This page contains information that is specific to NSF proposal budgets. For more general guidance on how to build a good grant budget, visit this page. For guidance on how to write a good budget justification, visit this page.
The following is general guidance for most NSF proposals. Some NSF programs and solicitations may have different requirements and conditions that supersede the information presented here, so be sure to check that you are following the correct procedures for the competition to which you are applying. As always, if you have questions or if you aren't sure which guidelines apply, contact your responsible RDS in a timely fashion.
The basic categories of an NSF proposal budget, as defined in the Grants Proposal Guide (GPG), are as follows:
Per NSF policy, compensation for anyone designated as "senior personnel" on the proposal (which will always include the PI and any and all co-PIs, as well as anyone else designated as senior personnel on the proposal cover sheet) is limited to two months of their regular salary in any single year. This includes salary compensation received from all NSF-funded grants. You can request salary above and beyond the two months, provided that it is justified in the proposal and in the budget justification, but any such additional salary must be specifically authorized by NSF in the award notification.
Starting salaries and wages in grant budgets for all current NIU employees are calculated based on the employee's current institutional base contract salary. For subsequent proposal years (often referred to as "out-years"), we assume a 2% increase for fiscal years 2011 and 2012, and a 4% increase beginning in fiscal year 2013 and thereafter.
There are two types of faculty salary support: summer salary or release time. Faculty members with administrative appointments (deans, chairs, center directors, etc.) must request release time, as their appointments are normally for 12 months. Regular faculty may also request release time during the academic year in the form of a course release.
Other personnel includes graduate and undergraduate research assistants, postdoctoral associates, faculty experts not designated as senior personnel, technicians, and the like.
Fringe benefits are an allowable cost on NSF grants. For information on rates and procedures, see this page.
As defined by both NIU and NSF, "equipment" means "an item of property that has an acquisition cost of $5,000 or more ...and an expected service life of more than one year." Items which cost less than $5,000 are normally budgeted as materials and supplies.
However, the acquisition cost of equipment includes "modifications, attachments, and accessories necessary to make the property usable for the purpose for which it was purchased." Consequently, even if the base price of an item is less than $5,000, if the accessories, attachments, and/or modifications needed to make it usable for the proposed research bring the price above that $5,000 threshold, it can still be listed as equipment. Similarly, if the item you need to carry out some or all of your research program is not commercially available in the form you need it, we can still list the components needed to build it as equipment, as long as the total cost is at least $5,000.
Equipment items must be thoroughly justified in the budget justification. NSF will normally expect to see the budget justification backed up with at least one vendor quote for the item(s) budgeted.
NSF budget requests must separate travel into "domestic" (which includes the United States and its possessions, Puerto Rico, Canada, and Mexico) and "foreign" categories. Travel costs may be requested for field work, attendance at meetings and/or conferences that are either necessary to accomplish proposal objectives or where results of the proposed research are presented, and other travel associated with the work proposed.
A domestic conference for one person, on average, costs approximately $1,500; an international conference, approximately $2,000-$2,500. For field work and other research-related travel (collaborating with researchers at another institution, for example, or projects at a national laboratory or other external facility), you should budget for airfare or mileage as needed to travel to the site, hotel or other accommodations if an overnight stay will be required, living expenses or per diem allowances, as applicable, and all other necessary expenses, for each person making the trip.
When budgeting for travel, remember that all air travel paid for with federal grant funds must be on a U.S.-flagged carrier if one is available. This can be on a code-sharing basis (i.e., the flight is on an airline that is technically not a U.S.-flagged carrier, but the ticket was issued by a cooperating partner that is).
"Participant support" has a very specific meaning for NSF proposal budgets, and NSF participant support costs are normally excluded from the F&A (indirect costs, overhead) base. As defined in the Grants Proposal Guide (GPG), this budget category "refers to costs of transportation, per diem, stipends and other related costs for participants or trainees (but not employees) in connection with NSF-sponsored conferences, meetings, symposia, training activities and workshops." Consult with your responsible RDS for further information on how to budget for these costs properly.
Please also note that if you are making payments to human subjects as compensation for participation in a research study, these costs should also be treated as "participant support" and budgeted accordingly.
This budget category includes items of equipment that cost less than $5,000 each, along with other items that are needed to carry out the proposed research but which are not budgeted elsewhere. When charged as direct costs, materials and supplies must be directly allocable to the research project: things such as chemicals, test kits, laboratory glassware and small equipment, specialized software packages or licenses, specimen bottles, fish food, or anything else that you need to carry out the research you are proposing. If you are not certain whether a particular item or cost can be charged to your grant, check this list of generally unallowable items, or consult your responsible RDS.
NSF allows costs for "documenting, preparing, publishing or otherwise making available to others the findings and products of the work conducted under the grant." This category of costs includes such things as reports, reprints, page charges or other journal costs (except costs for prior or early publication); necessary illustrations; cleanup, documentation, storage and indexing of data and databases; development, documentation and debugging of software; and storage, preservation, documentation, indexing, etc., of physical specimens, collections or fabricated items. Do not include your time or that of other project personnel in preparing manuscripts, etc., as that is presumed to be a part of your work on the grant for which you receive salary compensation.
Consultants are persons in certain occupations or possessing special skills who are not employees of NIU. Consultant services, when required to carry out the proposed work, are allowable on NSF budgets. These costs must be "reasonable in relation to the services rendered," and should be comparable to the normal or customary fees that the individual(s) in question would receive for comparable services regardless of who is paying for the work.
Anticipated consultant services must be justified, and information furnished on each individual's expertise, primary organizational affiliation, normal daily compensation rate, and the number of days of expected service. Travel costs, including subsistence or per-diem, may also be included, if these are not normally considered part of the daily rate. Some NSF programs place limits on the daily rate for consultants; check with your responsible RDS if you are not sure how much is allowed.
If you plan to include consultant services on your proposal, you should request a brief biographical sketch in the standard NSF format from all the individuals whose services you plan to retain for the project. These will normally be appended to the proposal as supplementary documents, so reviewers and program staff can assess the potential consultants' background and suitability for the work proposed.
NSF does not generally allow computer costs from the performing institution as direct charges on grants. Costs for leasing computers to carry out the proposed work, or for computer time on another computing facility, can be included. Costs for specialized software are budgeted under materials and supplies.
The term "subaward" is used when the prime funding mechanism is a grant, while the term "subcontract" is used when the prime funding mechanism is a contract. Both represent a legal agreement between the primary contractor or grantee (NIU) and another party and are used when a major portion of the work may be performed by another party. The term subcontract is used interchangeably throughout these budget pages.
A NSF policy requires that all subcontracts be disclosed in the proposal narrative, and that a separate budget must be provided for each partner institution, along with a description of the work to be performed there. If you have not yet identified a partner institution at the time the proposal is submitted, then you should clearly describe the work to be performed and specify the basis for selection of the partner.
Partner institutions on NIU proposals will each need to provide the following:
These materials should be sent to your responsible RDS as soon as practical in the proposal development process, but certainly before the proposal is routed for institutional approvals at NIU. Allow extra time for developing any proposal that involves subcontracts, as both NIU and the partner institution(s) will need to prepare and review quite a bit of additional documentation before the proposal can be submitted. If the program to which you are applying limits the amount of funding that can be requested, remember that NIU will take indirect costs on the first $25,000 of each subcontract (or on the full amount of the subcontract, if it is less than $25,000).
All other costs not covered elsewhere should be included on this line. Such costs include, but are not limited to, tuition remission, costs for shipping of research samples and field equipment to/from field sites and/or collaborating institutions, and contractual services related to the proposed research (such as, for example, evaluation services, sample analysis, or specialized services like map- or model-making), whether the work is done at NIU or an outside institution.
Per NSF policy, we must use our negotiated federal rate for indirect costs on all NSF proposals. Our negotiated F&A rate for on-campus research is 45% of modified total direct costs (which consists of all salaries and wages, fringe benefits, materials, supplies, travel, and subrants/subcontracts up to the first $25,000 of each; the MTDC base excludes equipment, capital expenditures, charges for patient care, tuition remission, rental costs of off-site facilities, scholarships, fellowships, and the value of each subcontract, if any, in excess of $25,000). The corresponding off-campus rate is 26%, where "off-campus" research is defined by university policy.
If an NSF program specifies a different F&A rate and/or rate basis, or does not allow any recovery of F&A costs (typically for proposals where the grant is made to an individual instead of the institution, or grants solely for conference travel, equipment, construction, or participant support), NIU will honor that rate or waive indirect costs altogether. NSF policy requires a split F&A rate for all proposals involving REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) students: 25% of the total stipend amount for participant stipends, and the applicable federally negotiated rate on all other costs.
Cost sharing refers to the commitment of institutional or other resources (over and above the funding requested from the sponsoring agency) to a particular research project, at the discretion of the grantee institution. Note that this does not include such things as laboratory space, equipment, facilities, or other resources that NIU provides to researchers more generally, and which should be reported (as applicable to the proposed research), on the "Facilities, Equipment, and Other Resources" form.
Except where it is explicitly required in a program solicitation, NSF policy expressly prohibits voluntary committed cost sharing on NSF proposals, and does not require it for unsolicited proposals. Currently there are only two NSF programs that require cost sharing: the Major Research Instrumentation program and the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program. For proposals to these two programs, we will include mandatory cost sharing at the required level on the NSF proposal budget.
Current policy requires that funds for tuition costs (usually referred to as "tuition remission") for all graduate research assistants included on all grant proposals and contracts be requested from all sponsors, unless the sponsor expressly prohibits recovery of tuition costs. Tuition is expressly allowed as a direct cost on NSF grants, so normally tuition waivers will not be granted for NSF proposal budgets unless there is considerable justification for the request.