Many questions have arisen about the role of the University in the support of physician-scientists and scientists based at University Hospitals. Our support is multifaceted and very strong. We list here some of the areas in which our support is provided.
Many physician scientists are employed primarily by CWRU and not by University Hospitals. This includes, at the time of this writing, Mukesh Jain, Jonathan Stamler, Fabio Cominelli, Ben Gaston, Sandy Markowitz, Stan Gerson, Henry Boom, Michael Lederman, Michael Konstan, and others. This means that CWRU takes primary responsibility for their health insurance and other benefits, including the tuition benefit. Many hold endowed chairs donated to the School, such as Drs. Cominelli, Gaston, Markowitz, Gerson, Konstan, and many others. Currently, CWRU pays over $7M in faculty salaries.
Many physician scientists, including most of those listed above, have their lab space in buildings owned by CWRU. Very few, if any, investigators cover the full cost of the space they occupy with their indirect cost recovery. CWRU pays the mortgage and provides all of the services for this space, including utilities, cleaning, renovations and repairs when needed. The total cost of CWRU space for investigators based in UH departments that is NOT covered by indirect costs is $12.5M. That’s a lot of resources!!
Everyone knows that there are administrative requirements to conduct research. You have to report to the feds on effort and conflict of interest. We must account for the money in your grants, maintain an accredited animal facility, provide IT services, library access, and purchasing and procurement services. We actually submit the grants and process the notices from them. It’s a big job to support research, and CWRU provides all that support. All told, over and above funds from indirect cost recovery, the School pays over $12M for these services just for faculty based in UH departments.
Renewing the faculty, including physician scientists, is an important part of our success. Each year, the School of Medicine alone now contributes over $9M to recruit or retain new faculty based in the clinical departments. Some of this is for the remaining Case Research Institute commitments, and some is for new hires beyond that.
You can see from these brief descriptions that the School of Medicine invests about $40M in the research of faculty based in UH clinical departments. UHCMC pays $5M to the School. The net investment represents a powerful commitment to the faculty based at UH.