VA Dual Appointments

University of Colorado Denver VA Dual Appointments

CU Denver is consistently applying the NIH VA MOU policy for all sponsored projects. CU Denver faculty members with a dual appointment between the Veterans Affairs Medical Center (referenced as VAMC or VA) and CU Denver must maintain a valid and current MOU identifying their relationship between both parties on at least an annual basis as long as there are not any significant changes to the faculty member's distribution within that annual period. This is in line with the NIH Grants Policy Statement Part II Subpart B Section 17.3. 

MOU states the distribution of the individual's time between the VA and CU Denver

Salary: The MOU demonstrates that the NIH is not duplicating salary already paid by the VA

JIT Phase: NIH may ask for a copy of the MOU prior to issuing the NOA

Signatures required: Faculty Member, Department Chair and VA Medical Chief  

The current MOU must be included with each proposal routing that includes personnel with CU Denver-VA dual appointments. The OGC will not submit a proposal without a current MOU approved by CU Denver and signed by all required CU Denver signatories.

It is the PI's and the department's, and OGC's responsibility to ensure all joint CU Denver-VA personnel listed on the budget page have disclosed the CU Denver-VA effort information in the budget justification. The PI and department must ensure a current MOU is routed with the NIH proposal.

Appointments

As an institution, CU Denver has established an upper appointment limit for CU Denver-VA dual appointments at 150% (60 hrs). No single appointment between CU Denver or the VA can exceed 100% (40 hrs). Appointments on the VA MOU must match the appointment entered in the VA personnel system and CU Denver PeopleSoft HCM.

• CU Denver-VAMC Appointment Effort Calculators  (provides examples of FTE appointments that are reasonably defensible to regulatory agencies, sponsors and the general public) 
• VA Dual Appointment Calculator (SOM)  (aid for establishing appointment in PeopleSoft HCM) 
• VA MOU Calculator  (MS Excel Version - calculates and generates VA MOU) 
• VA MOU Template  (MS Word Version)

Budgeting for Submission to NIH

NIH Effort and Salary Calculator  (establishes effort and salary for SF424 budget forms and effort statement for budget justification)  

Faculty effort and salary on NIH applications are requested using only the CU Denver portion of the appointment  

• Effort and Salary requested cannot include any portion of the VA appointment.
• Must apply the NIH salary cap when the annualized salary figure for the CU Denver portion of the appointment exceeds the current NIH salary cap.
  
• CU Denver institutional base salary must be consistent with PeopleSoft HCM or a memo signed by the appropriate appointing authority authorizing the proposed salary must be included with the routing.
• Modular Grants - Disclosure of the CU Denver-VA appointment should be included in the Budget Narrative. This is the only portion that will be submitted to NIH for this grant type. For internal purposes, the effort and salary should be included on the internal detailed budget with the InfoEd routing.

Other Support

Instructions for completing NIH Other Support can be found in the links below.

• NIH Other Support Instructions
• Other Support Example - CU Denver | VA Dual Appointments

Appointments

As an institution, CU Denver has established an upper appointment limit for CU Denver | VA dual appointments at 150% (60hrs). No single appointment between CU Denver or the VA can exceed 100% (40hrs). Appointments on the VA MOU must match the appointment entered into the VA personnel system and CU Denver PeopleSoft HCM. 

• CU Denver|VAMC Appointment Effort Calculators (Provides examples of FTE appointments that are reasonably defensible to regulatory agencies, sponsors and the general public)
• VA Dual Appointment Calculator (SOM) (Aid for establishing appointment in PeopleSoft HCM)
• VA MOU Calculator (MS Excel Version - Calculates and generates VA MOU)
• VA MOU Template (MS Word Version)

Budgeting For Submission to NIH

Faculty effort and salary on NIH applications are requested using only the CU Denver portion of the appointment 

• Effort and Salary requested cannot include any portion of the VA appointment.
• Must apply the NIH salary cap when the annualized salary figure for the CU Denver portion of the appointment exceeds the current NIH salary cap. 
• CU Denver institutional base salary must be consistent with PeopleSoft HCM or a memo signed by the appropriate appointing authority authorizing the proposed salary must be included with the routing.
• Modular Grants - Disclosure of the CU Denver | VA appointment should be included in the Budget Narrative. This is the only portion that will be submitted to NIH for this grant type. For internal purposes, the effort and salary should be included on the internal detailed budget with the InfoEd routing.

MOU Routing

Current MOUs must be submitted with proposal applications. The MOU submitted with the InfoEd routing should not include any effort from the proposal application as that information is prospective until an award is made. 

If the application is awarded and results in a significant change in FTE or professional responsibilities for either appointment, an updated MOU should be submitted to OGC PreAward at the time of award. Updated MOUs can be sent to xenia@ucdenver.edu and must reference the InfoEd proposal number. 

If the requested personnel does not have a dual appointment in place at the time of proposal, an updated MOU must be submitted at the time of award. 

If the awarded application does not significantly change the MOU, then the current MOU can remain on file.