Principal Investigator Transfers

When a Principal Investigator (PI) of an externally funded federal grant changes institutions, a decision is made about whether the grant stays at the current institution or is transferred to the new institution. Because the grant award is made to the institution and not to the PI, there must be agreement with appropriate sponsor and institution representatives as to where the grant will ultimately reside.

If the decision is to change the grantee organization to the new home of the PI, the request must be made prior to the anticipated start date at the new organization, and preferably several months in advance. Failure to provide timely notification may result in disapproval of the request or a delay in transfer.

If the decision is to leave the grant award at the current organization, the sponsoring agency must be notified immediately with a request for change in responsible PI. This correspondence may include a request to re-budget part of the award as a sub-grant to the new organization of the former PI for continued work and collaboration on the project.
Contracts and other agreements (Federal, non-Federal or Federal pass-through) will have very specific instructions for this process. Please work with Sponsored Research and Award Administration to determine what steps need to be taken.

Transferring a grant to or from OSU: Guidelines