Research Project Information Form

The UBC Principal Investigator is the UBC lead on the research project, and will have signing authority on the research Grant once funds are received. Only one researcher can be named as the Principal Investigator for a project. Please provide UBC contact details.

Faculty: A primary faculty affiliation must be stated for the correct allocation of recovered indirect costs, whether or not an approved centre or institute is involved.

Academic Rank: Select the appropriate academic rank from the drop-down list.

If the Principal Investigator has a term appointment without review or is a postdoctoral fellow, see Research Policy LR2, section 4.1.2 and 4.2.4 for more information. 

Attach a full copy of the application form to the RPIF, or a Budget and Proposal/Workplan if an application form is not required.

Title: Please insert a title as it appears on the application form, or as it should appear in a contract to follow.

Original Funding Source: It’s necessary for UBC to track where funds for research projects originate, and this may differ from where UBC ultimately receives the funds. For example, the funds may flow through a partner research institution.

Scenario 1

A UBC researcher has been successful in an application for funds from CIHR. CIHR is the Original Funding Source, and the Primary Funding Source, so the “Same as original funding source above” check-box should be selected under Primary Funding Source.

Scenario 2

A University of Toronto researcher has been successful in an application for funding from CIHR. For its participation in the research project, UBC will be receiving some of those funds from University of Toronto. Please insert CIHR as the Original Funding Source, select the “Other – please specify” check-box, and enter “The University of Toronto” as the Primary Funding Source.

Additional Funding Sources: Please list all additional partners providing cash contributions. This will facilitate the opening of multiple Grants for a single project using just this one form.

Funding Program: If applicable, enter the agency funding program to which you are applying.

Student Fellowship: For tracking purposes, please enter the recipient name and their student or employee number. For student and trainee fellowships, sections A through E must be completed.  Required signatures include the principal investigator/supervisor, department head/school director and dean, as appropriate. In the Faculty of Medicine, the centre director signature is not required for student and trainee fellowships only.

Budget: Please detail only cash contributions.

Please select all appropriate funding sources and the funds to be received from each source. The total must include the indirect costs being recovered, and for each source these indirect costs must be entered separately into the second box. UBC’s standard indirect-cost recovery rate is 25% of direct costs for non-industry projects and effective May 1, 2015, 40% for all new, industry-sponsored projects.

For example, if the total amount to be received is $210,000 from an industry partner:

Select the “Industry” check-box
Enter $150,000 in the 'direct costs' box, $60,000 in the 'indirect costs' amount box, and $210,000 in the 'total costs' box.

(Indirect costs for industry projects are calculated at the UBC standard rate of 40% of all direct costs: $150,000 direct costs x 40% = $60,000 indirect costs, $150,000 + $60,000 = $210,000).

For Tri-council grants, Indirect Costs included in research projects are collected separately once per year at an institutional level, and $0 should be entered in the 'Indirect Costs Included' box. The only exception is the SSHRC-administered Tri-Agency New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF). Applicants to this fund should contact ORS about building indirect-cost recovery into their application.

For matching-funds grants and partnerships, please separate out the total budget and indirect costs from the different categories (government, non-profit, industry and UBC internal).

Note: Indirect-cost recovery should only be presented to sponsors if required by the sponsor in writing. Whenever possible, indirect costs should be built into each budget line item, and only the final “price” should be presented.

Project Length: Please indicate the length of the project covered by this funding application in months.

Approved Centres and Institutes: Each March, the faculty deans confirm a list of centres and institutes that are to be eligible to receive the 50% allocation of indirect costs.

This list is reflected in the dropdown options in this form and can also be accessed at http://research.ubc.ca/indirect-costs

Main Institutions: Please include the primary institutions. If there is more than one primary institution, enter the percentage effort at each. If the research activity is conducted in locations other than those listed (e.g. Vancouver Island, communities, etc.), the default location to choose on this Research Project Information Form will be “UBC Vancouver Campus”.  Until such time that UBC has identified a new location as a main institution, the form will be updated to reflect any additional sites at that time.

Clinical Project Grants: For clinical projects only, grants may be opened at a UBC Affiliated Teaching Hospital, or at UBC. For all others, the Grant will be set up at UBC. The location of the Grant will not affect the sharing of indirect costs between UBC and the affiliated hospital.

Buildings: Please specify location(s) and add an estimate of the percentage of the project activities being undertaken at each location.

Resource Implications for: Please indicate who bear the associated costs of providing this office and/or lab space.

HQP Involvement: Please indicate if, and how many, additional highly qualified personnel will be involved in this project.

If your project does not involve the use of humans, animals or biohazardous materials, it is not subject to ethics certification or other approval. Please select “No” and continue to Section E.

If your project does require certification or approval, please indicate the elements involved and either the certificate number if already received, or the application number if under review. Please enter “pending” if no certificate number has yet been assigned. Note that Grants cannot be opened without the requisite approvals.

If you are attaching a grant application form to the RPIF, please indicate “Yes” and continue to the signatures section. For all other projects please indicate “No” and proceed to Section F.

Please supply details of the entity from whom UBC is receiving funding. This must match the party indicated in Section Bii.

If you, your co-investigators or students involved in the project have no commercial, contractual or proprietary interest with or in the sponsor, please select “No” and proceed to Section H.

If you believe that you or your UBC co-investigators or students involved in the project do have, or will have a commercial, contractual or proprietary interest with or in any of the sponsors, please indicate the nature of that interest. Indicate any other conflicts of interest that may affect this project. This may include family members or other persons with whom you share a financial interest, and who are involved in the project.

Please note that any conflict of commitment or interest must be disclosed annually and managed per UBC Policy SC3.

Proprietary Materials: Briefly outline the source and nature of any proprietary or confidential materials or information that will be used in this project. This includes materials such as software, biological materials, physical devices or information that a partner deems confidential.

Overlap: Indicate if you are working with anyone on other projects where the subject matter may overlap.

Collaborator/Sponsor Employees: Indicate whether employees of the sponsor or collaborator will be engaged in the research activities of this project and if so, whether they will participating on-site at UBC or at an affiliated teaching hospital.

To open research Grants, signatures must be obtained from the PI, the department/unit head, and the dean. Some faculties do not require the dean’s signature.

The director of the approved centre or institute of where the project is primarily conducted must also provide his/her signature.

Signatures can be provided in three ways:

• As hard copy
• As a digital ID by clicking on the arrow red arrow next in the signature box.  If you do not already have a digital ID, you can create one that can be reused for future forms by clicking on the signature box
• As a scanned signature by clicking on the scanned signature box as indicated and selecting the image file (please note that the file can be a *jpeg, *png, *gif or *tiff file)

Title: Only required if the authorized signatory is not the department/unit head or dean

Initials: For industry and non-profit sponsored projects only, signatories may also choose to authorize a future budget increase without the need for approval at a later date, by initialing the box.

Cap: A cap can be placed on the authorized budget increase amount without further approvals/signatures being required. If there is no limit, then leave the the field blank or enter N/A.