Can my NIH proposal include a Co-Investigator from another institution?

Collaboration and team science are encouraged in the current world of scientific research. Most biomedical advances are made not by an individual researcher working in a silo, but by a multidisciplinary team of scientists. Accordingly, you may be collaborating with investigators from within your institution. Adding them to your NIH proposal budget should be relatively seamless, even if they are in other departments or units. However, there is often confusion about how to budget investigators on a grant who work at different institutions.

Let's start with a quick review of NIH team role definitions. 

• A Program Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) is the individual designated by the applicant organization to have the appropriate level of authority and responsibility to direct the project or program to be supported by the award. 
• Multiple Principal Investigators (MPIs) who share responsibility to lead the project are allowed, but identification of a single Contact PI is required.
• A Consultant is an individual who provides professional advice or services for a fee, but normally not as an employee of the engaging party.
• A Co-Investigator is An individual involved with the PD/PI in the scientific development or execution of a project. The Co-Investigator may be employed by, or be affiliated with, the applicant/recipient organization or another organization participating in the project under a consortium agreement. A Co-Investigator typically devotes a specified percentage of time to the project and is considered senior/key personnel. 

In a previous post, I discussed the differences between a Consultant and a Co-Investigator. The primary distinction between them is that a Consultant provides only intellectual contributions to the project, while a Co-Investigator contributes their institutional resources, such as lab space and additional personnel. Including a collaborator as a Co-Investigator rather than a Consultant requires the establishment of a consortium agreement, which is a formalized agreement whereby a research project is carried out by the recipient and one or more other organizations that are separate legal entities. This is often referred to as a subcontract or subaward. Of note, adding a consortium agreement to your proposal will in most cases increase the amount you must budget for indirect costs (also called Facilities and Administrative costs or F&A) for both your institution and the subawardee institution. This may present budgetary constraints, particularly if you are planning a proposal for a funding opportunity that limits total costs rather than direct costs.