All faculty with an experiment station appointment, or who receive significant funding through the experiment station, are required to have an experiment station research project.
Faculty in the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station are encouraged to seek external funding
for the conduct of research. The ability to obtain external research support is crucial to a faculty member's professional
development.
(also known as Station or Hatch Projects)
IAHEES projects are considered according to these criteria:
- Scientific and financial accountability for research
- Excellent quality of work
- Formation of strong teams to address high priority issues
A Principal Investigator, or PI (faculty member or P&S; employee classified P-17 or above), or team of investigators, identifies a priority agricultural, natural resources, home economics, rural and/or community development issue or problem and assesses the need to assemble a team of researchers for a project duration of three to five years.
The PI then prepares a Station project proposal according to the prescribed format, which presents a justification for the research, objectives and procedures that will be used to accomplish the objectives. The researcher must estimate the resources needed to conduct the project activities. The proposed documentation is reviewed by the researcher's department executive officer (DEO) and, when approved, is submitted electronically to Cathy Good, Administrator for Research Programs, Administrative Services Office, 133 Curtiss Hall. The Station project proposal is forwarded to a minimum of two internal peer reviewers for their recommendations.
The requirement to have a Station project can be satisfied in several ways:
Eligibility and requirements and definitions of scientist year, professional year, and technical year for Station projects policies can be reviewed.
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 receiving salary or other support from IAHEES. PIs must make an annual report (AD-421) to IAHEES, for each calendar year. The AD-421 CRIS form is used for both progress and termination reports. IAHEES is required to submit an annual financial report (AD-419) at the end of the federal fiscal year showing sources of funding and expenditures for each IAHEES project. This information becomes part of the USDA Current Research Information System (CRIS) national database, a unit of Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension (CSREES).
Because funds are from both state and federal sources, a federally-mandated reporting system has been developed to account for all IAHEES expenditures.
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.
While the University funds the College of Agriculture (instruction, research and outreach) via the general fund, funds for support of research at the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station are appropriated annually by the State of Iowa. A substantial part of the State funds is allocated for salaries for faculty and support personnel. Budget hearings are held each year in the college, at which time the deans and directors meet with individual center, department and section heads to discuss their budget requests. Decisions are made on the amount of State funds to be allocated to each unit. Funds received from the State are transferred to individual departments annually. Funds are earmarked to the IAHEES and to university extension. Assignment of state-appropriated funds within a department or section is the responsibility of the head of that unit.
Iowa State University receives USDA federal base funding in four categories:
Federal base fund allocations at the IAHEES level are expected to "bear directly
on and contribute to the establishment and maintenance of a permanent and effective agricultural industry in the
United States." Congress has mandated that this should include "research basic to problems of agriculture
in its broadest aspects," specifically encompassing the improvement of rural life and the welfare of consumers
of agricultural products.
The use of Hatch funds should reflect the programmatic areas described in the Iowa State University federal Plan of Work for 2000-2006.
The North Central Directors Association (NCRA), administers multistate activities in the North Central Region in a number of crosscutting research areas. NCRA priorities are available at their web site at http://www.wisc.edu/ncra/NCRA-ESCOP-CSREESpriorities.htm#NCRA
NCRA CROSSCUTTING RESEARCH AREAS AND OBJECTIVES:
Twenty-five percent of the federal base or formula funds are designated for support of Multistate Hatch research projects. These are projects that focus on problems common to two or more states. IAHEES participation in Multistate research projects is typically with other agriculture experiment stations in the North Central Region, but may include projects in other regions. Multistate funds are restricted to projects conducted jointly with other states and are subjected to critical evaluation by oversight committees composed of administrators from several states and then by the North Central Regional Research Committee.
Suggestions for Multistate research projects often originate with interested scientists; however, Experiment Station directors establish technical committees charged with preparing a research proposal focused on a given problem. Each Experiment Station director approves the researcher(s) who will represent the station on the technical committee.
Multistate funds are currently used to buy out salaries of faculty involved in these activities and to fund travel of the official Iowa representative to annual meetings.
The following criteria for the MRF project outlines are specified in the GUIDELINES FOR MULTISTATE RESEARCH ACTIVITIES:
Iowa State University faculty participate in any of the four regional committees (NC, W, S, or NE) as described in the section, Multistate Participation. An Appendix E form is submitted to the Associate Director of the Iowa station. Listed here are Definitions of scientist year, professional year, and technical year.
After approval, the Associate Director send the Appendix E form to the Administrator Advisor of the regional committee, confirming Iowa's participation in the regional activities. Commitments to regional activities are submitted during the development of a regional committee, the revision of a regional committee or, by means of an Appendix E after the regional project has been approved by USDA/CSREES Partnerships office. The appropriote procedures are described below.
To join a Multistate project in which the Iowa Station does not officially participate, i.e., is not listed in the Appendix E in the project information in the National Information Management and Support System (NIMSS), or To join a Multistate project in which the Iowa Station participates, but the PI plans to participate in other stated regional objectives:
To join a Multistate project in which the Iowa Station is already listed as a participant in the regional outline and for which the PI will participate in objectives already stated:
Each of the four regional research committees approves its multistate proposals before submitting them to the USDA/CSREES Partnerships Office for approval. Following review by the national committee, the USDA/CSREES Partnerships Office notifies IAHEES when a multistate project has been approved, either as a new or revised project. The IAHEES requests that the Iowa representative follow these guidelines:
Annual reporting requirements for Multistate projects are the same as for other Station projects.
NOTE: If you are unfamiliar with CRIS documents, you can learn about them at CRIS Forms on the Web. Office staff in each department can connect to these forms to add/revise project information. If you have any problems, please contact Cathy Good.
The McIntire-Stennis Act (PL 87-788) provides for an annual allocation of funds through CSREES for support of research related to forestry, including urban, problems. The basic purpose of the Act is to "establish research in forestry as a definite and specific part of the agricultural research programs carried out cooperatively by USDA and the land-grant colleges." The Act more specifically defines forestry research as including "investigations relating to:
Considering these research goals, McIntire-Stennis funds will be allocated based on the same policies used for Hatch funds. Therefore, please refer to Hatch Regular Funds for guidelines and required document forms.
The Food and Agriculture Act of 1977, as amended by the Agriculture and Food Act of 1981, provides funding for research to animal health allocated by formula to Colleges of Veterinary Medicine and State Agriculture Experiment Stations (SAES). The Act specifies that animal research should:
Considering these research goals, Animal Health Research funds will be allocated based on the same policies used for Hatch funds. Therefore, please refer to Hatch Regular Funds for guidelines and required document forms.
When PIs are notified of a USDA grant award, they also receive directions from the Grants Management Branch for completing forms AD-416 Research Resume, AD-417 Classfication. USDA will not issue a grant (or funds thereof) without approved CRIS (Current Research Information System) AD-416 and AD-417 forms. To expedite this process, and to ensure that grants are fully documented in CRIS, please observe these procedures:
The approved CRIS forms are submitted to the CSREES Grants Management Branch (FAX 202-4013237) and are submitted electronically to CRIS by the Research Programs Office. PIs and DEOs will receive a copy of the fully signed CRIS forms with the approved project number. After meeting this requirement, PIs are notified of the release of funds by way of the Agreement Face Sheet.
If the grant receives an extension of time, the Station project will get an automatic
extension of time. Upon project termination, USDA/CSREES requires Progress Report form AD-421
within 90 days of the grant termination. PIs are notified by the Administrator
for Research Programs in writing of the termination report requirement.
Additional information can also be found at the CSREES
and USDA Websites.
Awards of major, competitive, peer-reviewed federal grants (e.g., NIH, NSF, EPA) can fulfill the requirement for a Station project. The award can be used to satisfy the requirement for having an IAHEES project by completing the following items:
Documentation will be reviewed and assigned a Station project number following administrative approval. Project approval documentation (copies of the approved CRIS forms) will be sent to the PI(s) and DEO(s).
If the grant receives an extension of time, the PI should forward documentation of the approved extension to the Research Programs Office. The project will then be extended to correspond with the revised termination date.
An annual AD-421 report is required for this type of Station project.