Multiple Indexes

Effective 1/1/22. Updated 12/15/22. [PDF]

Policy

For all newly funded projects with multiple OSU investigators, the College of Engineering (COE) is now requiring the creation and use of a separate index for each PI and co-PI. These indexes will share the same grant code and are sometimes referred to as subindexes.

Implementation support

COE proposal support staff can assist with creating PI budget splits for this purpose either during proposal preparation or upon award.

Benefits to using a separate index for each co‐PI

  1. Maintaining separate indexes for co‐PIs produces better data on research expenditures per person, without requiring manual separation of all expenditures by co‐PI(s). This will improve the accuracy of the data for promotion, tenure, and periodic reviews, as well as the data COE uses to respond to the annual ASEE survey.
  2. The returned overhead allocations will be more accurate since actual expenditures per faculty member will now be tracked. This will also contribute to easier collaborations across different Schools and Colleges (most other Colleges also follow this policy).
  3. This approach will make it easier for lead PIs to identify budget shortfalls and spending gaps, and for co‐PIs to track their own research expenditures and verify their monthly expenses.

Managing multiple indexes

The allocated budget split between co-PI indexes is intended as a guide, not a restriction. OSU is only concerned with total award expenditures and will no longer revise the initial PI budget splits entered into the system. If the research team wants to spend funds differently during the project, they can do that without adjusting the budget. The only exception is if you need formal sponsor approval for a budget change (e.g., to add a new subaward); your grant accountant can advise on this.

Some lead PIs expect their co-PIs to manage their own expenditures to stay within their allocated budget, and others allow more flexibility across the entire project. Each research team should decide how they want to handle this. COE simply asks that each PI charge their own expenses to their own index for expenditure tracking purposes, regardless of how the funds were originally allocated.

Alternative model

If the research team strongly prefers to manage the award as one big pool of funds, an alternative model is to create multiple indexes for the award with zero budget allocation to all but one of the indexes (typically the lead PI’s index). As the project unfolds, each expense is charged to the appropriate co-PI’s index. This alternative model satisfies COE’s goal of tracking expenditures per person.

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