SU/VA Resources

Faculty in the UTL, MCL or NTL lines who work at the VA are a full-time Stanford faculty, plus they have a VA appointment that is described as between 1/8 to 8/8ths.

100% of their overall effort is a combination of their SU & VA appointments.

The VA and PAVIR use the term “Dually Appointed Persons” (DAPs) for those individuals who hold a coterminous Stanford faculty and VA appointment

VA appointments are categorized in eighths and based on a 40 hour work week. Each VA eighth represents 5 hours.

Parity is the portion of a faculty’s salary that is paid by Stanford University.  As of FY2020, it does not include supplemental pay. If you are managing an SU-VA faculty’s labor schedule, you must remember to include any supplemental pay in determining salary over the cap (B+V+A).

Parity is managed by SoM Faculty Compensation Group. For more information see:

Faculty Comp - Other Compensation Considerations

Faculty Comp - VA Parity FAQs

Per RPH 3.1, the 5% minimum that must be reserved for non-sponsored activities at Stanford is based on 100% FTE.

For SU-VA faculty, pro-rate that minimum based on the Stanford appointment %.

For example, for an 8/8ths faculty, they would need to reserve at least 1.67% of their Stanford effort (33.33%) for non-sponsored activities at Stanford (admin, teaching, clinical), which is equivalent to 5% of 1.0 FTE. This would still be represented in labor schedules by at least 5%.

Remember that this is a minimum requirement – faculty must reserve the level of effort for non-sponsored activities commensurate with their duties.

The amount that must be reserved for non-sponsored activities by the VA is determined by the VA, not by Stanford.

There are two categories of MOU’s: Institutional and Individual.

Institutional MOU

The institutional MOU is updated annually and signed by the Medical Director of the Veterans Administration Palo Alto Health Care System (VAPAHCS) and the SoM Senior Associate Dean of Finance and Administration.

DFAs in the SoM may obtain a copy of the Institutional MOU by requesting from the Financial Compliance Manager assigned to their department.  This document should not be distributed further.

Individual MOU

The VA Office of Research & Development provides guidance on the Individual MOU here: Time Effort MOU Guidance.

Process for requesting & updating an Individual MOU with PAVIR

This process applies to Stanford University (SU) SoM faculty jointly appointed by the VA Palo Alto Health Care System (VPAHCS).  These faculty are often referred to as “SU-VA Faculty” or “Dually-Appointed Person”(DAP).

In order to comply with federal regulations and ensure the SU-VA faculty’s effort is appropriately documented and managed on sponsored research projects between both Stanford Departmental Staff and Palo Alto Veterans Institute for Research (PAVIR), follow the steps as outlined.

Note: RPMS are not involved in the creation or updating of the MOU but may review the MOU as noted below in step 4.

This process is triggered for SU/VA faculty when the following activities occur:

• At JIT (for NIH awards)
• At award time for other sponsors
• When 8ths change
• Anytime PI indicates change in effort between institutions
  
  

1. Dept requests individual MOU (iMOU) from PAVIR by sending an email to the appropriate post-award contact as listed at PostAward@pavir.org.
   1. Include a brief explanation on the reason for the requested MOU (e.g. 8ths change, JIT for NIH) and the date the MOU is needed.
   2. Include a copy of the PIs most recent Current and Pending Other Support (CPOS) at Stanford preferably downloaded from SciENcv.
      1. Be sure to include the committed level of effort to the sponsor and any reductions that did not require prior approval but which have already been applied.  A draft of the CPOS document will suffice for purposes of initiating the iMOU process.
          
2. PAVIR enters/updates the CPOS provided by the department into their system.
   PAVIR updates the CPOS to include information for PAVIR-administered awards.
   PAVIR liaises with the VA to confirm any intramural VA funding (aka VA Merit or QUERI Awards). PAVIR includes the PI % effort committed to clinical activities and administrative duties at the VA based on the Master MOU between SU and VAPAHCS.    
   
   
3. If the combination of the PI’s effort from SU, VAPAHCS and PAVIR, exceeds 100% or more than the % apportioned effort for the PIs SU or VA appointment, then PAVIR contacts the SU department contact to develop a plan to resolve any questions about effort commitments.
   If any changes in effort on SPOs managed at Stanford will require sponsor notification or prior approval, the department should follow the appropriate steps to notify the appropriate I/O.
   
   
4. Once all data is entered into the PAVIR system, PAVIR sends a copy of the system generated MOU to the department and PI for review.
   When all parties are in agreement, PAVIR will produce a formal individual MOU report. The individual MOU report will be dated and should then be countersigned by both PAVIR and Departmental staff (DFA, aDFA, or Div Mgr level).
   This process should be repeated whenever a “trigger” activity occurs (see above).
   In those instances where a formal request for an Individual MOU is requested by the NIH Grants Management Specialist (GMS), the RPM reviews the signed MOU to ensure it matches the CPOS before submitting.
   
   
5. A shared Box folder has been established by ORO for each department to house the individual MOUs. PAVIR will upload the final countersigned copy of each MOU into the appropriate Box Folder. Co-Owner access will be given to PAVIR Director of Sponsored Research and ORO Research Financial Compliance Managers (RFCM). Editor access will be given to each SoM DFA (or designee). DFAs or Div Managers may contact their RFCM for access questions. Each group will be responsible for providing access to their shared box to others in their group.

Examples for when a “change in effort” requires an updated MOU

Example 1

Requires an updated MOU, but not sponsor approval.

Example 2

Reduction in effort that does not require sponsor approval, does not require a revised MOU.

Example 3

Requires both sponsor approval first and an updated MOU.

For help in reading and interpreting the Individual MOU, please refer to the Stanford / VA individual MOU Reference Guide.

SU-VA faculty only have partial Stanford appointments, but a labor schedule is set up for 100% regardless of the appointment percentage.  For example, an 8/8ths appointed faculty is considered full time at the VA, but splits their overall time ~1/3^rd (33.33%) at Stanford and ~2/3rds (66.66%) at the VA.  Use a combination of the SU-VA template and the Salary over-the-cap templates in order ensure the correct % is entered in labor schedules.  Link to sections below.

SU-VA worksheet

For worksheet examples, start at 18:50 of presentation

Determining Salary Over-the-Cap

For the Excel worksheet demo, see 22:11 of presentation.

For template in labor schedule module, start at 25:33 of presentation

Excel Salary Cap Template

SU-VA TEMPLATE for LS Salary Cap Presentation (updated March 2022)

Stanford documents effort on Stanford managed sponsored projects through an equivalent salary charge via Payroll Distribution.

In those instances where an SU-VA faculty member does not receive Parity Pay from Stanford, their effort on sponsored projects should be documented/tracked by:

• an updated individual MOU
• Research Adminstrator & SU-VA faculty member review & note that effort for each sponsored project as part of the quarterly certification process
  

Guidelines for Sponsored Research Administration between PAVIR and Stanford University

Beginning in FY20, due to changes in Stanford’s VA Salary Parity Program, departments should no longer routinely see a “True-Up” payment (identifiable by the PAR earn code).  

However, if you do, please contact your RFCM. True-up should generally be charged to a non-sponsored PTA, not to LD.  The reason for that is that true-ups are for prior periods that may not coincide with the current labor schedule.

If the faculty has any salary charged to sponsored projects, then any True-Up payment should be charged to a non-sponsored PTA rather than distributed to LD.  The earn code for PAR will have an EID of when it was processed, NOT necessarily for the period it applies to. 

If the True-up payment is a credit it should still be made to a non-sponsored PTA, but a subsequent LDA will need to be processed to appropriately credit any sponsored projects for the over-charge of salary for the period of the True-Up payment.

They are appointed 100% at Stanford in order to receive benefits. For questions regarding SU-VA faculty pay during parental leave, please contact SoM Faculty Compensation.

During parental leave, faculty salary may not be charged to sponsored projects unless the sponsor policy (such as NIH Family Friendly Initiative) allows it.

All faculty who take sabbatical, including SU-VA faculty, must complete the Sabbatical Request form in MedLeave, including Attachment A which lists all their sponsored projects. Faculty with a joint SU/VA appointment are reminded to contact PAVIR staff if their leave will impact sponsored projects managed by PAVIR.  ORO is not involved with awards issued to PAVIR. Only awards issued to Stanford should be listed on Attachment A of the sabbatical form.

Generally, when on 100% sabbatical,  SU-VA faculty are paid their  100% appointment salary at Stanford and will not receive pay from the VA.   For questions regarding SU-VA faculty pay or the distribution of that pay during sabbatical, please refer to the approved Sabbatical Request form or contact SoM Faculty Compensation.

If SU-VA faculty take a partial sabbatical and have sponsored projects, please contact your RFCM to discuss whether it is appropriate for any salary to be charged to sponsored projects during the partial sabbatical.

Note: Per FAQ#7 on DoResearch, faculty who take 100% sabbatical are not required to charge their grants for their research effort.  Effort still devoted to a sponsored project during sabbatical, but not charged, is not tracked as part of the Payroll Distribution system, so it is important to account for that effort using Attachment A.

Reference the resources below for more information on the various types of Personnel Agreements:

• Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA)
• Joint Personnel Agreement (JPA)
• Reverse Joint Personnel Agreement (rJPA)
• Personal Services Agreement (PSA)
  

Stanford Internal Resources

ORA: Intergovernmental & Joint Personnel Agreements

PAVIR Specific Resources

Personnel Agreement Types

Guidelines for JPA Eligibility

IPA Guidelines

Personnel Agreement Types

TIP: On JPAs for faculty salary, make sure the agreement has an attachment that reflects the award types and whether there is a sponsor salary cap that must be applied.  Some JPA agreements will have mixed award types – some with salary caps, some without. Get clarification from PAVIR if it isn’t clear.

Stanford faculty with a joint appointment at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System (VAPAHCS), also referred to as Dually-Appointed Persons (DAPs), should use the supplemental guidance below for preparing their NIH Current and Pending (Other) Support (CPOS).

Service Agreement Common Forms Disclosure Guidance

The following memo and guidance document (linked above) was shared with Principal Investigators and their supporting research administrators and financial analysts/managers who have an Service Agreement (under RPH 13.7) which are active or under negotiation as of February 3, 2026:

Memo to Service Agreement (RPH 13.7) PIs and Admins: Service Agreement Common Forms Disclosure Guidance (February 3, 2026)

Investigators and departments will ultimately need to work together with their PAVIR pre-award team to ensure that the VA/PAVIR information is complete and accurate and with their Stanford research administrators and financial managers for the Stanford section of the CPOS document as well as the overall effort management and distribution across the joint appointment.

PAVIR staff are responsible for managing the charges to PAVIR-managed awards for SU-VA faculty.

As an external user of Stanford Service Centers,  PAVIR will need to provide a PO to each Service Center for services specific to the faculty member.

Please see Section 2.4 (Use of Service Center Facilities by External Users) of the Service Center Manual)

BD-STEP at VA Palo Alto Health Care System

This program is managed by Stanford Faculty at the VA.

In 2020, there were 6 fellows (postdocs). If these fellows are paid a stipend or salary, they cannot be paid from federal funds.

VA guidelines that state the following on Page 13:

(c) Stipend Supplementation. Fellows shall not receive additional revenue from any source in compensation for their duties in this program. Questions about non-VA, pay, dual compensation, potential conflict of interest, can be definitively addressed by local Regional Counsel or General Counsel.

(e) Educational Detail: Fellows may be detailed to other educational institutions without loss of pay, but under no circumstances may the total time spent in non-VA institutions exceed one sixth of the total hours a fellow is in a pay and training status with VA. Should a program wish to have fellows conduct activities at non-VA sites, an appropriate affiliation agreement must be completed and prior written approval from Office of Academic Affiliations must be obtained