CAS Policy on Course Buy-Out on Externally Funded Research Grants

Background

CAS has long been the University leader in receiving external grants at Miami. As we hope to continue that tradition and even increase our external grant footprint this seemed like a good time to make sure we have a clear policy about grant course buy-outs. There have been differences between departments and across divisions on the funds required for a course buy-out. We have developed this CAS policy memo in response to questions that we have received from CAS faculty and chairs.

Proposal

The CAS philosophy is that a faculty member receiving an external grant that requires a reduction from the expected department teaching load should receive funding from the granting agency to compensate the University. We have now established a buy-out of 10% of the faculty member's academic salary as the normal amount required for a one course release. We assume that a faculty member, even with substantial buy-out, will teach at least one course per semester, unless they receive permission from the Dean. We do recognize that in some instances a smaller grant may not support this amount and in special circumstances the Dean will approve a chair request for a reduced amount for course release. We also recognize that in some disciplines the grant funds are expected to be used for non-faculty salary items, such as equipment, graduate students or lab support. We also recognize that some granting agencies do not support personnel costs or limit personnel costs. These grants will of course continue to be supported by CAS, but we are asking that these grant applications provide the Dean's office, before submission, with the amount of faculty release time and essentially how much unfunded course buy-out is being requested by the department for the proposed grant.

CAS will continue to support grants through the matching of graduate assistantships, start-up packages, equipment and special requests for other types of support. CAS will also continue to support fellowships and other types of awards that require cost sharing or CAS matching resources. Our commitment to supporting external applications for funding has never been stronger and we hope that the clarification of policies will serve to strengthen the grants process.

Approved by CAS Council of Chairs April, 2017