The agreements between the University of California and the UAW — completed in December 2022 — have several salary and benefit provisions that will impact externally funded research. While proposals submitted since December should include the new UAW agreement salaries in their budgets, the impact of salary increases for UAW-represented personnel on existing grant budgets is of particular concern.
The Chancellor and Vice Chancellors have partnered to create a fund to help mitigate anticipated research grant budget shortfalls due to new salary ranges in the UAW contracts for Academic Researchers, Postdoctoral Scholars, and Graduate Student Researchers. The overarching goal of this Research Relief Fund is to prevent layoffs of personnel without reducing the scope of research on externally funded grants.
As previously announced, UC San Diego will employ a shared, “all-funds” approach in which contributions begin at the Principal Investigator (PI) level and move up to their associated Department, School and finally their Vice Chancellor. The Research Relief Funds from the Chancellor and Vice Chancellors are meant to cover salary increases that cannot be covered at the School or Unit level.
Research Relief Fund
The Research Relief Fund has been established to cover the gap between budgeted compensation and new compensation rates established in the UAW contracts when resources from the PI, Chair, and Dean, or their unit equivalents, are insufficient. While the majority of the Research Relief Fund is intended to address the gap for personnel funded by external grants and contracts, funding may be available to cover the gap for research personnel funded by select internal funds, such as start-up funds and internal research grants. Principal Investigators who have exhausted all strategies for covering these costs may apply for VC-level funding.
Any PI will be eligible to apply (regardless of rank or track). Priority will be given to applications that have a strong rationale for additional assistance, that have shown effort in covering all costs possible with the goal of avoiding any reductions in the scope of work.
The online application for requesting funds from Deans and VCs is expected to go live before the end of June. It will require that you provide information on the differential funding required for each grant, as well as the funding you have secured to cover the differential.
For the best results and the most rapid response, it is recommended that affected PIs start preparing now.
Research Relief Funding Priorities
Priority will be given to applications that have a strong rationale for additional assistance, with the goals of avoiding layoffs and reductions in the scope of work. Priority will also be given to investigators, chairs and deans who demonstrate strong effort to cover increased costs as much as possible.
Additional priorities include:
- Junior faculty
- PIs who have a high proportion of UAW-represented positions on their research funds
- PIs of contracts and grants that have capped stipends or fellowships that cannot be reallocated on the grant budget, with no sources to cover the differentials
- PIs from fields that have relatively small research funds and thus minimal flexibility for reallocation
- PIs who have contracts and grants with very stringent rules for reallocating existing, approved budgets
Preparing to Apply for Research Relief Funds
PIs should work with their Fund Managers now to identify their funding deficit as a result of the UAW contracts.
You may use this interactive worksheet to track the differential on each grant as well as the amounts available to cover some of the deficit from other sources. You will need to include these details in your relief fund application.
After identifying the differential required for all UAW-represented personnel, PIs should take the following steps first:
- Reallocate funds on contracts and grants as allowable. The primary strategy for covering salary differentials will be to absorb them into the existing budgets.
- If reallocation of grant budgets is not sufficient, use discretionary funds available to the project PI to the extent that these funds can be reallocated.
- If costs cannot be covered through resources of the PI, the PI should discuss their needs with their Department/Division Chair or their unit equivalent.
If additional funds are needed, the PI may submit an application to the Dean through the application form, which will then be routed to the Vice Chancellor for consideration for Research Relief Funds. Note that Deans must approve all applications for the Chancellor/Vice Chancellor Research Relief Funds.
Special Circumstances: While in most cases, personnel funded on grants are employed in the same units that the grant runs through (the Award Lead Unit), in some situations (such as training grants) a grant may provide funding for UAW-represented personnel in other departments or schools.
In these circumstances, the trainee’s mentor should first discuss potential reallocation of grant funds with the grant PI.
If reallocation within the grant and use of the mentor’s discretionary funds are insufficient to cover the gap, the mentor should discuss the situation with the employee’s home department, and if necessary, request funding from the employee’s dean through the relief fund application. Additional guidance on these situations will be available when the application is live.
As we continue to test the application process and clarify with deans and VCs, we will develop detailed guidance that will be available when the application form goes live.
We will announce the final “go-live” date for the Research Relief Fund Application as soon as possible.
