Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) Mobility Program
The Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) Mobility Program provides for the temporary assignment of personnel between NCIRE and the VA Medical Center. The IPA program allows Principal Investigators to hire skilled employees through NCIRE but support the payroll expenses with VA merit funds.
IPAs may not be used
- To circumvent federal hiring policies and procedures or ceilings
- To meet the personal interests of employees
- To avoid unpleasant personnel decisions
Employees must be employed with NCIRE for a minimum of 90 days.
Ineligible classes of employees include:
- Administrative / Clerical
- Students employed in research, graduate or teaching assistant or similar temporary positions
An NCIRE employee may serve on an IPA assignment for up to two years per contract. A Research IPA has no limit to the number of terms. A four-year limit applies to Fiscal IPAs, unless it is justified the position is 100% research-focused with no clinical duties. The justification must be submitted to and approved by the VA Research and Development (R&D) Office before being routed for other signatures. When the four-year limit applies, the employee must return to work on an NCIRE project for a minimum of 12 months.
For more information, please visit the Federal Office of Personnel Management's website or contact Lydia Blednyh at x26109 or May Ng at x25202.