Direct Costs, F&A Costs, and Cost Sharing
Personnel (Salaries and Wages)
Budgeting Salary: Include as a direct cost line item appropriate salary amounts for all project personnel corresponding to the amount of time they are devoting to the project.
Effort Commitments: Unless sponsor regulations or directions state otherwise, Principal Investigators and key personnel are expected to commit a level of effort to the project in proportion to the size and scope of the project.
UVM employees, faculty and staff, committing time to the project should be listed in the personnel section of the budget with their Institutional Base Salary (IBS), committed time or effort devoted to the project, and the amount being requested from the sponsor.
In cases where there is no time commitment identified for the Principal Investigator, and the project is not exempt from UVM's minimum PI effort rule, a 1% minimum time commitment will be entered at time of award.
Budgeting Project Personnel Example:
| Personnel | Role | Appt Type | % Effort | Months | Inst. Base | Requested Salary | Inflate Factor | Year 1 | Year 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| John Doe | Principal Investigator | 9 | 25% | 2.3 | $100,000 | $25,000 | 3% | $25,000 | $25,750 |
| Jane Smith | Post Doc Assoc | 12 | 50% | 6.0 | $45,000 | $22,500 | 3% | $22,500 | $23,175 |
| Unassigned | Technician | 12 | 50% | 6.0 | $25,000 | $12,500 | 3% | $12,500 | $12,875 |
When budgeting for salaries and wages of UVM personnel on sponsored projects please refer to UVM’s Effort Management Policy on Sponsored Agreements (PDF). Many items below will reference this policy.
Salary levels and job classifications included in a proposal budget are best estimates only and do not constitute advance approval. Grant funds may not be used to augment the total salary or rate of pay of UVM employee.
Use Institutional Base Salary
See page 2 of Effort Management Policy on Sponsored Agreements (PDF)
The Institutional Base Salary (IBS) of an individual shall be used for estimating, accumulating, and reporting salary charges to sponsored agreements and to ensure compliance with the OMB Uniform Guidance, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Grants Policy Statement, and other applicable federal laws and regulation that permit salary and wage charges to be made to sponsored agreements.
Institutional Base Salary - IBS Definition
IBS is the base annual salary set by the UVM for an employee’s regular appointment, whether that employee’s professional effort for the University is spent on research, teaching, outreach, administration, patient care, or other activities, and whether that employee is appointed full-time or part-time.
Contact your RSENR Research Administrator for IBS of UVM employees for budgeting purposes.
Budget in Person Months rather than Percent Effort
Most sponsors are now requesting effort devoted to the project be presented in person months. Conversion of a percentage of effort to person months is straight-forward. To calculate person months, multiply the percentage of your effort associated with the project times the number of months of your appointment.
For example:
- 25% of a 9 month academic year appointment equals 2.25 (AY) person months (9 x 0.25= 2.25)
- 10% of a 12 month calendar appointment equals 1.2 (CY) person months (12 x 0.10 = 1.2)
- 33% of a 3 month summer term appointment equals 1.00 (SM) person months (3 x 0.33= 1.00)
For additional help converting percent effort to person months, see the handy NIH Percent of Time & Effort to Person Months Calculator (EXCEL)
1% Minimum Effort is Required of Principal Investigators
See page 4 of Effort Management Policy on Sponsored Agreements (PDF)
For compliance with OMB Memo M-01-06 (PDF), all sponsored projects, unless waived by UVM Costing or meets an exception as noted below, will require a minimum 1% effort commitment of the Principal Investigator to ensure oversight of financial, scientific and compliance aspects of a sponsored activity.
Proposals selected for Funding that did not include a PI minimum effort
To satisfy this University policy requirement, at time of award set-up, SPA will automatically include the 1% PI minimum time commitment and request a chartstring be provided. SPA is not looking for approvals and no approvals are needed. This is a UVM policy requirement.
Exceptions to the 1% PI minimum (No committed effort is required)
- equipment and instrumentation grants
- doctoral dissertation grants
- student augmentation grants
- individual fellowships
- travel awards (funds are devoted to defray cost of attending professional conferences)
- conference awards (funds are devoted to defray the costs of UVM hosted conference)
- industry funded clinical trials
- clinical trials funded by federal National Clinical Trial Networks
- faculty mentors on training grants
Salary Caps
To ensure an individual's salary is not over a sponsor’s salary limitation (cap), use the salary cap when budgeting. The difference between the individual normal salary and the cap is tracked in the UVM accounting system and effort reporting system. Salary over the cap is not used to meet any cost share requirements, but is required to be tracked within UVM. No approvals are required for over the cap salary. Approval of coverage is automatic.