Policies & Procedures
Notable Research Policies
SOM 2.800: Timely Submission of Grant Proposals and Related Documents (“Deadline Policy”)
The SOM enforces a “5 and 2” policy for grant application submissions. The final Administrative Components of a grant application are due to SOM OGC no less than five business days prior to the sponsor’s deadline. The final Technical Components of the application are then due no less than two business days prior to the sponsor’s deadline. As defined in the policy, these Components include:
| Administrative Components | Technical Components |
|---|---|
| Completed UVA Proposal Routing Form (ePRF) [with all necessary approvals] |
Specific Aims |
| Completed, signed sponsor application package/forms [excluding Technical Components] |
Research Plan |
| Abstract (draft) | Abstract (final) |
| Detailed budget and justification | References |
| Regulatory approvals *Human subjects *Animal subjects *Biohazards |
|
| Biosketches | |
| Consortia/third party documentation *Signed LOI *SOW *Budget *Budget Justification |
|
| Institutional Letters of Support | |
| Confirmation of sponsor’s indirect cost policy |
Applications that fail to meet these requirements will require written permission from the Senior Associate Dean for Research or his/her designee for the proposal to be reviewed and submitted by the Office of Grants and Contracts.
Related Documents (defined as “Documentation requested by a funding agency in support of a Proposal or an award, including non-competing continuation proposals and progress reports”) will be submitted to the Office of Grants and Contracts no less than five business days prior to the deadline. Although no exception approval is required for late submission of these documents, the Office of Grants and Contracts cannot assure compliance with the deadline in the event they are submitted with less than five business days notice.
FIN-028: Minimum Effort on Sponsored Programs
In proposals and subsequent awards, Principal Investigators/Project Directors and Other Key Personnel must include some level of committed effort on sponsored programs, unless specifically exempted by the sponsor or listed in Appendix A of the policy.
Effort commitments must be quantified in the proposal by using such methods as a percentage of time, dollar amount of salary, number of months, etc. These commitments can be paid from (1) the sponsored program and/or (2) other, non-federal UVa sources and must be based on the employee’s Institutional Base Salary.
The minimum amount of effort committed to a specific sponsored program may be no less than 1% of the employee’s ‘University effort.’ Beyond this minimum, the specific amount of effort committed to a particular sponsored program is left to the judgment of the Principal Investigator/Program Director, based on his or her estimate of the effort necessary to meet the technical goals and outcomes of the project.
GMEC Policy No. 30 – Industry Funding
This policy applies to both Graduate Medical Education Trainees and Members of the Clinical Staff, within or for the benefit of the Medical Center, regardless of employer. Employees of the Medical Center and the University are subject to the State and Local Governmental Conflict of Interests Act and the Ethics in Public Contracting Section of the Virginia Public Procurement Act of the Code of Virginia. This policy incorporates the requirements of these Acts, and in some instances imposes more stringent requirements. To the extent that this policy exceeds the requirements of state law or other codes of conduct, this policy shall control.
The GMEC policy applies standards to ensure that financial support from industry vendors or representatives to GME trainees or their supervising faculty members does not influence patient care decisions. The policy restricts GME trainees from directly accepting from an industry vendor, sales or service representative any of the following items: food or beverage, funds to support travel to and registration for an educational activity, or educational material in the form of textbooks, electronic devises and their applications, or material or devices for simulated training of medical care.
The GMEC Committee would prefer that industry representatives and vendors provide funding for these items in the form of an unrestricted gift to the UVa Health Foundation Development Office. However, industry representatives and vendors may provide support to the Department Chair of the trainee’s program for stipend/benefits and/or travel registration to attend an educational conference under the following conditions:
(1) The funding cannot be linked to the training of an individual trainee, nor should any trainee have knowledge that funding is being accepted on behalf of the trainee for his or her education and training.
(2) Applications for the funding by industry of educational activities must be reviewed in advance by the GMEC Subcommittee on Stipend and Benefits.
(3) Applications for the funding by industry for the stipend and benefits of a GME Trainee must be approved in advance by the Graduate Medical Education Committee, in addition to following any and all necessary requirements of the School of Medicine Office on Grants and Contracts. If approved and subsequently funded, a PTAO must be provided to the GME Office so that such funds can be tracked.
(4) Any application for funding by industry for either stipend and benefits or educational activities for a GME Trainee(s) must name the Department Chair as the recipient; the Chair must acknowledges that he or she may be publicly reported for accepting such funds under the Sunshine Act.
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FIN-023: Reconciling Unit Accounting Records
Every unit is required to reconcile all Revenue Projects, Expenditure Projects, and Clearing Projects in order to maintain the integrity of the University’s accounting records and to protect the interests of the University.
FIN-027: Time and Effort Certification
The University uses effort certifications completed via the internal reporting system (Effort@UVa) to fulfill the requirements regarding compensation for personnel services on sponsored programs. This includes ensuring that committed effort on sponsored activities is documented, whether or not the financial support for the effort is provided by the sponsor or other University funding sources; verifying that payroll costs charged to specific sponsored activities is commensurate with the certified effort expended toward those activities; documenting effort toward various clinical activities; and accounting for 100% of University effort.
RES-004: Research Misconduct
It is a fundamental responsibility of UVA faculty, staff, students and administration to maintain the trust of the public in all research and scholarly activity and to preserve the University’s reputation for high standards of scholarly integrity. It is our shared responsibility to: maintain honesty and fairness in proposing, performing, and reporting research; maintain accuracy and fairness in representing contributions to research proposals and reports; ensure proficiency and fairness in peer review; ensure collegiality in scientific interactions, communications and sharing of resources; ensure disclosure of conflicts of interest; provide protection of human subjects in the conduct of research; provide humane care of animals in the conduct of research; ensure adherence to the mutual responsibilities of mentors and trainees; report suspected academic and research misconduct; ensure that academic and research misconduct is dealt with in a timely and effective manner.