VA MOU Policy
All Emory School of Medicine faculty members who are also employees of the Atlanta Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC) and who engage in funded research at either or both institutions that is routed through the University must complete a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The MOU must specify the title of the investigator’s appointment, the responsibilities (at both the university and the VAMC) of the proposed investigator, and the percent of effort for research. The VAMC commitment should be expressed as hours per week. The MOU must be signed by the appropriate officials of Emory and the VAMC, and must be updated with each change of the investigator’s responsibilities or distribution of effort before funding is granted and, without a change, not less that annually.
Procedural requirements:
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The faculty member’s home department is responsible for initializing and maintaining a current MOU. The original MOU will be kept on file in the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) and a copy in the School of Medicine Office of Business and Finance.
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Total professional effort* must be reasonable and there can be no possible overlap in effort and/or dual compensation for the same work. This means that the faculty member cannot receive compensation from both institutions for the same work and effort.
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The faculty member’s home department must submit a draft MOU to OSP with each research proposal submission. OSP will require a signed copy of the MOU for federally funded applications when the just-in-time materials are requested, and for all non-federally funded applications before funding will be released.
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A new MOU must be submitted November 1 of each year to reconfirm current effort.
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A faculty member must expend effort for University funded research on University compensated time unless the MOU shows that the effort is compensated as VAMC effort. This means that a faculty member cannot be compensated by the VAMC for University funded research unless the MOU specifically states that federally funded research is approved as VAMC effort.
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A reasonable and consistently applied temporary increase in salary will be effective during the period requiring any additional research effort.
*The joint VA/university appointment of the investigator constitutes 100% of his/her total combined professional responsibilities. In the case of faculty members who are also VAMC employees, total professional effort will include responsibilities at the University (including the Clinic) and the VAMC
The Annual MOU renewal is due on November 1 of each year.
This form must be completed with each change in percent effort AND annually (even if there is no change).
Scanned signatures are accepted and encouraged to speed the routing process. After PI and Dept. have completed and approved the form send it to Tony Laracuente at Antonio.laracuente@med.va.gov ; he will get the appropriate VAMC signatures; scan and send back to the sender. Please include the contact information for each Dept. so that VA questions can be addressed quickly. Once you've gotten ALL signatures it should be e-mail to me at patricia.haugaard@emory.edu
