General Discussions

The questions at the end of this saga will be "Am I missing something????" and/or "Am I imposing order in the service of nothing?"

My PI's research is overseas, shall we say.  A PI at another university also works in that country, with similar expertise.  The "other" PI wants to hire my guy to help her with research design for an interesting medium-scale project (but in this country, in this disciplinary area, this will feel like a large project. )  For this effort, my guy deeply wants a course release rather than summertime extra compensation.  And, besides, the work needs to happen starting in just a few weeks.  So, the academic year is a reasonable project period.  The "other" PI wants to use her start-up to pay him.

My thinking is that the start-up being the source is a red herring.  The money is coming from that university (a domestic university, but that's probably irrelevant) and the work needs to be governed by a research agreement.  Or some agreement, anyway - I'm flexible there.  But more than a purchase-order sort of thing, is what I'm saying.  SOMETHING has to define the scope of the work, outline the timeline and the deliverables.... I've got to protect my PI, right, even though I'm sure everyone has the best will in the world?  My-guy could take the payment as independent consulting if he's not using university resources for the work, but then he has to pay for his own course release AND the IRS will treat that amount of money as taxable - even though in a real way he never saw it.

I have gotten SUCH intense push-back not from the other Office of Sponsored Programs but from their PI that I'm second-guessing myself.  Someone pull me out of this rabbit hole, please.  I reached out to their OSP but haven't heard back yet.

Am I missing something?  Am I imposing order in the service of nothing?  (which clearly I do not want to do.)

A

The questions at the end of this saga will be "Am I missing something????" and/or "Am I imposing order in the service of nothing?"

My PI's research is overseas, shall we say.  A PI at another university also works in that country, with similar expertise.  The "other" PI wants to hire my guy to help her with research design for an interesting medium-scale project (but in this country, in this disciplinary area, this will feel like a large project. )  For this effort, my guy deeply wants a course release rather than summertime extra compensation.  And, besides, the work needs to happen starting in just a few weeks.  So, the academic year is a reasonable project period.  The "other" PI wants to use her start-up to pay him.

My thinking is that the start-up being the source is a red herring.  The money is coming from that university (a domestic university, but that's probably irrelevant) and the work needs to be governed by a research agreement.  Or some agreement, anyway - I'm flexible there.  But more than a purchase-order sort of thing, is what I'm saying.  SOMETHING has to define the scope of the work, outline the timeline and the deliverables.... I've got to protect my PI, right, even though I'm sure everyone has the best will in the world?  My-guy could take the payment as independent consulting if he's not using university resources for the work, but then he has to pay for his own course release AND the IRS will treat that amount of money as taxable - even though in a real way he never saw it.

I have gotten SUCH intense push-back not from the other Office of Sponsored Programs but from their PI that I'm second-guessing myself.  Someone pull me out of this rabbit hole, please.  I reached out to their OSP but haven't heard back yet.

Am I missing something?  Am I imposing order in the service of nothing?  (which clearly I do not want to do.)

A

The questions at the end of this saga will be "Am I missing something????" and/or "Am I imposing order in the service of nothing?"

My PI's research is overseas, shall we say.  A PI at another university also works in that country, with similar expertise.  The "other" PI wants to hire my guy to help her with research design for an interesting medium-scale project (but in this country, in this disciplinary area, this will feel like a large project. )  For this effort, my guy deeply wants a course release rather than summertime extra compensation.  And, besides, the work needs to happen starting in just a few weeks.  So, the academic year is a reasonable project period.  The "other" PI wants to use her start-up to pay him.

My thinking is that the start-up being the source is a red herring.  The money is coming from that university (a domestic university, but that's probably irrelevant) and the work needs to be governed by a research agreement.  Or some agreement, anyway - I'm flexible there.  But more than a purchase-order sort of thing, is what I'm saying.  SOMETHING has to define the scope of the work, outline the timeline and the deliverables.... I've got to protect my PI, right, even though I'm sure everyone has the best will in the world?  My-guy could take the payment as independent consulting if he's not using university resources for the work, but then he has to pay for his own course release AND the IRS will treat that amount of money as taxable - even though in a real way he never saw it.

I have gotten SUCH intense push-back not from the other Office of Sponsored Programs but from their PI that I'm second-guessing myself.  Someone pull me out of this rabbit hole, please.  I reached out to their OSP but haven't heard back yet.

Am I missing something?  Am I imposing order in the service of nothing?  (which clearly I do not want to do.)

A

The questions at the end of this saga will be "Am I missing something????" and/or "Am I imposing order in the service of nothing?"

My PI's research is overseas, shall we say.  A PI at another university also works in that country, with similar expertise.  The "other" PI wants to hire my guy to help her with research design for an interesting medium-scale project (but in this country, in this disciplinary area, this will feel like a large project. )  For this effort, my guy deeply wants a course release rather than summertime extra compensation.  And, besides, the work needs to happen starting in just a few weeks.  So, the academic year is a reasonable project period.  The "other" PI wants to use her start-up to pay him.

My thinking is that the start-up being the source is a red herring.  The money is coming from that university (a domestic university, but that's probably irrelevant) and the work needs to be governed by a research agreement.  Or some agreement, anyway - I'm flexible there.  But more than a purchase-order sort of thing, is what I'm saying.  SOMETHING has to define the scope of the work, outline the timeline and the deliverables.... I've got to protect my PI, right, even though I'm sure everyone has the best will in the world?  My-guy could take the payment as independent consulting if he's not using university resources for the work, but then he has to pay for his own course release AND the IRS will treat that amount of money as taxable - even though in a real way he never saw it.

I have gotten SUCH intense push-back not from the other Office of Sponsored Programs but from their PI that I'm second-guessing myself.  Someone pull me out of this rabbit hole, please.  I reached out to their OSP but haven't heard back yet.

Am I missing something?  Am I imposing order in the service of nothing?  (which clearly I do not want to do.)

A