Budget considerations

Salaries

Budgeted salaries must be a reasonable estimate of the amount of time/effort each individual will devote to the project. The amount of salary charged to sponsored projects should roughly match the amount of time attested to on effort reports.

Time charged to a grant does not automatically mean course release or buyout. Release from instruction time is negotiated between the faculty member and their Chair/Director.

Benefits

The University of Maryland has a negotiated a fringe benefit rate. This means that all employees within given categories are charged the same fringe benefit rate regardless of their actual benefit costs. The benefits rates are broken into four groups:

• Faculty
• Staff
• Limited benefits (contractual faculty/staff, graduate assistants)
• Legislated benefits (hourly students, faculty/staff additional pay)

Rates will be charged based on the expenditure object code. For sponsored project budgeting, it is important to know the category of employee who needs to fill a role in order to budget for them properly. Keep in mind that 9-month faculty may have different salary object codes in the academic year versus the summer, which means they may be subject to different benefit rates. Fringe benefit rates may not be inflated across years on sponsored budgets. Salaries may include an escalation factor, but the benefit rates must not. The rate applied will change annually based on a review of the costs and rates at the central level and changes will be applied to sponsored projects across the board as they are to non-sponsored accounts.

For more information, visit the Fringe Benefit Rates section on the Provost's website, which is updated every year as the rates are re-negotiated, and the visit the Benefits & Stipends page on ORA's website.

Travel

All travel must be directly relevant to the project and reflect activities in the project narrative. 

All federally-funded travel must comply with federal travel regulations. Federally-funded foreign travel must also comply with Fly America Act. For more information on BSOS practices for foreign travel, visit the SMART Center's website. Reimbursable rates for per diem and mileage can be found on the Travel Services website.

Materials and Supplies

This section of the budget should include all items which are necessary for the conduct and completion of the sponsored project. Computers (under $5,000) are considered a supply under the Uniform Guidance, which means they must be justified as specifically necessary to a particular project or activity. Otherwise, computers would normally be considered an office supply and, as such, covered by departmental funds. In general, the BSOS Dean's Office requests that departments include quotes in their proposals for materials and supplies costs greater than $20,000 for one item.

Consultant Costs

Consultants are experts outside of the University of Maryland. The rates for consultants must be reasonable and justifiable. Keep this in mind at the proposal stage, as at the award stage when the consultant must be paid they will be asked to provide an invoice covering similar work which has been paid by another entity. Additionally, some sponsors limit consultant rates by the day.

Indirect Costs

Indirect costs (aka overhead) should be included on all externally-funded projects. Rates differ based on the type of activity conducted under the sponsored award, and the location of the project. Unless there is a publicly available or statute-mandated sponsor limitation, the full F&A rate should be calculated and charged. New in 2018 there is a rate specific to Department of Defense contracts. The current F&A memo along with the implementation plan can be found on ORA's website.

In limited circumstances on non-federal awards, the BSOS Dean's Office will consider requests to waive part or all of the indirect costs. Before requesting such a waiver, contact the Director of Research Administration, Rebecca Hunsaker, at hunsaker@umd.edu.

Indirect expenditures come back to the college, department, and faculty in the form of DRIF return. It is therefore in the best interest of the department to include full indirect costs in sponsored project budgets.

Developing the Budget

The budget is the financial expression of the scope of work. A project budget should reflect the activities outlined in the scope of work as well as the time/effort of involved personnel. The budget should not include items or categories which are not adequately or expressly addressed in the statement of work.

Below, templates for a budget and a budget narrative/justification are included for informational purposes. Any unit is welcome to use these for their proposal development activities.

The budget template is built to enable a research administrator to enter year 1 costs and have them automatically included and calculated in subsequent years. It includes the most common budget categories for federal research proposals and the ability to hide those major categories if they are unnecessary for a particular proposal.

Budget template

Similarly, the budget justification template is built to include most common budget categories, but also includes narratives for each of these categories and line items to demonstrate what the Dean's Office and the University look for when reviewing a budget narrative. Individual sponsors may require more detail, which would be outlined in the solicitation or the request for proposals. All proposals must include a budget justification, whether or not the sponsor requires it. The budget justification is used in the internal proposal review process to evaluate the allowability and reasonableness of costs. The routing memo should indicate those cases where the budget justification does not go to the sponsor.

Budget justification sample

More detail on budgeting specific items of cost.

Fringe Benefits

The University of Maryland negotiates a fringe benefit rate with the Federal Government every year. This is the rate that gets charged (depending on employment category) to departmental and sponsored accounts to cover the actual cost of fringe benefits. The FY25 rates are below:

Cost Sharing

Cost sharing (or matching) is the portion of a project's cost that is not paid for by a sponsor. Mandatory cost sharing is that which is required by the funding agency. For federal awards, this will be outlined in the solicitation/RFP. Voluntary cost sharing is that which is not required by the sponsor but which the PI wishes to include anyway.

Federal awarding agencies may not use voluntary cost sharing as a factor in the merit review of a proposal. Some federal awarding agencies (e.g., NSF) explicitly disallow voluntary cost sharing and may reject a proposal without review if voluntary cost sharing is included. For non-federal proposals, cost sharing is still highly discouraged, in part because it imposes a substantial burden on the PI and the department in terms of dollars, resources, and reporting.

In all cases, it is the responsibility of the PI and their Department Chair or Center Director to identify the source of funds that will pay the University cost share. If money is expected from the College, the Dean should be contacted at least two weeks prior to submission with a draft of the research design and a budget. 

For more information on cost sharing, including links to the University's Cost Sharing policy, please visit ORA's cost share webpage.

Salary Limitations

Some federal and non-federal sponsors place limitations on the amount or rate of salary an investigator can be paid from a sponsored project. In these cases, the department and PI must determine the source of funds to cover the amount over the salary cap. The department should work with their Sponsored Projects Accounting and Compliance (SPAC) accountant to have a cap account created and linked to the sponsored account.

For more in-depth information on dealing with salary caps please visit the BSOS Salary Cap webpage.

Subawards

A subaward is an award (be it grant, contract, procurement) that is issued under a sponsored award. It is important to decide at the proposal stage whether another organization or institution will be a subrecipient, contractor, or consultant, as there are budgetary implications for this decision. Per the University of Maryland's indirect cost rate agreement, award budgets calculated on a modified total direct cost (MTDC) basis exclude the portion of subawards greater than $25,000 when determining the indirect costs. Consulting agreements, procurements, and other contracts are charged the applicable indirect cost rate on the entire contract amount.

For more information on determining whether an entity with whom you are working is a subrecipient, contractor, or vendor, refer to this short document with the distinguishing characteristics of each, or to a longer, more detailed version on ORA's website.

The BSOS Research Team can help faculty develop external grant proposals with a range of activities including:

• prepare budgets, both internal and for submission;
• coordinate the development of proposal components (scientific and non-scientific);
• assist investigators to prepare standard proposal forms required by the sponsor and funding opportunity, and enter forms and information in sponsor submission portals;
• assist with writing of various non-scientific proposal requirements (e.g. administrative forms, budget narrative, etc.);
• format proposals for compliance, presentation, and consistency;
• review documents for completeness by checking them against the funding solicitation;
• address common compliance issues early to reduce problems identified through the UMD routing process;
• represent UMD, in varying capacities, to external sponsors, collaborating organizations and individuals, and other constituents. This includes disseminating information necessary for the successful and compliant submission of sponsored proposals;
• and coordinate routing of proposals (both funded and zero-dollar contractual agreements) through the Dean's Office and the Office of Research Administration.

On a case-by-case basis, and based on competing workload, proposal managers can help structure and present proposal text for clarity, and edit components so that reviewers can quickly identify the main messages, locate pertinent information, and follow the flow of the proposal.

These services are primarily available to all faculty, students, and investigators in AFAM, ANTH, CCJS, HESP, and Dean's Office units without proposal development specialists, but the team may also be able to assist faculty in other departments on an as-needed basis. Any individual who needs support for upcoming proposals should use the form linked below to indicate an intent to submit. While it is easier for the team to assist you if we have more information, only the first five questions are required in order to complete the form.

Intent to Submit form

The Intent to Submit form should be completed as soon as possible when an opportunity has been identified, preferably at least 6 weeks before the deadline. Remember that the earlier the research team is aware of a proposal, the more in depth the service and guidance can be. Agreements which need only to be submitted for routing (e.g. data use agreements, non-disclosure agreements, etc) do not need to be submitted weeks in advance, but should be sent via the Intent to Submit form as soon as practical. One of our proposal development coordinators will reach out to you within one business day of submission of the form. If you have questions or concerns, please email us at BSOSResearch@umd.edu.

Research Team:
Stephanie Scribner
Maria Barriero-Palafox
Rebecca Hunsaker
Shannon Corrigan

Conflict of Interest (COI) is a legal term that encompasses a wide spectrum of behaviors or actions involving personal gain or financial interest. Under University policy, the term "conflict of interest" denotes situations in which a member of the University community is in a position to gain personal benefit (broadly construed) or financial advantage arising from their University position, either through outside professional activities or through their actions or decisions at the University, including research, administrative, or educational activities. Because University employees are also State employees, the Maryland State Ethics Law governing conflict of interest also applies.

Conflicts of interest are not necessarily negative, nor do they all require management plans. Many times all that is needed to protect the investigator and the University is the disclosure of ownership/equity in a company. In order to ensure all Investigators are aware of their responsibilities and potential liability, BSOS has enacted certain COI requirements for research proposals.

In November 2021, BSOS hosted a forum on Conflicts of Interest presented by members of the Office of the Vice President for Research compliance offices and members of the BSOS Dean's Office. You can watch that forum here. The video is available to anyone at UMD. Undergraduate students may request access but should do so using their @terpmail.umd.edu address so it is clear they are UMD students.

COI Requirements for proposals routing through BSOS:

Principal Investigators and Co-Investigators submitting proposals through BSOS must have completed two tasks related to Conflict of Interest (COI) disclosure and mitigation. This requirement applies to all investigators: including students who are Co-Investigators and individuals from other colleges within UMD if a BSOS department or center is the lead unit.

• The first requirement is that all PIs and Co-Is must complete the CITI Program’s COI module and, upon completion, upload their certificate of completion at the link below so the Dean’s Office has the certificate on file. The certificate is valid for 4 years. If you are already certified there is no need to retake the course until your certification expires, simply upload your certificate to the Dean’s Office portal. More information on CITI is below.

UPLOAD YOUR CITI CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION HERE

• The second requirement is that all PIs and Co-Is must read the UMD Policy and Procedures on COI and initial at the marked spaces in the policy. The initials are being collected via Adobe Sign so once this is completed and submitted there is no other action necessary.

READ AND SIGN THE COI POLICY HERE

If at any point during this process you have questions, please contact Jean McGloin or Rebecca Hunsaker. For more information about Conflicts of Interest, including disclosure forms, please visit the VPR’s website on Conflict of Interest.

The BSOS Dean’s Office will not route proposals to ORA unless and until all Investigators have completed these steps.

For investigators on proposals to PHS agencies (which includes NIH and CDC), the Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation a Conflict of Interest disclosure is also required. This is a Federal requirement, not a campus or BSOS requirement. A disclosure must be filed whether or not there is anything to disclose. For more information on how to complete this disclosure, see the COI website. If a disclosure is not filed at the time of proposal, the award set-up can be delayed while a disclosure is reviewed and adjudicated. NASA is likely going to implement a similar requirement with their next NASA Grant and Cooperative Agreement Manual (GCAM) which comes out in November 2023.

Per the COI Committee FAQs, the COI Committee typically meets the 2nd Wednesday of the month. Disclosures must be completed and routed to the COI office by the first of the month for inclusion in that month's agenda. (This includes review/approval by the Dean's Office.)

CITI Program Information:

1. Go to the main CITI website at: https://about.citiprogram.org
2. Click "Log In" in the upper right corner.
3. Choose "Log In Through My Organization," and begin typing "University of Maryland" in the text box. Choose "University of Maryland College Park" from the resulting drop-down menu option. Click "Continue to SSO Login / Instructions." This will prompt the CAS Login screen and the University Multi-Factor Authentication.
4. Click "View Courses."
5. If you do not have the Conflict of Interest Mini Course in your course list, scroll to the bottom of the page and click "add a course." To access the COI Mini Course answer "yes" to question 5. For other questions, answer at your discretion based on your situation and interest in other courses. This will load the COI mini course, which has three modules you need to successfully complete.
6. Upon completion of the COI mini course you will need to download your certificate and upload per the instructions above. To access and save your CITI certificates log in to your CITI Program account and click “My Records.” You will see a print option next to completed courses, which you can click to download a completion report as a .pdf file.
7. Instructions for navigating CITI are here (https://support.citiprogram.org/s/article/updated-guide-to-getting-started?r=123&ui-knowledge-components-aura-actions.KnowledgeArticleVersionCreateDraftFromOnlineAction.createDraftFromOnlineArticle=1#Affiliations)