Business Policies & Guidelines

The policy establishes the campus standards for charging of applicable Facilities and Administrative (F&A) Costs on externally funded sponsored projects based on the classification of the project as organized research, sponsored instruction, or other sponsored activities.

The University of Illinois' Policy on Conflicts of Commitment and Interest applies to all paid academic staff members, whether part-time or full-time employees of the university. Annually, faculty and staff must disclose potential conflicts by completing a Report of Non-University Activities (RNUA). For more information and COI contacts, visit the campus COI page.

The policy establishes the conditions in which the university will commit to cost-sharing; the process for including cost-sharing in a sponsored project; and the core principles that cost-sharing must meet.

The university must assure our sponsors that work on a sponsored project justifies the salary charged to that project, and the actual time spent on the project is consistent with what was originally proposed. To conform to federal uniform guidance and audit findings, we must align payroll records on sponsored projects with the time period in which the work is performed, and apply a consistent definition of base salary when charging salary to grants and contracts.

The policy establishes the role and responsibilities of a principal investigator, the categories of appointments for those individuals who are eligible, and an approval procedure to allow those individuals who are not included in the default categories to serve as principal investigators.