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Division of Plant Sciences Policy on
Use of Research Incentive Funds (RIF)

  1. The annual return of RIF funds to the Unit will be divided equally three ways as follows:


    • Division Director's discretionary funds 33% of total
    • Direct return to faculty who generated the funds 33% of total
    • RIF Committee 33% of total

  2. Funds directly returned to faculty do not have to be spent by a particular date, although accumulated amounts require an annual explanation of their intended use.


  3. The RIF Committee is to be composed of four faculty members from the Division. Each member will serve for four years (appointed on a rotating basis) with the senior member serving as Chair. Members are appointed by the Division Director.


  4. Funds allocated to the RIF Committee will be used as follows:


    1. Upon annual receipt of funds, requests from Division faculty can be made for:
      • essential equipment repairs (replacement if justified)
      • short periods between grants to cover employees

    2. Requests will be evaluated and prioritized by the RIF Committee according to:
      • past receipt of RIF funds from the RIF Committee
      • availability of matching funds; these are not required but such requests will be given higher priority
      • other funding possibilities and attempts will be taken into consideration

    3. Applications should be submitted electronically to the RIF Committee on the one-page RIF Funds Request Form available at the “Plant Sciences Only” web site.

    4. Should the Committee's account have a positive balance of funds for the previous year at the time of the annual receipt of new RIF funds, the committee chair can request that the Division Director provide an amount equal to the committee's balance to fund a research equipment competition. Proposals for single-user and multi-user equipment will be accepted but priority will be given to multi-user proposals. The call for and evaluation of proposals would be the responsibility of the committee.

  5. At the end of each fiscal year, a report showing RIF income generated by individual faculty and a summary of expense categories on the RIF account will be provided to the Division faculty. 

 

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