Purpose

To provide an opportunity for individual faculty to use Grant and Contract salary and benefits to partially replace state salary and benefits during the academic year. A proportion of the recovered state salary is returned to the faculty member for research program support.

Definitions

Recovered salary is the state-supplied salary and benefits that is replaced by salary and benefits derived from grants and contracts. This partial replacement of state salary does not change the obligations and duties of the faculty member.

Buyout Salary may also be derived from grants and contracts to replace state salary, but is intended to relieve the faculty member of all duties associated with receiving state-supplied salary.

Policy

The intent of this policy is to provide flexible use of research funds while ensuring that all teaching and mentorship duties, including working with graduate students and teaching both graduate and undergraduate courses, are fully covered.

Eligibility is restricted to tenure-track state-funded faculty and associate or full professor WOT faculty.

Conditions for funding a portion of recoverable academic year salary from grants and contracts include:

• All regular academic duties, including research, teaching and service, will continue for every quarter this option is elected.
• WOT faculty paid by state funds may request use of this policy only if they have otherwise covered the balance of annual salary from grants and contracts funds.
• Faculty effort supported by the grant/contract will be performed at the level of salary recovered.
• Two months of summer salary support must be available immediately following the academic year during which salary is recovered.

The amount of recovered salary made available by use of grant and contract funds is limited to the equivalent of 1.0 month of salary spread over a quarter (3 months at 33%) in a maximum of 2 quarters per academic year (or the equivalent of two 100% months per nine month academic year).

The external grant and contract funds used for salary and benefits within the academic year must be derived from regular grants or contracts that are consistent with the faculty member’s scholarship. Tangential consulting tasks or funds paid to the faculty member directly by an outside entity are not allowed as the funding basis for such salary.

Return of funds to the faculty member will be a minimum of 70% of the recovered salary (not including benefits) and must be used to support the faculty member’s scholarly activities. The released funds do not become discretionary, but remain governed by the state, and faculty must adhere to all normal UW expenditure policies and procedures. Funds will be allocated from the unit’s non-state funding.

The unit may retain and hold centrally up to 30% of recovered salary to use for programmatic opportunities and initiatives. Units are responsible for determining their policy governing any additional return (beyond the 70% minimum). The percentage of recovered salary retained by the unit may be reset annually and if changed must be communicated to unit faculty and the Dean’s Office.

All funds allocated to a faculty member annually under this policy must be spent within two years of receipt. Building a significant balance of recovered funds is not the intent of this policy.

Procedure

Following consultation with the chair/director, the faculty member will submit an application requesting salary recovery. The following points must be addressed:

• Specific quarters proposed to involve partial salary support from grant and/or contract funding.
• Percent time replaced by grant and contract funding.
• Source of funds (specify budget number and time period if more than one budget).
• Source of funds for summer (stateline faculty) or calendar year (WOT faculty) salary.
• Course(s) scheduled to be taught during salary recovery period.
• Intended use of recovered funds.

The chair/director responds with a memo, including the application as an attachment and copied to the Dean’s Office that states the percent of recovered salary that will be distributed to the faculty member. The chair/director notifies budget personnel about the arrangement.

Approval by the Dean is only required for agreements that would deviate from the above policy.

Effective Date:                   June 11, 2012

Last Review Date:             June 11, 2012