Budget Development

This varies widely depending on the task(s) required and the experience level of the consultant. For estimating purposes, until real data from the consultant is received, use $100 per hour. 

Similarly, this varies from project to project. For estimating purposes, until real data from the consultant is received, use $100 per hour. 

There is no set rate for hourly employees, but there is a typical range. What amount per hour that is selected within that range is up to the PI but there are some typical criteria to base the decision upon, as follows: Typically, at SC&I, undergraduates make between $10 – $20 per hour. Graduate students make $25 per hour (minimum and typical). The rate is partly based on the budget available. If a project has a lot of funds that the PI needs to spend before a grant end date, the PI is going to go more toward the high end of each range. The rate is partly based on the tasks required. Simple filing and photocopying are going to come in toward the lower end of each range, while more complicated tasks, such as computer programming or data collection with human subjects, would be set at the higher end of the range

The rate is partly based on the experience level of the hiree. More experienced people will get a higher rate than less experienced people. Please note that in special cases, the rate may be lower than specified (though of course no lower than minimum wage), and the rate may be higher than the range specified if there are special circumstances. In a case where you would like a higher rate, be prepared to justify your decision. Also of note: The majority of hourly salaries do accrue fringe benefits costs. The current rate is 7.65%, though this can change depending upon what is mandated by the State of NJ and the federal government. The 7.65% calculation will be made above the actual cost of the salaries and wages.

Role

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

Salary

A GA full-time salary for FY22 is $30,162 (academic year/AY appointment) and FY22 $33,999 (calendar year/CY appointment) as determined by union contract.

Fringe

Most of the benefits included in the state’s fringe benefit rate of 22.69% for these positions are applicable 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 project. This rate also applies to those receiving tuition remission funded through training grants or Rutgers University resources.  GA positions under 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 fees per semester:

• Student Fee, FY22 is $785.50.
• School Fee, FY22 is $191.00.
• Technology Fee, FY22 is $181.00.

Sample FY22 GA Costs to Research Proposal

Out-of-State Student Residents, Academic Year:

$30,162 (salary) + 22.69% (fringe=$6,843) + $30,912 (tuition) + $2,315 (fees) = $70,232

In-State Student Residents, Academic Year:

$30,162 (salary) + 22.69% (fringe=$6,843) + $18,180 (tuition) + $2,315 (fees) = $57,500

(Calendar year GA hires may be available depending on budget allocation and Principal Investigator’s research needs.)

Roles

A Post-Doctoral Associate performs intricate research under the supervision of a Principal Investigator (PI) to meet the research or scholarship goals of a funding agency. These efforts must be certified by the funder. The appointment is usually for one year at a time—not to exceed five in total—and must be approved by the appropriate dean.

A Post-Doctoral Fellow receives an individual or an institutional award for post-doctoral study and training. No services, however, are required for the award by Rutgers University or the funding agency, and the post-doc has no employee-employer relationship with the university. A post-doctoral fellow is usually hired for a period not exceeding one year at a time and an approving officer ensures that the Fellow fulfills the requirements of the appointment.

Salaries

The minimum full-time salary for a Rutgers University post-doctoral employee by union contract for FY22 is $50,000.

Fringe

Most of the benefits included in New Jersey’s fringe benefit rate of 53.07% for Associates and 7.65% for Fellows apply to Rutgers employees, including pension/retirement, health insurance, unemployment insurance, and disability insurance.

Sample FY22 Post-Doc Costs to Research Proposal

PD associate $50,000 (minimum salary) + 53.07% (fringe) = $76,535

PD fellow $50,000 (minimum salary) + 7.65% (fringe) = $53,825

Typical rates are about $75 – $100 per hour. The variability will depend upon the complexity of what needs to be transcribed. For example, a simple question and answer of an individual with the researcher will come in at the lower end of the range, while complicated focus group discussions with multiple speakers participating will come in at the higher end of the range. The rate may also be affected by the level of jargon in the recordings. If the work includes heavy use of medical terminology, or any terminology specific to a topic that does not use standard English, the rate will come in at the higher end of the range. 

The human subjects’ payments policy is currently under review by the University.  These payments must be reviewed on a case–by–case basis to deal with ongoing policy changes.  This requires at least one month of lead time so be sure to include that into your workflow estimates.  All the rest will be addressed by the Assigned Business Specialist. 

There are standard estimation rates for domestic travel based on typical costs we see at SC&I for conferences. This standard can be used for estimating attendance at a typical conference to disseminate the results of your research, as follows:  

•  Ground transportation to/from your home to the airport @ $25.00 each way, $50.00 round trip.  
• Airfare within the continental U.S. @ $700.00.  
• Hotel costs @ $140.00 per night x # of days of the conference.  
• Per diem  @ $100.00 per day x number of days of the conference.  
• Ground transportation to/from your hotel to the airport @ $25.00 each way, $50.00 round trip.  
• Conference registration and membership fees @ $500.00.  

This might look as follows for a 5-day conference:  

• Ground transportation to/from your home to the airport @ $25.00 each way, $50.00 round trip.  
• Airfare within the continental U.S. @ $700.00.  
• Hotel costs @ $140.00 per night x 5 days of the conference = $700.00.  
• Per diem @ $100.00 per day x 5 days of the conference = $500.00.  
• Ground transportation to/from your hotel to the airport @ $25.00 each way, $50.00 round trip.  
• Conference registration and membership fees @ $500.00.  

The total cost of the trip indicated above is $2500.00. The above is meant as a standard base. Of course, if you know exactly what conference(s) you’ll be attending, you can adjust the number of days or registration fees accordingly, but the standard way to estimate would be based on the scenario described. Please note that these figures are estimates. The actual cost of per diem for a specific city, or for conference registration and membership, or airfare, or ground transport can vary. The actual cost will accrue should the project be awarded and subsequently the travel is undertaken. In cases where the travel is for data collection (as opposed to conference travel), the general idea of the above figures for estimating purposes will stand, other than the registration fee, which would be eliminated. On a final note, with any airfare related to travel, particularly billable to federal grants, the first choice must be an airline based in the USA. This is due to the “Fly America Act.” If a destination is not accessible using a U.S. airline, it is then allowable to book through an international airline. 

Additional justification is often required if you have international travel in your budget. Some reasons to have international travel are: data collection, alternating conferences, collaborative work with international partners. If there are conferences in your field that alternate venues between U.S./Europe/Asia please list them by name in your justification for international travel. There are standard estimation rates for international travel based on typical costs we see at SC&I for conferences. This standard can be used for estimating attendance at a typical conference to disseminate the results of your research, as follows:  

• Ground transportation to/from your home to the airport @ $25.00 each way, $50.00 round trip.  
• International airfare @ $1500.00.  
• Hotel costs @ $170.00 per night x # of days of the conference.  
• Per diem @ $110.00 per day x number of days of the conference.  
• Ground transportation to/from your hotel to the airport @ $25.00 each way, $50.00 round trip.  
• Conference registration and membership fees @ $750.00.  

This might look as follows for a 5-day conference:  

• Ground transportation to/from your home to the airport @ $25.00 each way, $50.00 round trip.  
• International airfare @ $1500.00.  
• Hotel costs @ $170.00 per night x 5 days of the conference = $850.00.  
• Per diem  @ $110.00 per day x 5 days of the conference = $550.00.  
• Ground transportation to/from your hotel to the airport @ $25.00 each way, $50.00 round trip.  
• Conference registration and membership fees @ $750.00.  

Total cost of the trip indicated above is $3750.00. The above is meant as a standard base. Of course, if you know exactly what conference(s) you’ll be attending, you can adjust the number of days, or registration fees accordingly, but the standard way to estimate would be based on the scenario described. Please note that these figures are estimates. The actual cost of per diem for a specific city, or for conference registration and membership, or airfare, or ground transport can vary. The actual cost will accrue should the project be awarded and subsequently the travel is undertaken. In cases where the travel is for data collection (as opposed to conference travel), the general idea of the above figures for estimating purposes will stand, other than the registration fee which would be eliminated. On a final note, with any airfare related to travel, particularly billable to federal grants, the first choice must be an airline based in the USA. This is due to the “Fly America Act”. If a destination is not accessible using a U.S. airline, it is then allowable to book through an international airline.

In most cases SC&I faculty are paid an academic year salary with the payments disbursed across the entire calendar year. This makes it possible for the researchers to receive additional salary for research performed over the summer. The summer salary from multiple projects can be combined to total three months, but if so, the researcher must sign a memo waiving their vacation for that year. In most cases, a researcher will receive anywhere from one week of summer salary, to two months of summer salary, depending on what grants are in force in a particular summer.

For NSF proposals, researchers cannot exceed two months of pay from an NSF project, so the request for summer pay will be reviewed accordingly.

Each month of summer salary equates to a total of 11.1% effort. It is possible to bill a grant for a percent of the researcher’s time without actually taking a course buyout. The funds that SC&I saves because of this approach would enable the researcher to receive a portion of these salary savings back, which gets deposited into the faculty member’s research support account.

Similar to how cost-sharing works, there are three basic sorts of percent of effort:

• Mandatory Committed effort is required by the terms of the sponsored program and must be included and budgeted for as part of the sponsored award. It is explicitly required by the notice of funding opportunity and must be included in the proposal for consideration by the sponsor.
• Voluntary Committed effort is not required by the terms of the sponsored program, but it is included and budgeted for as part of the sponsored award. It is not expected by the sponsor in the proposal and cannot be considered as a factor of merit review by the sponsor unless criteria for consideration are explicitly described in the notice of funding opportunity.
• Voluntary Uncommitted effort is not required by the terms of the sponsored program and is not included or budgeted for as part of the sponsored program. It is neither proposed nor expected but may occur during program administration. 

All of these types of effort added together constitute the total percent of effort being performed on a project. 

An example of how this works might be as follows:

• Budget for one-course buyout in year 1 of the project = 12.5% effort
• Budget for two months of summer salary in year 2 of the project = 22.2% effort
• Budget for one-course buyout in year 3 of the project = 12.5% effort
  • In the example above, the total effort for the project might appear to be 47.2%, but this is incorrect because the effort is based on the average performed across the entirety of the project.  Therefore, the total effort in this case would be 15.73% (12.5 + 22.2 + 12.5 = 47.2 / 3 = 15.73).  

An example of how this works for federal funding might be as follows:

• Budget for one month of summer in year 1 of the project = 11.1% effort
• Budget for two months of summer salary in year 2 of the project = 22.2% effort
• Budget for one month of summer in year 3 of the project = 11.1% effort.
  • In the example above, the total effort for the project might appear to be 44.4%, but this is incorrect because the effort is based on the average performed across the entirety of the project. Therefore, the total effort in this case would be 14.8% (11.1 + 22.2 + 11.1 = 44.4 / 3 = 14.8).  

If we add the two examples above together, the researcher would be performing a total of 30.53% effort. That would mean that the researcher could perform up to an additional 9.47% effort on a third project to meet the SC&I standard of 40%. That might be achieved by billing a project for three weeks of summer pay = 8.34% effort. Then the total effort on all three projects would be 38.87%. 

Please note: These are samples for illustrative purposes, and additional scenarios can be discussed with the Assigned Business Specialist during the preparation of a specific project budget. Unfortunately, most proposals do not get funded, so a researcher may have several pending proposals where the total effort on all of them exceeds 40%. The actual effort performed on grants in force should not exceed 40%, but the researcher can propose more than allowed to ensure that they have 40% of their time devoted to research based on what is truly awarded. Should a faculty member be awarded in a manner that means they are exceeding 40% effort on research, they can work with the Associate Dean of Research and the Assigned Business Specialist on a plan to ameliorate the circumstance of being overcommitted. 

For most federal agency submissions (e.g., NSF, NIH, etc.) you will have to convert your percent of effort budgeted on the project to “person months.”  

Definition and examples of how to calculate person months follow: A “person month” is the metric for expressing the effort (amount of time) principal investigators (PIs), faculty, and other senior personnel devote to a specific project. The effort is based on the type of appointment of the individual with the organization; e.g., calendar year (CY), academic year (AY), and/or summer term (SM); and the organization’s definition of such. 

Useful tools for: Person-months Excel calculator. 

Please contact your Assigned Business Specialist for assistance with calculating person months on your grant proposal. 

• Facilities & Administrative costs (F&A)—also referred to as Indirect Costs (IDC) or Overhead Costs—are associated with the infrastructure that supports the research enterprise (buildings, maintenance, libraries, staff support, among others).
• F&A rates are also referred to as Indirect Cost Rates (ICR) and are negotiated with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The ICR is typically renegotiated with the DHHS every couple of years. Most proposals require the submission of (or link to) the most current RU- negotiated ICR letter (typically found in the budget justification). Rutgers University requires that F&A costs be included in all proposal budgets and recovered based on the University’s Federally Negotiated Rate Agreement.  RU’s F&A details and rates can be found in the Rutgers F&A Rate Agreement.
• The F&A rate (for federal agencies) for FY2022 was 57 percent of direct costs.  Since the F&A rate is renegotiated every few years, the rate applied could vary throughout a multi-year project; some rate adjustments are applied retroactively. Therefore, it is very easy to surpass the budget cap for total funding.
  • Examples of indirect costs include the salary and related expenses of individuals working in central administration roles, such as accounting, HR, purchasing, and expenditures (e.g., rent, depreciation, and utilities).
  • For an example of IDC, if your total budget cap for an NSF proposal is $200,000, you can spend about $128,205 on direct project costs; the F&A at 57% of direct costs works out to be roughly $73,077.
• Some government agencies and nonprofits do not pay the University’s F&A cost rate, The University may accept a lower rate under the following conditions:
  • The sponsor is a federal, state, or local government agency that, by agency policy or legislation, will not pay the University’s F&A rate. This policy is published in agency guidelines and is applied uniformly to all award recipients.
  • The sponsor is a private, not-for-profit, organization that has an official written policy of paying an F&A cost rate lower than the University’s, and the rate is applied uniformly to all award recipients.
• When a sponsor’s F&A rate is lower than the University’s approved rate, the rate is then applied to all costs (Total Direct Costs, NOT Modified Total Direct Costs), unless the sponsor specifically excludes certain categories. MTDC is typically in force for federal proposals. The appropriate rate(s) will be determined during the budgeting process by the Assigned Business Specialist.
  • To calculate the MTDC base, the following should be excluded from the direct cost:
    • Equipment over $5,000
    • Tuition and fees
    • Stipends
    • Subcontracts after the first $25,000 (for each subcontract)
    • Participant support cost
• Request for Facilities and Administrative (Indirect) Cost Reduction/Waiver:
  • It is Rutgers University policy that all sponsored research be charged the full cost of an externally funded project including all grants, contracts, or other types of agreements. This includes direct costs (allowable costs such as salaries, supplies, etc., used to perform the project) and indirect costs (F&A). However, if a reduction is required, please work with your Assigned Business Specialist to request a Cost Reduction Waiver (Form).
• The F&A rate for foundations can be up to 15% of direct costs but the actual amount is at the discretion of the funder.
• The State of N.J.-funded projects typically only allow 10 percent F&A.

• Most salary amounts for RU employees in a proposal budget need to add a fringe percentage to pay for costs such as health insurance, retirement benefits, etc.  
• 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 gets 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 be over budget, we must remove costs from the project because no new funding will be awarded to address the fringe rate adjustment.  
• Current Rates 
• Key things to keep in mind about the fringe:  
  • The specific fringe rate applied to salary depends on the class of the employee (e.g., full-time, part-time, faculty, post-doc, staff, graduate student, undergraduate), or the type of salary (e.g., calendar year, academic year, summer salary, hourly, etc.). These percentages can range from approximately 49.04% to 7.65% to 0% above and beyond the salary amount.

Cost-share is the portion of 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, to be determined through review of sponsor guidelines.  Cost-share is only based on awards already made – it cannot be based 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 paid to people working on the research project itself, including Principle Investigators, post docs, researchers, graduate assistants, trainers, or others needed to direct or assist and carry out the project or training. Participants are the recipients of the particular training envisioned by the grant or contract and can be paid participant support as compensation for training materials costs, transportation costs, or housing costs incurred while the training was in force. Human subjects are those on whom the research is being performed. Tasks undertaken by human subjects can include completing surveys in person or electronically, focus group attendance, interviews, and the like. Human subjects can receive compensatory funds for consenting to be research subjects and completing these tasks.  

• NSF Salary Compensation: As a general policy, NSF limits the salary compensation requested in the proposal budget for senior personnel to no more than two months of their regular salary in any one year. This limit includes salary compensation received from all NSF-funded grants combined. Because a course buyout is the equivalent of 2.5 months, buyouts can no longer be billed to NSF grants. It may be possible to combine NSF funding with other sponsored funding to get to a total that would cover a course buyout, but this can only be done once all awards are in place. It cannot be determined while any of the funding is still in a “proposal pending” status.