Research roles and responsibilities

Roles and Responsibilities

The purpose of this document is to clarify roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders at Ontario Tech University in respect of the administration of research funds.

Numerous units carry out the administration of research funds at the university. With ever increasing administrative and accountability requirements being imposed by our research sponsors, it is essential that all who participate in the administration of research funds understand the nature and importance of their contributions to the sound management and administration of research funding.

Effective administration and management of research funds begins with the person to whom a grant or contract is awarded, often referred to as the “Award Holder” or “Principal Investigator”, to whom we will refer as the “PI”.

The PI has full responsibility for the conceptualization, scientific conduct of a project and overall sound scientific and financial management of a project. Yet, effective administration of research funding, in compliance with all administrative, financial management, and regulatory requirements requires reliance on, and support from, other stakeholder groups. That is, in order for researchers to be able to conduct their work and meet their obligations, they must rely on a variety of administrative support and systems.

In broad terms, the majority of support of Researchers is centralized at the university. For example, centrally provided services include contract negotiation, approval of account openings and fund advances, monitoring, compliance and reporting. However, there is significant and important support that is offered at the Faculty level (e.g. by administrators at the Faculty).

The following provides details for each of the major functional groups involved in the administration of research funds. The major functional groups are:

Researchers

Faculties

Office of Research Services

Research and Trust Accounting

Graduate and Post-Doctoral Studies