# Presentation: 676973

## VA Central Office sends funds called VERA Research dollars to the MEDVAMC to cover salary, administrative, and facilities costs.

**VERA dollars are one of the bases for requesting protected time for research **

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

## How are VA investigators paid to do research? 

- VA Career Development Awards pay the clinician-investigator’s salary, just like NIH grants
- However, other types of VA grants do not pay any salary for the MD investigators and the hospital must cover it from their budget

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

## 
There is no automatic, guaranteed formula.  

Protected time is allocated by your service/care line executive based on your research activity and the clinical needs of the hospital.

However, knowing how many VERA dollars are brought in by their research helps the clinician-investigator formulate a ‘reasonable’ request.

- There is no automatic, guaranteed formula.
- Protected time is allocated by your service/care line executive based on your research activity and the clinical needs of the hospital.
- However, knowing how many VERA dollars are brought in by their research helps the clinician-investigator formulate a ‘reasonable’ request.

**How does the VA clinician-investigator determine how much protected research time they can have?**** **

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

## How VERA Research $ for salary are calculated

- Grant** ****expenditures** (i.e., money spent on test tubes and technician salaries with VA as performance site) are summed
- The sum includes:
**	****100%**** of VA**-administered grant expenditures
**	****75%**** of NIH/**other federal, and national foundation grants
**	****25%**** of industry**-sponsored grant expenditures
- The sum is multiplied by **43.3%** to get the VERA Research allocation.
**42%** of the VERA $ are theoretically allocated for clinician-investigator salaries
- See slides on “Calculating VERA Research dollars for more details

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

## How much salary is covered by VERA $?

**NIH grant**:	$100,000 x  **75%**  x 43.3% x 42% =  **$13,600 **
**Industry**:	$100,000 x  **25%**  x 43.3% x 42% =    **$4,500**

**How much salary is covered by VERA $?**

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

- Salary allocation

- VERA$ rate

- Discount
- rate

## VERA dollars are actually based on expenditure data from two years back.

- Investigator salaries from VERA dollars are not distributed directly to the service/care line item.  They are a bit like ‘Monopoly money’ from the investigators’ perspective, but the figure can be used in calculations of appropriate amounts of protected time.

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

## 				FTE	           8ths

**	****	****	****	****FTE****	****           8****ths**
- VA Merit review or IIR_	__	__	_0.375_	__	_3
- Other nationally peer-reviewed
- 	Full time VA_	__	_0.375_	__	_3
- 	< 8/8ths_	__	__	_0.125 _	__	_1
- VA Co-investigator_	__	__	_0.125_	__	_1
- VA Coop study, local PI_	__	_0.125_	__	_1
- Mentor for VA-funded PI_	__	_0.063_	__	_0.5
- Chair IRB or IACUC _	__	__	_0.25_	__	_2
- Member IRB or IACUC_	__	__	_0.125_	__	_1
- Chair R&D or Safety_	__	__	_0.125_	__	_1
- Member R&D or Safety_	__	_0.063_	__	_0.5

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

## Membership on critical committees  

- IRB (human research protection committee)
- R&D
- IACUC (animal research)
- Research Safety
_**Mentoring**_** of junior investigators**

**There are critical research-related activities that do not directly generate VERA $  but need support (e.g., by Medical Care $) in order for Research to continue.**

**The inclusion of these on the Clinician Investigator Modeled Allowances is evidence that VACO recognizes the value and need for these activities.**

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

## Grants are like a prospectus sent to potential investors.  You need to have pilot data to document that the idea is promising, likely to yield good data, and that you can carry out the techniques you propose to do.

Without preliminary data, grants are not competitive and will not get funded.

This pilot data often has to be accumulated before you have any grants.

Only about 10-15% of grant submissions are funded so productive investigators may need bridge funding between grants.

- Without preliminary data, grants are not competitive and will not get funded.
- This pilot data often has to be accumulated before you have any grants.
- Only about 10-15% of grant submissions are funded so productive investigators may need bridge funding between grants.

**Researchers may need to be supported during times that they do not have grants.  **

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