Research & Graduate Studies

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Research Forms and Policy/Practice Information


Travel-Related (Info)

  • Cash Advance (Form)
    It is possible to request up-front cash for use with official research-related travel.

  • Insurance: Emergency Evacuation, Repatriation, Accident (Info)
    Travel accident insurance and emergency evacuation and repatriation insurance are provided to faculty, staff and student employees traveling on university business.

  • Internal Revenue Service Forms and Publications (Info)
    Publication 463, Publication 535, and Circular E are the most commonly-needed business and travel policies.

  • Travel Accountable Plan (Info)
    There are five requirements for a valid plan that meets the IRS definition for reimbursement of travel expenses incurred in the course of business.

  • Travel Expense Reports (Form)
    Included are travel expense report forms and per diem calculators.

  • Travel Fund, Faculty/Staff Research Development (Info) (Form)
    RGS/KUCR provides up to $750 for an annual trip to fulfill the purpose of seeking additional research funding.

  • Travel, Liability Waiver Forms for International (Faculty Form ) (Student Form)
    KU does not support travel to countries on the U.S. State Department travel warning list, and students and faculty going there are not to use university, grant or KU Endowment funds. Researchers who choose to undertake such travel must submit a waiver of liability form.

  • Travel Rate Schedule (Info)
    The schedule includes the current the IRS mileage allowance and per diem allowance

  • Travel Reimbursement Policies, by Topic (Info)
    A variety of situations and questions are addressed in detail. Consistently applied policies and procedures are necessary to ensure compliance with Federal tax law and third party sponsoring agency regulations.

  • Travel Policies: Purpose, Goals, Responsibilities (Info)

  • TRIPS: Travel of Research Investigators to Potential Sponsors (Info)
    On a scheduled basis, a KU aircraft flies researchers to Washington, D.C. for face-to-face meetings with funding officials. There is no charge to the researcher, who must have a meeting scheduled with program officers to discuss the possibility of funding for a future sponsored project.

Business Services

  • Consultants and Contractors Checklist (Info)
    (Contractual Services Form | KUCR Agreement for Services Template)
    This explains the requirements for each level of consultant or subcontractor and links to forms and agreement templates.

  • Expense Reimbursement, Out-of-Pocket (Form)
    A separate form is used to request reimbursement for "out of pocket" expenses.

  • KU Card Center Copy Card Request (Form)
    This form can be used to obtain a new KU Card Center Copy Card, or add value to an existing card.

  • Postage Stamps, U.S. (Form)
    You can order and charge stamps to your project account number by using this form

  • Property Management Policy and Procedures (Info) (FAQ)
    This extensive document describe the systems and procedures designed, developed, and implemented to protect, preserve, account for, and control fixed assets for which KUCR is accountable.

  • Property Management, Disposal of Property and Disclosing Excess (Info)
    There is a process for disclosing excess, requesting disposition instructions from funding agencies, and effecting the disposal of property by projects, laboratories, centers, departments, or units.

  • Signature Authorization (Form)
    This form allows you to authorize persons to sign on your behalf

Compensation and Appointments

  • Payroll Forms, (Form) (Info)
    RGS/KUCR Compensation and Appointments follows the payroll guidelines found on the KU Payroll Services web site:  http://www.payroll.ku.edu/

  • Retroactive Funding Adjustments (Policy)
    RFAs are not to be requested as part of a regular business process but can be submitted in accordance with a KU policy.
  • Salary Guidelines, Graduate Research Assistantship (GRA) (Info)
    Policies and rates are provided for graduate research assistant salaries, and there are links to individual tables by department or center.

 

Conduct of Research / Research Integrity

  • Animals, Care and Use in Research and Education (Policy and Forms) (Info and Forms)
    Ensures that vertebrate animals used for research and educational purposes are handled in accordance with the Animal Welfare Act, Public Health Service policies, and the accreditation standards of the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care.

  • Conflict of Interest (Info and Forms)
    KU seeks to educate about situations that generate conflicts, provide means to manage real or apparent conflicts, promote best interests of students and others whose work depends on faculty direction, and describe situations that are prohibited.

  • Environment, Health and Safety (Info and Forms)
    This link provides access to current on-line versions of campus EHS policies, manuals, procedures, forms, checklists and other pertinent documents. Examples include:

    • Biohazards and Biohazard Safety References
    • Environmental Policy
    • Health and Safety Policy
    • Laboratory Safety Manual
    • Radioactive Materials
    • University Safety and Health Manual

 

KU seeks to protect the rights, well-being, and personal privacy of individuals; to ensure a favorable climate for the conduct of scientific inquiry; to protect the interests of the university; and to ensure compliance with federal statutes and rules.

All Lawrence Campus forms, required tutorials, policies and procedures related to human subjects research, and research projects involving HIPAA data are compiled at http://www.rcr.ku.edu/hscl/index.shtml. This is an extensive and comprehensive site that contains the complete handbook for the Human Subjects Committee — Lawrence Campus (HSCL), the federally recognized Institutional Review Board (IRB). Of special note for Lawrence Campus researchers are the following:

  • Intellectual Property (Policy)
    KU seeks to foster the creation and dissemination of knowledge and to provide certainty in individual and institutional rights associated with ownership and with the distribution of benefits that may be derived from the creation of intellectual property.

    • Copyright (Policy)
    • National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy (Info)
    • Technology Transfer Revenue Distribution (Policy) (Info)
  • Limitations on University Sponsored Research
    The policy is derived from the university's basic goals concerning the development, use, and dissemination of knowledge. The policy also addressesaccess to research by foreign nationals, harm to humans, and limits on publication. Policies related to indemnification and legal jurisdiction are under construction.

    • Restricted Research: Overview, Exemptions and Appeals (Info)
    • Restricted Research Policy (Policy)
    • Misconduct Guidelines, Scholarly ( Policy)
    • Scholarly misconduct includes fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism or other practices that seriously deviate from those commonly accepted in the scholarly community.

Funding for Research

  • General Research Fund (GRF) Application (Info)
    The program provides one-year funding for summer salary, student or GRA salary, supplies and travel. Each faculty member on the Lawrence campus is eligible to submit one GRF proposal to his or her school or college, which administer the distribution of funds.

  • Limited Submission Proposals (Policy) (Opportunities)
    When an external funding agency limits the number of submissions it will accept from a single institution, this policy describes the process for selecting among potential KU proposals.

  • Major Project Planning Grant (MPPG) Application (Form)
    The program provides assistance to investigators to develop proposals for prestigious interdisciplinary research centers or projects.

  • New Faculty General Research Fund (NFGRF) Application (Form)
    The program is designed to help new tenure-track faculty members accelerate their individual scholarship and assist in building a sustainable research program.

  • Proposal Preparation Fund (PPF) Application (Policy) (Form) (Info)
    This program provides alternative support for investigators who are committed or supported 100% on grant funds.

Proposal Services

  • Budget Template, Cost Share and Match (Form)

  • Budget Template, Regular (Form)

  • Continuation Proposal, Review of (Info)
    The PI or center personnel need to provide detailed budgeting at the time of the next year's funding request for multi-year awards.

  • Cost Share and Matching (Info)
    This policy governs cost sharing andPI effort on sponsored projects, the participation ofKUCR in cost sharing/matching, and the appropriate F&A rates to charge sponsors.

  • Cost Share and Matching Documentation Process (Info)
    In accordance with federal regulations, the rules for reasonable, allocable, and allowable expenditures apply to the cost shared and matched expenditures the same way they do for sponsored expenditures.

  • Direct and Indirect Costs, Differentiating Between (Info)
    Federal regulations, described in OMB Circular A-21, provide definitions of the types of costs that are normally defined as direct costs vs. indirect (F&A) costs.

  • External Agency Forms and Links (Info and Forms)
    External agencies require the use of numerous forms. This page makes it convenient for researchers to obtain forms from selected federal agencies.

  • Limited Submissions, Institutional Endorsement (Policy) (Info)
    This policy describes how to handle submissions when an external funding agency restricts the numbers of applicants per university.

  • New Principal Investigator Information (Form)
    New PIs provide essential information on this simple one-page form.

  • Preliminary Proposal Review (Info)
    No review and authorized signature is needed if a preliminary proposal is a white paper. Review is needed if any budget is being sent forward to the funding agency. Generally, authorized signatures will accompany the preliminary proposal.

  • Proposal Preparation, Institutional Support of (Policy)
    Federal regulations prohibit most 100% grant-funded individuals or partial grant-funded and cost share committed individuals totaling100% from participation in preparation of new or competitive renewal proposals for grant support. This policy outlines procedures for obtaining alternative support for investigators in this situation.

  • Proposal Preparation and Submission, Guidelines for (Policy)
    This policy describes relevant procedures applying to investigators who wish to submit proposals for research funding. These procedures reflect institutional responsibilities for sponsored research.

  • Salary Guidelines, Graduate Research Assistantship (GRA) (Info)
    Policies and rates are provided for graduate research assistant salaries, and there are links to individual tables by department or center.

  • Sponsored Projects and Gifts, Differentiating Between (Info)
    This policy helps PIs determine whether a source of external support should be treated as a sponsored project (processed through KUCR) or a gift (processed through KU Endowment).

  • Tuition Information for GRAs (Policy and Form)

  • Tuition and Fees, Resident Graduate Student (Info)

Post-Award Services

  • Animal Use Grant Comparison Certification (Form-MSWord)
    This form is used to confirm there are no changes in animal compliances as a project. This form needs to be completed each year of the award.

  • Budget Adjustment Form for Grants and Contracts (Info) (Form-MSWord)
    Use this form to move funds from one account to another within a project. Debits must equal credits.

  • Cost-Share Verification Form (Info) (Form-Excel)
    If cost share or matching has been committed on a sponsered project, those costs must be documented and included in the financial records.

  • KUCR Post-Awards Services Cost Transfer Request (Info) (Form)
    Used for non-payroll transfers of funds to-and-from sponsored projects, and for justifying payroll cost transfers.  Effective October 1, 2009 this form must be used for non-payroll and payroll cost transfers.  See the info tab for more information.

  • Expenditure Monitoring to Determine Allowable Costs on Externally-Sponsored Projects (Info)
    All expenditures charged to externally-sponsored projects must meet certain criteria, in accordance with OMB A-21. This page provides a summary of those criteria.

  • Fixed-Price Agreements, Certification of Project Completion (Info) (Form)
    All costs in support of a project must be charged appropriately. Proposal budgets are reasonable estimates and the projects should be managed with that in mind. With fixed-price projects, proper oversight will help avoid audit questions and unrelated business income tax when revenues exceed expenditures.

  • Principal Investigator Acknowledgment of Responsibilities (Form)
    An eight-item checklist highlights the PI’s key responsibilities and requires a signature.

  • Program Income (Info)
    This document describes program incomes and how they are managed

  • Project Management Responsibilities (Info)
    This document outlines the project management responsibilities of each party involved in the administration of externally-sponsored research, education, and service projects conducted on the Lawrence campus.

  • Salary Certification / Effort Reporting (Info)
    Salary certification, or “effort reporting,” is a federal requirement, per Section J.10 of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-21.  These are highly auditable forms, and have resulted in numerous (and costly) audit findings at other universities in recent years. Forms are sent monthly by the Post-Award Services.

  • Sponsorship Authorization, Tuition and Fees (Form)
    This form is completed when a student's tuition and fees are paid by a third-party on behalf of the student.

  • UKANS Projects, Project/Grant Budget Transfer (Form)
    Use this form to move funds from one account to another within a project. Debits must equal credits.

  • Property Management (Info)
    This policy provides a property control system to protect, preserve, account for, and control KUCR-owned property, Government-owned property, property loaned to KUCR by funding agencies or other organizations, KU property, and other property for which KUCR is accountable.

  • Disposal of Property and Disclosure of Excess (Info)
    Property declared excess by projects, laboratories, centers, departments, or units shall be evaluated to determine condition, ownership, and reutilization, when appropriate.

  • Property FAQs (Info)

Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies, Office of the

  • Credit for Externally Funded Research Activity, Allocation of (Policy)
    This policy describe the guidelines used to calculate credit received by investigators, academic units, and research centers for externally sponsored projects.

  • Criminal Conviction Checks and Access to Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Registered Laboratories (Policy and Form)
    There are specific requirements for individuals associated with DEA-registered laboratories. A background check policy fulfills federal requirements and ensures the integrity of the research environment.

  • Facilities and Administrative (F&A) Costs Return Policy (Policy) (Info)
    KU follows guidelines when distributing F&A costs to academic units, research centers, other non-academic units, and individual researchers.

  • Grievance Procedures (Policy)
    There is an established procedure for hearing grievances that arise within the Office of the Vice Provost for Research & Graduate Studies.

  • Haskell Indian Nations University Collaboration Process (Info)
    KU and HINU have a procedure that ensures both universities are properly notified of involvement/collaboration for proposals being submitted for external funding.

  • Medical Center Campus, Administrative Guidelines for Collaborations Between Lawrence Campus and (Info)
    KU encourages research collaborations between the two campuses, and this page provides contact names and other information.

  • Principal Investigator Status (Policy)
    Individuals who meet certain conditions are allowed to serve as Principal Investigator (PI) on proposals for sponsored projects.

  • Research Centers and Directors, Review of (Policy)
    The goal of such reviews is to facilitate the formation of a shared vision for the Center/Institute that will be used to direct its future development.

  • Start-Up Funds Request (Policy)
    This policy outlines the procedures for requesting, allocating, and expending funds that are available to provide start-up packages for new faculty and academic staff.

  • University Research Centers and Institutes, Designation of (Policy)
    These organizations are important to the conduct of interdisciplinary research. This policy outlines the benefits and responsibilities of, and criteria for designation as, a University Research Center or Institute, and the process by which such Centers and Institutes are chartered.