Updating CV with Grant Funding Awarded but not used/PI internally but not externally on grants and contracts

Question

I have a couple of questions about how to report the funding I earned or maintained while at my previous employer on my CV. I worked for a public university academic research center where we had several state government contracts. The center director was listed as PI on all of these contracts, even though I led every aspect of the projects (developing the scope of work, budget, managing the project and staff, etc.). The center director submits the contract (along with other contracts) to the state agencies and negotiates any final budget details. The total awarded over two years was about $900k. How should I report this funding on my CV?

The second issue is that I was PI on two grants (one for $245k and the other for $650k), one was awarded two days before I left the center and the other a month after I left. I wasn't allowed to transfer the funding to my new organization (a non-profit research organization), so the center has all of that funding and the two projects to manage. I oversaw every aspect of the idea development and grant application process and would've been PI had I stayed. Can I report this funding on my CV? If so, how should I do it

Answer 1

Just list them as honestly as you can manage.

For the first, that you were named as project director for a grant awarded to XXX (either the individual or the institution or both).

For the second that you developed and submitted a grant that was awarded, but that you left before the work was executed. If the grant was awarded to you, specifically, say that. Or say what the grant lists as your role, had you stayed.

It doesn't take a lot of words to get it right.

Answer 2

Ethically, you can list all grant writing and management activities that you factually performed, regardless of whether you received official credit for it. You do need to clear about the fact that you are not officially credited as PI, though. So you might want to use a section header like "Involvement in funded projects" rather than just "Funded projects". In this section, you would list all funded projects and describe for each of them what you did. You should also list the official PI for each project.

Pragmatically, there is the issue that someone who reads the CV might try to verify the information with the PI, and there's a possible outcome that the PI will (unethically) deny your involvement. To avoid this, you might want to show your CV to the PI before you make it public/submit it anywhere.