Glossary

Glossary

A

AR

Accounts Receivable

ASC

The Animal Science Center manages and oversees animal-related activities, including veterinary care, policies and procedures, personnel management, occupational health and safety, and design and management of BU’s animal facilities. Learn more

Sign up for training to use the ASC facilities or learn more about animal care at BU.

AVMA

American Veterinary Medical Association

The American Veterinary Medical Association is a not-for-profit association representing veterinarians. It advocates for and advances the science and practice of veterinary medicine to improve animal and human health.

The AVMA develops and maintains educational standards for schools of veterinary medicine to ensure the qualifications and competency of graduates of the schools.

Read the guidelines on euthanasia of animals.

AWP

Animal Welfare Program (AWP):
The BU Animal Welfare Program supports the activities of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), and is responsible for facilitating compliance with regulatory requirements and institutional policies.

B

BUMC

Boston University Medical Campus

C

COI

Conflict of Interest

Learn about BU's Financial Conflict of Interest here.

CRC

Charles River Campus

CTSI

Clinical & Translational Science Institute

E

EHS

Environmental Health & Safety

F

F&A Rate

Facilities and Administrative Rate

Learn more about facilities & administrative costs.

FFS

Fee-for-service

Full-Time Equivalent

A Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) is a unit of measurement that describes the workload of an employee in a manner that makes workloads across the University comparable. The workload that qualifies as “full-time” varies by position. The regular work week for a full-time employee at Boston University is generally 40 hours, with some full-time positions at 37.5 or 35 hours per week. Information about what percent of full-time each employee has been hired to work, and what the full-time hours for that employee’s position are, is maintained in an SAP data field, Cap.Utl.Lvl. A full-time employee’s “Full-time Equivalent” (FTE) is represented as 1 in this data field; and a half-time employee is represented as 0.5. An employee’s FTE is different than the employee’s percent of effort; whether full- or part-time, 100 percent of each employee’s effort must be accounted for if any part of that effort is charged to a grant.

FTE is different than a person’s “Effort.”

I

IACUC

Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee

IACUC oversees and routinely evaluates the animal care and use program. The IACUC functions include protocol review and post-approval monitoring.

Learn more about IACUC.

IBC

Institutional Biosafety Committee

The IBC is an institutional committee created under the NIH Guidelines to review research involving recombinant DNA and synthetic nucleic acid research. The IBC also reviews all research involving biohazardous materials and has overall oversight and responsibility for the Biosafety program at BU and BMC.

Learn more about the IBC.

Incidental Activity Pay

Incidental Activity Pay includes salary supplements for a one-time activity with a duration of 4.5 months or less, honoraria, prizes, bonuses, and certain benefits that must be reported as “salary” for income tax purposes, but do not represent payment for work, such as tuition remission for graduate courses above an annual threshold, and salary in lieu of immediate vesting in the retirement plan.  Incidental work at BU is generally not related to Sponsored Programs and is designated by specific wage types. While the University does provide Incidental Activity Pay, the person is not required to certify this effort on a PAR.

Applicable Uniform Guidance section: 200.430 Compensation – personal services

Institutional Base Salary

Institutional Base Salary, or “IBS,” is annual compensation paid for a person’s appointment (9 or 12 months), whether that person’s time is spent on research, teaching, administration, or other University activities. This annual compensation is initially based on a University employee’s offer letter and is recorded in the “Info Type 8” field in SAP.

IBS does not include payments from other organizations or income that a person is permitted to earn outside of his or her University responsibilities, such as private consulting. The IBS rate must be used as the base salary for all grant proposals.

IPAS

Institutional Prior Approval System

L

LSC

Laboratory Safety Committee

M

MTDC

Modified Total Direct Cost

N

NEIDL

National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories

The NEIDL is part of a national network of secure facilities studying infectious diseases that are—or have the potential to become—major public health concerns. The laboratories are dedicated to the development of diagnostics, vaccines, and treatments to combat emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.

Learn more about the BU NEIDL.

NIH

National Institutes of Health

NSF

National Science Foundation

P

PAFO

Sponsored Programs (SP)- Post Award

SP- Post Award assists faculty and administrators with financial and compliance oversight of sponsored program accounts, financial reporting and billing, effort reporting, service center rate negotiation, and F&A rate proposals.

Contact SP- Post Award or learn more about managing or closing out an award.

PAR

Personnel Activity Report

You can find details about Personnel Activity Reports under the Effort Reporting section on the Manage an Award page.

R

RA

Research Administrator

A Sponsored Programs team member who helps you navigate your pre-award or post-award needs. View a list of all Research Administrators to find your department's contact.

RC

Research Compliance

RIMS

Research Information Management System

Learn more and access RIMS here.

ROHP

Research Occupational Health Program

ROHP is part of BU Research Compliance, serving Boston University and Boston Medical Center, and is focused on the health, wellness, and safety of the University’s scientific research community. ROHP promotes a culture of safety in research by utilizing comprehensive best practices to perform medical surveillance, workplace risk assessments, biosafety and agent training, and clinical occupational health services led by board certified Occupational Medicine physicians.

Read more about ROHP.

RSC

Radiation Safety Committee

The Radiation Safety Committee oversees the possession, use, and disposal of all radioactive material used for research, clinical, instructional, and service purposes within Boston University (BU), Boston Medical Center (BMC), and its affiliates.

Contact the RSC.

S

SAP

Boston University’s financial system

Significant Financial Interest

Any financial interests (i.e., anything of monetary value) consisting of one or more of the following interests of the Investigator (and those of the Investigator’s spouse and dependent children), within the previous 12 months, that reasonably appears to be related to the Investigator’s Institutional Responsibilities

SP

Sponsored Programs (SP) is the coordinating office for all pre-award and post-award needs.

Contact Sponsored Programs.

T

Total Compensated Activities

Total Compensated Activities at BU includes both IBS and Extra Service Pay (Overload Compensation paid as part of additional University duties). For purposes of Effort reporting, Total Compensated Activities at BU is 100% Effort, regardless of the person’s FTE equivalent (for example, 0.5 FTE, 0.625 FTE, or 1.0 FTE). Total Compensated Activities, excluding Incidental Activity Pay, are to be included when calculating Effort.

Total University Effort

Total University Effort is the sum of all professional activity or effort for which a person is compensated by the University. It is not based on a “standard” work week.  If a person who is being compensated for a 100 percent appointment works 50 hours in a week, then 25 hours would represent 50 percent of his or her Total University Effort.  If a person who is being compensated for a 50 percent appointment works 30 hours in a week, 30 hours would represent 100 percent of his or her Total University Effort.

Total University Effort generally includes externally sponsored research activity, department research, teaching, clinical service, administrative duties, and proposal writing.  Activities that are outside Total University Effort include private consulting and other outside compensated professional work covered by the University’s Conflict of Commitment Policy, volunteerism, community or public service, and Veteran’s Administration Hospital-compensated activities that are documented in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

U

USDA

United States Department of Agriculture

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