Salaries and Wages. When calculating salaries to be included in a proposal budget, project directors/principal investigators (PD/PI) should use the current academic year salary as the base and project a four to five percent merit increase for each subsequent year. (A faculty member's actual increase is determined during the annual salary increase process and may differ from the budgeted increase.)
Calculating Summer Salary. In accordance with ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ policy, an employee may receive up to 100% of a twelve-month salary. Therefore, faculty, who are generally on a nine-month contract, may receive up to 2/9 of their base faculty salary, as summer salary. Summer salaries are based on a faculty member's coming academic year’s annual salary rate.
Requesting Sabbatic Pay. Faculty who anticipate being on sabbatical during the proposed project period and who wish to include part of their salary in the project budget, must obtain approval from the dean for academic affairs prior to submitting the proposal. In accordance with ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ policy, an employee may receive up to 100% of a twelve-month salary, but may not exceed it.
Requesting Course Release. Under certain circumstances, PD/PI may request funds to support release time from teaching. The PD/PI must discuss this possibility with his/her department chair and the dean for academic affairs well in advance of submitting a proposal for review. If the grant is awarded, the faculty member must notify the department chair and dean for academic affairs of which semester the course release will take place.
Requesting Compensation for Non-Faculty Employees. Grant proposals may include funds for new or continuing staff positions (e.g., laboratory technicians) to support a project. All costs associated with the position, including salary or wages, benefits, startup costs, computing equipment, etc., must be fully supported by the grant. The College does not normally provide matching support for salary-related costs nor is the College committed to continuing a position once grant funding ends.
Grant-supported personnel are employees of the College and their terms and conditions of employment, including salary ranges, are governed by College policy; therefore, the dean for academic affairs or the senior vice president for finance and administration & treasurer must explicitly approve any request for support of new personnel in a grant proposal. PD/PI who wish to include new positions in a proposal should contact the associate director of academic budgets and financial planning to discuss an appropriate salary range and other related issues, including space considerations. In general, the College does not provide additional space, such as an office, for research-related staff positions.
Budget
A step-by-step guide to building your budget.
Direct Costs
Direct costs are expenses that can be clearly linked to a specific grant-funded project.
Indirect Costs
Indirect Costs, also referred to as “Facilities and Administration Costs” or overhead, support the College's efforts to create an environment conducive to faculty research and curriculum development. Indirect Costs are defined as costs that are incurred for common or joint objectives, and therefore cannot be identified readily and specifically with a particular sponsored project (e.g., library services, facilities maintenance, utilities and administrative support). The College negotiates the Indirect Cost Rate with the Department of Health and Human Services, and it is used for all grant applications unless another rate is specified in the guidelines. The current rate can be obtained from the Rates and Useful Facts page. At ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾, the Indirect Cost Rate is calculated as a percentage of salaries and non-student wages (excluding benefits) budgeted for the project.
Matching Funds and Cost Sharing
Funders may require institutions to contribute to the cost of the project through either matching or cost-sharing funds. Matching funds are generally defined as a cash amount (i.e., a percentage of the cost of a piece of equipment) and are either supplied by the institution or by other, usually private, funding sources.
Cost sharing occurs when the institution makes an in-kind contribution towards a project's required resources. Faculty salary, fringe benefits, computer use and indirect costs are often proposed for cost-sharing.
It is the College's practice not to propose matching funds or cost sharing unless the funder requires it. PD/PIs are encouraged to meet with the senior vice president and dean for academic affairs to discuss support from the College to meet matching requirements. Discussions with the dean regarding the availability of such funds should begin early in the planning stages of the proposal. The dean requires an explanation of the project's impact on the instructional program, accompanied by a written statement of support from the department chair.
Subawards
Typical subaward situations include arrangements in which two (or more) qualifying legal entities/institutions are working collaboratively on a grant project. Each institution has its own PD/PI; however, one of the collaborating institutions takes on the role of prime awardee with the funder. Subaward agreements are made in the form of a legally binding agreement generated by the prime awardee, which is also referred to as the lead organization.