How to Prepare a Proposal Budget

CReATE

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Areas to Consider Direct Costs

Indirect/F&A Costs or “overhead”

Defining the Base for F&A costs

Hot Topics:

Cost Sharing

Equipment/Supplies

C.A.S. exemption items

Direct Costs Direct costs are those costs that can be

identified specifically with a particular sponsored project, an instructional activity, or any other institutional activity, or that can be directly assigned to such activities relatively easily with a high degree of accuracy.

F&A Costs

Indirect costs are those that are incurred for common or joint objectives and, therefore, cannot be identified readily and specifically with a particular sponsored project, an instructional activity, or any other institutional activity.

F&A - MTDC Modified Total Direct Cost (MTDC) Base

includes all direct costs except:

equipment, capital expenditures,

charges for patient care, tuition remission,

rental costs of off-site facilities,

scholarships, fellowships,

and the portion of each subcontract in excess of $25,000.

Primarily used for Federally-funded projects

F&A - TDC Total Direct Cost (TDC) Base – includes all

direct costs except tuition

FSU’s policy is to exclude tuition from all indirect costs

TDC Base primarily used for State of Florida agencies

Also used for Local Florida Governments and Florida Water Management Districts

F&A Rates Set by: Type of Agency Location of Project

(on/off campus/Mag Lab) Type of Project Solicitation

Current Policy - Use FSU negotiated rate - http://www.research.fsu.edu/contractsgrants/documents/rateagreement.pdf

Types of Projects Research: A systematic study directed toward

fuller scientific knowledge and understanding gained of the subject studied

Instruction: The teaching and training activities of an institution

Other Sponsored Activity: This includes programs and projects which involve the performance of work other than instruction or organized research

MTDC (federal) TDC (State FL) *OnRes –51.3% OnRes – 10%Salaries $50,000 $50,000

Equipment $10,000 $10,000

Supplies $3,000 $3,000

Publications $2,000 $2,000

Tuition $12,529 $12,529

Total Direct $77,529 $77,529

MTDC Base $55,000 TDCMTDC Base $55,000 TDC $65,000$65,000

Indirect Costs $28,215 $6,500

Total Requested $105,744 $84,0299

Cost SharingCosting sharing or matching is that portion of project costs not borne by the sponsor. A cost sharing commitment means any cost sharing included and quantified (e.g., % of effort and/or dollar amount) in the proposal budget, proposal narrative or award document. Project enhancement means describing "resources that are available" for the project but are not quantified in the proposal budget, narrative or other documents.

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FSU Cost Sharing Policy• Make a cost sharing commitment only when required by the sponsor or by the competitive nature of the award. Cost share only to the extent necessary to meet the specific requirements of the sponsored project.

• If the PI requests an exception to this policy, s/he must get the Chair, Dean and VPR approval.

• Cost sharing is approved at the proposal stage.

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Personnel Salaries & Wages

Include faculty, technicians, post-docs, graduate students, & other personnel who are required to work on the project

We recommend that you include a 3% salary escalation factor each year

NOTE: On federal projects, administrative & clerical personnel are normally treated as indirect costs and cannot be direct charged.

Personnel Salary

Annual Salary X %FTE Bi-weekly salary X %FTE X No. of pay periods

OPS (Temporary employees, i.e., graduate students*, student aides, post-docs, other staff)

Bi-weekly salary X % FTE X No. of pay periods Pay Periods

9 mo faculty – Academic Yr 19.5 Summer 6.5 12 mo faculty & all other classifications 26.1

GA’s Health Insurance Subsidy is considered as Salary Supplement

.50 FTE & above = $900; .25-.49 FTE = $450

PersonnelSalary Calculation PI 9 month salary = $75,000 19.5 pay periods in academic year 6.5 pay periods in Summer Semester $75,000 ÷ 19.5 = $3,846.15 b/w rate

PI plans to work 15% FTE on project during summer semester

$3,846.15 X 6.5 X 15% = $3,750.00

Fringe Benefit Rates Retirement

FRS Pension Plan 5.18% FRS Investment Plan 5.18% ORP 5.64% DROP 5.44%

Social Security 6.20% Medicare 1.45% Workers’ Comp & Unemployment 0.7% Terminal Leave Pool 1.3%

FB Composite Rates* Faculty/A&P/USPS under FRS

Pension/Investment Plan 14.83%

Faculty/A&P under ORP 15.29%

Faculty/A&P/USPS under DROP 15.09%

OPS Students 0.70%

OPS Non-students & Post-Docs 2.15%

*Effective 7/01/2012

Health Insurance* Individual Family Spouse

$250/bw** $532/bw** $303/bw** $5,998/yr $12,760/yr $7,280/yr

*Rates Effective 7/01/2012

**Calculated on 24 pay periods

Note: 9 month faculty deductions for health insurance are made during regular academic year

FB Calculation Same PI - $75K Academic Yr / $3,846.15 b/w Salary calculated for budget = $3,750.00 PI has ORP retirement plan and family health ins

$3,750.00 X 15.29% = $573.38 Total FBs & Health = $573.38

No health deductions during summer for 9-month faculty

Consultants Outside individuals with expertise and skills that will

add value to project

Normally, faculty & other FSU staff should not be paid as consultants

Costs are usually calculated in terms of daily rate

Certain sponsors may limit the daily rate

Consultant costs should be listed in ‘Other’ category

Equipment – A-21(2) "Equipment" means an article of nonexpendable, tangible personal property having a useful life of more than one year and an acquisition cost which equals or exceeds the lesser of the capitalization level established by the institution for financial statement purposes, or $5,000.

Equipment Items costing $5,000 or more with a useful

life of 1 year or more

Equipment should be detailed in the budget

Requests should only include those items of equipment required to complete the project

Equipment IT Equipment Purchases – Memorandum

from VPR – July 2012 http://www.research.fsu.edu/

contractsgrants/documents/ITguide.pdf

*Federal/Federal flow-through: equipment threshold is $5,000

All other funding sources: equipment threshold remains at $1,000.00 per piece of equipment

Equipment – A-21(4) "General purpose equipment” means equipment, which is not limited to research, medical, scientific or other technical activities. •Examples include office equipment and furnishings, modular offices, telephone networks, information technology equipment and systems, air conditioning equipment, reproduction and printing equipment, and motor vehicles.•Cannot be charged as a direct cost unless approved in advance by awarding agency

SuppliesSupplies and materials related to the project

Can be listed in budget as broad categories such as glassware, chemicals or art supplies

Minor equipment costing < $5,000

If the equipment item costs $1,000 to $4,999 and has a useful life of a year or more, then it is excluded from the indirect cost base when calculating indirect costs from non-Federal sponsors

NOTE: On Federal projects, routine office supplies are normally treated as indirect costs and cannot be direct charged (paper, pencils, post-it notes, etc.)

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C.A.S. Exemptions• In exceptional circumstances it may be appropriate to charge F&A

costs directly to a sponsored project.

• If the nature of a sponsored project requires an extensive amount of administrative and/or clerical support or goods/services significantly greater than the routine level provided by an academic department, then the effort is deemed an exceptional circumstance and such costs can be accounted for as direct costs.

• An Exemption is REQUIRED to direct charge administrative and clerical salaries and other administrative-type expenses.

• In addition to meeting definition of exceptional circumstances, costs must be specifically identifiable to a particular sponsored project, be reasonable, allowable and allocable.

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C.A.S. Exemptions• CAS exemption must be approved at the proposal

stage. Approval allows for charges normally classified as F&A to be charged directly to a project

• Complete CAS form w/PI, Chair & Dean signatures• http://www.research.fsu.edu/contractsgrants/forms.html

• Submit to Sponsored Research Office

NOTE: FSU (SR) approves the C.A.S. exemption; agency approval is not adequate - FSU is audited on these items

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Travel Project-related travel may include trips

necessary to collect data, to present findings at professional meetings, for meetings with program officers or collaborators, etc.

Agencies require detailed estimates for the funds requested such as airfare, hotels, car rental, etc.

Reimbursement of costs should be consistent with FSU’s travel policies

FSU Travel Rates Per diem is $80 per day or

Breakfast = $6

Lunch = $11

Dinner = $19

Mileage = $.445 per mile

Allowable room rates, incidental expenses, etc.

Subawards/Subcontracts Represents a collaboration of work by one or more other

institutions

Contractual agreements for services or goods with an outside party are not included in this category

Costs for subawardee is presented in a separate line item and should include both the subawardee’s direct and F&A costs

A subaward detailed budget should be included as part of budget justification

Subawardee’s F&A costs are calculated in accordance with subawardee’s negotiated F&A rate agreement

SubcontractsIf a collaboration is proposed, the

following is required: Letter of commitment from the

institution’s Sponsored Program Office (not PI)

Scope of work for their activities Budget Budget Justification

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Other Direct Costs This category contains all other proposal

costs, i.e., animal per diems, publication charges, graphic fees, matriculation, communications, shipping, consultants, etc.

Postage, local telephone, and memberships are normally considered F&A costs and cannot be direct charged (for Federal projects)

Matriculation Matriculation costs (minimum of 9 hrs/semester)

should be included for graduate assistants supported by the project

Graduate Matriculation Rate for FY13-14 is $464.04/cr hr or $12,529 for 27 hours (in-state)

If matriculation costs are not included in budget, an alternate source of payment must be identified (Waiver 2 or 3 on transmittal form)

FSU excludes matriculation from F&A calculations in all proposals

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Matriculation Multiyear proposals should include an annual 15%

escalation factor in matriculation costs Out of state matriculation is not an allowable cost in

most circumstances College of Engineering may apply out of state rates

to their proposals Certain training grants allow out of state

matriculation. Review sponsor guidelines Fees are not an allowable cost unless applying for a

training grant

Recap - Budget Calculation

Federal Sponsor - NIH Modified Total Direct Cost Base Research will be conducted on campus On-campus Research negotiated F&A rate – 51.3%

F&A Calculation Total Direct Costs = $172,529

Salaries/FBs $97,000.00 Equipment $10,000.00 Supplies $ 3,000.00 Tuition $12,529.00 Subcontract $50,000.00

Base $97K + 3K +25K = $125,000 F&A $125,000 X 51.3% = $64,125 Total request from sponsor = $236,654

Questions