Any PIs or grant holders around? or anyone really...

[IamAporcupine]

If you:
a) hold a grant and have technicians/RAs employed and paid from that pot, and
b) decide to move institutions
Can you transfer your grant to the new institution? What happens to the people employed on that grant if they cannot move with you?

Has anyone got any experience on this?
TIA

@geekaMaxima - thanks, I'd started to suspect that might be the case!

Just saw your last post - I was on an open-ended contract for a few years. I guess I need to talk to HR again

Op - i used to work in a research office at a university and dealt with all the contractual stuff.
In your case we would fight tooth and nail to keep the grant at our institution, however it is very common for PIs to take grants with them and there were lots of instances of transferring grants in when new PIs were involved.
If the grant moved to the new institution and you wanted to stay at your place, employed by your place, then a collaboration agreement or sub contract wpuld be the way to do it.
Under a collab agreement the money in the contract for your time and associated project costs would be paid by the new institution to your current place.
The new institution would keep the rest of the grant money, ie for the PIs time and for publication costs etc.
It is doable but very much depends on what the agreement with the funder says.
I would advise speaking to ypur research office to get a copy of the funder contract and then speaking to hr to understand your employment contract. Then you will know what is and isn't possible.
Good luck. I alwsys felt RAs get a raw deal.

CRS employed on grants aren't typically entitled to redundancy pay in most institutions - once the grant money ends, the position ends, with no further obligation to the employing university. There's a clause in fixed-term contracts that basically stipulate just that.

I believe... the Research Concordat and other things meant we still get legal rights to redundancy payment, the same as anyone else employed 2+ years without break. I've had payouts just because of years of service when my last contract ended, and spoken to others who did, same as any other employee with uninterrupted service. I assumed it was losing that right to redundancy payment is why OP wanted to stay with current institution.

@MedSchoolRat - exactly that!
I've worked for this institution for >10yr.
I know that after I finish with the current project/grant (the one that is moving) I will be transferred to a new grant in this (the current) institution.

Working remotely will be a good solution of course for me of course, but I do not want to be a (new institution) employee for 8 months if when I come back I lose all my rights!

Sorry I thought it was clear what I meant

@Badumdumdum - thank you so much for the advice! that's extremely helpful

Tbh I am quite shocked and pissed off at the moment.
How is it possible that I get more information and help from a 'bunch of strangers on the internet' than my PI/HR/HoD/Manager and DepManager from my own institution?!

Ah yes, MedSchoolRat is right! You should be entitled to statutory redundancy pay - it's not great but definitely better than nothing.

I was thinking of redundancy pay as the bigger payoff that academic and some other senior staff can get - it's reasonably generous (I've seen anywhere from 6 months' to 2 years' pay, depending on length of service). That's the one that contract research staff typically don't have access to.

New update - talked to the Manager and Deputy manager today. I mentioned collaboration agreement, secondment and sub-contract at possible options I'd been suggested.

They claim that they think neither of these would be possible because everything is being TUPE'd over. I have no way of knowing whether this is true or not. They said they will enquiry again etc etc and let me know, but I am really worried about how much time I have, as the transfer date seems to be the 1st October!

Should I contact the union?!

oh, and that was for:
@Badumdumdum
@geekaMaxima
@ManInTheMoonMarigold
@MedSchoolRat

I don't think I ever came across a situation where staff were tupe'd across. That word was never used in my research office. It may be the legal HR term but I can't recall it ever being used in the grant agreements, and most of them have a section about staff transfers.
Could you speak to someone in the research office who deals with the post award stuff for your school/department? Find out what they know about it?
It sounds a bit like the PI and your managers don't agree on what will happen. But in my experience academics don't understand funding contracts even if they say they do..

Contacting the union will do you no harm.

Thanks a lot Badumdumdum

Sorry when I said Manager and Deputy I meant the Institute's manager, not my own. I asked them several times, but they were adamant THEY would talk to the research office etc etc

It's interesting that you say you never came across staff being TUPE'd across.

RAs occasionally moved with PIs but its more that my research office rarely usedcthe language tupe'd. That may be because hr dealt with employee rights. Or it may be a different school to you. I worked in medical science.

I did wonder if your managers would not want you talking to the research office. I think some institutions don't work v collabortaively with the RO and that's such a shame.

Medical Science here too Badumdumdum

I will wait until Tue/Wed if there are no answers by then I will try to talk to the RO myself.
Thanks

Do you want to pm me OP?

Oh, that would be great Badumdumdum thanks!