Faculty Salary Charges on Externally Funded Projects

Academic salaries can be fully or partially funded by external sponsors depending on the policies of the sponsor and those of the faculty's academic unit and these guidelines. The University encourages faculty to pursue funding which would support their salary. No more than twelve months of total salary support (academic plus summer) will be approved in a twelve month period. It is the responsibility of the PI to know and follow sponsor's policies pertaining to the payment of academic salary and to initiate the process to pay salaries from external awards.

This section applies when a grant will pay a portion of the institutional base salary of a faculty member working on a particular research project during the academic year.  “Institutional base salary” (or IBS)  is defined as the base salary (academic year or year-round) plus major or minor administrative stipends, if any, paid to the faculty member, but does not include summer or incidental salary (sections 2 and 3 below).

For faculty charging academic year effort to a grant during a given period, the amount budgeted should be the result of multiplying the faculty member’s IBS by the percent of effort for that period.

If the faculty member is seeking a course buy out, the rule of thumb (pursuant to guidance we’ve received from the provost’s office) is that 15% of IBS and associated fringe benefits must be budgeted on the grant for each course buy out, subject to applicable college/school guidelines.

This section is under construction

This section is under construction

All faculty salaries must include fringe benefits according to the fringe benefit rates in the agreement with DHHS. This information is available here.

Please consult with the Research Administrator assigned to your School/Department in the Office of Research Services for other relevant policy issues regarding grant salary payments. Exceptions to the grant salary guidelines outlined herein may be approved only by the Provost.

Academic year effort may be counted as a cost share commitment with prior approval from your Chair/Dean. Academic year cost-shared salary should be calculated using the same basis as academic year salary charged to a sponsor. An accounting unit (AU) number showing the source of the cost share must be submitted to ORS, via the PTAP, at the time of proposal preparation.

If no pay is received during a summer pay period, then “volunteer” effort by a faculty member on a grant as third-party cost share is permissible. This cost share must be reported by the faculty member submitting a letter to SPA documenting the time spent on the project, with the value calculated as per section (2) above. The letter should be signed and dated by the faculty member and countersigned by the PI of the grant if different.

[the following guidance is provided by the Division of Academic Affairs]

If you are listed as Principal Investigator (PI) on a new grant award from which you will pay yourself or others, you must first meet with your Dean to review course reductions, budgets, salaries, etc. The next step is to coordinate with your College Budget Manager to initiate the electronic Payroll Authorization, an online approval process (Faculty Information System) authorizing grant salary charges. The Budget Manager will submit the form to the PI for sign off, followed by Chair/Dean, and then to Faculty Administration for payroll processing. Please note that because a PI must sign off on all grant salary charges, the responsibility of meeting with the Dean (and College Budget Manager) may not be delegated to anyone else. Also, if a PI recruits another full-time faculty member(s) to work on a grant, your College Budget Manager will coordinate the appropriate payroll charges to the grant.