Qualifications for Service as a Principal Investigator
The university grants principal investigator (PI) status using guidelines below, approved by the Research Committee of the Graduate Council on June 5, 1975.
- The individual responsible for the conduct of the study (the PI) must be a salaried, regular faculty member having at least a 50 percent appointment. PI status is automatically conferred for the following titles:
- professor, associate professor, assistant professor, instructor
- research professor, research associate professor, research assistant professor
- professor, associate professor or assistant professor of clinical ... (discipline)
- Persons holding the following university non-academic titles may serve as principal investigators on projects directly related to the mission and responsibility of their offices:
- director, associate director, assistant director
- The individual responsible for the conduct of the study (the PI) must be a doctoral student or post doctoral researcher seeking funding for fellowships, dissertation support, and/or grants from local health agencies. A regular faculty member must be named on the project as being responsible for seeing that the terms of the grant or contract are fulfilled.
- Persons holding the titles listed below are generally not eligible for PI status unless an exception is made in writing by the University Senior Associate Vice President for Research. Requests for exceptions must be made by the department chair with signature concurrence from the college dean and accompanied by the prospective investigator’s CV. Persons holding these titles may, in certain situations, be granted co-investigator status, which requires a regular faculty member to serve as PI and to assume responsibility for the project.
- emeritus professor
- lecturer
- clinical professor, clinical associate professor, clinical assistant professor
- adjunct professor, adjunct associate professor, adjunct assistant professor, adjunct instructor
- visiting professor, visiting associate professor, visiting assistant professor, visiting lecturer
- senior research associate, research associate, research assistant
- research scientist (unless permission was granted in initial appointment letter)
The following titles are not used at The Ohio State University.
- visiting scientist
- volunteer scientist
The Research Foundation and Office of Responsible Research Practices maintain a list of university individuals who have been granted permission to submit proposals. This list notes whether permission was given on a one-time-only basis or for a more extended period of time.
Requests for PI status should be submitted for approval to Janet M. Weisenberger, PhD, Senior Associate Vice President for Research. The address is 208 Bricker Hall, 190 North Oval Mall. Please copy Anita Bratcher in the Office of Research at the same address (bratcher.1@osu.edu).