Academic Staff Document #266
January 25th, 2001

Emergency Salary Support for Senior Investigators (Draft)

1. We suggest a pilot program, which should be evaluated after five years for continuation, modification of processes and/or eligibility, or termination.

2. The program would provide eligibility for emergency salary support for long term (typically more than 10 years) academic staff principal investigators or co-investigators who have made substantial contributions to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but for whom grant non-renewal results in lack of salary support.

3. To be considered for support, the investigator must (a) have applied for open campus positions that reflect the investigator's skills and (b) submit a 2-3 page "recovery plan" to the Provost. The recovery plan normally will be accompanied by a brief (1/2 page) assessment by the department chair or unit director that addresses if such support benefits the department or is in agreement with  the long term goals of the department. The recovery plan must be endorsed by the dean of the school or college. If requested by the Provost, the plan will be reviewed by an Academic Staff committee.

4. In addition to skills inventory and career counseling, up to 18 months of salary support may be made available in any 10 year period, but only one time in the initial 5-year pilot . The investigator may continue current research while refining and resubmitting grant proposal(s) in same research field as previous work, or may take the opportunity to re-train or re-tool for a career direction change.

5. If support is provided, the investigator will submit a one-page progress report every four months to the Provost, who may ask the Academic Staff committee to review it. During the time that support is provided, the investigator will continue to apply for campus positions that reflect the investigator's skills, and will address the results of these applications in the progress reports.