It's not my job . . . I think
Jim Black is an new Grant Specialist in the Office of Research Administration at Big Roller University. One day, he gets a letter from a Grants Office at NIH saying that the agency has been attempting to contact Prof. Jermaine Jacobs for approximately six months without success. NIH needs access to a data set Jacobs created under his NIH grant. The letter states that they have been attempting to contact Jacobs at his new institution where he moved last year. Black calls the Grants Officer and says that NIH really has to work this out with Black at his new institution . After all, Big Roller’s grant ended when Jacobs left and he would know better than anyone which data should be sent to NIH. The NIH Grants Officer is nonplussed! He tries to explain that Big Roller is responsible for maintaining the data and is responsible to provide the data upon request. Black feels this cannot be right and becomes a little exasperated. He reluctantly says he will check things out and will try to call Black to see how he wants to handle this.
Questions to Consider
- What was wrong with Jim Black’s response?
- What would have been a more appropriate way for Black to respond to the NIH Grant Officer?
- Should Black bring his boss into this immediately or wait until he investigates further?
- Who else at the institution should Black or his boss contact?
- Who should contact Prof. Jacobs?
