NIH Detailed Budget Justification Guidelines
Our boilerplates and sample text for selected applications may be used as a starting point for your applications, and should be modified to meet sponsor's requirements and to align with your proposed research plan. The following guidelines were developed to with creating a budget justification for an NIH detailed budget. Please also refer to the Budget Justification Guide and Boilerplate for more general information on your budget justification.
Personnel
List all personnel and include their name (minimize the use of 'to-be-named'), role (e.g. principal Investigator, Co-Investigator, Technician, etc.), effort in calendar/person months, and a brief description of his person's contribution to the project. Clearly indicate those personnel who are Senior/Key and those who are Non-Key. If an individual's salary is above the NIH salary cap, provide an explanation indicating that actual institutional base salary [provide actual dollar amount] exceeds the current salary limitation. More>>
At the end of the Personnel sub-section, specify the institutional fringe benefit rates for each year (see RU's Administrative Data page.) State if the rates are pro-rated based on RU's fiscal year.
Include in the Personnel section the following statement: "All full-time University appointments - faculty and staff - are for 12 months. Therefore, University efforts and salaries are calculated on a 12-month calendar year.' This could help to reduce misunderstanding (regarding summer salary supplement, compensation levels, among others) during the budget review and potential budget cut considerations.
A few additional things to note:
- If any RU personnel listed on the budget do not work under the HOL/Dept. Head signing on the Routing Form, their own HOL/Dept. Head must provide a written approval to OSPA that the named personnel may contribute to the project.
- Any inclusion of RU employees unpaid by the project, apart from HOLs, requires Finance's prior approval and signature on the Routing Form as this would constitute voluntary cost sharing (exceptions may include trainees who are supported by other sources or sponsors that do not allow salaries to be included in the budget.)
- Per the Uniform Guidance, salaries for administrative and clerical personnel may be included as a direct cost on the budget if all of the following conditions are met:
- The administrative or clerical services are essential to the project's goals and objectives.
- The individuals can be specifically identified with the project or activity.
- Such costs are explicitly included in the budget and the integral nature of the services are clearly justified.
- Placing central administration staff on sponsored research awards - paid or unpaid - is not allowed.
Equipment
Equipment is defined as an article of non-expendable, tangible personal property having a useful life of more than one year, and an acquisition cost of $5,000 or more per unit. Such articles must be itemized, detailing the estimated costs and justification for each, stressing their critical benefits to the project and their cost effectiveness. whenever possible, provide vendor's quotes to substantiate your request. Including price quotes in your budget justification can aid in the evaluation of the equipment cost to support the project. (Check the applicable opportunity announcement and RU's institutional procurement policies for any additional requirements.)
Travel
Domestic travel costs should be identified and listed separately from foreign travel costs. Provide the estimated travel costs. Identify purpose (e.g. professional meetings, sponsor meetings, site visits, workshops, collaborative forums, or others as the project require), destination, tentative travel schedule, and number of individuals for each trip. It is important that you clearly state how the travel is directly related to your research. Generally, only the "customary standard (coach or equivalent) airfare" is allowable on federal awards. Federal regulations mandate the use of U.S. flag carriers or Code-share carriers for all federally funded travel, foreign or domestic. More>>
Trainee Costs
Trainee costs should not be requested unless otherwise stated in the funding opportunity announcement (FOA).
Other Direct Costs
- Supplies. Indicate general categories such as glassware, chemicals, and animal purchase costs (provide the type of animal, the number of animals and price per animal). Computing devices may be included in the budget for devices that are essential and allocable, even if the device is not soley dedicated to the work proposed in the application. (If a computing device costs more than $5,000, then it would be treated as equipment, not a supply.) Categories totaling less than $1,000 are not required to be itemized.
- Genomic Array (GA). Contact your OSPA SPO if your proposed GA costs exceed $50,000/year. If they do, they can no longer be classified in the "supplies" category. More>>
- Publication Costs. Provide an estimate.
- Consultant Services. Consultants work for a fee and are not employees of the applicant organization (an employee cannot be a consultant). Individual consultant's fees are normally paid by the hour and the rate is typically all-inclusive (e.g. rate captures effort and time, supplies, travel costs, communications, and all other associated expenses). Identify individual consultants on your budget, his/her organizational affiliations, the services he/she will perform and the benefits to the project. The cost of consultants must meet the test of reasonableness. A letter from an authorized representative of the consultant's organization substantiating and justifying the hourly rate and the number of hours for the proposed consulting services is required.
- Computer Services. Services included here must be used directly for research, such as software applications for data analysis, computers to control instrumentation, etc. (This section must not include standard desktop office computer, the standard tech support provided by your institution, and the like.) More>>
- Subawards/Consortia. If the project includes subawards, the RU budget justification should specify the subaward institution and state the amount requested in subaward/consortium costs. The RU justification should then refer to the subaward detailed budget and justification. A complete subaward/consortium budget justification should be completed by each consortium grantee organization, similar in format to the prime. The justification should state the subgrantee's institutional fringe benefit rates by year and the subaward/consortium indirect cost rate(s). For subawards to foreign institutions the same subaward information should be provided. Important: The F&A cost rate on NIH subawards to foreign institutions is limited to 8%. Subawards/Subcontracts/Consortia Requirements>>
- Resource Centers. These costs would include shared instrumentation centers, RUIT, and other re-charge RU resources and services. If your project requires the use of RU re-charge facilities that will directly benefit your research, detail estimated costs based on the posted rates for the specific center(s)/services(s) involved. Include, as applicable, detailed animal maintenance costs (as opposed to animal purchase costs, which are considered a supply), specifying the number of animals and housing per diem rates for each animal, referencing the pertinent CBC published rate. In order to ensure the reasonableness of the request, budgets should be developed by consulting the relevant Resource Center's published rates or by requesting a written quote. More>>
- Patient Care Costs. Few budgets contain patient care expenses, but if these costs are requested, indicate in detail the basis for estimating costs in this category, including the number of patient days, estimated cost per day and cost per treatment or test. If both in-patient and out-patient costs are requested, provide information for each separately. If multiple sites are to be used, provide detailed information by site. Include information regarding projected patient accrual for each budget year, and specific information regarding any additional costs that are anticipated. Include any expected utilization of the Clinical Translational Science Award (CTSA).
