Proposal Preparation

Justifying Your Budget

• The SC&I grants team offers a form to guide PIs through the preliminary process of estimating the varied costs associated with their potential research project. The form addresses all the possible funding categories that PIs might need and includes fields where text justifications can be inserted.
• Once completed, the Research Project Coordinator uses the information to draft an initial budget that will be discussed and modified with the PI.
• The Business Department will review the budget to make sure it aligns with Rutgers’ and SC&I’s best practices.

Course Buyout

• One buyout equals 12.5 percent effort (2.5-person-months). This “person-month” figure has significance: the NSF caps “effort” payments for a project at two months. Tip: Use this tool to navigate effort:  Person-months Excel calculator.
• Effort can be represented in different ways when a proposal budget is drafted. The total of these effort types constitutes the percent of effort. Since SC&I faculty spend 40 percent of their time on research, the effort for any or all projects combined must not exceed that percentage. Faculty can work with the Associate Dean of Research, chair, and grants team to ameliorate being overcommitted, such as pursuing a course buyout.
• To completely cover a course buyout, combining funds from two concurrent projects would be necessary such as from the NSF and a foundation.
• It is possible to bill a grant for a percent of the researcher’s academic year time without a course buyout. The funds that SC&I saves enable the researcher to receive a portion of the salary savings, which is deposited into the faculty member’s research support account.
• Buyouts are available only for active projects; their funding status must not be pending or yet to be awarded.
• A review of project contracts by the Business Specialist and Grant and Contract Accounting then follows.

Summer Salary

• In most cases, SC&I faculty are paid an academic year salary with payments disbursed across the calendar year. This makes it possible to receive additional salary for research performed during the summer. The summer salary from multiple projects can be combined for a total of three months, but the researcher must sign a memo waiving their vacation for that year.
• For NSF proposals, researchers cannot exceed two months’ pay from all agency-funded grants, so the request for summer pay will be reviewed accordingly.
• Each month of summer salary equates to 11.1% effort..
• The faculty’s summer salary should be budgeted at a fringe rate of 7.65%.  For FY25, course release fringe is budgeted at 72.94% for nonfederal proposals and 29.96% for federal proposals.

This fluctuates widely depending on the task required and the experience level of the consultant. For estimating purposes, use $100 per hour until a firm price is received.

Similarly, this varies from project to project. For estimating purposes, use $100 per hour until a firm quote from the programmer is available.

Research assistants: Works with a researcher on a specific area of inquiry; may record and analyze data, conduct literature reviews, collect abstract information, develop research protocols, conduct focus groups and interviews, and complete IRB forms. A research assistant will work up to 10 hours a week; the compensation is $6,300 for a 15-week semester, or more than $28 an hour.

Hourly paid student workers: When you are unsure how much work you will need from a student worker week to week, you should hire the student as hourly paid. The minimums for hourly paid students are $15.50 for undergraduates and $25 for graduate students.

Rates are determined by the budget, task complexity, and experience level. Simple tasks like filing and photocopying are at the lower end of the range; complex tasks such as computer programming or data collection are at the higher end. More experienced individuals receive higher rates. In special cases, rates may be above the specified range, but may require justification.

Role

A Graduate Assistant (GA) is a graduate student, primarily working in research, paid directly by the university, or under a grant or contract with other agencies, normally for a maximum of 15 hours per week.

Salary

These are the minimum base salaries for GAs as determined by the union contract:

Academic Year GA Salaries

FY24-25 $36,395

FY 25-26 $40,000

FY 26-27 $42,000 (tentative)

Calendar Year GA Salaries

FY24-25 $41,854

FY25-26 $46,000

FY26-27 $48,300.00 (tentative)

Fringe

Most benefits included in the state’s fringe benefit rate of 36.84% for nonfederal awards and 22.33% for federal awards for these positions apply to Rutgers employees, including pension/retirement, health insurance, unemployment insurance, and disability insurance.

Tuition

GAs receive an in-state tuition rate when their research work is supported by a grant. This rate also applies to those receiving tuition remission funded through training grants or Rutgers University resources.  GA positions under the union contract include salary, tuition, and fees (i.e., general student, school, and technology).

Fees

For New Brunswick graduate schools, nine credits per semester are considered full-time for assessing fees.

Mandatory FY25 fees per semester

• Student: $891.50
• School: $216.50
• Technology: $204.50

         Total fees: $1,312.50

Sample FY25 GA Costs to Research Proposals (In-State Rate Tuition Rate)

$41,854 (calendar year salary) + 22.33% (federal fringe=$9,346) + ($20,616 tuition) + $2,625 (fees) = $74,441

$41,854 (calendar year salary) + 36.84% (nonfederal fringe=$15,419) + ($20,616 tuition) + $2,625 (fees) = $80,514

$36,395 (academic year salary) + 22.33% (federal fringe=$8,127) + ($20,616 tuition) + $2,625 (fees) = $67,763

$36,395 (academic year salary) + 36.84% (nonfederal fringe=$13,408) + ($20,616 tuition) + $2,625 (fees) = $73,044

• Typically, the rate is $1.50 per audio minute for human transcription. The rate will vary according to the number of voices, audio quality, accents and dialects, and turnaround time.
• A professional translator can charge $0.10 to $0.30 per word. The requested turnaround time will have the greatest impact on price.

Investigators should use their best judgment in budgeting according to their destination. All travel should be submitted through Concur. These are the anticipated expenses when traveling to a conference.

• Ground transportation to/from home to the airport
• Airfare  
• Hotel
• Per diem 
• Ground transportation to/from your hotel to the airport
• Conference registration and membership fees
• Supplies for a presentation at a conference

The cost will accrue should the project be awarded and travel taken. When the travel is for data collection (as opposed to conference travel), the above scenario for estimating stands, other than the registration fee. For international travel, expenses may include data collection, alternating conferences, and collaboration with international partners. If conferences in your field alternate venues among U.S./Europe/Asia, list them by name in the justification.

• Also called Indirect Costs (IDC) or Overhead Costs, this covers infrastructure supporting research (e.g., buildings, maintenance, libraries). F&A rates are negotiated with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services every few years. For FY24, the federal F&A rate was 57% of modified total direct costs (MTDC).
• Examples of indirect costs include salaries for administrative roles and rent and utilities. For instance, a $200,000 NSF proposal budget provides $127,388 for direct costs and $73,077 for F&A at 57%. Some sponsors, like certain government agencies or nonprofits, may require lower F&A rates if uniformly applied to all recipients. The lower rate applies to total direct costs unless exclusions (e.g., equipment over $5,000, tuition) are specified.
  • Rutgers mandates full cost recovery for sponsored research but allows F&A reductions via a cost reduction waiver in specific cases. For New Jersey state-funded projects, the F&A is typically capped at 10%.
  • Current F&A costs

• Most salaries for RU employees in a proposal budget need a fringe percentage added to pay for costs such as health insurance, retirement benefits, etc.  
• The fringe rate applied to salary depends on the class of employee (e.g., full-time, part-time, faculty, postdoc, staff, graduate student, undergraduate), or whether the sponsor is federal or not.  These percentages can range from approximately 71.60% to 7.65% to 0% above and salary amount.
• Rutgers develops and submits its fringe benefit rates annually to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Cost Allocation Services (DHHSCAS), our federal cognizant audit agency for approval. Once approved, the final negotiated fringe benefit rates become effective July 1 of the fiscal year noted. This often is applied retroactively because the approved rate may not come through by July 1.  
• Once a final rate is approved, recalculations can occur. If this causes a project to go over budget, costs must be removed because no additional funding will be awarded to address the fringe rate adjustment.  
• Current Rates

• Cost-share is the project costs not paid by the sponsor. Resources dedicated to cost share may draw from contributions, donations, ICR funds, or proportional matching from the University and/or external third party (“in-kind”) entities. Cost-share of effort can be substituted for a true cash match in some cases as determined through a review of the sponsor’s guidelines.  Cost-share is only based on awards already made – not on pending funding in other proposals.  There are three types of cost-share associated with sponsored programs:  Salaries and Wages, Participant Support, and Human Subjects.

• Salaries and wages are allocated to Principal Investigators, postdoctoral researchers, researchers, graduate assistants, trainers, and others who direct or assist with the project or training. Participants are individuals receiving the specific training that the grant or contract is intended to provide. They may receive compensation to cover expenses related to training materials, transportation, or housing costs incurred during the training.
• Human subjects are individuals on whom the research is conducted. Their tasks may include completing surveys, either in person or electronically, and participating in focus groups and interviews. Human subjects can also receive compensation for their participation in the research and for completing these tasks.