PI Eligibility and Waiver Process

For Exceptions Requiring the Approval of the Department Chair and School Dean

Research Policy Handbook (RPH 2.1
Establishes the policy that principal investigatorship or co-principal investigatorship on externally and certain internally funded projects are limited to members of the Academic Council and the University Medical Line (UML) faculty, with specific exceptions. 

1.    Principal Investigator Eligibility Policy
Eligibility to act as a principal investigator (PI) or co-principal investigator (Co-PI) on externally and certain internally funded projects is a privilege limited to members of the Academic Council and to the University Medical Line (UML) faculty. This policy limitation is in place because PIs are responsible for determining the intellectual direction of the research and scholarship, and for the training of postdoctoral scholars and graduate students.

The designation of "PI" or "Co-PI" for any member of the Academic Staff, or other individual who is not a member of the University's Academic Council or UML faculty, requires specific approval by the relevant department chair, school dean and, in some cases, the Vice Provost and Dean of Research, as described below. 

A.   Exceptions that Only Require Approval from the Department Chair or Designated Delegate  
For more information, visit our separate webpage

  1. Pending Appointments for New Faculty
  2. Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants 
  3. University Research Awards

B. Exceptions Requiring the Approval of the Department Chair and School Dean 
Requests for PI eligibility for researchers who are not members of the Academic Council or the UML faculty in the following situations may be made on a case-by-case basis with the written approval of the department chair and cognizant dean (delegated to the Senior Associate Dean for Research in the School of Medicine).

The approval of the department chair and the dean shall not be pro forma, but shall take into account the academic quality of the proposal, the qualifications of the proposed PI, and the relevance and importance of the proposal to other activities of the University. Such requests will be made only for a particular project with a specified project period. Documentation of the chair and dean's approval must accompany proposals submitted to the Office of Sponsored Research. 

Project Designations That do not Require a PI Waiver
PI may designate members of the Academic Staff-Teaching (AS-T, Lecturers and Sr. Lecturers), Academic Staff-Research (AS-R, Research Scientists, and Sr. Research Scientists, Sr. Research Engineers, and Sr. Research Scholars), Academic Staff - Libraries (Assistant Librarians, Associate Librarians, Librarians, Senior Librarians), Postdoctoral Scholars, Instructors, Clinician Educators, or other researchers as "Associate Investigators" or “Co-Investigator”.

Process to request a PI waiver

Waivers must be obtained before submitting a proposal for a sponsored project or entering into an agreement.

  1. The categories of PI waiver exceptions offered under RPH 2.1 are provided below for your review.
  2. Once you’ve made a determination of the applicable PI waiver exception category, obtain the associated PI waiver template from the Resources section on this webpage.
  3. Submit the PI waiver signed by your Department Chair with the required attachments to your RPM or CT RPM at least 5 - 7 business days prior to the sponsor deadline.  It is recommended that the PI waiver request is submitted at least two weeks prior to the sponsor deadline.
  4. The RPM or CT RPM reviews the request, submits the request to the School of Medicine Senior Associate Dean for Research for final review and approval, and then notifies the requestor of the outcome.

Who should process my PI waiver?

PI waiver exception categories

Please expand the PI waiver exception categories below for more information and guidance. There is also a chart provided below that contains eligibility for waiver types by different positions at Stanford.

PI Waiver eligibility by position

*  Type of Position

PI Waiver Exception Types*

 

Eligible for a PI waiver?

Expanded Career Development PI Waiver Program

Career Development

Clinician Educator

Conferences and
Workshops

Early PI ship

Inter-disciplinary Project

Shared Facility or Service Center

Faculty (UTL, UML, NTLR) with pending appointments

Yes

 

 

 

 

X

 

 

Academic or Research Staff:
Research Associates, Scientists, and Scholars

Yes

 

X

 

X

 

X

X

Clinician Educators (CE):  Assistant, Associate, and Full Professors

Yes

 

X

X

X

 

X

 

Instructors:
MD, MD/PhD, and PhD degrees 

Yes

X

X

 

X

 

 

X

 

Clinical Instructors (CE)

Yes

 

X

 

X

 

X

 

Clinical / Medical Fellows and Residents*

Yes

 

X

 

X

 

 

 

Postdoctoral Fellows
With MD, MD/PhD and PhD degrees

Yes X X   X

 

X

 

Graduate Students**

Yes

 

X

 

X

 

 

 

*with an approved GME Resident / Clinical Fellow Form
**if the sponsor eligibility criteria confirms that graduate students are eligible for the specific program

Policy