Research @ Trinity

Understanding Cost-share

If your project requires expenditures that are not allowed by the funding agency, or the needed budget exceeds the grant amount, you may apply for support from Trinity to supplement your grant. This supplement must be requested BEFORE you submit your proposal to the external agency. Trinity's commitment is only valid if your grant proposal is funded.

Examples of cost-share requests include housing or tuition support for summer research students or fringe benefits on salary covered by a grant.

Faculty are asked to send their cost-share request in writing to Diane Smith at least three weeks before the proposal deadline. Typically, the cost-share request is accompanied by the proposal itself and the Internal Approval Form.

Faculty are advised that cost-share funds may not be carried over from year to year. Faculty who receive supplements or extensions (including no-cost extensions) on existing grants must submit an amended cost-share memo, detailing the amount, purpose and applicable dates of the funds requested.

Budgeting for Personnel - Faculty

• Be advised that faculty summer salaries from grants, fellowships and other sources, such as department chair stipends, may not exceed 2/9 of base salary except in cases where explicit permission has been granted by the VP of Academic Affairs.
• Faculty must add 7.65% to their salary to cover the employer portion of Social Security/Medicare taxes
• Faculty who contribute at least 3% of their salary to Trinity's retirement savings program may budget an additional 10% of salary for employer contributions to the program.
• Faculty requesting a course release must include the cost of hiring a replacement instructor in their grant budget. Typically, adjunct faculty are paid $3000 per course, but the rate may be higher in your discipline. Don't forget to budget an additional 7.65% to cover Social Security/Medicare taxes. Approval of the proposed course release must be obtained from your department chair and the VP of Academic Affairs. Please include the course # and title when proposing to hire adjunct faculty as this information is needed to issue a contract.

Budgeting for Personnel - Other

• Make sure to include the employer portion of Social Security/Medicare taxes (7.65%) on ALL salaries and wages in your budget. Failure to do so will result in a reduction in the amount paid to the grant-sponsored employee.
• Budget for FLEX dollars for any full-time, benefits-eligible employees paid from the grant who don't already receive their FLEX dollars as part of their base contract. After January 1, 2010, please allocate $284 FLEX dollars per employee, per month. For multi-year grants, please anticipate an increase of $12/month each year.
• You may wish to include a 10% contribution to retirement for all eligible employees paid through the grant. Part-time employees are not eligible for this benefit.
• If you plan to hire a part-time employee who is already working at Trinity, be aware that the additional hours may make the employee benefits-eligible.
• Faculty must secure approval for office space, computer, telephone and other commitments when applying for grants to support new employees.

Student Assistants - Summer

Faculty are encouraged to involve students in their research. The summer undergraduate research program typically begins on Memorial Day and lasts for 10 weeks. When preparing budgets for projects involving undergraduate researchers, please keep the following items in mind:

• Stipends: In 2009 the median summer stipend issued to a summer research student for 10 weeks of participation was $3750. Stipends are disbursed through the business office and are not taxed (except in the case of certain international students). Any monies issued to students explicitly for housing or subsistence will be disbursed through Trinity's payroll office and may be taxed.
• Housing: A space in a shared room in a Trinity residence hall cost $118 per week in 2009. For multi-year grants, please budget for an increase of at least $4/week each year.
  All or part of the housing budget may be requested as cost-share. Be aware however, that Trinity's cost-share commitment is only valid for on-campus housing. Additional requirements apply. For example, students receiving subsidized housing must be involved in research full-time. Students enrolled in summer courses or engaging in hourly work elsewhere on campus may be disqualified.
• Tuition: Students participating in summer research may receive transcript notation for their participation by enrolling in a one-credit research course. In 2009, the tuition and fees for a one-credit course totalled $1,112, including a $1 activity fee. This amount may be requested as cost-share. As with the housing subsidy, the tuition-free credit is normally reserved for students participating full-time in research.
• Travel & Dissemination: It is expected that student researchers will produce publishable results during or after their participation in summer research. It is highly recommended that faculty budget for things like conference travel, poster printing and related costs.
• Materials & Supplies: If the project carried out by the student will require consumable materials, reagents, software licenses, or other "per-head" expenditures, please make sure to account for these in your budget.
• Summer Activities: Summer researchers are invited to participate in various activities, including the summer research conference and luncheon, enrichment activites, visits from alumni, etc. Faculty preparing grant proposals are asked to consider incorporating a small sum in their budgets to offset the costs of these activities.

Student Assistants - other

Students involved in grant-funded projects during the academic year must be paid hourly wages, submitting timesheets according to the student employment policies. Typically, student assistants in the sciences receive $xx/hour; peer tutors receive $xx/hour. If students are enrolled in at least 18 credit-hours, their wages will normally not be taxed.

Indirect Costs

Trinity's Indirect Cost rate is 62% of salaries and wages (not benefits). Please make sure to include this cost on all budgets to be presented to federal grant-making agencies unless indirect charges are explicitly prohibited or limited by the program you are applying to.

Research projects that will be conducted primarily off-campus (more than 50% of the work is conducted somewhere other than Trinity University) may charge the off-campus rate of 20% of salaries and wages.

Trinity's indirect costs agreement was negotiated by Craig McCoy on April 17, 2009. The Department of Health & Human Services signatory was Henry Williams, Director, Division of Cost Allocation, Central States Field Office.

Useful Links

• The Federal Demonstration Partnership