Research Participant Disbursement Request
In an effort to remain compliant with the Office of Payment Solutions & Compliance and UC BUS-49, Policy for Cash Handling and Cash Equivalents, below are a few friendly reminders pertaining to the use and handling of research human subject disbursement funds:
- Expenses paid from a Research Human Subject Disbursement can only be made for the purpose for which fund was authorized and must be supported by receipts. An excel spreadsheet must be supplied to the Business Office for replenishment or within 90 days of disbursement, whichever occurs first.
- When not in use, the fund currency must be placed in a safe or a locked receptacle, which is kept in a properly secured area. Storing of cash is based on the following cash limits:
- Up to $1,000 in a lockable receptacle
- From $1,001 to $2,500 in a safe
- From $2,501 to $25,000 in a steel door safe, with a door thickness of not less than 1 inch and wall thickness of not less than ½ inch.
- Before requesting payment, there must be a current IRB approval number on file with the Office of Human Research Protection Program (OHRPP). Disbursement type (cash, gift card, or Bruincard deposit) must match the current IRB approval number on file with OHRPP or the request will be denied.
- Cash will only be released to the authorized personnel(s) and PI identified on the form. Authorized personnel(s) must be active UCLA employees.
- A delivery fee of $10.12 for on-campus and $16.68 for off-campus will be assessed for each request.
- Any unused cash can be deposited and credited to your account. When bringing deposits to the Business Office, cash must be physically handed to a Fund Manager or the Financial Manager.
Please do not leave cash on desks, in-boxes, mail slots etc. Cash must be counted in dual custody – Fund Manager and PCF custodian . - In the event of a theft, the loss must be reported to the campus police immediately, at ext. 51491.
Research Participant Platforms
Prolific
Prolific is a platform that connects researchers to their target participant pool and is based in the UK. In order to use Prolific as a vendor the PI or research staff must first contact Prolific’s customer service at info@prolific.co to obtain an invoice for study costs that includes the required tax language for UCLA. Once you receive this invoice, please submit it as per standard practice to psych_orders@psych.ucla.edu. The Business Office will process your invoice and submit for payment. We will provide you with the purchase order number related to your request that you can use to follow up with Prolific and confirm the credit to your account. Payments to Prolific are made via wire transfer. Please note that international transfers do not settle immediately due to varying time zones and banking standards abroad. Total processing time from the time we receive your request to the time that a wire transfer settles is about 7-10 business days. Once the wire transfer settles your Prolific account is funded with the amount specified on your request. Please account for this timing when planning your studies.
Wire Transfer Minimums
The University wire transfer minimum is $200. If your request is for less than $200 we will group it together with other departmental wire requests to the same vendor. This may delay the processing time since processing will depend on whether we have other requests to use for this grouping.
Mturk and CloudResearch
Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) and CloudResearch provide platforms aimed at recruiting study participants and are both based in the U.S. Researchers interested in MTurk or CloudResearch, would need to complete the request form and provide login credentials to the account that will be funded. The request form should be emailed directly to the PI’s assigned fund managers and must be either signed by the PI of the fund being charged or have the PI copied on the email request, per our standard departmental ordering procedures.
Mturk and CloudResearch accounts are funded using departmental pre-loaded credit cards. The fund manager will confirm once the transaction is completed. Requests typically take 3-5 business days to fully settle from the time that the request is received. Please account for this in planning your studies. Please use the Amazon Mturk and CloudResearch Request Form for this type of request.
Google Cloud
More information coming soon….