Professorial faculty members are provided with Personal Research Fund (Kişisel Araştırma Fonu – KAF) accounts. Funds in KAF accounts may be used by faculty members for academic activities only, each purchase being subject to approval by the Provost Office via spending documentation presented to the Technology Transfer Office (TTO).
An associated sub-account called E-KAF may also be granted at the successful conclusion of externally funded research projects. Unlike regular KAF, funds in E-KAF may be used for extra salary payments and course buy-out payments, in addition to those costs already eligible for KAF accounts.
KAF accounts are maintained jointly by the TTO and the Research Planning and Coordination (APK) unit under the supervision of Provost Office.
KAF accounts may be held in TL, USD, and EUR currencies. Conversion from TL to USD or EUR are allowed, but a premium is compounded to the current daily exchange rate.
Neither KAF nor E-KAF accounts have a separate Value Added Tax (KDV) budget. Any KDV incurred during spending is directly paid from the KAF/E-KAF account.
Transfer of funds to KAF accounts:
1. Start-up funds: Newly appointed professorial faculty members may be provided with start-up funds by the Provost Office, as stated in their offer letter.
2. TÜBİTAK overhead contribution: TÜBİTAK provides overhead funds to universities hosting ARDEB research projects, usually after the approval of each progress report. After being notified by TÜBİTAK regarding progress report approval, principle investigators are asked to notify TTO by sending an e-mail to overhead@bilkent.edu.tr. Within two weeks of the university receiving the funds from TÜBİTAK, 50% of the transferred amount will be added to the KAF account of the principle investigator for qualified ARDEB projects. By default, funds are transferred to KAF USD accounts using the premium exchange rate mentioned above. Principle investigators who wish the transfer to be made to their KAF TL account instead should indicate this in their notification e-mail to TTO. In TÜBİTAK BİDEB projects and certain TÜBİTAK ARDEB projects (such as 1002, 1004, 1007), institutional overhead ratios are below 10%; for this reason, these projects are not eligible for overhead contribution to KAF accounts. University overhead funds collected from projects other than TÜBİTAK ARDEB projects and overhead funds charged for additional salary payments from projects are not eligible for partial transfer to KAF accounts.
3. Research project surplus contribution: After the completion of a non-TÜBİTAK research projects (e.g., European Union projects, industrial projects, etc.), funds remaining in the project account will be transferred to the E-KAF account of the principle investigator. In addition to the types of expenditures allowed by the KAF budget, the E-KAF budget can also be used for additional salary and course buy-out payments. For the additional salaries paid from E-KAF, university overhead is 100%, the same overhead rate as salary payments from project budgets. Value Added Tax (KDV) from project accounts are not transferred to KAF or E-KAF accounts but transferred to the university upon the completion of the project.
4. Graduate student funding support: Faculty members who provide stipend support to graduate students from their TÜBİTAK projects (for which they are principal investigators), receive a proportional contribution to their KAF (Personal Research Fund) accounts. This stimulus program is intended to motivate faculty members to apply for TÜBİTAK grants with which they can support graduate students. This program is currently limited to TÜBİTAK projects. The current practice is to transfer an amount equal to 50% of the student’s stipend from TÜBİTAK projects to the faculty member’s KAF account at the end of each month.