Principal Investigator Eligibility

When the university submits proposals to external sponsors and accepts awards for sponsored projects, legal responsibility and accountability for the conduct of the sponsored project and for compliance with all relevant policies reside with OSPA as the university’s agent in these matters.

The principal investigator (PI) of a sponsored project is the primary individual responsible for technical compliance, completion of programmatic work, fiscal stewardship of sponsor funds and compliance with administrative requirements of the project. Thus, the university must ensure that individuals serving as PI have the technical competence and administrative capability to carry out a sponsored project.

Who Can Serve as a Principal Investigator?

Category 1

Any individual who holds one of the following positions with a 50% or greater appointment, may be identified as a principal investigator for sponsored activities: 

• Tenure Track Faculty: Assistant professor, associate professor and professor
• Research Faculty: Assistant research professor, associate research professor and research professor
• Project/Program directors
• Directors/Associate directors
• Senior scientist

Category 2

The following positions require prior approval (see below) to serve as a principal investigator. These individuals may be identified as a co-principal investigator for sponsored projects if one of the individuals listed in Category 1 is named as the lead principal investigator on the project:  

• Assistant/Associate professor of practice, instructor and lecturer (also known as non-tenure track)
• Non-Research professional staff
• Emeritus faculty

Prior Approval
Individuals listed in Category 2 may make a request for prior approval using the PI Prior Approval Request Form. Approval must be obtained prior to routing a proposal for internal approvals and a copy of the approval document must be included with the proposal routing package.

Category 3

Any individual who holds one of the following positions may not be identified as a principal investigator but may be identified as a co-principal investigator for sponsored projects if one of the individuals listed in Category 1 is named as the lead Principal Investigator on the project:

• Adjunct faculty
• Researcher (I, II, III)
• Assistant scientist/Associate scientist
• Postdoctoral fellow
• Graduate student
• Undergraduate student

Note: In some cases a sponsor’s guidelines may require these positions to be listed as the PI. In this case, the application will list this position as PI but the Proposal Checklist must have a Category 1 individual listed as the PI. This person will be responsible for supervising all project activities.

Category 4

An individual who holds one of the following positions may not be identified as a principal investigator or co-principal investigator for sponsored projects under any circumstances:

• Visiting professors
• Faculty affiliates (e.g. those with zero-percent appointments)