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 unit listed in Item #8 on the Electronic Internal Approval Form (eIAF). 

• An additional 2% of the actual F&A income realized will be returned to the Principal Investigator’s academic 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 PI’s 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 and it must be listed on the IAF at the time the proposal is submitted to the sponsor. 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 Item #8 on the eIAF. See section How Enrichment Splits Should be Calculated.

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 considered to be 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. normally called a department #)
• Dollars in the proposed grant budget, as well as substantive resources to be provided by a unit, should guide 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 should not be eligible for Enrichment      

How Enrichment Splits Should be Calculated

• Enrichment splits may be calculated by three possible methods, which must be agreed upon before grant submission:
  • Based on the total modified direct cost (all personnel + expenses) per unit
  • Based on total % effort (all personnel) + expenses per unit
  • If participating units prefer different methods of computing enrichment splits (i.e. 1 prefers total modified direct cost whereas the other prefers to use effort) then the units must each compromise by using the average of cost and effort (to calculate the total personnel contributions) + expenses per unit.
• For collaborative grants receiving 16% F&As, the enrichment split for any individual participating unit should not be limited to 10%; the split should be determined by one of the above calculations.
• 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

Effective August 1, 2023, there will be a change to enrichment return of facilities and administrative (F&A) costs for grants that meet the definition of “complex,” as defined within the Complex Grant Program of the Research Leadership Academy (RLA). Our current enrichment program returns up to 16% of recovered F&A on grant expenditures for grants that involve multiple units. On the eIAF, enrichment split distribution is then defined as a percentage (of the 16%) that is distributed to participating units. Complex grants that are managed by the RLA Complex Grant Program 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 change will serve 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. In completing the eIAF enrichment distribution, please assign Department #40112 for 50% enrichment which will be assigned to the Program Director of the Grant. This change applies only to the 16% enrichment program; the enrichment program returning 2% of recovered F&A to the primary unit of the PI(s) is unaffected.