Investigator Fees
In some cases, the funding sponsor allows payment to investigators in recognition of their time, effort and expertise. The amount of such a payment, often referred to as an investigator fee, will be established at the proposal stage, must be indicated on the SFU Funding Application Signature Sheet and have the approval of the Chair and Dean. Payment to faculty investigators on research contracts for which the sponsor has agreed to provide such payments are released at the conclusion of the contract once complete payment for the work has been received by the University. In some cases, such payments may be released during the course of the contract if the duration of work is greater than twelve months. Such arrangements should be discussed with the Manager of Research Accounting after the project account is set up.
PI fees are paid under the provisions of Section 3.0, (Payment to employees) in SFU Independent Contractor Policy AD 3.11. In order to initiate payment following project completion, the investigator should submit a completed Additional Pay Authorization Formto Research Accounting, signed by the Dean and Chair (or Associate Dean where there is no Chair or if the investigator is the Chair). The one-time payment or bi-weekly payment should be adjusted to account for approximately additional 8% statutory costs such as CPP and EI. Research Accounting will review the documentation and forward it to Payroll for processing.