VA Grants Administration
As a general policy Stanford faculty are required to run all of their grants through Stanford, regardless of location.
There are a few exceptions, however
• Where a faculty member has a grant from the VA (eg VA Merit Award, etc). Clearly, that funding all stays within the VA system.
• When a VA employee (non-faculty) gets a grant from outside of the VA system (like NIH), they run those grants through PA1RE. PAIRE has a policy, developed in conjunction with Stanford, that Stanford faculty members are NOT allowed to run NIH grants (or other grants) through PA1RE.
• Where a Stanford faculty member gets funding for a clinical trial that will be done exclusively at the VA. In that case, the trial can be run through PAIRE.
Additional Considerations
VA non-faculty must apply for grants via PAIRE ((http://www.paire.org/policies/va/pi-eligibility.asp)
VA physicians with Stanford faculty appointments have some leeway historically:
- NIH and other federal grants must go through Stanford.
- VA-funded grants, including career and merit awards, must go through the VA.
- the general policy is to run all other grants and funding through Stanford
A number of externalities end up influencing how faculty run their grants:
- The VA apparently has a lower indirect cost rate (F&A [facilities & administration]), making them more competitive in the application process. However, the VA's grants receive off-campus F&A through Stanford. For FY03, Stanford's on-campus F&A = 58% and off-campus = 30% for federally-funded organized research (http://www.stanford.edu/dept/ORA/gcrs/rate2.html). Private agencies often determine their indirect rate, at a significantly lower rate than Stanford's regular rate. For RWJF, the approved rate is 9% (http://www.rwjf.org/applfForGrant/budgetPrepGuideOct2002.pdf, page 6) So it would be 9% regardless of location of grant administration (VA or Stanford).
- Stanford is not always viewed as "user-friendly" by faculty, particularly those off-campus. The added convenience of using local and known systems within the VA system provides incentive to use the VA.
- Faculty who want/expect Stanford administrative and project support would need to run their grants through Stanford, in order to hire and pay those staff members.
