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VOLUME 20, NUMBER 32
AUGUST 10, 1973
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
Public Harbors Myths
About Research Grants
Recently a brief newspaper story
appeared announcing that a doctor at
Duke had received a $40,000 research
grant.
Within a few days the doctor had
received calls from a bank, an insurance
agent and a car salesman advising him on
ways to use the "check."
Incidents such as this reveal that the
public, harbors many myths about
grants.
The fact is that most researchers never
handle any actual cash from their grants.
Here are some other myths that appear
to be widely held:
—That the university has a huge pool
of money from grants which collects
interest while it is waiting to be spent.
—That a grant increases the salary of
the researcher.
—That a researcher can pretty much
spend the money as he pleases.
The truth is that, although Duke spent
about $34,700,000 in funds last fiscal
year from 2,540 grants and contracts, in
most months the university was about $1
million in deficit on grant spending.
This is because 85 to 90 per cent of
the grant money comes in the form of a
letter of credit or as a reimbursement for
money already spent.
As for salaries, if a researcher is
making $20,000 a year at Duke and
receives a grant which includes $5,000 in
salary support for himself, his salary does
not increase. The grant money simply
relieves the university of the burden of
paying one-fourth of his salary.
And on the spending of grant money,
a researcher is answerable to everybody
from his department chairman and the
university accounting office to the federal
auditors.
The largest chunk of the grant dollar
goes to pay salaries, not only those of the
researchers but those of young research
associates, technicians, secretaries and
bottlewashers.
During fiscal year 72-73, some
$15,979,000 of the total grant money at
Duke went for salaries, and another
$1,768,000 for the fringe benefits. About
two-thirds of this went to faculty and
staff and the other third to clerical and
lab personnel.
The second largest portion,
$7,000,000 of the $34,700,000 in grant
expenditures, went to fellowships and
scholarships for young researchers.
The rest of the grant money was spent
as follows: $3,400,000 for supplies and
materials; $3,000,000 for equipment;
$50,000 for repair and maintenance; and
$3,500,000 for such things as computer
services, publications and travel.
The grant process begins when a
researcher decides to seek funds to help
support his work.
The medical center's Office of Grants
and Contracts helps in this process by
keeping track of funds available from
federal and other sources and passing this
information along to department
chairmen. The office helps doctors get
applications for funds, and if needed,
helps write the applications.
The grants office also watches the
budget estimates in the grant applications
to make sure the costs are realistic and to
make sure that any cost-sharing
provisions don't commit the university to
money it doesn't have.
Before the university actually approves
the application and allows it to be sent to
the granting agency, dozens of people
must see and approve it. For instance, if
there is money for computer time
requested, someone from computer
services must check whether the budget
request is reasonable. The same goes for
money for purchase and maintenance of
research animals or permission for human
experimentation.
Once a grant is awarded by a federal or
private source, the handling of the funds
becomes the province of the university
. Sponsored Programs Office. Joe Byers,
assistant coordinator of Sponsored
Programs, said very few foundations send
a lump sum payment for grants. Most
send grant funds in quarterly
installments, or else the grantee spends
money frorn the university's general fund
and Sponsored Programs bills the
foundation for repayment.
Federal grants from the Department of
Health, Education and Welfare, the
Atomic Energy Commission and the
National Science Foundation operate on
a letter of credit basis.
For example, HEW has established a
letter of credit with Duke which is to
cover expenses incurred on most HEW
grants. This allows Duke to draw a
designated amount each month to cover
current expenditures. However, this
monthly allotment is sometimes not
sufficient to cover expenses for that
month, since each researcher is not
limited to how much of his grant he can
spend in any one month.
As of the end of May, Byers said, the
university's letter of credit for NIH grants
was $64,000 "overdrawn." This
"overdrawal" is made up in later months
when the expenditures are less than
maximum.
Federal contracts and
non-governmental grants and contracts
are another area in which the university
(Continued on page 2)
Registration
Annual motor vehicle
registration for the medical center
will begin on Monday, Aug. 20, and
the Traffic Office has devised a
system that will make it simpler for
people to register this year.
You might call it: "Taking
Registration to the People."
Whatever you call it, look for
the details and the published
schedule in next week's (Aug. 17)
issue of INTERCOM.
VOLUNTEERS IN ACTION—Robert Gordon Sims is a junior volunteer at Duke
during the summer months. He along with 55 other volunteers have been working
throughout the hospital and gaining an education from their exposure to a hospital
setting. See page three for additional photographs and a story about the junior
volunteers. (Photo by Dale Moses)
n Promotions Announced
Provost Frederic N. Cleaveland has
announced the promotions of 11 faculty
members at the medical center.
Promoted to full professorships are Dr.
Frank H. Bassett, orthopaedic surgery,
and Dr. Gordon K. Klintworth,
pathology.
Faculty members who have been
promoted to associate professorships are
Drs. Victor S. Behar, Yi-Hong Kong and
Robert H. Peter, medicine; Dr. William T.
Creasman, obstetrics and gynecology;
Drs. Robert Oliver Friedel and James
David Jones, psychiatry; Dr. Frances E.
Ward, microbiology and immunology;
and Dr. Hendrik J. Zweerink, virology.
Dr. Charles Bryan Norton Jr. has been
promoted to assistant professor of
psychiatry.
A native of Hopkinsville, Ky., Bassett
received his B.S. degree and post-graduate
work in anatomy and physiology from
the University of Kentucky. He obtained
his M.D. degree in 1957 from the
University of Louisville School of
Medicine.
He came to Duke in 1957 as a surgical
intern and completed his residency in
orthopaedic surgery in 1963.
Aside from his recent promotion,
Bassett holds the position of assistant
professor of anatomy and is the assistant
medical director of the North Carolina
Cerebral Palsy Hospital in Durham.
Klintworth received his B.S., M.B.,
B.Ch., and Ph.D. in anatomy from the
University of Witwatersrand in
Johannesburg, South Africa.
He was an intern in medicine and
surgery and a senior house physician in
psychiatry at the Johannesburg Hospital
in South Africa. He served his residency
in neurology and neurosurgery at both
the Johannesburg Hospital and the
University of Witwatersrand.
Klintworth joined the Duke staff in
1962 as a fellow in neuropathology. He
has since becorrie a research associate in
ophthalmology and was a visiting
professor at the University of London's
Institute of Ophthalmology for six
months in 1970.
Behar received his B.A. degree from
W ash i n g ton-Jefferson College in
Washington, Pa., in 1957 and obtained his
M.D. from Duke in 1961.
He served his internship and residency
at Duke and presently holds the positions
of associate director of the Cardiovascular
Laboratory and co-director of the
Cardiovascular Training Program.
A native of Canton, Kwantung, China,
Kong joined the Duke faculty in 1962 as
a fellow in cardiology. He received his
M.D. degree from the National Defense
Medical Center in Taipei, Taiwain, China,
in 1958.
Along with his recent promotion, he is
an established ir>vestigator for the
American Heart Association and is the
director of Duke's Cardiovascular
Laboratory.
Peter received both his A.B. and M D.
degrees from Duke. He was an intern and
junior assistant resident in medicine at
Duke and from 1963-64 he was a senior
assistant resident at the Yale-New Haven
Medical Center in Connecticut.
He returned to Duke in 1967 as a
special fellow in cardiology and is
presently an associate director of the
Cardiovascular Laboratory.
Creasman received his B.A. and M.D.
degrees from Baylor University in Waco,
Tex. He served his internship at Jefferson
Davis Hospital in Houston, Tex., and
residency in obstetrics and gynecology at
the University of Rochester Medical
Center in New York.
Prior to his arrival at Duke in 1970 as
an assistant professor of obstetrics and
(Continued on page 2)