Completing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)

Policy Statement/Roles and Responsibilities

Purpose

The MOU is generated to comply with NIH policy, which states: “Investigators with joint appointments at a VAMC (VA hospital) and an affiliated university must have an MOU that specifies the title of the investigator’s appointment, the responsibilities (at both the university and the VAMC) of the proposed investigator, and the percentage of effort available for research.” (Complete text is referenced below.)

The MOU defines the investigator’s total responsibilities for both organizations to assure that these responsibilities are coordinated, do not create the possibility of dual compensation for the same work, and represent a reasonable level of total responsibilities for the combined appointments.

Definition of Reasonable

NIH has not defined levels that represent a ‘reasonable’ combined appointment; rather, the applicant organization and VA must address this question in managing joint appointments.

As the applicant organization, the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) has collaborated with the Omaha Veteran’s Administration Medical Center (OVAMC) to define reasonable. UNMC and OVAMC have agreed that reasonable total professional effort for dual appointments may range up to1.5 FTE. Effort greater than 1.5 FTE will rarely be approved. Approval will require formal justification with signatory approval of senior administrators.

Responsible Persons

Investigators, their supervisors (e.g., chair), departmental administrators, and central research offices will collaborate to ensure MOUs are in place and updated no less than annually. However, the academic unit (per institutional policy) is the party responsible for ensuring formal documents on faculty with dual appointments are completed and maintained.

The responsibility for generating the MOU is with UNMC, the applicant organization. As joint parties to the agreement, both entities share the responsibility of notifying the other of receipt of federal funding for faculty with dual appointments. Typically, the institution that received the federal award would be responsible for notifying the other entity through the initiation and routing of a formal MOU.

Timing

NIH Policy states that MOUs “. . . must be updated with each significant change of the investigator’s responsibilities or distribution of effort and, without a significant change, not less than annually.”

UNMC and the OVAMC have established July 1 for annual updates to MOU for dual appointees receiving external funding. In addition to July 1, an MOU may be generated at the time of grant application for first time investigators and at the time of an award if acceptance of the award significantly changes available research effort (i.e., is equal to or greater than 5%).

NIH Policy

VA-University Affiliations

Investigators with joint appointments at a VAMC (VA hospital) and an affiliated university must have an MOU that specifies the title of the investigator’s appointment, the responsibilities (at both the university and the VAMC) of the proposed investigator, and the percentage of effort available for research. The MOU must be signed by the appropriate officials of the grantee and the VAMC, and must be updated with each significant change of the investigator’s responsibilities or distribution of effort and, without a significant change, not less than annually. The joint VA/university appointment of the investigator constitutes 100 percent of his or her total professional responsibilities. However, NIH will recognize such a joint appointment only when a university and an affiliated VA hospital are the parties involved. A grant application from a university may request the university’s share of an investigator’s salary in proportion to the effort devoted to the research project. The institutional base salary as contained in the individual’s university appointment determines the base for computing that request.

The signature of the AOO(define) of the submitting university on an application to NIH that includes such an arrangement certifies that the individual whose salary is included in the application serves under a joint appointment documented in a formal MOU between the university and the VA, and there is no possibility of dual compensation for the same work or of an actual or apparent conflict of interest. Under the above-described arrangement, there is no involvement of a VA-affiliated non-profit research corporation, which is eligible to apply for and receive NIH grants in its own right as a non-profit organization. The limitations on the payment of Federal salaries apply (see “Allowable and unallowable Costs” in this section).

Last update June 18, 2007