Question
- How do I develop a budget for my research proposal?
- Where can I find the ORSP Budget Template?
Answer
University policy requires all project budgets, along with other proposal details, be reviewed and approved by the Office of Sponsored Programs prior to submission to the sponsor. Below are the information and resources you need to develop budgets that are complete and compliant with federal regulations and University policies.
If you have questions or need assistance with developing your budget, contact orsp@usd.edu
Budget Template
Use the FY24 ORSP Budget Template:
- Download attached FY24 ORSP Budget Template (Updated 5/19/2023)
- This programmed Excel spreadsheet helps you create and manage your sponsored program budget. The Budget Template includes all the latest rates necessary for a sponsored project:
- Fringe benefit rates for senior/key personnel, graduate research assistants, and hourly students.
- Tuition remission for graduate research assistants and graduate project assistants.
- Facilities & Administrative Cost Rate (also known as Indirect Cost Rate).
- Calculations are provided for the life of the project (up to five years).
- Special Functions
- The Budget Template allows you to develop a cumulative budget for a program for up to five years. There are also tabs for sub-awards and cost share if applicable to your project.
- Budget Template Instructions
- Instructions for using the Budget Template are included in the Excel workbook.
- Although not required, Principal Investigators and research administrators are encouraged to use the Budget Template for all project budgets to ensure all expenses are included and the rates are accurate and properly calculated. If you need assistance with developing your budget or using the Budget Template, contact orsp@usd.edu.
Budget Categories
Below is information for the development of sponsored program budgets. As always, please contact sponsored programs for questions related to the budget development process.
Introduction – top section
- Type-new, award year, renewal
- Budget reviewed by
- Budget review date
- Benefits, fixed verses variable, verses GA, Hourly, part-time and summer months
Senior Personnel
This includes senior/key persons who play a lead role on the project at USD. Key personnel are essential to the project and could not be easily replaced. Do not list details of collaborators at other institutions as they will be provided in the subaward budget for each subaward/consortium organization. See additional tabs for subaward budgets. The base salary refers to annual compensation; this amount can be found in Banner or Open SD. Person months is the contracted number of months. Academic months is the number of months devoted to the project. Percent effort is the percentage of time devoted to project. Note the comment in person months and % of effort.
One course buy out is estimated at 10% of that faculty member’s salary.
If the time requested on the grant will result in overload, please refer to the procedures for faculty requesting overload on a federal grant.
Faculty Summer Salary
Summer months apply to personnel on 9-, 10-, or 11-month contracts. They may get paid for the summer while working on the grant. Note the comment in monthly salary.
Other Professionals
Other professionals include all collaborating investigators and other individuals who meet the senior/key person definition if they are from USD. This section would also include Post-Doctoral Students, and Administrative, Secretarial, and Clerical Support Salaries.
Students
This includes graduate/undergraduate student compensation; it is important to note that each department determines how much the students are compensated.
Benefits
Benefits rates change on a yearly basis. Currently the rate is 14.9005% for salaries of senior faculty and postdoctoral fellows, and an annual fixed amount for health benefits of $11,782 proportional to the amount of academic effort escalated at 5% per year. The fixed health benefit is not applied to summer salaries. Graduate Assistant fringe benefits are calculated at 0.012375% of gross pay and undergraduates at 0.012375% of gross pay.
Please note the fringe breakout template located on the right side of the Excel sheet. This will allow you to identify fringe associated with each faculty member listed.
Capital Assets
This category is exempt from indirect costs. Capital assets are items that cost more than $5,000. They are permanent or semi-permanent items with more than one year of usefulness. Example include large lab equipment or specialized computers. Shipping, maintenance costs and agreements, and required software can be included with the item if the costs are required to make the item functional.
Travel
Costs for travel must follow state policies regardless of what is considered allowable from the sponsor. These policies include what the state will reimburse for hotel costs, per diem, and airline tickets.
USD Travel Policies
Special care must be taken with international travel because federally funded awards must follow the Fly America Act. https://www.gsa.gov/policy-regulations/policy/travel-management-policy/fly-america-act
Participant Support Costs
This category is exempt from indirect costs. For this reason, it’s critical to understand who qualifies as participants. In short, participants are individuals participating in a training opportunity. They are not employees. They do not perform a work or service. They are not required to deliver anything, though they are required to complete programmatic activities like training. An example would be students participating in the NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. Allowable costs need to be associated with an individual participant to defray the cost of participation (stipends, subsistence, travel, fees, etc.).
These are examples of costs that are NOT participant support costs: costs for PI or staff, costs for a consultant or trainer, costs for a guest speaker or lecturer, conference/workshop support costs such as facility rentals, catering, supplies, or media equipment, and costs associated with human subject payments. These types of costs should be on the primary project, not as participant support.
Rental Costs
Rental costs are included in a separate category as these costs are exempt from indirect costs.
Materials and Supplies
Materials and supplies include individual items worth less than $5,000. Standard items include chemicals, lab supplies, computer software, copying and printing, pens, computers, cameras, and paper.
Human Subjects
Human subjects are defined as living individuals about whom an investigator conducting research obtains information or biospecimens through intervention or interaction with the individual obtains, uses, studies, or analyzes identifiable private information. USD’s Institutional Review Board must approve each study before it is allowed to occur.
Consultants
Consultants are private individuals who perform limited activities for the project and are not employees of USD. To qualify as a consultant, the individual must offer similar services (such as lab testing or report printing) as part of their regular business operations to other customers.
Other Expenses
This commonly includes publication costs and any other costs that may not fit in the other categories.
NIH submissions requires a budget for data sharing plan costs in a separate justification.
Graduate Tuition Remission
This category is exempt from indirect costs. There are tuition remission tables located on the right side. If the sponsor allows it, tuition remission must be included.
Subawards
- Subawardees (also known as subcontractors) occur when a material portion of the work needs to be accomplished by another institution or organization. Use of the subawardee must be integral to the completion of the scope of work.
- Each subawardee must create a separate budget and submit a clear description of the scope of work.
- The line item on the budget template should include both direct and indirect costs for all subaward/consortium organizations. USD is allowed to charge indirects on the first $25K of each subaward.
- Due to the burden of monitoring and extensive paperwork involved with issuing subawards, some sponsors are moving towards offering collaborative proposals in which institutions apply separately and are awarded separately although they are both working on the same project.
- It is common for PIs to confuse consultants with subawardees.
- Type in the individual subaward budgets into the separate tabs at the bottom. The total will automatically pull into the main spreadsheet. The tab labeled “GA Summary” is for grants accounting use only.
Total Direct Costs
This is a sum of all expenses included in the budget.
F&A Base
The F&A base is the total amount eligible for indirect cost. F&A refers to facilities and administrative costs or simply overhead. These funds are meant to cover the real costs of university operations including electricity and central administrative services.
Total F&A Indirect Rate
There are several indirect cost types. Research that occurs on-campus is 49.5%, research off campus is 26%, and other sponsored activities is currently at 28.5%. Other sponsored activities include grants that fund projects other than research like conferences or money for student support activities.
Total Costs
Total costs include both the direct and indirect costs.
Cost-Sharing (Matching Funds)
If a project requires cost-sharing, or matching funds, contact your chair, dean and/or division head to discuss the proposed cost-sharing commitment. All cost share commitments must be appropriately documented in the proposal and a signed letter from the dean/chair; failure to provide the appropriate documentation may result in the delay of proposal submission and/or award acceptance.