerely,
William Bernhard
Interim Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost
Susan Martinis
Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation
Shari Mickey-Boggs
Senior Associate Chancellor for Human Resources
QUESTIONS: Susan Key, susankey@illinois.edu