# Presentation: 424082

## NIH budget issues for investigator with VA salaries

**NIH budget issues for investigator with VA salaries**

*HH Birdsall MD PhD  ACOS R/D MEDVAMC Houston*
*May 1, 2006                                             1*

## Don’t duplicate salary from NIH and VA

- Staying legal

- For example, one cannot be the recipient of a K award, which is supposed to pay for 75% protected research time, and be 8/8ths VA
- Effort above 3/8ths is unlikely to pass audit

*HH Birdsall MD PhD  ACOS R/D MEDVAMC Houston*
*May 1, 2006                                             2*

## VA time and VA salary do NOT appear anywhere on the NIH budget page. 

**VA time and VA salary do NOT appear anywhere on the NIH budget page. **
**PI may mention the time donated by the VA to explain in the mismatch between salary and % effort but this is done in the justification section only.**
- “The PI is paid by BCM for 15 hours per week and will spend 93 % of that time on this project.  The PI is also employed by the MEDVAMC.  The VA has agreed to donate 8 hours per week **AT NO COST TO THE NIH** for the investigator to work on this project.  **No salary is being requested from NIH for this time/effort.**  Thus the total time available to work on the project will be 14+8 = 23 hours per week.

- NIH budgets: Important principles

*HH Birdsall MD PhD  ACOS R/D MEDVAMC Houston*
*May 1, 2006                                             3*

## NIH only cares about BCM-paid time and effort

|  | Salary | Total hrs/week | Clin-Teaching-Admin hrs/week | Research hrs/week | Total % effort avail for NIH |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| BCM |  $37,500 | 15 |  1 | 14 | 93% (=14/15) |
| MEDVAMC |  $62,500 | 30 | 22 |   8 |  |
| Total | $100,000 | 45 | 23 | 22 |  |

| PERSONNEL (Applicant organization only) |  |  |  |  | DOLLAR AMOUNT REQUESTED (omit cents) |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NAME | ROLE ONPROJECT | TYPEAPPT.(months) | % EFFORTONPROJ. | INST.BASESALARY | SALARYREQUESTED | FRINGEBENEFITS | TOTAL |
| J. Q Investigator | PrincipalInvestigator | 12 | 93 | 37,500 | 35,000 | 10,500 | 45,500 |

**MOU**

**NIH **
**budget **
**page**

*HH Birdsall MD PhD  ACOS R/D MEDVAMC Houston*
*May 1, 2006                                             4*

## The sum of the effort on your NIH grants must never exceed 100% 

- Nor the available research % effort listed on the BCM-MEDVAMC MOU) – *see slides on Time:Effort MOU for more details*
**VA-funded grants are done on VA time and % effort there should not be combined into NIH efforts**
-  To avoid potential confusion, when listing **VA grants** on the “Other Support” pages, report the time/effort for the VA grant in terms of** hours per week** and indicate that this is **VA-paid time that does not count towards % effort at the medical school.  **Alternatively, one could list VA grants but without any % effort

- NIH budgets: Important principles

*HH Birdsall MD PhD  ACOS R/D MEDVAMC Houston*
*May 1, 2006                                             5*

## VA clinician with NO BCM salary at time of submission can submit NIH grant and should ask for salary 

**Writing an NIH grant without including salary for PI has multiple disadvantages:**
- VA misses out on alternative source of salary pay
- BCM is penalized in negotiations with NIH for indirects
- PI loses control of their research time

**Best alternative is to reduce VA time, and ask for enough salary on NIH grant to offset the loss in VA income.  Use the freed-up FTE to hire additional clinician to cover patient care**

*HH Birdsall MD PhD  ACOS R/D MEDVAMC Houston*
*May 1, 2006                                             6*

## Compensation should remain 

**level with a new grant**
- NIH and VA do not allow writing yourself
- 	a raise with a grant.
- Advice is to keep salary level, but not worry about matching health plan costs, retirement benefits, etc.
- Recall that VA has $9000 full time bonus that needs to be compensated for.
- The hourly rate for BCM and VA time do NOT need to be the same

*HH Birdsall MD PhD  ACOS R/D MEDVAMC Houston*
*May 1, 2006                                             7*

## Situation:  VA clinician with NO BCM salary at time of submission

**Wording requested by NIH in ‘Justification’ for investigator who does not already have BCM salary**
- “Investigator will work 15 hrs per week at the institution and will spend 93% of that time on this project.  The proposed effort and requested salary reflect the structure that will exist if the application is successful.  The MOU will be modified at the time of award, to reflect the hours and effort presented in this application”

*HH Birdsall MD PhD  ACOS R/D MEDVAMC Houston*
*May 1, 2006                                             8*

## The following are examples of different situations with varying time and effort at VA and BCM to illustrate how the MOU and the NIH budget pages should be completed.

*HH Birdsall MD PhD  ACOS R/D MEDVAMC Houston*
*May 1, 2006                                             9*

## Situation:  PI already getting VA and BCM salary

- Example:  Now getting $50,000 for 20 hrs/week BCM and $50,000 for 4/8thsVA
- 	 Wants to get $40,000 of BCM pay from NIH grant, and rest from dept.
- 	 VA time to stay the same and VA donating 5 hrs/week to research

|  | Salary | Total hrs/week | Clin-Teaching-Admin hrs/week | Research hrs/week | Total % effort avail for NIH |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| BCM |  $50,000 | 20 | 4 | 16 | 80 (=16/20) |
| MEDVAMC |  $50,000 | 20 | 15 | 5 |  |
| Total | $100,000 | 40 | 19 | 21 |  |

| PERSONNEL (Applicant organization only) |  |  |  |  | DOLLAR AMOUNT REQUESTED (omit cents) |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NAME | ROLE ONPROJECT | TYPEAPPT.(months) | % EFFORTONPROJ. | INST.BASESALARY | SALARYREQUESTED | FRINGEBENEFITS | TOTAL |
| J. Q Investigator | PrincipalInvestigator | 12 | 80 | 50,000 | 40,000 | 12,000 | 52,000 |

**MOU**

**NIH **
**budget **
**page**

*HH Birdsall MD PhD  ACOS R/D MEDVAMC Houston*
*May 1, 2006                                             10*

## Situation: VA clinician seeking second NIH grant

**Option #1:  Decrease time/effort on grant #1**** ****and apply to grant #2.**** ****	**
*	**MOU unchanged since salary and total research time don’t change*

| PERSONNEL (Applicant organization only) |  |  |  |  | DOLLAR AMOUNT REQUESTED (omit cents) |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NAME | ROLE ONPROJECT | TYPEAPPT.(months) | % EFFORTONPROJ. | INST.BASESALARY | SALARYREQUESTED | FRINGEBENEFITS | TOTAL |
| J. Q Investigator | PrincipalInvestigator | 12 | 40 | 50,000 | 20,000 | 6,000 | 26,000 |

**Revised 1****st**** grant**

| PERSONNEL (Applicant organization only) |  |  |  |  | DOLLAR AMOUNT REQUESTED (omit cents) |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NAME | ROLE ONPROJECT | TYPEAPPT.(months) | % EFFORTONPROJ. | INST.BASESALARY | SALARYREQUESTED | FRINGEBENEFITS | TOTAL |
| J. Q Investigator | PrincipalInvestigator | 12 | 40 | 50,000 | 20,000 | 6,000 | 26,000 |

**Proposed 2****nd**** grant**

- PI must get OK from NIH program officer to decrease effort and salary on 1st grant

*HH Birdsall MD PhD  ACOS R/D MEDVAMC Houston*
*May 1, 2006                                             11*

## Situation: VA clinician seeking second NIH grant

**Option #2:  Decrease VA time  Example: VA dropped to 1/8****th**

|  | Salary | Total hrs/week | Clin-Teaching-Admin hrs/week | Research hrs/week | Total % effort avail for NIH |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| BCM |  $50,000 | 20 | 4 | 16 | 80 (=16/20) |
| MEDVAMC |  $50,000 | 20 | 15 | 5 |  |
| Total | $100,000 | 40 | 19 | 21 |  |

**Old**
**MOU**

|  | Salary | Total hrs/week | Clin-Teaching-Admin hrs/week | Research hrs/week | Total % effort avail for NIH |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| BCM |  $87,500 | 35 | 4 | 31 | 88 (=16/20) |
| MEDVAMC |  $12,500 |  5 | 5 | 0 |  |
| Total | $100,000 | 40 | 9 | 31 |  |

**New**
**MOU**

- No change

*Note new institutional base salary*

*HH Birdsall MD PhD  ACOS R/D MEDVAMC Houston*
*May 1, 2006                                             12*

## Situation: VA clinician seeking second NIH grant

- Option #2:  Decrease VA time  Example: VA dropped to 1/8th

| PERSONNEL (Applicant organization only) |  |  |  |  | DOLLAR AMOUNT REQUESTED (omit cents) |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NAME | ROLE ONPROJECT | TYPEAPPT.(months) | % EFFORTONPROJ. | INST.BASESALARY | SALARYREQUESTED | FRINGEBENEFITS | TOTAL |
| J. Q Investigator | PrincipalInvestigator | 12 | 42 | 87,500 | 37,500 | 11,250 | 48,750 |

**Revised 1****st**** grant**

| PERSONNEL (Applicant organization only) |  |  |  |  | DOLLAR AMOUNT REQUESTED (omit cents) |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NAME | ROLE ONPROJECT | TYPEAPPT.(months) | % EFFORTONPROJ. | INST.BASESALARY | SALARYREQUESTED | FRINGEBENEFITS | TOTAL |
| J. Q Investigator | PrincipalInvestigator | 12 | 46 | 87,500 | 40,000 | 12,000 | 52,000 |

**Proposed 2****nd**** grant**

**Justification for 1****st**** grant:  “Investigator has increased their time at BCM and now has a higher base salary and time at the institution.  The hours per week dedicated to this project and the salary requested from this grant are unchanged.**

*HH Birdsall MD PhD  ACOS R/D MEDVAMC Houston*
*May 1, 2006                                             13*

## Situation: VA clinician with NO BCM salary at time of submission

- Example:  Pl plans to drop VA from $100,000 for 8/8ths to $62,500 for 5/8ths.
- 	   VA also agrees to donate 8 hrs/week for research.

|  | Salary | Total hrs/week | Clin-Teaching-Admin hrs/week | Research hrs/week | Total % effort avail for NIH |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| BCM |  $37,500 | 15 | 0 | 15 | 100 (=15/15) |
| MEDVAMC |  $62,500 | 25 | 17 | 8 |  |
| Total | $100,000 | 40 | 17 | 23 |  |

| PERSONNEL (Applicant organization only) |  |  |  |  | DOLLAR AMOUNT REQUESTED (omit cents) |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NAME | ROLE ONPROJECT | TYPEAPPT.(months) | % EFFORTONPROJ. | INST.BASESALARY | SALARYREQUESTED | FRINGEBENEFITS | TOTAL |
| J. Q Investigator | PrincipalInvestigator | 12 | 100 | 37,500 | 37,500 | 11,250 | 48,750 |

**MOU**

**NIH **
**budget **
**page**

*HH Birdsall MD PhD  ACOS R/D MEDVAMC Houston*
*May 1, 2006                                             14*

## VA-paid investigators who also receive salary from an NIH grant need to have a signed MOU on file detailing the partitioning of their salary and hours between BCM and MEDVAMC  

See slides on “MOU for time effort...” for more details.

- See slides on “MOU for time effort...” for more details.

*HH Birdsall MD PhD  ACOS R/D MEDVAMC Houston*
*May 1, 2006                                             15*