Research Subject Payments

Payments to individuals for participation in scientific research conducted on human subjects falls under UBC Policy 89 / LR9 – Research Involving Human Participants.

Any research conducted at UBCO, or undertaken by persons connected to UBCO, involving human subjects must be reviewed and approved by the appropriate Research Ethics Board (REB).

Procedures for Payments to Research Subjects

The Principal Investigator (PI) is responsible for the accountability of funds received and disbursed to research subjects according to the approved research protocol. The following helps define the business process when paying research subject:

1. 1. Faculty/Department Finance Staff creates an expense report or supplier invoice request.
   2. The faculty or department creating the expense claim must maintain all supporting documentation (e.g. signed receipts, coded list of payments, attestation of researcher and/or others involved in incentive payment) for audit purposes.
   3. The Memo fields should state “Research Subject Payments” and contain a description of the research in question.
   4. If the payment per research subject is $500 or more per calendar year, the payment will be made directly to the research subject. The department should submit expense claim by using Create Supplier Invoice Request task. Use ledger account 6300 with Spend Category SC0131 – Token of Appreciation. If the research subject is a Canadian resident, their social insurance number will be required and a T4A will be issued in order to meet Canada Revenue Agency reporting requirements. T4A’s can be manually submitted to AP Portal – T4A
   5. If the payment per research subject is less than $500 per calendar year, use ledger account 6100 with Spend Category SC0120 – Research Study Participation. The payment is not taxable.

Depending on the nature of the study, the amount payable to each subject and the total number of participants, the following payment methods are recommended.