Global Community

Dear Research Community,

We have run into a scenario that, oddly enough, we have never encountered, so I am reaching out for advice on how to proceed.  We have faculty member/PI who recently received an NSF EPSCoR award.  However, the PI recently has accepted a position at an academic institution in Europe.  The faculty member would like to remain PI of the award.  Both institutions are agreeable to this approach.  My question for you all is how would you structure a dual appointment between both institutions?  Would you enter into an MOU?  Are there any IP considerations that should be addressed?  How is effort reporting handled?  What type of appointment should we consider?  Are there any other considerations we should keep in mind?  We understand that since EPSCoR funds are involved, our options may be limited with NSF since the faculty member is moving to Europe.

Any thoughts, advice or guidance anyone would like to share would be greatly appreciated.  Here is my direct email Christopher.boynton@....

Thanks,
Chris

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Christopher Boynton
Director of Research Administration
University of Maine
Orono, ME
207-581-1472
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Hi Chris

both my previous and current institution have many joint academic appointments. We have some that have joint appointments across different universities, including overseas, and even more common, in medical schools/colleges, academics will have joint appointments between hospitals or medical centres and universities. in most cases there will be a memorandum of understanding (MOU) as you have suggested. Some questions to ask would be:

What is the nature of the appointment at the other university (will they actually be doing research? are they doing lecturing? et.,.)

Also, are they being paid? Not all joint appointments are paid some are honorary. If it is, what is the salary fraction? It will make it a lot easier for effort reporting if the time fraction of the appointment at the other university is clearly spelt out in the MOU. The researcher cannot be 100% at each university as this would be non compliant (I could say impossible, but we have had researchers try ;)). . The sum of the 2 appointments should be 100%. Presumably, the researcher will be working on the project at your university, and hence, the effort would be the fraction (or below) what is allocated in the MOU to Maine. 

I hope that helps. happy to talk further if you want to drop me an email: c.killey@...

Connie

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Connie Killey (Mogg)
Director,
Research Finance
Deakin University
Australia
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