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Grant Submission Process
Budget Preparation > Salary and Wages
When considering whether to request external funds to support your salary or the salary of a graduate student, technician, etc., you should first consult your program guidelines. In certain instances, sponsors dictate that principal investigators or their staff may not include salary as part of the proposal. For those sponsors who allow salary to be included in a proposal, several federal guidelines and university policies must be meshed to calculate the amount to be requested.
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DON'T FORGET: Federal regulations prohibit compensating persons on grants greater than 100% of their time, unless officially approved in writing by a sponsor. |
Federal regulations prohibit compensating persons on grants greater than 100% of their time, unless officially approved in writing by a sponsor. That means, should you include salary time on your grant for the academic year, your contract with Ohio University will be modified to temporarily reduce the portion that university pays and replaced with the corresponding percentage of time funded by the grant. At no time shall payment from a federal grant exceed 100% of your base. Effort exceeding 100%, referred to as “overload” by OHIO , is prohibited on federal grants and is dealt with later in this section.
Faculty members who are subject to a nine-month appointment are eligible to receive up to three months of summer salary, depending on sponsor regulations. The National Science Foundation, for example, limits summer salary requests to two months, whereas the National Institutes of Health allow for three to be requested. Some sponsors require time commitment to be expressed as a percentage. A PI/PD may discover that the work proposed in an application requires that his/her teaching load be reduced during the academic year to accommodate travel plans for the research or to devote more time in order to achieve the goals and objects set forth in the proposal. Sponsors will pay for this effort, which, the university deems “release time”. In order to accomplish this, however, the PI/PD must obtain approval of such release time from academic year duties from his/her Chair or Director and Dean. This is accomplished through the signature process of the Transmittal Form, which is discussed later in this section.
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TIP: The National Science Foundation (NSF) only allows for requests of two months of summer salary for 9-month appointed faculty members. Every sponsor has different rules, so check the budget allowability guidelines! |
Now that you've decided upon a time commitment, you need to calculate the corresponding dollar value of that time. The rate of pay on grants and contracts must be calculated on an individual's regular base salary. Although you may not be employed in the summer at OHIO , you may not charge more than what you would make during the academic year. Similarly, if you happen to hold a department chairperson, school director or dean appointment, you may not use the administrative add-on compensation as part of your regular salary base for calculation purposes. This addition of duties usually increases a nine-month appointment to an eleven or twelve month appointment. When calculating how much to request from a sponsor, you must also keep in mind inflation factors (sometimes limited by sponsor). The university applies cost of living adjustments and merit raises when appropriate each July. So, if you are applying in January for a grant to begin paying you in July, you'll need to increase your base pay by 3-5%, depending on university climate and sponsor regulations. When budgeting, remember to inflate salary for each succeeding year. For assistance in calculating salaries, you may refer to a “Salary Cheat Sheet” linked here: http://www.ohio.edu/orsp/budget/cheatsheet_salaries.pdf .
(Click to view examples that illustrate the above text.)
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TIP: On multi-year proposals, be certain to adjust salary rates for each succeeding year by 3%. If tenure approval or promotion is expected in one of the succeeding years, budget accordingly. |
As a general rule, secretarial support may not be proposed in a grant budget. These pooled costs of support are funded through the university's recovery of indirect costs on grants. An exception to this rule may be granted if the support is directly related to the grant (e.g. a Center that is financed strictly through grant funds or a significant percent of secretarial effort is required for a short duration). Examples and definitions of salary and wages can be found in the salary/wages categories in the drop-down menu at: http://portal.finance.ohiou.edu/nalookup .
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