Funds for research projects are assigned in two ways:Because funds are from both state and federal sources, a federally-mandated reporting system has been developed to account for all IAHEES expenditures.
- Some salaries for scientists and support staff (technicians, graduate research assistants, secretaries, etc.) are budgeted from the IAHEES in proportion to their research appointment.
- Other funds, which may be used for hourly wages, travel, equipment and current expenses of approved projects, are made available from the Associate Director of IAHEES to departments in their block budget allocation. The departmental executive officer (DEO) then assigns these funds to approved projects.
All research sponsored by the USDA is required to be documented in the Current Research Information System (CRIS), the reporting system for ongoing and recently completed research projects in agriculture, food and nutrition, and forestry. In addition to the information given in the AD-416 and AD-417 project descriptions, the annual AD-421 CRIS reports are used by IAHEES administrators to monitor project progress and are frequently accessed by scientists in related fields.
General information for preparing the AD-416, AD-417, and AD-421s are given on the USDA/CSREES CRIS Forms Assistance website. Procedures to guide faculty in developing the AD-416, AD-417, and AD-421 are given on the IAHEES website, CRIS WebForms.
The accounting system of IAHEES is based upon identification of allocations and expenditures (salaries, equipment and current expense/supplies) with specific research or administrative projects. Thus, it is necessary to have one or more active IAHEES projects for each faculty member in IAHEES.