A competitive budget should contain costs that are allowable by the sponsor, allocable to the project, reasonable, and necessary. The budget should be a numeric depiction of the project.
The 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 with a cumulative total for each category. This can be confusing. Please contact Sponsored Programs for help.
Below are the items that are typically requested in a budget. Please review the sponsor’s guidelines for specific requirements for the budget. Sponsored Programs Staff are available to assist applicants with creating a budget, so please contact us as soon as possible so that the budget can be discussed, created, and finalized.
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/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.
Fringe benefits must be included for each salary in the budget. The fringe benefits are the benefits that would be paid by the University (social security, medicare, workers comp insurance, unemployment compensation insurance, retirement, longevity, leave termination, and health insurance).
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 FY 2024 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 osp@tamuc.edu for current rates.
Fringe Benefit Calculator-FY 2024
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.
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 are 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 be per Texas A&M University-Commerce, State of Texas, and Federal regulations/policies/procedures.
If the project requires participant costs, include stipends and allowances, tuition and fees, travel, and project supplies.
Other direct costs usually include materials and supplies, publication costs/documentation/dissemination, consultant services, subawards, and tuition remission.
Consultants are independent contractors who are not affiliated with Texas A&M University-Commerce to provide specific services. Consultants are not eligible for fringe benefits. A statement of work and estimate of charges are required before submission of the proposal/application. For more information please review OMB Circular A-21, Section 37.
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:
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 of A&M-Commerce. So please notify Sponsored Programs as soon as possible so that communication between both offices can be initiated.
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 that will be required by the institution to provide).
TAMU System Policy on Cost-Sharing
These costs are for costs incurred for common or joint objectives that cannot be identified readily and specifically with a project. Texas A&M University-Commerce has a negotiated rate with the Department of Health and Human Services. The rate is 36% 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. Please review the request for proposals/applications and guidelines. If indirect costs are not allowable or the rate is reduced contact the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.
Texas A&M University-Commerce's Indirect Cost Rate Agreement
(template)
Explain how each individual will contribute to the project and their specific function for the project. 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.
Provide the purpose of the trip and justify all individuals traveling. State that the costs are based on state and federal rates.
Describe the equipment required. A quote from a seller should be obtained.
Provide the name and organizational affiliations of the consultants. Provide the number of days of prospective consultant, and estimated rate of compensation.
Items less than $1,000 should not be itemized.
The budget amounts and the budget justification amounts must match.
Below is the minimum rate of pay for student workers
Undergraduate Student Workers - $7.25
Graduate Student Workers - $9.10
NSF Proposal: The Budget: Part 1 Part 2
Budget Justification and 3 Tips
NSF Proposal: Budgetary Guidelines and Cost Sharing Policy
The Definition of Cost Sharing (or cost matching)
The Three Types of Cost Sharing - Check to see if Cost Share is required in the RFP. If it is not mandatory, TAMUC will not allow it. The three types are Mandatory Cost Sharing (must be tracked and an account number with the funds must be given), Voluntary Committed Cost Sharing (must also be tracked and an account number with the funds must be given), and Voluntary Uncommitted Cost Share (not tracked or auditable).
Forms of Cost Sharing (YouTube Video)