Indiana University remains open and that includes the Office of Research Administration. ORA staff have been encouraged to work from home to the extent feasible and the vast majority are doing so. ORA has previously supported telecommuting arrangements for most staff so we don't anticipate any significant challenges. Nonetheless, if you have an upcoming proposal deadline, you should allot additional time as sponsoring agencies may have limited staffing, and ORA staff may be working flexible arrangements due to extenuating circumstances. We encourage you to submit early if possible, keeping in mind when administrative components are due to ORA. For more information, please visit the Internal Submission Deadline Policy.
We also encourage you to visit the research.impact.iu.edu/coronavirus, which contains additional information related to impacts to research and links to agency guidance. Please feel free to reach out to ORA with any specific project questions.
Below are the two most frequently asked questions we have received to this point:
1) Cancelled travel costs: may cancelled travel costs be allocated to my award (including federally funded)?
If the travel cost was originally incurred to benefit the project and the trip was cancelled, you may allocate the unrecoverable travel costs to the sponsored project award. In all such cases, a refund or credit for the travel should be requested. Refunds should be recorded in the sponsored account account that incurred the original travel costs. If you receive a future credit for travel (hotel, airfare, etc), the portion of expense related to the value of the credit should be transferred off of the sponsored project account but may be reallocated in the future if used to benefit project related travel.
2) Personnel costs allocated to grants: If project personnel cannot continue to work on the grant due to illness, self-quarantine, or campus closure, may they continue to be paid from the grant?
Continuing to pay project personnel from sponsored award accounts may be allowable (including federal funds) depending on the type of appointment and institutional policies related time off benefits. If IU policy provides for paid time off (sick, vacation, family medical leave) regardless of source of funds, then project personnel costs may continue to be charged to the sponsored account. IU policy references that may be helpful in determining the eligibility for paid time off are as follows:
- Temporary Employees: HR-05-100 (time off and vacation pay)
- Support and Service Staff: HR-050-40 (sick leave) and HR-05-120 (vacation)
- Professional Staff: HR-05-70 (paid time off)
- Academic Appointees: ACA-49 (sick leave), ACA-50 (family leave), ACA-51 (family leave – Medical School); and ACA-46 (vacation for 12 month appointees).
If an employee does not accrue paid time off benefits for vacation, sick time, or family medical leave, they would not be eligible for being paid during an absence.
Additionally, should the university officially declare a pandemic emergency, provisions under the IU Pandemic Policy (HR-11-40) would apply regardless of the source of funding (e.g. sponsored project account).