Mastering Budgets for Proposal Submissions

1. CREATING AND UNDERSTANDING BUDGETS Office of Research and Sponsored Programs Jack Gelfand, Director Maria Nakamura, Associate Director www.oswego.edu/administration/ORSP

2. UNDERSTANDING THE BUDGET PROCESS • ORSP will work with you to develop a budget for a proposal submission. • It is a good idea to be able to estimate what the proposed costs will be in order to write a reasonable proposal.

3. BUDGET CATEGORIES • Expenses listed in a budget fall into a number of categories. • These categories are specified by the funding agencies. • There are a few principal categories that you will encounter.

4. PERSONNEL • Cost of the salary and wages of the different personnel that are working on the project. • Senior investigator • Other investigators • Graduate students • Undergraduate students • Research staff • If necessary, it is possible to hire additional support staff with grant funds

5. Fringe Benefits (FB) • Must pay fringe benefits for all employees • Paid vacation • Sick days • Retirement • Long-term disability • Social security • Calculated based on total salary • Rate varies for different classifications • Changes from year to year

6. Various Fringe Rates • 45.53% New York State • Faculty Academic year • 15.5% Faculty Summer Salary • 37% Regular Employees • 4.5% Undergraduate Students • 11.5% Graduate Students

7. MATERIALS AND SUPPLIES (M&S) • Materials used for execution of project • Chemicals • Computer supplies • Electronics • Office supplies • Limit $5,000 each item (federal) • Useful life less less than one year

8. (CAPITAL) EQUIPMENT • More than $5,000 • Life of more than one year • Mass spectrometer • EEG apparatus • Stage sound system

9. TRAVEL • Travel to meetings • Travel for the execution of the research. • Travel to meet with the sponsor during the project (always check)

10. PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS • Costs involved in publishing your results. • Includes page charges from journals. • Also costs associated with preparing and disseminating reports for the funding agency (always check).

11. PARTICIPANT SUPPORT • Provides support for participation in a program • Can include, for example, stipends, room & board and travel

12. COURSE RELEASE • 10% for each course/semester • Must include fringe benefits and overhead • Example below is for a federal agency

13. Summer Salary • There are 10 months in the academic year. • There is a maximum of two months of summer salary. • By convention the maximum summer salary is 2/9 of the academic year salary. • This is the only known situation where faculty come out ahead.

14. Summer Salary Calculation Note that fringe benefit charge is 11.5% for summer.

15. GRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANT A tuition waiver may be requested from the Graduate Office.

16. TOTAL DIRECT COSTS (TDC) • The total expenses for a grant are known as the total direct costs (TDC).

17. FACILITIES AND ADMINISTRATION (F&A)INDIRECT COSTOVERHEAD • General nonspecific expenses • Library • Heating and lighting • Administration • Federal negotiated rate = 76% of salary & wage • Non-federal rate 58.9% TDC • Foundations = 0 – 10% (negotiable)