Grant Budgeting Tips



Office of Research and Sponsored Programs

Grant Budgeting Tips

1. Budget planning and project planning should proceed hand in hand. Don’t wait until you’ve completed the final draft of the proposal narrative to start the first draft of the budget – it’s important to know early on if you can accomplish the proposed objectives with the amount of funding available. If you need assistance, RSP preaward staff are available to help.

2. Always create budgets in Excel; do not use a Word table and a calculator. Excel budget templates are available on the RSP website. Contact RSP if you need a different/modified budget template. Lynda tutorials are useful for learning about Excel features.

3. You must submit a proposed budget as required by the funder’s instructions, in as much detail as requested. Typically, public funders will require a budget based on basic line item cost categories, such as Salaries, Benefits, Supplies, Travel, Other Direct Costs, and Facilities and Administrative Costs.

4. RSP needs a detailed budget for account set up, even if the funder does not require one in the proposal, so take the time to develop your budget in as much detail as possible. Your budget becomes your spending plan once awarded, so make sure you don’t leave out or over-budget important items.

5. Budgets need to be as accurate as possible; don’t try to submit a bare-bones budget or a padded budget. This is poor project management. Use RSP budget templates because they have built-in formulas to calculate salaries, fringe benefits, etc. and include estimated annual increases.

6. Facilities and Administrative costs (F&A) at the full negotiated rate must be included in your budget, unless the request for proposals or sponsor policy specifically disallows them. F&A costs are not a “tax” on your project, they are the recovery of real costs to the university associated with doing research.

7. The university, not the PI/PD, is the grant recipient. That means all funding received at UNI must be spent in a manner consistent with other university funding. The funder may impose additional funding restrictions.

8. Required Budget Review: All budget proposals must be reviewed by RSP prior to submission. Email your draft budget and budget narrative along with a copy or link to the funder’s guidelines to RSP for review and feedback at least seven working days prior to the submission deadline. Visit the RSP website for other submission policies.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download