MUNFA members have previously been made aware by Financial and Administrative Services, MUN, of changes to the administration of research pool accounts invoked by the university in response to feared CRA tax liabilities for both the institution, and individual Academic Staff Members (ASMs) holding such accounts. The key change affecting ASMs is that any funds in research pools that accrued from the waiver of either extra teaching payments or research contract principal investigator fees must be spent by December 31, 2015.
At the regularly scheduled Joint Association-University Relations Committee meeting of November 24, 2015, MUNFA learned any unspent funds remaining in research pool accounts as of January 1, 2016, will be transferred from the control of the original, individual ASM, into the aegis of the Academic Unit in which the original ASM holds his/her appointment. These expropriated funds will be then “pooled” and made available to all ASMs in that Academic Unit via a future competitive mechanism based on a written proposal.
MUNFA has been advised that if you wish to retain individual rights and privileges over an existing research pool account – except those pools containing research contract overhead allocations – after December 31, 2015, ASMs must obtain a special extension. Such an extension may be sought by writing to your administrative head [with copies to your Dean (if applicable), and Deborah Collis, the Director of Financial and Administrative Services] as soon as possible in the next month. This request should be made as soon as possible in the next month, and must include an outline of how you intend to spend the remaining balance in your research pool, and a date by which you estimate that will be completed.
Please direct any further questions to Deborah Collis – dcollis@mun.ca, 864-8222.
