NIH Basic Budgeting

1
NIH Basic Budgeting

• Ada Watson
• Departmental Administrator
• Department of Cancer Biology
• Van Cherington
• Departmental Administrator
• Department of Cancer Immunology and AIDS

2
Goals of this Session

• Information needed from PI
• Modular vs Non-Modular
• Building a basic Non-Modular Budget
  Justification
• Slides presented here are to provide guidance,
  technical information and ideas for discussion.

3
Steps

• Identify grant application type
• Download current instructions review
• Meet with PI
• Draft Budget
• PI reviews budget
• Revise Budget to meet PI and Instruction
  requirements
• Finalize budget budget justification

4
NIH INSTRUCTIONS

• Use the instructions on the web. DO NOT use old
  versions. Check each time you are doing an
  application. The instructions are continually
  being updated.
• The instructions are searchable and there are
  links to definitions and other useful tips.

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RFA, PA

• Budget requirements/restrictions
• Earliest funding date

6
Meet with PI to Review Instructions

• Review grant requirements and/or specific RFA/PA
  points
• Deadlines
• Earliest funding date? (anticipated start date
  for award)

7
Meet with PI to Review Instructions (cont.)

• Estimated Budget (by PI)
• Personnel?
• Sub-contract(s)?
• Collaborators?
• Consultants?
• Discuss any budgetary restrictions / specialized
  requirements

8
Budget - Definitions

• Direct Costs
• Costs that are directly related to a single
  specific project.
• Typical Categories
• Personnel
• Equipment
• Supplies
• Travel
• Other Expenses

9
Budget - Definitions

• FA Costs (Indirect Costs)
• Facilities and Administrative costs (costs
  incurred by the institution and applicable to
  awards across DFCI)
• This is an institutional rate negotiated rate
  with the federal government (currently 70 MTDC)
• Modified Total Direct Costs (MTDC)
• Direct Costs excluding equipment, patient care,
  animal housing and consortium costs

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Info _at_ DFCI

• Office of Research web site
• http//researchoffice.dfci.harvard.edu
• DFCI Fact Sheet
• http//www.oresearch.dfci.harvard.edu/grants/forms
  _dfci.asp

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1st Year Budget Creation

• Confirm dates for grant (remember this affects
  all costs - salaries, fringe benefits and FA
  rates).
• Confirm that you have your institutions
  appropriate FB rate, FA rate for the period of
  the grant.

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Budget Categories

• From the basic information that you gain from the
  PI you build a draft/rough budget to include
  appropriate costs in each of the major budget
  categories
• Personnel Consultants Equipment
• Supplies Travel Other Expenses
• Sub-Contract

13
Can your Grant be Modular?

• gt250,000/year must be non-modular
• requires detailed budget detailed budget
  justification
• You have to build a draft budget to confirm the
  .

14
Personnel Category

• List personnel, confirm role, titles, effort,
  and estimated institutional base salary for the
  year 1.
• Anticipate raises, promotions, etc.
• NIH Salary Cap current 180,100

15
Personnel (cont.)

• Look at personnel listed
• Are the and efforts reasonable
• Does the roles of personnel seem correct
• On large grants and projects have admin effort,
  lab support effort (glassware washers), etc. been
  included?

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Personnel Cost Calculation

• Enter base salary (for anticipated funding date)
• Enter effort
• Annual cost calculation
• salary x effort
• Fringe Benefits
• annual cost x current FB rate for positon
• current rates 31 for MD/PhD
• 27 for all other staff
• Total is annual cost fringe benefits

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Consultant Costs

• Need excellent justification for this category -
  otherwise it will be cut.
• Need letter from consultant which includes
  confirmation of the costs.
• Consultant Name, Position, Affiliation
• Usually done as flat rate for grant year or as
  of hours x /hour to get annual cost.

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Equipment

• Unit cost of non-disposable items gt500 and with
  a life of 3 years
• List each item of equipment, include model
• Cost should be based upon a specific quote - with
  estimated increases for expected time of purchase
  (more common equipment can be listed without a
  quote if necessary)

19
Supplies

• Disposable items - unit cost lt500 (not services
  or animal housing)
• Estimate costs by category - justify by category
  in budget justification

20
Travel

• Domestic
• Usually one Domestic trip for the PI or Post-Doc
  per year - specify meeting and location for year
  1 if location is known
• 1 regional and 1 national are also possible

21
Travel

• Foreign
• Requires NIH approval (cant just re-budget from
  domestic travel).
• Must be for a very specific benefit to the
  project
• Specify the specific trip, meeting and location
• Will need excellent justification
• As of 10/1/05 90 day advance notice to NIH if
  not part of the application.

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Other

• Animal housing costs, maintenance agreement
  costs, repair costs, publication/ illustration
  costs, core services, graduate student charges
  (if not on DFCI payroll), etc.
• Estimate costs by category - justify by category
  in budget justification

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Other

• Animal Housing - must be specific
• Subsidized rates are used for NIH/federal grants
  only
• Non-subsidized rates are used for industry,
  foundation, or other non-federal funded projects
• cages x rate/day x days/year annual cost

24
Consortium - Direct Costs

• Enter Total Direct Costs from sub-contract budget
  into the correct line of the DFCI detailed
  budget.
• Enter FA costs from the sub-contract budget into
  the correct line of the DFCI detailed budget.
• Leave blank if you do not have any sub-contracts.
• I recommend identifying the institution and FA
  rate on each line. If more than one
  sub-contract, I usually list them separately.

25
Consortium - Direct Costs

• Sub-contracting institutions should complete the
  following
• detailed year -01 budget
• detailed budget justification
• continuing years budget page

26
Consortium FA Costs

• Enter FA Costs from Sub-Contract Budget
• for sub-contracts this is included in their year
  one detailed budget (and in continuing year
  budgets)

27
Budget Justification

• The justification reflects the thought and
  accuracy of the budget and should be completed
  with care. Different PIs have different, yet
  successful, ways of presenting budget
  justifications. For multi-project applications
  (P01, P50, etc.) some level of uniformity in the
  organization of the budget justification is
  preferable.
• If you get a scanty budget justification - try to
  work with PI to beef it up, but remember it is
  the PIs grant - final presentation is up to
  her/him.

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Bud. Just. - Personnel

• Justify each position, including the PI
• Why is each position necessary for the success of
  the project
• Begin by justifying the position relative to the
  project.
• Then justify the person in the position - their
  specific skill/experience. Also how they will
  interact with the rest of the team.
• Key items - who supervises whom, who determines
  daily work, who presents results, who analyzes
  data, etc.

29
Modular Budget

• Budgets average direct costs lt250,000/year for
  all years of the application.
• Build in modules of 25,000, up to 250,000/year
• Direct Cost budget with limited budget
  justification
• With new NIH forms (11/2/04) sub-contract FA is
  no longer included in prime direct costs.
• Sub-contract budgets must be non-modular

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Modular Budget Format Page

• They have given a specific format for the budget
  justification page - for Modular Grants.
• Support requested each year
• Total direct costs for the entire project period
• Personnel justification
• Consortium justification
• Fixed Fee (for SBIR/STTR only)

31
Calculating FA

• FA Calculation is on the Checklist Page
• 70 of Modified Total Direct Costs (MTDC)
• MTDC
• Total Direct Costs - excluding
• equipment costs
• patient care costs
• animal housing
• sub-contract costs (DC and FA)

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Questions
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Handouts

• NIH Detailed Budget
• NIH Continuing years budget
• NIH Modular budget form
• NIH Checklist
• DFCI Fact Sheet