Caltech Guide to Sponsored Projects

Introduction

The Caltech Guide to Sponsored Projects is an on-line resource for new and established investigators, grant managers, and all who support them in their sponsored research activities. The Guide provides brief high-level summaries of Caltech's policies, procedures, and practices on a variety of research administration topics ranging from the preparation and submission of proposals, to post-award grants management. In addition to the short summaries, wherever possible, the Guide provides links to official policies, procedures, and other documents that provide more detailed information on the topic.

The Guide's purpose is to provide short summaries of a multitude of research administration topics of importance to Caltech faculty. For each topic there is a Background section (What's this topic all about?), followed by a brief section, The Caltech Way, which contains summary statements about current Caltech policy, procedure, and practice. With each topic, the Guide provides links to the official policies and procedures, many of which are contained in the Caltech Faculty Handbook.

Every attempt has been made to ensure that the information in the Guide is accurate and timely. If there is any discrepancy between the Guide and current Caltech policy, it is the Caltech policy that is controlling. One of the virtues of on-line resources is that they are easily corrected or modified. Please contact Richard Seligman, Associate Vice President for Research Administration (richard.seligman@caltech.edu) if you have questions or comments about the Guide.

We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Christina K. Hansen, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of California, Irvine (retired), in the design and drafting of the Guide. However, she is hereby absolved of the responsibility for any inaccuracies in the information contained in the Guide. That responsibility clearly rests with the Office of Research Administration.

Richard Seligman
September 20, 2010