Create a Budget for a Grant

Use the following guidelines to create and submit your budget.

This guide provides useful information about the policies and procedures that must be followed in the process of creating and submitting a budget.

Work on your budget in advance of the deadline. We require a finalized budget at least 10 days prior to submission. Always include indirect costs, unless the sponsor doesn’t allow them. No research project carried out through the College exists independent of the College as a whole. Grants come to the College and not an individual because agencies recognize that a research grant requires the support of many areas of the College outside of the direct research (with the exception of some fellowships).

When preparing your budget, this format (XLSX) can be used as a general guide; however, please take note that the funding organization might have a specific format of its own. For example, the National Endowment for the Humanities has its own template to use in those applications. Should you have questions about the best format to use, please reach out to College Grants so that we can offer guidance based on previous submissions.
All costs charged to grants must be reasonable, allocable, consistent, and allowable.
1. How to Calculate Salary
  When calculating salaries to be included in a proposal budget, Principal Investigators (PI) should use the current academic year institutional base salary (IBS) as the starting point and estimate a 2% increase each year. This is an estimate only, as a faculty member’s actual salary is determined during the annual salary process and may differ from the budgeted amount. If the award is made and the actual salary exceeds the budgeted amount, the PI/PD may be allowed to cover the overage by moving grant funds from another budget line to the salary line. If the actual salary is less than the budgeted amount, the actual salary will be the basis for reimbursement.
  
  Effective August 2017, if you anticipate applying for tenure or promotion to full professor during the life of the grant please contact the Grants Office for the appropriate budget step amount. First apply institutional percent increase amount for the faculty member, then add the step amount.
2. Institutional Base Salary (IBS)
  Institutional Base Salary (IBS) is the annual compensation paid by Gettysburg College for a faculty member’s 9 month academic year appointment, whether that individual’s time is spent on teaching, advising, scholarship, or service. The IBS does not include bonuses or one-time payments. IBS is established by the College in an annual salary letter. At no point may charges to federal awards exceed the proportionate share of the IBS for that period (2 CFR 200.430). Thus, faculty may not receive academic year salary (extra service pay) unless they are on leave.
3. Summer Salary Policy
  Grant budgets may provide for up to two months of extra work during the summer. Each month of summer salary is calculated at a rate of one-ninth of the current academic year’s salary (for a maximum of 2/9 per summer).
4. Fringe Benefits and FICA Requirements
  Fringe benefits consist of the institution’s contributions to an employee’s social security account, a retirement plan, health and dental insurance, unemployment compensation, worker’s compensation, life insurance and disability insurance. The benefit rate is applied to all benefit-eligible positions, regardless of whether the employee opts for coverage. Additionally, all proposals that include compensation for benefit-eligible positions must budget full support for benefits at the current fringe benefit rate. For 2024-2025 the fringe rate for full-time positions and academic year funding for faculty is 39%, and the fringe rate for summer salary is 7.65% (FICA).Download Fringe Benefits and FICA Requirements Chart (XLSX).
5. Sabbatical Leave Policy
  The sabbatical leave policy provides for a leave of one semester at full salary or a leave for a full academic year at one-half salary. Faculty members scheduled for a full-year sabbatical at one-half salary during the period of a proposed grant budget may include leave salary in the budget. The faculty member should only request income during the leave up to the amount he/she would have been paid by the College.
Gettysburg is committed to paying all our research students equitably while keeping in mind that the nature and requirements of conducting such projects often varies across disciplines. In some cases, students are assisting faculty with their research and, in other cases, students may be conducting their own research while being mentored by a faculty member. Working as a Student Researcher during the academic year may be different from working as one during the summer when there is more time to accomplish certain tasks. Finally, students differ in their experience and, thus, so do their skill sets as they progress through the four years. Gettysburg College has attempted to take all of these factors into consideration when devising the following policy.
1. Academic Year Wages
  During the academic year student researchers will be paid an hourly rate as determined by the PI in conjunction with Human Resources. The PI should prepare a job description that reflects the necessary skill sets, experience, and nature of the tasks expected of the student employee. Both the hourly rate and job description must be approved by Human Resources. Please take into consideration any requirements or guidance provided by the external funding source.
2. Summer Fellowship
  Students participating in the College’s Division 3 X-SIG Summer Research program will be paid a stipend not to exceed $5,000/summer as determined by the X-SIG Board and/or the faculty PI. Students will be paid via fellowship stipend and are not considered employees of the College. FICA is not charged. As such, students are considered trainees and thus will be paid as participants in NSF budgets.
  
  If students are not participating in the X-SIG program, they should be paid as employees with FICA charged. Those students who have been selected by a faculty panel to participate in the College’s Division 1, 2, and IDS Summer Research Program will be paid a stipend of $4,500, paid in five bi-weekly installments, over the course of the 10 week program.
3. Student Housing
  If a student researcher is required to live on campus as part of their specific research position or by nature of the summer research program in which they are participating, a summer housing fee will not be charged to the student. If the student’s presence in a science lab is an integral part of the research experience and/or is warranted by specific job responsibilities (e.g., 24/7 responsibility for monitoring lab animals), the College will absorb these costs. In all other cases the department, program, or a grant (internal or external) will be required to assume the student researcher’s housing costs.
Typical sub-award situations include arrangements in which two (or more) qualifying legal entities/institutions are working collaboratively on a grant project. Sub-award agreements are made in the form of a legally binding agreement, generated by the prime awardee, which is also referred to as the lead organization. If a Gettysburg Principal Investigator wishes to include a sub-award in his/her grant proposal, prior to submission, the Gettysburg PI must:
1. Provide College Grants with a statement from an authorized representative of the sub-recipient institution, indicating a commitment to perform the scope of work proposed, assuring the accuracy and reasonableness of the budget, assuring compliance with federal requirements (including conflict of interest), and agreeing to enter into a formal sub-award if the proposal is funded.
2. Provide College Grants with a written scope of work to be completed by the sub-awardee, if the project is funded.
3. Provide College Grants with a detailed budget/budget narrative of the sub-awardee’s project that meets the requirements of the funder and Gettysburg College and a copy of the sub-awardee’s federally negotiated indirect cost rate.
4. A copy of the most recent fiscal year’s completed Single Audit in accordance with Subpart F of the Uniform Guidance (if applicable), with an explanation for any findings.
Depending on the mechanism by which you are applying, the proposal would have to be submitted as one (as a subaward) or individually (as a Collaborative Research Proposal) but they are interdependent and you must work closely with the other institution. Please leave extra lead-time for collaborative proposals.

Use of Subrecipient vs. Contractor (PDF)
Indirect costs represent the expenses of doing business that are not readily identified with a particular grant, contract, project function or activity, but are necessary for the general operation of the organization and the conduct of activities it performs. The College negotiates the indirect cost rate with the federal government according to federal regulations. The College’s current indirect rate is 56% for on-campus projects and 26.74% for off-campus projects. At Gettysburg, the indirect rate is calculated as a percentage of salaries and wages (not including benefits) budgeted for the project. The College’s rate should be applied consistently to federal and non-federal sponsored projects unless the funder prohibits indirect cost recovery or specifies a lower rate.

Please note: These rates remain in effect until May 31, 2026. Should the College renegotiate a different rate between the time a federal proposal is submitted and awarded, it is required that the most current rate is used during the life of the award (2 CFR 200 Appendix III, 7a). A change in the rate will result in making adjustments within the budget of the award.

Download Fringe Benefits and FICA Requirements Chart (XLSX).