DOCUMENTS & FORMS

Joint Personnel Agreements (JPAs)

A Joint Personnel Agreement (JPA) is an agreement between NCIRE and UCSF and is a billing mechanism used when a UCSF employee works on a SFVAHCS project (on the SFVAHCS campus) and is administered by NCIRE.  NCIRE reimburses UCSF for salary and benefit costs for the effort allocated on the Joint Personnel Agreement. 

All individuals who are paid via a JPA must also have a NCIRE WOC appointment to cover their NCIRE efforts, regardless if they have a UCSF WOC appointment or a paid appointment with the SFVAHCS.  This is required by UCSF and NCIRE and this condition must be met before a JPA is executed.

 Background and Requirements:

  • The need for effort of a UCSF employee (the “Requested Employee”) is determined at the time of NCIRE grant (or contract) Proposal Preparation. A JPA is necessary if proposed research-related activities require the effort of UCSF faculty, academic or staff employees. The JPA can only be used for personal related costs, specifically salary, fringe benefits and institutional administrative recovery.
  • An individual may only have one comprehensive JPA, regardless of the number of NCIRE based projects or grants for which he/she may provide effort. All effort contributed by the UCSF employee to NCIRE-based projects or grants is consolidated in one comprehensive JPA. The comprehensive JPA is for a maximum of 12 months and must be renewed annually.
  • At the time of proposal submission, the UCSF Analyst in conjunction with the NCIRE project's Principal Investigator, shall negotiate:
    • The time period during which the requested UCSF employee will be needed, up to a one year maximum;
    • The anticipated average effort per month, the requested employee is to work on NCIRE activities, and;
    • UCSF salary and benefits (excluding UCSF overhead) and the corresponding amount of effort to be reimbursed by NCIRE for the contract period shall be in compliance with the following guidelines: 
      • In consideration of the services to be performed by the employee, compensation is based on hours worked and the approved UCSF salary and benefits of employee authorized for those services at that time.
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    • Maximum effort per week for an employee with a UCSF faculty and VA appointment may not exceed 60 hours per week. This includes all UCSF, NCIRE, and third party (e.g. VAMC) combined effort. Staff, Postdoctoral scholars or non-faculty academics (e.g. Specialist) may not exceed 40 hours maximum effort per week.
  • Other Relevant Requirements related to the use of JPAs include the following:
    • A JPA for a non-faculty employee should only be proposed for a career or “long-term” employee, with a minimum of five years of service credit prior to the initiation of the JPA, and who is vested in the UC Retirement System. The time and service provisions do not apply to faculty and postdoctoral scholars. This means that new hires in the administrative services cannot be on a JPA.
    • The JPA process is not to be utilized to unduly advantage an employee’s benefits situation. Other than for highly unusual circumstances, concurrent employee (dual employment), by both UCSF and NCIRE is generally not allowable for non-faculty academics and staff employees. Refer to UCSF policy related to affiliate dual employment.
    • An NCIRE Employee may not be placed on a JPA
    • A Current UCSF employee may desire to terminate employment with UCSF in order to seek employment with NCIRE. If the employee is considering termination of his/her UCSF Employment, the employee’s home department shall advise the employee to contact the UCSF Benefits office to obtain relevant employment information so an informed decision regarding termination of UCSF employment can be made.

For more information, please contact: JPA@ncire.org