Personnel

Most sponsored awards include some level of personnel costs for individuals directly involved in the execution of the project. Such costs can include time for existing NIU personnel or new grant-funded positions. These costs include salaries, wages, and fringe benefits for personnel such as principal investigators, researchers, technicians, project managers, and graduate and undergraduate students.

If your award includes personnel costs for NIU employees or you need to hire project staff, contact your department right away upon receiving your award to allocate payroll or to initiate any new hires. All grant-funded personnel should be paid from the award.

Principal Investigators and their departments are expected to monitor appointments frequently to ensure that personnel costs are charged to the appropriate sponsored award, for the correct amount, and within the correct time period.

SPA expects that departments do this by:

• Comparing and reconciling HR Appointments to the Personnel Detail Report.
• Verifying that HR paperwork actions are being implemented per the department’s request.
• Identifying any discrepancies between the HR appointments and the HR Personnel Detail Report.
• Notifying the Grants and Contracts Associate right away to correct any discrepancies.

Accurate and timely salary charges are essential for compliance with time and effort reporting and other award terms and facilitate correct and timely reimbursement from the sponsor.

When appropriate, SPA encourages the use of advance accounts to initiate payroll or other hiring actions to manage unavoidable delays with receiving a sponsored award.