Salary Costs
Types of personnel frequently involved in projects include:
- faculty members, academic year and off-duty quarter
- research assistants and associates
- postdoctoral associates
- graduate associates
- undergraduate assistants
- technicians and other support personnel
- interviewers and evaluators
For each person involved in the project, list name (if known), position and percentage of time on the project. Include annual salary increases, effective each October 1.
When projects are charged for personnel salaries, the associated fringe benefits are also charged.
Direct Appointments/Release Time/Off-Duty Quarter Salary
Funds to cover the cost of faculty and staff time spent on a project can be requested from most sponsors. When necessary, this cost can be contributed with department concurrence. Always check sponsor policies about allowable personnel costs. Faculty members should check with their chairs for department policy.
The time that faculty and staff members who are already paid from department or college operating accounts spend on a project is called release time. When a release time appointment is charged to a project, the appropriate salary and fringe benefit amounts are transferred back to the release time fund of the organization identified on the release time form.
Faculty with nine-month contracts may receive up to three-ninths of their academic year salary during their off-duty quarter, if the funds come from non-university sources (e.g., a research grant or contract). It is expected that if three-ninths salary is received, the faculty member will spend three months on project activities. Time off for vacation is not paid.
Persons who are hired specifically to work on sponsored projects (e.g., research assistants and associates) have direct appointments to the project and their salaries are paid directly from project funds. Should project funding end, the appointments end. Off-duty quarter salary for nine-month faculty members is also paid by a direct appointment.
Principal Investigator (PI): The person with overall responsibility for the technical and fiscal management of the project.
Co-Investigators and Collaborators: These are other faculty members or other significant individuals who bring specific expertise to the project.
Postdoctoral Researchers: The university has no pay scale for postdoctoral researchers. If you have a person yet to be appointed, use a salary that is reasonable for the field, in consultation with your department chair.
Other Research Personnel: These are usually research assistants and research associates who have defined pay ranges.
Postdoctoral Fellows and Trainees: Fellows are supported by individual fellowship awards made directly to them; trainees are supported by training grants.
Graduate Research Associates (GRAs): Master's and Ph.D. students may be appointed as GRAs on sponsored projects. Some points to consider when budgeting GRAs include:
- Use the stipend set by the GRA's department and include appropriate increases.
- GRAs generally have 50 percent appointments, though they can be appointed for up to 75 percent time or only 25 percent. The Graduate School discourages less than 50 percent appointments.
- Determine whether Tuition and Fees should be a sponsor cost (if allowable) or cost shared by the college (colleges have different policies.) If a sponsor cost, budget at the appropriate rate.
- Tuition and fees for GRAs are charged at the actual in-state rate.
Trainees are appointed to training grants. Their sole obligation is their education. For training grants, in-state tuition is always a sponsor cost (unless prohibited by the sponsor, in which case it becomes a department cost). Training grants are charged the actual in-state costs for tuition and fees.
Administrative Support: Ohio State's F&A cost agreement with the federal government requires that clerical and administrative support be provided by the department and college and be funded by the F&A costs that are paid by the sponsor. A small number of large, complex projects may require so much additional assistance that justification could be given for requesting additional funds. If the sponsor is the federal government, salary for administrative support personnel must be specifically approved.
Other Staff: This category includes technicians, computer programmers, nurses, evaluators, and undergraduate assistants. Identify title, name if known, percent effort, and responsibilities.
Participant Costs: This category may include traditional or non-traditional students in training programs, workshops, or program activities. Participants are not normally OSU employees. There is often a separate budget category for Participant Costs.
Human Subjects: Volunteer subjects in studies, such as those involving new clinical treatments, are sometimes paid a modest amount to help defray the expenses of their participation. Funds to cover this cost are generally budgeted as "Other Direct Costs" rather than in "Personnel" or "Participant Costs" categories. If human subjects are also university employees, their human subject payments are made through the payroll system and the project will be charged for fringe benefits as well as subject payments.
Computing Salaries
Salaries for increase on October 1 of each year. Remember to include appropriate increases when calculating salaries for multiyear projects.
