Prepare/Submit an Application: Develop a Proposal Budget

The budget should be a numeric depiction of the project. A competitive budget should contain costs that are allowable by the sponsor, allocable to the project, reasonable and necessary. As your proposal administrator, Sponsored Programs will assist you with preparing your proposal budget in a manner consistent with sponsor guidelines and System Member policies.

To get started with the budget process, please provide Sponsored Programs with your preliminary budget information, including:

  • names of personnel and/or to be named positions
  • personnel effort
  • names of outside collaborating institutions/personnel
  • itemized capital equipment (over $5,000 per unit)
  • any other direct costs

Remember, the finalized budget format should follow the sponsor’s instructions and may be required on the sponsor’s form. Projects that cover more than one year are usually broken down by each year with a page containing a cumulative total for each category. This can be confusing. Please contact Sponsored Programs for help.

Budget Categories

Below are the items typically requested in a budget. Please review the sponsor's guidelines for specific budget requirements. Sponsored Programs staff are available to assist with creating a budget, so please contact us as soon as possible so that the budget can be discussed, created and finalized.

Salary/Wages

Extramural funding agencies/sponsors require information about the amount of effort that senior personnel provide towards a grant. Effort is the amount of time a faculty member works on a grant, agreement or contract. Some sponsors require documentation of effort in months, while others require effort as a percentage of time. Salaries and fringe benefits charged to a grant are determined by the amount of time and effort provided by the senior personnel.

Faculty (Senior Personnel)

The salary is based on the faculty member's 9 or 12-month institutional contracted salary. To determine summer salary, take the 9-month salary and multiply by 0.333.

Postdocs

Postdocs can be paid for 9 or 12 months.

Graduate Assistants

Graduate Assistants can be hired per semester for 9-month or 12-month terms. East Texas A&M University has established a salary range for graduate assistants. Assistants should be paid within the established salary range and can work no more than 20 hours per week.

Undergraduate Students

Undergraduate Students are paid hourly, and the minimum rate is the standard minimum rate of pay (see below). Students can work no more than 19 hours per week.

  • Undergraduate Student Workers – $7.25
  • Graduate Student Workers – $9.10

Fringe Benefits

Fringe benefits must be included for each salary in the budget. Fringe benefits are the benefits that would be paid by the University, and may include such items as social security, medicare, workers comp insurance, unemployment compensation insurance, retirement, longevity, leave termination and health insurance.

Faculty and Postdocs

  • East Texas A&M fringe benefit rate for faculty and postdocs is 18.9% plus $1,104 per month (health insurance).

Graduate Assistants

  • The fringe benefit rate for graduate assistants is 3% plus $283 per month (health insurance).

Undergraduate Students

  • The fringe benefit rate for student workers is 3%. (Note: insurance is not applicable).

Fringe benefits (benefits paid by the University) are required to be included in extramural funding requests for salaries and wages. Please use the fringe benefit calculator to calculate the benefits for each type of salary, principal investigator, co-investigators, senior personnel, post-docs, graduate assistants and student workers.

For assistance in calculating Fringe Benefits, please contact Sponsored Programs at 903.886.5964 or [email protected] for current rates.

Fringe Benefit Letter

Equipment

The Federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) classifies equipment as:

  • tangible nonexpendable property charged directly to the award,
  • having a useful life of more than one year, and
  • an acquisition cost of $5,000 or more per unit.

The acquisition cost of the item includes tax, installation and freight charges. All other equipment that does not cost at least $5,000 per unit should be listed in materials and/or supplies.

Travel

Most funding sponsors will allow both domestic and international travel. Please review the request for proposal/applications and guidelines carefully to determine if there are restrictions for international travel. Travel costs include the expenses for transportation, lodging, subsistence and related items incurred by employees who are in travel status on official business of the institution. All travel costs must align with East Texas A&M University, the State of Texas and Federal regulations, policies and procedures.

Participant Costs

If the project requires participant costs, include stipends and allowances, tuition and fees, travel and project supplies.

Other Direct Costs

Other direct costs usually include materials and supplies, publication costs/documentation/dissemination, consultant services, subawards and tuition remission.

Consultant Services

Consultants are independent contractors not affiliated with East Texas A&M University who are hired to provide specific services. Consultants are not eligible for fringe benefits. A statement of work and estimate of charges are required before submitting the proposal and/or application. For more information, please review OMB Circular A-21, Section 37.

Subawards

If you intend to collaborate with personnel from another institution and request any amount of funds from the application's budget to cover the work performed at the external institution, the sponsor considers this a request to issue a “subaward” to the collaborative institution. A subaward is an acceptable request for most sponsors and is included in the budget under its category (“Subawards”).

When a proposal budget includes funds for subawards, several documents must be obtained from the proposed subrecipient and be routed with the proposal for internal approvals before the proposal is submitted to the sponsor. The following documents are required when including subawards in a proposal budget:

  • Statement of Work (should describe the specific activities that will be performed by the collaborative party)
  • Budget (should identify the specific items that the funds will cover)
  • Budget Justification (should explain why each budget item is needed)
  • Biographical sketch and Current/Pending Awards (required for most federal programs)
  • Signed Subrecipient Commitment Form – (an internal form that must be signed by the proposed subrecipient's authorized organizational representative)

It is best to request these documents from your collaborator as soon as possible to allow them time to work with the research administrative office at their institution to get the documents routed for internal approvals.

The final/approved documents will need to be sent from the collaborator's research administrative office to East Texas A&M. Please notify Sponsored Programs as soon as possible so that communication between both offices can be initiated.

Cost Sharing/Matching

Some funding sponsors require cost-sharing and/or matching. Cost sharing is a portion of a grant that is not charged to the sponsor, but is provided by other sources. Cost sharing is not acceptable unless it is required by the funding sponsor. Cost sharing can be contributed time/effort by faculty, postdocs, graduate assistants and student workers. Matching is usually considered (i.e., if the grant is $50,000, the sponsor may require a 25% match, which would be $12,500 of actual cash the institution will be required to provide). Check to see if Cost Share is required in the RFP. If it is not mandatory, ETAMU will not allow it.

Cost Sharing Types

The three types of cost sharing include:

  • Mandatory Cost Sharing – This type must be tracked, and an account number with the funds must be given.
  • Voluntary Committed Cost Sharing – This type must also be tracked and an account number with the funds must be given.
  • Voluntary Uncommitted Cost Share – These funds are not tracked or auditable.
TAMU System Policy on Cost-Sharing

Indirect Costs or Facilities & Administration

Costs relating to common or joint objectives that cannot be identified readily and specifically with a project fall under this category. East Texas A&M University has a negotiated rate with the Department of Health and Human Services. The rate is 39% of the total direct costs excluding equipment costing > $5,000/each, tuition reimbursement, patient care costs, student support costs, the excess of $25K of each sub-award, alterations and renovations and space rental or rental maintenance. Please see the full IDC rate agreement for more information. Carefully review the sponsor’s request for proposals/applications and guidelines. If indirect costs are not allowable or the rate is reduced, contact Sponsored Programs.

Personnel

Explain how each individual will contribute to the project, including their specific function. If an individual is to be hired, describe the required qualifications. Provide the percentage of effort and the salary for the effort. Include a description of any annual salary increases.

Travel

Provide the purpose of the trip, and justify all individuals traveling. State that the costs are based on state and federal rates.

Equipment

Describe the equipment required. A quote from a seller should be obtained.

Consultant Costs

Provide the name and organizational affiliations of the consultants. Provide the number of days of prospective consultant, and estimated rate of compensation.

Supplies

Items less than $1,000 should not be itemized.

The budget amounts and the budget justification amounts must match.

Resources

ETAMU Budget Calculator

Videos

The National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA) has developed the following videos designed to walk PIs through budgeting aspects of the application process.

Cost Sharing

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