Annotated Budget Justification - Federal Research

These notes apply to the relevant blue numbered sections in the document below.

1. DOE may insist that we use their PMC123.1 Excel form as the budget justification.
2. Some sponsors (e.g. DARPA) require budgets in particular tables or format. The accompanying justification should follow the order of items in the budget.
3. ONR requires a copy of our rate agreements and justification at the same level of detail for subawardees.
4. NSF has a five page limit on the budget justification per budget. For proposals that contain a subaward(s), each subaward must include a separate budget justification of no more than three pages.
5. NASA requires a table of personnel and work effort.
6. Do not include in NSF proposals. If no effort, the statement has to go in the Facilities document.
7. Do not include in NIH proposals. NIH requires a statement of effort.
8. Do not include if academic year or summer effort is direct charged to sponsor.
9. Add description such as: "assist the PI with the research on this project."
10. Add current year and appropriate salary level.
11. Note that catering for working meals provided as part of a conference/workshop is not eligible as participant support and should be budgeted under M&S instead.
12. Providing detail at time of proposal is recommended since federal sponsors will request it.
13. Itemize categories of spending, particularly when a large amount is requested.
14. Include if no basis of estimate is provided.
15. NASA requires the name, address and telephone number of MIT's Cognizant Auditor.

MIT/Department of _____________

Budget Justification for Cost Proposal (1, 2,  3,  4)

SENIOR/KEY PERSONNEL (5):

Principal Investigator(s): ________, is a professor in the Department of __________ at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor _______ will be responsible for the overall administration and direction of the project.

MIT fully supports the academic year salary of Professors, Associate Professors and Assistant Professors, but makes no specific commitment of academic year time or salary to this particular research project. ( 6, 7,  8 )

Research Scientist(s): One Research Scientist [name]is budgeted for 1.2 calendar months per year. The Research Scientist will be will be paid a salary rate of $_______  per year, based on experience. 

OTHER PERSONNEL:

Research Assistant(s) (RA): One RA will devote 12 months to this project in Yr 1 and 6 months in Yr 2.  The RA will [ description.  (9) ]  100% of the RA salary is charged to the research project. As of [ date (10)  ], the RA salary is [   amount (11)  ] /mo for a PhD student.

Post-doctoral Associate(s): One post-doctoral associate is budgeted for three calendar months in years 1 through 3. The post-doc will be responsible for__________________.

Annual inflation is budgeted at _______% for all salaries.

FRINGE BENEFITS:

Fringe Benefits are charged as direct costs and include Employee Benefits (EB) and Vacation Accrual (VA). Fringe rates are set by MIT at the current negotiated rates for budgeting purposes: (FY23 rates: on-campus EB 22.7%, VA 6.0%; off-campus EB 20.2%, VA 9.6%; FY24 rates: on-campus EB 23.2%, VA 7.4%; off-campus EB 20.7%, VA 10.1%). MIT charges actual rates to awards. EB is applied to total salary expenses, excluding students; VA is applied to total salary expenses, excluding faculty and students.

OTHER DIRECT COSTS:

Equipment: Funds are requested for the following equipment in year 1 of the budget:

• $XXXX for a ______ for the purpose of __________.

Participant Support Costs:  Funds are requested to support [#] of non-MIT participants in the [name of event] to be held during [dates] at [location]. Participant support costs are estimated as follows:

Domestic Travel: Funds are budgeted for the [PI, Co-I, or RA] to attend either one domestic conference per year of this project to present research results and/or to travel to collaborate with colleagues. Approximate travel costs are as follows:

International Travel:  Funds are budgeted for the [  example: PI, Co-I, or RA   ] to attend either one international conference per year of this project to present research results and/or to travel to collaborate with colleagues. Travel is anticipated to the following international destinations, but may be subject to change: ___________.  Approximate travel costs are as follows: 

Materials and Supplies: are budgeted at $_______yr in Year 3, and $_______ in Year 4.

The money will be spent on ________________________. Due to the fundamental research nature of the project, materials costs are estimated based on the PI’s knowledge of prior projects of similar scope, and no further breakdown of materials is available. (13, 14)

• RA tuition:  For academic year 2022-2023, MIT’s 9-month tuition is $______. A ______% annual inflator is applied each year. MIT subsidizes 55% of academic year tuition, leaving 45% to be charged to the project. During the summer, MIT subsidizes 100% of tuition.

Subawards: ________ [Institution/University] will be a subawardee under this project. The costs associated for the subaward are $________ for the period of ____ through _____. The subawardee will be responsible for __________________________________.

INDIRECT COSTS:

In accordance with MIT’s negotiated rate agreement with the Office of Naval Research the Facilities and Administrative (F&A) rate for FY23-24 is 59.0% on-campus and  is 6.2% off-campus on a Modified Total Direct Costs (MTDC) basis. MTDC includes total direct costs exclusive of graduate research assistants’ tuition, capital equipment, participant support costs, and that portion of sub-award agreements over $25,000. The FY23-24 rate is also used in budgeting subsequent years. (15)