research budget justification example

Budget Justification Templates

The following budget justification templates will require adjustment to describe a specific project’s actual budgetary needs. It also will be necessary to insert the most up-to-date rates and percentages as well as links to current University guidance to reflect the latest University requirements.

NSF Budget Justification (revised 2/2019)

Budget Justification (INSERT TITLE) UC Berkeley PI: (INSERT PI NAME)

• Principal Investigator (INSERT PI NAME) : Professor (INSERT PI NAME), at the University of California at Berkeley, will be the Principal Investigator (PI) of this project and will provide overall direction and oversight of the research and the outreach projects. He/She will commit 1 (CHOOSE APPLICABLE calendar/academic/summer) month per year. Responsibilities include data analysis and interpretation, drafting and dissemination of results, designing course material based on the techniques and results from the research project. He/She will also work with Prof. (INSERT COLLAB/SUB PI NAME) in the (INSERT DEPT) department at the (INSERT UNIV). In addition to overall project responsibility, the PI will co-supervise one (DEPT) Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) working on the project.
• Co-Principal Investigator (INSERT CO-PI NAME) : Professor (INSERT CO-PI NAME), at the University of California at Berkeley, will be the Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) of this project and will provide overall direction and oversight of the research and the outreach projects. He/She will commit 1 (CHOOSE APPLICABLE calendar/academic/summer) month per year. In addition to overall project responsibility, the Co-PI will co-supervise one (INSERT DEPT) Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) working on the project. The University definition of a “Year” (effective April 1, 2018) for budgeting and management of senior personnel compensation is the fiscal year (July 1 to June 30).
• Graduate Student Researcher (TBD): The GSR will assist the PI, as directed, in conducting research and contribute to the drafting and dissemination of results. The GSR will commit 4.5 academic months and 3 summer months each year over the 4-year project period.
• 40X-1000X Upright Fluorescence Microscope with Rotating Multi-filter Turret + Ultra-sensitive CCD Camera ($10,240)
• Stipends - N/A
• Travel -We request $15/person for transportation for 30 local high school students.
• Subsistence - We request $15/person to provide lunch during the all-day event for the high school students.
• University Service Fee: All visiting scholars and visiting student researchers must pay the University Services Fee (USF) in order to be in compliance with Visiting Scholar Postdoc Affairs (VSPA) affiliation requirements and to gain access to university services such as library access, ID card, and a Berkeley email account. See: Fee Schedule (https://vspa.berkeley.edu/university-service-fee) . To assist faculty that are proposing projects that involve high school student interns, undergraduate student interns and/or K-12 teacher interns in on campus activities that take place for three months or less during the summer, the VCR has issued a modification to the USF requirement: Prior to June 1, 2020 the USF will be waived for qualifying interns if approval is obtained from the Visiting Scholar and Postdoc Affairs Office (VSPA). After June 1, 2020, the USF for qualifying interns will be reduced to $500 per intern if approval is obtained from the VSPA.
• Other - N/A
• Materials and Supplies: A materials and supplies budget of $30,000 ($10,000/year) is requested for him deposition and SEM/TEM diagnostics. This amount also includes funds for optical and mechanical components needed for work as listed in the project description. Funds are also requested in the amount of $1,990 in order to purchase a laptop for the Graduate Student Researcher. The laptop is necessary to implement and validate algorithms developed throughout the project as described in the project description.
• Publication Costs/Documentation/Dissemination: [costs of documenting, preparing, publishing or otherwise making available to others the findings and products of the work conducted under the grant]
• Consultant Services: [itemize each consultant, organizational affiliation, rate per day, number of days, any additional costs such as travel, lodging, supplies, and total cost for each consultant]
• Computer Services: [costs for computer services, including computer-based retrieval of scientific, technical and educational information, may be requested only where it is institutional policy to charge such costs as direct charges. A justification based on the established computer service rates at the proposing organization must be included. The proposal budget also may request costs for leasing of computer equipment]
• Subawards: [Identify and briefly describe other institutions involved in the project and total costs requested for each]. For example : A subaward to the University of Minnesota (UM) is requested each year over a period of 4 years in order to support Berkeley’s NSF project. UM’s work will include involvement in programmatic decision-making under the guidance of Prof. Fukuoka in the Chemistry department as per the work and tasks as described in the project description. Please see separate subaward budget and budget justification for a detailed breakdown of costs.
• Other: [any other direct costs not specified in categories above must be identified, itemized, and detailed in the budget justification] Funds are also requested in the amount of $21,102 to support Marvell Nanofabrication Laboratory (NanoLab) expenses, which includes a monthly access charge of $91.20/month each year for the GSR over the entire project period (totaling $3,282) and NanoLab usage fees at $45/hr with an estimated 11 hours/month over the entire project period (totaling $17,820). Further information regarding the Marvell Nanofabrication Laboratory access and usage rates can be found at: https://nanolab.berkeley.edu/public/membership/membershipac.shtml#acrecharge .
• INDIRECT COSTS: Indirect costs are based on University negotiated rates with the cognizant federal authority and are applied at a rate of ___% for the entire project period using the modified total direct cost (MTDC) formula as per the approved rate agreement dated (INSERT DATE of current Agreement). Modified total direct costs exclude equipment, capital expenditures, charges for patient care, student tuition remission, participant support costs, rental costs of off-site facilities, scholarships, and fellowships as well as the portion of each subgrant and subcontract in excess of $25,000. For more information, please see: https://spo.berkeley.edu/policy/fa.html . The rates after (INSERT DATE) are provisional and subject to change based upon our updated federally negotiated indirect cost rate agreement.

NIH Budget Justification Template (revised 2/2019)

Modular budget format.

NIH uses a modular budget format to request up to a total of $250,000 of direct costs per year (in modules of $25,000, excluding consortium F&A costs) for some applications, rather than requiring a full detailed budget. The modular budget format is not accepted for SBIR and STTR grant applications. A modular budget justification should include:

• Personnel Justification: The Personnel Justification should include the name, role, and number of person-months devoted to this project for every person on the project. Do not include salary and fringe benefit rate in the justification.
• Consortium Justification: If you have a consortium/subcontract, include the total costs (direct costs plus F&A costs), rounded to the nearest $1,000, for each consortium/subcontract. Additionally, any personnel should include their roles and person months; if the consortium is foreign, that should be stated as well.
• Additional Narrative Justification: Additional justification should include explanations for any variations in the number of modules requested annually. Also, this section should describe any direct costs that were excluded from the total direct costs (such as equipment, tuition remission) and any work being conducted off-site, especially if it involves a foreign study site or an off-site F&A rate.

Detailed Budget Format

NIH Research Project Grant – (INSERT TYPE: R01, R21, ETC.) Lead PI: (INSERT PI NAME) Co-PI: (INSERT CO-PI NAME), IF APPLICABLE Co-PI: (INSERT CO-PI NAME), IF APPLICABLE Call: (INSERT CALL NUMBER) Project Title: (INSERT TITLE) Project Period: (INSERT PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE)

BUDGET JUSTIFICATION

• Principal Investigator (INSERT PI NAME) : (INSERT PI NAME), Principal Investigator will be responsible for conducting the experiments described in the proposal, analyzing the data, and writing the scientific papers. He/She will serve as the lead investigator for research involving non-human primates and will devote 2.7 academic person months and .9 summer person months to the project. He/she will provide training, guidance and technical assistance to the postdoctoral researcher, and will perform the surgical procedures in macaque monkeys. He/She will also work with the other PIs to ensure coordinated analyses and discussion of the work with non-human and human participants.
• Co-Principal Investigator (INSERT CO-PI NAME) : (INSERT CO-PI NAME), Co-PI, will be responsible for conducting the experiments described in the proposal, analyzing the data, and writing the scientific papers. (INSERT CO-PI NAME) and (INSERT CO-I NAME) will serve as lead investigators for research involving human participants and will devote .9 academic person months and 1 summer person month to the project. He/She will provide training, guidance and technical assistance to the postdoctoral researcher, with special emphasis in training in the analysis of electrophysiological data. He/She will also work with the other PIs to ensure coordinated analyses and discussion of the work with non-human and human participants.
• Co-Investigator (INSERT CO-I NAME) : (INSERT CO-I NAME), Co-Investigator, (INSERT CO-I NAME) will devote 1.8 academic person months and 2 person summer months to the project. He/she will be responsible for conducting the experiments described in the proposal, analyzing the data, and writing the scientific papers. (INSERT CO-PI NAME) and (INSERT CO-I NAME) will serve as lead investigators for research involving human participants. He/She will provide training, guidance and technical assistance to the postdoctoral researcher, with special emphasis on design and execution of motor control studies. He/She will also work with the other PIs to ensure coordinated analyses and discussion of the work with non-human and human participants.
• Postdoctoral Researchers (TBN), 2 (effort = 12 person months calendar/year). He/she will be responsible for conducting the experiments described in the proposal, analyzing the data, and writing the scientific papers together with the PIs. One of the postdoctoral fellows will focus on the non-human primate work, with duties that include assistance during surgery for implantation of the animals and assisting the lab technician with animal handling and behavioral training. The other postdoctoral fellow will focus on the ECoG research with human participants. It is expected that both postdocs will interact on a regular basis and become familiar with all of the procedures and methods of this project.
• Staff Researcher Associate (TBN), 1 (effort = 12 person months calendar/year). He/she will be responsible for training macaque monkeys to perform the behavioral tasks needed for the experiments described in the proposal and for providing assistance in surgical procedures. He/she will support the PIs and postdoctoral researcher as they conduct their experiments. He/she will also manage the laboratory and supplies related to this study.
• Graduate Student Researcher (TBD), 1 (effort = 4.5 academic person months and 3 summer person months/year). He/she will assist the PI, as directed, in conducting research and contribute to the drafting and dissemination of results. He/she will support the PIs, postdoctoral researcher, and staff researcher associate as they conduct their experiments.
• EQUIPMENT: Bilateral NHP KINARM Exoskeleton Lab (BKIN Technologies, Ontario, Canada) Two KINARM Exoskeletons robot (left & right-handed), suitable for non-human primates. The KINARM provides with accurate kinematic information of the limb as the animal performs reaching and grasping task in the horizontal plane. It also allows application of specific force fields to the shoulder and elbow joints. $182,000
• PARTICIPANT SUPPORT COSTS: [Unless specifically stated otherwise in a FOA, NIH and other PHS agencies applicants should skip this section]
• Materials and Supplies: [List the total funds requested for materials and supplies; indicate general categories such as glassware, chemicals, animal costs, etc., including an amount for each category. Categories with amounts less than $1,000 are not required to be itemized] ECoG grids for human; microwire arrays for chronic implantation in non-human primates; titanium head-restrained for non-human primates; surgery supplies for chronic implants in non-human primates; protective personnel equipment (PPE): gloves, masks, foot covers, gowns, face shield; non-human primate per-diem; and non-human primate chairs.
• Publication Costs: [list the total funds requested for publication costs; may request funds for the costs of documenting, preparing, publishing, or otherwise making available to others, the findings and products of the work conducted under the award. Include supporting information, if applicable]
• Consultant Services: [itemize each consultant, organizational affiliation, rate per day, number of days, any additional costs such as travel, lodging, supplies, and total cost for each consultant] Note: These individuals may provide advice, but should not be described as making decisions for the direction of the research. This is the role of a subrecipient/subcontractor.
• ADP/Computer Services: [list the total funds requested for ADP/computer services; the cost of computer services, including computer-based retrieval of scientific, technical, and education information may be requested. Include the established computer service rates at the proposing organization, if applicable.]
• Subawards/Consortium/Contractual Costs: [identify and briefly describe other institutions involved in the project including the entity’s role in programmatic decision-making (i.e. making decisions for the direction of the research) and total costs requested for each]
• Equipment or Facility Rental/User Fees: [list the total funds requested for equipment (based on University policy) or facility rental/user fees; identify and justify each rental user fee]
• Alterations and Renovations: [list the total funds requested for alterations and renovations; itemize by category and justify the costs of alterations and renovations, including repairs, painting, and removal or installation of partitions, shielding, or air conditioning. Where applicable, provide the square footage and costs]
• [FILL IN SPECIFIC CATEGORY IF IT DOESN’T FIT ANY OF THE ABOVE MENTIONED CATEGORIES]
• Animal and Animal Care Costs: Funds are requested to purchase of 4 rhesus monkeys ($10,000 per monkey) for the proposed project. We request $40,000 for 4 rhesus monkeys. Funds are also requested for animal housing. The UC Berkeley per diem housing rate for rhesus monkeys is $20.77/day. Thus, to house one rhesus monkey for 365 days costs $7,581.05. We request $60,648.40 in housing costs for 4 monkeys for 2 years for the proposed project.
• Human subject costs: Funds are requested to support human subject payments in the amount of $25/person for 20 participants for 3 sessions per year for 2 years.
• INDIRECT COSTS Indirect costs are based on University negotiated rates with the cognizant federal authority and are applied at a rate of (INSERT PERCENTAGE) % for the entire project period using the modified total direct cost (MTDC) formula as per the approved rate agreement dated (INSERT DATE). Modified total direct costs exclude equipment, capital expenditures, charges for patient care, student tuition remission, participant support costs, the rental costs of off- site facilities, scholarships, and fellowships as well as the portion of each subgrant and subcontract in excess of $25,000. For more information, please see: https://spo.berkeley.edu/policy/fa.html . The rates after (INSERT DATE) are provisional and subject to change based upon our updated federally negotiated indirect cost rate agreement.

Other Budget Justification Template (revised 2/2019)

SENIOR PERSONNEL:

Principal Investigator (INSERT PI NAME) : Professor (INSERT PI NAME), at the University of California at Berkeley, will be the Principal Investigator (PI) of this project and will provide overall direction and oversight of the project including drafting and dissemination of results. He/She will commit:

• Example: 10%, 9 mos. = .9 person months
• Example: 10%, 12 mos. = 1.2 person months per year
• Example: 100%, 3 mos. = 3 person months.

In addition to overall project responsibility, he/she will supervise one (INSERT DEPT) Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) working on the project.

Co-Principal Investigator (INSERT CO-PI NAME) : Professor (INSERT CO-PI NAME), at the University of California at Berkeley, will be the Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) of this project. He/She will commit (see above examples) per year. In additional to overseeing his responsibility on the project, he/she will assist the PI as outlined in the research proposal and co-supervise the GSR.

OTHER PERSONNEL:

Graduate Student Researcher (TBD) : The GSR will assist the PI/Co-PI, as directed, in conducting research and contribute to the drafting and dissemination of results. The GSR will commit 50%, 9 academic months ( 4.5 person months) and 50%, 3 summer months (1.5 person months) over the project period.

Salaries are based on (insert date) actual salaries and are projected to include a (X) % annual cost-of-living adjustment (and merit, if applicable) effective each year.

FRINGE BENEFITS:

The University of California, Berkeley Composite Fringe Benefit Rates (CFBR) have been reviewed and federally approved by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) on (INSERT DATE) for use by all fund sources for FY__. Rates beyond (INSERT DATE) are estimates and are provided for planning purposes only. Future CFBR rates are subject to review and approval by DHHS on an annual or bi-annual basis. Fringe benefits are assessed as a percentage of the respective employee’s salary. The benefit rates are as follows:

(USE CFO WEBSITE TO UPDATE CHART BELOW: https://cfo.berkeley.edu/about-us/financial-planning-analysis/budget-and-financial-operations/composite-benefit-rates-cbr )

For more information, please see: https://cfo.berkeley.edu/about-us/financial-planning-analysis/budget-and-financial-operations/composite-benefit-rates-cbr

The University of California provides full remission of tuition, fees, and graduate student health insurance to all graduate students who are employed on-campus (INSERT PERCENTAGE) % time or greater during the academic year. The rate for in-state remission is (INSERT RATE) per semester, which is escalated annually in the budget at a rate of (INSERT PERCENTAGE) % per year. The rate for out-of-state remission is (INSERT RATE) per semester, which is escalated annually in the budget at a rate of (INSERT PERCENTAGE) % per year.

Additional information regarding the fee remission program can be found at: https://grad.berkeley.edu/financial/academic-employment/fee-remissions/ .

TRAVEL: (Amounts and rate are for illustrative purposes only.)

Foreign: A travel budget of $5,800 is requested for a PI and Co-PI to attend one (1) 5-day meeting for purposes of research collaboration to Korea in year 1 in order to review/update presentations, data collection practices, program guidance, and results. The amount includes airfare, per diem (which includes meals and lodging), and ground transportation. Estimated breakdown of costs are as follows:

International per diem rates can be found here: https://aoprals.state.gov/web920/per_diem.asp .

Equipment budget of $61,000 is requested for the entire project period and will be used solely for the benefit of the research project as follows:

Total Year 1: 2 cameras at $10,000 each.

Total Year 2: $17,000 for gamma-ray spectrometers and integration with contextual sensors. Depending on the studies in year 1, we will acquire non-imaging gamma-ray spectrometers made of CdZnTe, LaBr, CsI, or NaI in a hand-portable format that will be combined with contextual sensors, such as visual cameras, depth-sensors, or Lidar.

Total Year 3: $10,000 for computer hardware and a depth-sensing system ($5,000 each). The acquisition and processing of nuclear and contextual data requires significant data storage and computer power resources. We will upgrade our currently existing computer server by state-of-the art processors and data storage.

Total Year 4: $14,000 for integrated multi-sensor system. We will acquire and evaluate state-of-the art multi-sensor systems for further evaluation of advanced concepts in multi-dimensional sensing and data fusion. By then, we anticipate that depth-sensing technologies will be readily available and integrated in tablet or smart phones in addition to the visual cameras which will provide new opportunities for data sensing and fusion. For more information, please see attached quotes in Appendix 1.

OTHER DIRECT COSTS:

Materials and Supplies: A material and supplies budget of $2,520 is requested for the acquisition of optical components in support of the experimental described in the research proposal.

Subawards: Funding (direct and indirect costs) is requested to establish a subaward with the University of Toledo for the purpose of carrying out the following scope of work in support of Berkeley’s project.

(Insert brief description of work.)

This effort will be led by (Insert Name of Subrecipient’s PI) who will and assist with programmatic decision-making and help direct the research.

Marvell Nanofabrication Laboratory: A budget of $14,592 is requested in support of Marvell Nanofabrication Laboratory (MNL) expenses at $91/month for lab access for 12 months (totaling $1,092) and $45/hr for general lab use with an estimated 25 hours/month (totaling $13,500) over the 1 year project period. Further information regarding the MNL recharges and access rates can be found at: https://nanolab.berkeley.edu/public/membership/membershipac.shtml#acrecharge . GAEL: The General, Automobile, and Employment Liability (GAEL) charge was instituted in 1998 to fund the campus’s share of expenses associated with claims and lawsuits defended by the University. For FY__, the GAEL charge is $___ per $____ of payroll, which amounts to $___ in the proposed budget. GAEL applies to all funds, including gifts and grants, with the exception of direct federal contracts, grants, and flow-through transactions.

Additional information can be found at: https://riskservices.berkeley.edu/insurance-programs/liability .

UCRP: As of July 1, 2018, University of California Retirement Plan (UCRP) Supplemental Allocation - interest portion is no longer included in the Composite Benefit Rates (CBR) calculation because it cannot be charged to federal funding sources. UCRP Supplemental Allocation - interest portion will be processed as a separate assessment on all non-federal fund sources of covered payroll at a rate of 0.65%. For budget justification purposes the UCRP Supplemental Allocation should be handled in the same manner as GAEL, as its own line item under “Other Direct Costs”; in the project budget for non-federal awards only.

INDIRECT COSTS:

Per the sponsor’s policy, indirect costs have been limited to 15% of total direct costs.

Indirect costs are based on University negotiated rates with the cognizant federal authority and are applied at a rate of (INSERT PERCENTAGE) % for the entire project period using the modified total direct cost (MTDC) formula as per the approved rate agreement dated (INSERT DATE). Modified total direct costs exclude equipment, capital expenditures, charges for patient care, student tuition remission, participant support costs, the rental costs of off-site facilities, scholarships, and fellowships as well as the portion of each subgrant and subcontract in excess of $25,000. For more information, please see: https://spo.berkeley.edu/policy/fa.html . The rates after (INSERT DATE) are provisional and subject to change based upon our updated federally negotiated indirect cost rate agreement.

Related information

• Proposal Budget Basics