Research Enrichment Program

The purpose of the Research Enrichment Program (REP) is to stimulate new research and support existing research and scholarly activities within the units (departments, centers and institutes), thus supporting the university’s strategic objective of facilitating interdisciplinary research and collaborative scholarship. The REP is supported via an equitable distribution (return) of facilities and administrative (F&A) realized income to the participating units.

Under the REP, the distribution of F&A income to departments, centers and institutes is determined as follows:

A department, center or institute will receive an allocation equal to 10% of the actual F&A income realized on those awards for which it is the sole participating unit.
An additional 2% of the actual F&A income realized will be returned to the Principal Investigator’s academic home department. This is to recognize the contributions of academic departments to the research performed by their faculty. If a grant has Multi-PI status and the PIs are in different departments, each department will receive a 2% return.
In the case of collaborative projects involving two or more units, the participating departments, centers and/or institutes will share an allocation equal to 16% of the actual F&A income realized on those awards.

To be eligible for a share of this larger F&A allocation, a unit must contribute substantive resources to the project. Co-investigators must have committed effort on the project. Simply listing someone as an "internal consultant" will not count. See section What Makes a Unit Eligible for Enrichment.

REP funds will be awarded to units according to the percentage distribution indicated in the Research Enrichment Distribution system.

The chair/director has discretion in how these funds are used. REP funds should be used to enhance the research capabilities of the faculty and staff in the unit and/or to support unit graduate student activities. They may be used for mandatory cost-sharing for extramural grant applications.

Appropriate uses include:

faculty research support (start-up, retention, bridge funding, etc.)
graduate student support
research equipment (purchase, upgrades, maintenance, etc.)
research seminars, symposia, workshops
domestic and foreign travel related to research
research faculty and staff salary support*
research supplies (including research-related office supplies)
computers

*Enrichment funds are a non-recurring source of funding. Caution should be exercised when supporting faculty and staff salaries.

Inappropriate uses include:

faculty salary supplements (overloads)
purely instructional activities
Teaching Assistant (TA) salaries

What Makes a Unit Eligible for Enrichment?

The department, center or institute must have a unit # (i.e., department #)
Dollars in the proposed grant budget, as well as substantive resources to be provided by a unit, should guide the determination of the enrichment split between units, so that expenses can be documented and tracked. Substantive resources may include:
- Physical space where lab personnel perform the project, which will most often be reflected in supply expenditures in that space, but may not necessarily correspond to the primary appointment of the unit of the personnel. (MOUs may be required if one unit is heavily responsible for facilities.)
- Faculty (does not include cost shared salaries above agency caps), staff or student effort to participate in the project, including provision of administrative support
- Equipment (so that F&As may be used for upgrades and service contracts)
Recharge Service Centers are not eligible for enrichment

How Should Enrichment Splits be Calculated?

It is the responsibility of co-investigators, chairs/directors and deans to agree upon the distribution and to complete and sign the eIAF at the time of proposal submission.
The enrichment split can be revised at any time as long as all parties agree upon the distribution and submit a new eIAF.
The additional 2% return to the academic department of the PI is independent of the calculations for the 16% enrichment split.

F&A for Complex Grants

Complex grants will be eligible for return of 16% F&A and have an enrichment split distribution of 50% to the Program Director of the grant, with the remaining 50% enrichment distributed through the normal process for participating entities. This serves as institutional support from the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) to Complex Grant Program Directors and can be incorporated into OVPR letters of institutional support. When submitting the distributions in the Research Enrichment Distribution system, please assign Department #40112 for 50% enrichment, which will be assigned to the Program Director of the Grant.

How to submit distributions in the Research Enrichment Distribution System

Enrichment distributions are now submitted through the Research Enrichment Distribution system. Once the grant has been awarded, the grant should be available in the RED system. If you cannot find the grant in the RED system, please reach out to Toni Smith.

Instructions for submitting distributions

Instructions for approving distribution submissions

How to view current distributions

A Tableau report is being developed that will provide current distributions for all grants. We anticipate the report will be available in July 2026.