Research Administration

Salaries of administrative and clerical staff are normally treated as F&A costs.

Administrative and clerical costs may be proposed as direct costs if all four of these criteria exist:

• Integral to the project or activity,
• Identified specifically with the project or activity,
• Explicitly included in budget or have prior written approval of Federal awarding agency, and
• Not also recovered as indirect costs.

If these costs are budgeted as direct costs, you must provide justification in the proposal.

Examples of potentially allowable direct-charged administrative and clerical staff costs:

• Organizing a conference as a component of a larger project.
• Managing travel for a large number of participants.
• Organizing large datasets.
• Managing complex projects with multiple sites, especially if there are multiple subawards.

If questioned, PI must justify expenses to the sponsor and auditors, and he or she will be responsible for paying back any unallowable expenses, if required.

Most federal sponsors require a budget justification and it's advisable to include one with all proposals, whether required or not. The justification gives the PI an opportunity to provide an explanation of budgetary requests that may not be immediately obvious to a reviewer.

For example: A $30,000 request that is described simply as "Laboratory Equipment" should be amplified to explain: “The $30,000 will be used to purchase a critically needed cryomicroscope that will serve as a dedicated tool for infectious disease research for on- and off-campus collaborators.” A clear and focused explanation helps the reviewer understand the need and benefit. See a sample budget justification.

Calendar Month Conversion Table

PHS 398 Forms & Instructions

SF 424 Budget Template - No escalation (updated 3/29/24)

SF 424 Budget Template (updated 3/29/24)

UTMB F&A Rate Agreement

If outside consultants are required, a description of their role in the project should be included in the research plan and in the budget justification. For each consultant, include a biographical sketch and a letter of participation. All external consultants should be listed, even if they are not charging fees or costs.

Consultants or lecturers, along with their fees and travel costs, may be included in the budget. The consultant's services to the proposed project must be professional, short-term or intermittent, and must be solely advisory to the project. For a federal employee, consult the agency guidelines applicable to the individual in order to determine allowability.
Consultants are often confused with consortium/contractual relationships.

Definition - Consultant

A person employed on a short-term basis who provides expert advice without responsibility for a portion of the work scope; an individual hired to give professional advice or services for a fee, normally not as an employee of the hiring party. In unusual situations, a person may be both a consultant and an employee of the same party, receiving compensation for some services as a consultant and for other work as a salaried employee. In order to prevent apparent or actual conflicts of interest, grantees and consultants must establish written guidelines indicating the conditions for payment of consulting fees. Consultants may also include firms that provide paid professional advice or services.

The terms "cost sharing," "matching," and "in-kind" refer to that portion of the total project costs not borne by the sponsor. Cost sharing should be reflected only if mandated by the sponsor or needed to accurately reflect the effort required to conduct the project. All cost sharing and matching/in-kind commitments must be verifiable through documentation and must conform to University and federal/agency policies regarding allowability, allocability, and reasonableness. Any cost sharing or matching must be approved by the department head (or designee) and appropriate officials; link to the  Cost Sharing Approval Form. 

If any individual contributes more effort to the project than the person-months being requested, this is considered cost-sharing. For example: The PI lists 3 person-months’ effort on the proposal, but requests only 1.8 months’ salary. The difference (cost share) should be described in the budget justification and a supporting account (from which the 1.2 person months will be paid) must be listed in the Proposal Routing Form. Faculty members who earn more than the salary cap will be paid the difference from departmental funds, but this does not need to be included in the cost-sharing description.

Budget Justification

Most federal sponsors require a budget justification and it's advisable to include one with all proposals, whether required or not. The justification gives the PI an opportunity to provide an explanation of budgetary requests that may not be immediately obvious to a reviewer.

For example: A $30,000 request that is described simply as "Laboratory Equipment" should be amplified to explain: “The $30,000 will be used to purchase a critically needed cryomicroscope that will serve as a dedicated tool for infectious disease research for on- and off-campus collaborators.” A clear and focused explanation helps the reviewer understand the need and benefit. See a sample budget justification.

Consultant

A person employed on a short-term basis who provides expert advice without responsibility for a portion of the work scope; an individual hired to give professional advice or services for a fee, normally not as an employee of the hiring party. In unusual situations, a person may be both a consultant and an employee of the same party, receiving compensation for some services as a consultant and for other work as a salaried employee. In order to prevent apparent or actual conflicts of interest, grantees and consultants must establish written guidelines indicating the conditions for payment of consulting fees. Consultants may also include firms that provide paid professional advice or services.

Institutional Base Salary

The annual compensation that UTMB pays for an employee's appointment, whether that individual's time is spent on research, teaching, patient care, or other activities. Base salary excludes any income that an individual may be permitted to earn outside of duties to the applicant organization. Base salary may not be increased as a result of replacing institutional salary funds with grant funds.

Modular Budget

The budget justification requires only a description of the personnel who will be participating in the research, but their salaries should not be included. In fact, no budget breakdown (i.e., dollar amounts) is necessary at all. The detailed budget template that must be completed for the project is for internal review purposes only. It must not be included with the grant application.

If a difference exists in the requested amounts between one year and another, the justification must explain why. For example, $250,000 direct costs are sought for budget period 1, and $200,000 for budget periods 2-5, an explanation for this purpose is necessary (major equipment, for instance) and should be uploaded in the SF424 modular budget component “additional narrative justification” field.

Equipment is any item that: 1) has a value of $5,000 or more per unit; 2) has a life expectancy of more than one year; and 3) can be tagged by UTMB. Provide justification for the purchase and how it is essential to accomplish the objectives of the project. A vendor quotation is always helpful. Equipment also includes items that have a per unit cost of less than $5,000 but will be used to fabricate a piece of equipment that is valued at more than $5,000 and can be tagged. Equipment is excluded from the direct cost base used to determine F&A.

If your NIH project budget is $250,000 or less annually, some applications allow you to use a modular budget format. In a modular budget, investigators may request up to a total of $250,000 of direct costs per year in modules of $25,000, excluding consortium F&A costs. A full detailed budget is not required at the time of application. To determine how many modules you should request, subtract any consortium F&A from the total direct costs and round to the nearest $25,000 increment.

The budget justification requires only a description of the personnel who will be participating in the research, but their salaries should not be included. In fact, no budget breakdown (i.e., dollar amounts) is necessary at all. The detailed budget template that must be completed for the project is for internal review purposes only. It must not be included with the grant application.

If a difference exists in the requested amounts between one year and another, the justification must explain why. For example, $250,000 direct costs are sought for budget period 1, and $200,000 for budget periods 2-5, an explanation for this purpose is necessary (major equipment, for instance) and should be uploaded in the SF424 modular budget component “additional narrative justification” field.

More information is available on the NIH Modular Research Grant Applications page.

These are expenses that do not fit into the categories above. Examples include: Publication cost - $400; Service contract on Electron Microscope - $600; Subject reimbursement - $10/subject X 20 subjects = $200. Also, break down all costs for animal housing. Show the nature and extent of any printing to be done. Some specific allowable expenses follow.

Animal care
Standard rates apply for charging animal care costs. Contact the Animal Resource Center (ARC) at (409) 772-1275 for more information or the ARC Website.

Computer services
Academic Resources supports the University's academic and research missions by providing a wide range of computer services with facilities for hosting online tests and computer labs. Various computer consulting services and programming are also available. Contact Academic Resources to schedule an appointment (409) 772-4164.

Equipment maintenance costs and service contracts
Costs for repair and maintenance of project equipment that is necessary to keep it operating efficiently, yet does not appreciably add to its "permanent value or prolong its intended life," are allowable and should be budgeted (2 CFR, Part 200).

Costs associated with the general maintenance and upkeep of a building used for research are generally considered as F&A (indirect) costs and therefore cannot be charged as direct costs. Costs of this nature include repair of light fixtures, custodial costs, unclogging drains, and other maintenance costs that cannot be directly related to a particular grant or contract.

Insurance
Costs of insurance required or approved pursuant to sponsored projects are allowable and may be charged to the federally sponsored projects.

Telephone service
Costs incurred for local telephone services, telephone equipment, cellular telephones, pagers, and fax lines are indirect costs and may not be charged to federally sponsored projects. These costs must be included in the Departmental Administration indirect cost rate component. Long distance toll charges may be charged to federally sponsored projects when a charge can be specifically identified with a project.

Photocopy Costs
Photocopy costs can be charged to federally sponsored projects only when the photocopies directly and specifically benefit the contract or grant to which the charge is made. Photocopy costs for routine administrative activities are indirect costs and may not be charged to federally sponsored projects.

Postage or Delivery/Courier Costs
Ordinary and routine postage costs may not be charged to federally sponsored projects. These costs must be included in the Departmental Administration indirect cost rate component. Federally sponsored projects with an extraordinary high demand for postage may be charged with these costs only if the postage is related to the specific work of the federally sponsored projects and only if the cost is included in the budget narrative and approved by the awarding agency. Delivery/courier costs can be charged to projects if approved in the project budget and justification.

Printing and Publications
Printing and publication costs are allowable and may be charged to federally sponsored programs.

Participant travel and any other direct payments to participants
Direct payments to participants, including patients, donors, subjects, and volunteers, should be listed in this category.

The costs of routine and ancillary services provided by hospitals to individuals participating in research programs, including patients and volunteers, are allowable provided that the procedures are not considered standard of care and billable to an insurance provider, such as x-ray, laboratory, pharmacy, blood bank, pathology, etc. Only the hospital technical charge can be budgeted and the rate is calculated using UTMB's Patient Care Rate Agreement. Exclude Patient Care Costs from F&A calculation.

The following otherwise allowable costs are not classified as research patient care costs: items for patient expense reimbursement, such as patient travel and parking; professional physician fees; and supplies, such as syringes, specimen collection kits, etc. Such costs should be included in the “Supplies” or “Other Expenses” category of the grant budget.

For those using the ITS Clinical Research Center, some costs associated with the clinical study (e.g., nursing, laboratory, and room) may be absorbed by the center's grant.

Salaries for personnel are calculated based on the effort a person will devote to the project. For comparison purposes, 50% effort is approximately two and one-half days (2.5) per week, 20 hours per week or 6 person months (since UTMB operates on a 12-month calendar). Because effort may vary over the life of a project, for budgeting purposes, effort should be determined based on an anticipated average over each project year. Personnel estimates of effort should describe accurately the amount of time expected to be spent by those involved with the project, along with total associated costs, including current salaries and fringe benefits (e.g., Project Director or Principal Investigator, 6 person months [pm] for one year at an annual salary of $30,000 = $15,000). Federal granting agencies now require percent effort to be expressed as “person months." A calculator to convert percent effort to person months is available on the Research Services website. Note that NIH has a current salary cap of $221,900. (See NOT-OD-24-057. New cap effective January 1, 2024.)

Beginning in Fall 2007, students who enter the Basic Biomedical Sciences Curriculum (BBSC), the Biophysical, Structural & Computational Biology curriculum (BSCB), and any curriculum of the Preventive Medicine & Community Health program in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS), may be reimbursed for tuition and standard required fees, if they are working under grants and/or contracts. The amount must be identified on the proposal budget.

Faculty sponsorship of tuition and fees for qualifying students is handled as a form of compensation, in accordance with the sponsor’s guidelines and with Uniform Guidance (2CFR Part 200). Some sponsors do not allow tuition reimbursement.

Tuition for Training Projects: The cost of tuition under training grants may be budgeted unless otherwise specified in the program guidelines. Note: If tuition is allowable under the program guidelines and indirect costs are based on Modified Total Direct Costs, tuition and fees must be excluded from the indirect cost base calculations. Contact your PreAward Analyst if you have questions concerning this information.