Office of Sponsored Programs | Christopher Newport University

The Office of Sponsored Programs has developed 3 Grant Budgeting Templates which will help you in preparing and estimating program costs. These budget templates are designed to accommodate most grant budgets. They assume no prior knowledge of grant budgeting, or of CNU salary formulas, indirect cost and fringe benefit rates, or even Excel formulas. OSP's expertise in these areas are "built in" to the templates, which we hope will make filling out application forms a task most can perform. There are three styles from which you may choose to work with.

Paragraphs below correspond to common budget line items in most grant budgets

1. Faculty Salaries

In order to calculate faculty salaries for a grant budget, it is important to know that faculty at CNU work on 9 month contracts corresponding to the Academic Year. Faculty compensation for this nine month period is known as an Institutional Base Salary (IBS). Federal Cost Accounting standards require that we charge grants for faculty salary according to formulas based on IBS, so you will need the current IBS of each faculty member named on a grant in order to calculate the budget. OSP has a complete list for all faculty and can provide you with that information if you do not have it.

The 9 month contract leaves the three summer months available for faculty to devote 100% of their effort on grant related work. Therefore, faculty will frequently request Summer Salary from a grant. The three months of the summer are equal to 1/3 of the academic year, so summer salary is capped at 33% of IBS. Each month of summer salary is equal to 11% of IBS.

Faculty may also do grant related work during the year. A faculty member may elect to "buy out" of teaching (more formally known as "course release") to work on a sponsored project, at a rate equal to 12.5% (equivalent to 3 credit hours) of IBS for each course released with fifty percent (50%) the maximum allowed release per academic year as stated in the University Handbook.

12.5% = 1 course release
25% = 2 course release
37.5% = 3 course release
50% = 4 course release
4.16% = 1 credit equivalent

If a faculty member performs work on a sponsored project in addition to his or her normal duties at the university during the academic year, and if funded, he or she may request overload compensation with approval from the Dean and Provost. CNU policy caps overload compensation at 16.64% or 4 credit hours per semester of IBS.

Grant budgets for the National Science Foundation (NSF) require that salary requests be expressed as months. NSF also caps summer salary requests at no more than 2 months effort.

1.12 for 1 course release
2.25 for 2 course release

2. Other Professional Salaries

Other professional staff at CNU work on 12-month contracts and are not (in general) entitled to overage payments, so their salaries are far simpler to calculate. For professional staff currently on the CNU Payroll, request salary for such individuals as a flat percentage of their current Institutional Base Salary.

It's frequently the case that staff positions named in a grant proposal budget will only be created if the grant is funded, in which case we have to estimate what each position's Institutional Base Salary will be. Below is a list of position categories frequently included in grant budgets with a FT salary range for each.

Senior Research Scientist/PostDoc: $40,000-60,000
Project Director/Business Manager: $35,000-55,000
Project Coordinator/Data Collection Coordinator/Statistical Coordinator (doctoral level): $30,000-50,000
Project Tech Support, Network Engineer, Web/Multimedia Designer: $35,000-60,000

3. Graduate Research Assistants

Graduate Research Assistants typically earn between $12,000-20,000 per year, part time. Alternatively, they are paid at an hourly rate of $15-$20. There may be situations where higher or lower rates are appropriate. If you are considering graduate assistantships, please consult with the Associate Provost for Research and Graduate Studies.

4. Undergraduate Student Assistants

Undergraduate students are typically budgeted at an hourly rate times at a projected number of hours per week. Estimate an hourly rate that relates to the level and complexity of the work to be accomplished. Usually 13 weeks in a semester and 26 weeks within an entire academic year students will be realistically available. This allows for breaks and finals.

5. Fringe Benefits

All full time faculty and professional staff positions are charged fringe benefits at actual cost of their total compensation. The budget template will provide the fringe benefits rates per benefit and medical options. As a general approximation, fringe benefits are close to an additional 30-33% of base salary. Calculate part time graduate and undergraduate student benefits at 7.65% (FICA) in addition to their flat or hourly rate.

6 Subcontracts

Subcontracts are budgeted when a project requires collaboration with another institution to fulfill its objectives. Usually, one institution takes the lead on the project, and issues one or more subcontracts to collaborating institutions. Each collaborating institution prepares a budget according to its own salary formulas, fringe benefit and indirect cost rates and submits it to the lead institution with a letter from an institutional official committing to do the work on the project should the grant be funded. Different sponsors have different requirements as to how much detail of each subcontract budget they need, so consult the program guidelines.

CNU Investigators who plan on submitting a proposal as a subcontractor to another institution must still submit their proposal budget and statement of work to the OSP and for internal review.

7. Consultants

Consultants are individuals outside of CNU with skills or expertise necessary to the conduct of a project, but whose involvement is more limited in time or scope than a subcontractor. Consultants are often engaged on a project to perform statistical analysis, to evaluate research design or program outcomes, or to serve in an advisory capacity to a project. Most of the time, we don't know exactly who will be engaged as a consultant on a project. The maximum federal daily rate for consulting services is $500. Consultants are not employees and require the preparation of an Individual Services Contract by the OSP and submission of an invoice to receive payment once services are complete. This also applies to collaborating teachers and other educational specialists outside CNU.

8. Travel

Most research grants budget funds for travel for the Principal Investigator and other project staff to present papers and attend conferences. Travel requests of this type should be kept relatively low, no more than $1000-$2000 per year.

Sometimes extensive travel is an integral part of the project, for example, when data collection takes place outside the area or when collaborators work at a distance from one another. To budget in such cases, take the number of individuals who will be traveling, estimate the total number of trips per year each will have to make, and use the Web to get a sense of current airfares, lodging and per diem rates for that area as prescribed by the State which can be found at the Business Office website under Travel. Local travel should be budgeted on the travel line as well. Any function that will incur an expense that takes place off campus requires a Prior Approval to Travel. In all cases you, as the Principal Investigator are responsible for preparing Prior Approvals to Travel for yourself and other project participants and personnel.

9. Supplies and Equipment

Federal guidelines define equipment as costing more than $5000. This means that most computing, software, low end a/v equipment, etc., should go on the supply line with items like toner cartridges, office supplies, etc, rather than on the equipment line. But remember that our accounting system will post all furniture and any equipment with a useful life of more than 1 year as ‘equipment’.

We generally budget computers at $2000 per unit (unless we know for certain a higher-end model will be needed). Once again, the Web can help you obtain reasonable estimates for supplies and equipment.

10. Participant Support Costs

Items on this line include payments to students or teachers in a training program for their time, room and board, travel or study fees. They also include compensation for time and travel of research subjects. The actual dollar amounts of these expenses will vary widely depending on the nature and duration of participants' involvement. Supplies and materials provided directly to each participant will also fall into this category. Payments or stipends to these individuals require coordination with the Business Office so please plan well in advance of when these payments will need to be disbursed.

11. Tuition

Most grant applications do not include a specific line for tuition for your graduate assistants; we usually place it on a line marked "other." Tuition for the 2006-07 academic year is $300 per credit (in-state); $582 per credit (out of state); budget for 5% annual tuition increases.

12. Telephone/Office Supplies/Postage/Overnight Express Service

Most grant budgets typically request $300-$500 per year for these items. If you can anticipate the need for software upgrades or other routine maintenance expenses, they should go here as well. Your telephone budget should increase if you anticipate conducting telephone surveys or will be making significant long distance calls. Postage should be increased if you are conducting a mail survey or plan on doing mass mailings as part of the project.

13. Indirect Costs

The University has a federally negotiated indirect cost rate of 45.7% for on-campus research activity and 25% for off-campus activity. These rates are applied to salaries and fringe benefits only and are good through June 30, 2009 or until further notice.

Not all federal programs will accept our negotiated rate. If a program sets a different rate, please print the guidelines for the reference of the Office of Sponsored Programs. You may budget according to the rate set by the sponsor. The Commonwealth or State agency programs cap indirect costs at 8% of total direct costs.

We request that proposals to private sponsors calculate indirect costs at 15% of total costs; ask for a higher rate if the sponsor allows it. Again, you will be allowed to apply for funds from sponsors who do not award indirect costs or who award them at a rate lower than 15%, but please print out the published program guidelines that state this for our reference.

14. Budget Justifications

Typically budget justifications are 1-2 pages in length explaining each line item budget expense requested. For example: (list in order of appearance on budget sheet)

A. Personnel – Funds requested for a 1 course release and 1 month’s summer salary for Principal Investigator based on current academic salary.

B. Fringe Benefits – Benefits calculated at actual cost based on current rates.

C. Supplies and Materials – Funds requested for 27 calculators for program participants at $50 per calculator (27 x 50 = $1350).

D. Travel – Funds requested for travel to 1 national conference for presentation of research findings for principal investigator and 2 undergraduate students (estimated cost $1500), and 1 collaborative meeting at University of California – Berkeley (estimated cost $900).

15. Sponsor Budget Ceilings, Waivers of Overhead, Cost Sharing

Most sponsors set limits on the amount of funds you may request in a given proposal. These budget ceilings must be met by adjusting the direct costs of the proposal budget. Indirect costs may never be waived simply to meet a budget ceiling. There may be certain, limited circumstances when indirect costs may be waived. Formal requests for a waiver of indirect costs will be submitted to the Chief of Staff through the Office of Sponsored Programs prior to proposal submission.

A related issue is cost sharing. Applicants should be aware that, according to federal regulations, cost sharing may only be a consideration in the evaluation of a grant application if the program guidelines require it. Including cost sharing in a grant proposal that doesn't expressly request cost sharing will not help your proposal.

The current budget climate at the University is such that we will be looking at proposals that do require cost sharing with particular scrutiny. All applicants are responsible for obtaining university commitments to meet the cost share prior to submission of the application.

Budgeting needs to be a collaborative activity between the PI/project staff and OSP. Project staff should decide what its needs are for a given proposal; OSP can perform released time/overage, summer salary, fringe benefits and indirect cost calculations if you make your request within a reasonable timeframe prior to the sponsor deadline.

16. How a Budget Affects a Proposal’s Potential Success

An issue that arises frequently during the budgeting process concerns the appropriateness of particular budget items. The National Science Foundation usually funds up to two month's salary per faculty investigator on each award, which faculty may take as released time, overage or summer salary. This is a reasonable rule of thumb for applications to other agencies as well, though the scope of a particular project can often make a request for more time entirely appropriate. Beyond that, there really are not many hard and fast rules about budget requests. Agency program officers can provide important guidance in this area. Keep in mind that program officers are extremely reluctant to discuss budget issues independently of programmatic issues and, therefore, will always want to discuss the budget with you as the investigator rather than the Director or some other administrator. Most often, what you need is guidance in demonstrating that an unusual budget request is warranted by the objectives of the project. Program officers are happy to provide this guidance and will usually be fairly direct in letting you know if a particular budget request is a deal breaker or not.

How the budget affects the chances of a proposal's ultimate success or failure is the source of much anxiety on the part of applicants. Reviewers are typically asked to evaluate if the applicant has identified sufficient resources to conduct the project as described, and at this point, coming in too low can hurt your chances just as much as coming in too high. Our indirect cost and fringe benefit rates, etc., will not factor in at this stage of the process. These issues do begin to matter when the peer review process has concluded and program officers have to choose among proposals given equal priority ratings by the review panel. Even so, it is not automatically true that funds will go to the proposal that comes in at the lowest cost. Many other factors come into play at this point, including granting funds to investigators whom the sponsor has supported before, supporting minority investigators and/or institutions (if that is stated as a priority in the RFP) and spreading benefits out over a wide geographical area. Remember that Federal agencies and private foundations are not profit-driven enterprises. If they have a budget of $15 m to give out during a particular funding cycle, they will give out $15 m, or otherwise lose it. No sponsoring agency operates under the assumption that the way to get the most "bang for the buck" is to distribute some funding to as many investigators as possible. If your budget is reasonable in relation to your objectives and contains no obvious padding or unnecessary expenditures, your chances of rejection for budgetary reasons are probably minimal. However, if your proposal received a high priority rating but was rejected for budgetary reasons, the program officer will tell you so if you inquire. In such instances, you will almost always be given advice about where to cut spending and be encouraged to apply during the next cycle. Also note that our indirect cost rates are, overall, substantially lower than most research institutions.