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Research Subject Fees

Please note: The Expense topics below are under review. Revised content will be highlighted when published. Please contact asrsp_compliance@northwestern.edu for assistance on urgent issues.

Process Changes for Research Subject Fees

Effective 11/3/14

In an effort to streamline processes, the Additional Pay and Special Pay processes for paying employees or former employees as research subjects on sponsored projects has changed. Effectively immediately, Additional Pay and Special Pay forms for employee and former employee research subject fees no longer require Accounting Research for Sponsored Programs (ASRSP) or Sponsored Research office (SR) approval. After the employee, department and school approvals have been obtained, the form should be directly routed to the Human Resources Payroll Office.

To facilitate the change, a new expense account code to record employee research subject fees, 60105, has been created.  The Additional Pay Form and Additional Pay Policy have been updated to reflect these changes. The new form should be used beginning immediately.

As a reminder, before engaging human subjects an approved Institutional Review Board (IRB) protocol must be in place. Going forward, SR will automatically open two budget categories for research subjects after review of the approved IRB protocol, 60220 for employee human subject costs and 78664 for external human subject costs. Before paying research subject fees, review the Cognos GM045 Sponsored Project Budget Statement report to ensure that the appropriate budget category is open. If the appropriate category is not open, please submit a change request to SR via InfoEd.

Other links related to the payment of research subjects on sponsored research projects: