UMES FACULTY RESEARCH INCENTIVE PLAN
The University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) intends to recognize the contributions of faculty who are effective in securing external funds while maintaining their other scholarly responsibilities. To that end, the Faculty Research Incentive Plan (FRIP) is designed to provide incentives for obtaining external research and contract funding. The FRIP will be provided as a salary supplement in the form of a one-time bonus payment to be paid at the end of the fiscal year. The overarching goals of this plan are to:
- To provide incentives for faculty to compete for and secure external research funding;
- To raise the total level of institutional research and contract funding;
- To recognize and reward faculty who successfully compete for research grants and contracts.
Eligibility
To participate in the FRIP, a faculty member must be a full-time appointee who (a) holds a tenure track or tenured appointment and (b) receives Institutional Base Salary equal to at least 50 percent of total salary. Visiting faculty are not eligible to participate. Full-time non-tenure track faculty may participate only if their Dean grants permission.
To be eligible, the faculty member must also demonstrate proper fiscal and administrative management of all grants/contracts in which he/she is the PI or Co-PI including: compliance with all relevant institution, state, and federal research-related polices; and completion of time and effort reports in a timely and accurate manner as determined by the UMES Office of Research.
Any incentive is a temporary adjustment that is calculated annually and is not a permanent increase to an employee’s base salary.
Final approval of any incentive compensation depends on the availability of funds and may be suspended or removed by the University at any time. Incentive compensation may also become null and void if there is untimely effort certification, retroactive changes of funded effort, sponsored project over-expenditures and/or if cost sharing requirements are not met, or if the researcher fails to comply with university policies and federal/state regulations. Resignation or termination of UMES employment automatically terminates any obligation for the university to make any incentive payments effective on the last day worked, if different from the termination date.
Research Incentive Program payments are outlined below. Payments will be made by the Research Office directly based on university data at the end of each year.
For 12 month faculty:
| Total Salary Recovery | Bonus (percent of IDC $ recovered) |
| 10%-20% | 6% |
| 21%-30% | 9% |
| 31%-40% | 12% |
| 41%-60% | 18% |
| 61%-75% | 22% |
| 75%-100% | 25% |
For 9 month faculty:
| Total Salary Recovery | Bonus (percent of IDC $ recovered) |
| 3 months summer salary (33% IBS) | 0% |
| 34%-44% IBS | 6% |
| 45%-55% IBS | 9% |
| 56%-66% | 12% |
| 67%-77% | 18% |
| 77%-100% | 23% |
