Policies and Procedures
Policy and Procedures for Participation in Research
Policy for participation in research
- For purposes of integrity, consistency, and quality assurance,
it is important to ensure that research studies with grants from
internal sources or external agencies conform to the policy guidelines
as laid down by the University Committees such as the Academic
Council and the University Research Council (URC) 1. Therefore, the aim of this policy is quality assurance and provision
of support 2 for research at
Aga Khan University Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED).
- This policy will govern the allocation of internal grants 3
and faculty/staff time for research activities at AKU-IED with
institutionally approved partners at the national and international
level.
- The policy will also apply to all research proposals with approved
external funding as these research activities are also financed
by IED through allocation of faculty/staff time and use of its
facilities. This includes proposals submitted for URC funding.
- All research proposals, regardless of whether they have approved
internal or external funding, will be submitted through Research
and
Policy Studies (RAPS) to the Ethical Review Committee of
AKU-IED, which will in turn send its recommendation to URC-ERC
for approval.
- Head, RAPS and RAPS
programme
office will maintain a database
of all research activities undertaken by AKU-IED faculty. This
database will be maintained through the following procedures.
- RAPS Head will be kept informed of all research studies undertaken
by AKU-IED faculty and staff through the RAPS office.
- Formal contacts between faculty/staff and funding agencies
will be intimated to RAPS office before formal agreement or
signing a contract.
- All applications, offers, other administrative matters will
be referred to RAPS for advice and monitoring of resources
including faculty/staff time.
- Progress and final reports of all research studies undertaken
by AKU-IED faculty and staff will be submitted to RAPS office.
- RAPS Head/office will develop procedures for monitoring and
quality assurance such as benchmarks, after consultation with
faculty/RAPSAC and approval from Director, AKU-IED.
- The policy will be reviewed every three years.
Procedure for the review of research proposals for internal grants
- The applicant will submit the research proposal following given
guidelines to the Chair, Research
and
Policy Studies Advisory
Committee (RAPSAC), through the RAPS office.
- Proposals will be blind reviewed on a quarterly basis. Please
send two attachments. One called <yourname1.doc> should
contain your full name, postal and email address, fax number,
and the title of your proposal; the other attachment called <yourname2.doc>
should contain only the proposal without any reference to you
the author. This is the text that will be used for the blind reviewing
process, so it is important that the reviewers are not able to
identify you as the author. If this attachment is not anonymous,
it will be returned to you.
- Deadlines for proposal submission are
January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1.
(Authors who believe that the timelines of a quarterly review
would delay their proposal to the detriment of the research
process can submit their proposal for an expedited review
process. However, they must provide a strong rationale for
it.)
- Head RAPS will identify three reviewers, which will include
one RAPSAC member and two area specialists, usually selected from
the IED faculty. The reviewer from RAPSAC will be selected on
a rotation basis so that this responsibility is shared equitably
with all members.
- The faculty members will be selected based on area of expertise
(or other specific considerations). However, care will be taken
to see that some faculty members are not 'overused'. Wherever
possible, the proposal could also be sent to one or more external
reviewers.
- RAPS
programme
office will forward the proposal for a blind review
to the identified reviewers, collate their reports and send them
along with the proposal to all RAPSAC members for discussion and
approval.
- In the next RAPSAC meeting scheduled for proposal review, one
of the reviewers (this responsibility will most likely fall to
the reviewer from RAPSAC) will present the proposal to the committee.
The committee may invite the applicant to the meeting to respond
to queries; therefore s/he must be available during the meeting
time. This would facilitate the process and allow the applicant
a forum to reply to any queries and concerns put forth, before
a recommendation for internal grant is made.
- Chair RAPSAC will communicate the committees' decision to Head,
RAPS who will inform the applicant of the recommendation.
- The applicant after receiving the letter and prior to starting
the study will submit a completed ERC approval form to ERC through
RAPS office. 4
- The recommendation of the ERC will be communicated to RAPS office
and the Ethical Review Committee of the University Research Council
(URC-ERC). The URC-ERC will then make its recommendation.
- RAPS
programme
office will send the recommendation of RAPSAC and
the URC-ERC to the Director, AKU-IED for approval.
- The applicant will be informed of the response of the Director,
AKU-IED by the RAPS office.
Eligibility for research funding (Internal at AKU-IED or through URC)
- Only full-time faculty and PhD students of AKU who would be working under the supervision of faculty are eligible to apply as principal investigator (PI).
- If a PI has an active grant (seed money or external), he/she may apply for an additional grant provided it has the potential to enhance significantly the scope of the existing study.
- PhD students can apply for URC funding but the terminology will be changed from 'Principal Investigator' to that of a ' PhD Student Applicant'. However, for release of research funds, signatures of the supervisor, co-supervisor would be necessary in order to maintain an audit, as is already the practice.
- Undergraduate students cannot apply for URC funding. However, if they wish to be involved in a project that allows them to learn various techniques of investigations, they will be designated as 'Trainee Investigators'
- A PI can re-apply for URC grant funding provided ONE YEAR has passed since the completion of the previously approved URC funded project. However, the track record of the PI would be a consideration when applying for a new URC grant and the completed project would have been evaluated for quality of research in terms of publications and presentations generated.
- Non Full Time Faculty cannot apply as Principal Investigator but may apply as Co-investigators.
- Hospital staff can apply for URC grant funding particularly for projects of a cross-institutional nature.
- Faculty of AKU in East-Africa and ISMC are also eligible for URC grants and same terms and conditions will apply.
- Involvement of faculty in projects as "co-investigators" should be clearly time defined, in terms of percentage of time that each co-investigator will spend on the project.
- Applications that get poor review from both the reviewers i.e. a score of less than two will not be discussed in the main GRC meeting and Research Office will pre-screen these grants.
- Re-submissions that require major changes (defined as major adjustments of study objectives, methodology, budget etc) will be considered in the next main grant review cycle. However, re-submissions with requests for minor changes (defined as clarifications, minor adjustments of study procedures, budget etc) will be dealt with by the Research Office alone, in conjunction with the Dean/ Chair of URC.
Small travel grants should be applied through sources other than URC, for example, the Dean's fund, FDA, departmental funds etc.
AKU-IED and URC Policy participation and leading research projects on terms used of PI, Co-I, Co PI and researcher
- Co investigator can also be referred to as a team member
- Researcher should be used for research assistant, case researcher and partner.
- Research reports must acknowledge the input provided by other through mentioning the entire
team.
- The four terms to be used PI, Co-I, Co PI, and researcher. Co PI will only be used if there are two authors.
Updated 10 November 2006
1 See URC funding policy
2 See procedure for development of research quality at
IED
3 Currently the internal grant is available only to
the faculty, and is capped at US $ 5000 - 6000
4 It should be noted that the release of funds is dependant
on the approval of the ERC
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