Incentive Funds

The term "incentive funds" describes a variety of different mechanisms used by colleges and universities to provide funding for particular institutional objectives. At Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), there are currently three incentive funds available to faculty:

  1. The Indirect Costs Incentive Fund provides a return to individual faculty members based upon their ability to generate sponsored project awards that include reimbursement of indirect costs. The purpose of this program is to acknowledge the successful efforts of WPI faculty by providing a source of additional revenue for valid research-related expenditures, both at the departmental and individual faculty member level.
  2. Faculty Advancement in Research (FAR) funds are made available through an annual competition conducted by the Research Development Council (RDC). The FAR program was created to provide "seed" money to faculty members and research teams for the purpose of acquiring external funding of projects.

The Indirect Costs Incentive Fund is administered by Research Accounting, which issues credits to designated funds on a quarterly basis. The FAR funding mechanism is administered by the Office of Research Administration (ORA).

More detailed information, guidelines and forms relating to these incentive programs are available by visiting the Internal Funding page of the ORA web site. Questions about the Indirect Costs Incentive Fund should be addressed to the Manager of Research Accounting, while questions regarding FAR funding may be addressed to the Director of Research Administration.

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Last modified: September 10, 2007 16:14:51