FAQ

Because a sponsored proposal is a legal and financial commitment by UCA, not just an academic document. OGSRreview ensures: 1) compliance with federal regulations, sponsor rules, and UCA policy; 2) correct calculation of effort, salary, fringe, IDCs, and cost sharing; 3) accurate institutional certifications and approvals, and 4) that UCA can accept, manage, and audit the award if funded. Proposals submitted without OGSR review risk rejection, delayed awards, or post-award compliance findings that cannot be corrected later.

UCA’s budget spreadsheet is the internal review tool OGSR uses to verify that salary/effort, fringe, and indirect costs are calculated correctly and consistently with UCA’s negotiated rates and policies before routing/approval. It also helps OGSR confirm the budget aligns with what UCA can actually pay, track, and audit under UCA systems and federal cost principles. Because professionals in several different offices review the budget, having categories placed consistently makes streamlines the review and routing processes.

Total direct cost (TDC) includes all allowable direct project costs (salaries, fringe, travel, equipment, supplies, tuition, subawards, etc.). Modified total direct dost (MTDC) is the subset of direct costs used to calculate indirect costs (IDCs or F&A). MTDC excludes certain categories required by federal Uniform Guidance, including the following: equipment, capital expenditures, tuition remission, participant support costs, subaward amounts over $25,000. Indirect costs are applied to MTDC—not TDC.

“Effort” is not hours. Is is a proportion of your time spent on a particular activity, and, because it is a proportion, you only have 100% (no more, no less) to allot to various activities. “Effort reporting” is required by federal law, and it is a way for a university and a grant funder to track what percentage of an employee’s total job is devoted to a specific grant project. To understand how it works, imagine an employee’s entire university job as a single pie based on the length of their annual contract (9, 10, 11, & 12 are the most common contract slices).

• The size of the pie doesn’t depend on clocking a strict 40-hour work week. Whether someone works 35 hours or 60 hours in a week, their total work for the university equals 100% of their effort during the contract period.
• The 100% is made up of all university duties combined: teaching classes, grading, attending faculty meetings, advising students, and doing research.

How Effort Connects to Grants

When a grant gives money to support a research project, the organization paying for the grant wants to know how much of the employee’s overall job is dedicated to that specific project.

1. Estimate the Effort: The employee estimates what slice of their overall job the project takes up—for example, 25% of their total work.
2. Apply to Salary: The university then charges that exact percentage of the employee’s salary to the grant money rather than the university’s normal budget.

A Simple Example

Suppose a professor earns a salary of $100,000 per year from the university for doing all of their normal duties (100% effort).

• If a research grant requires 25% of their total effort over their nine-month contract, the grant will cover 25% of their salary.
• Math: 25% of $100,000 = $25,000.
• Result: The grant pays $25,000 of the salary, and the university pays the remaining $75,000 (75%) for teaching and administrative duties.

In short, effort reporting isn’t about counting hours on a timecard; it’s about dividing up the employee’s total job into percentages so the funder(s) is/are responsible for the right slice of work.

Remember to always check with your chair before contacting OGSR to discuss the potential commitment of effort and how it will be managed as well as other departmental resources for external funding.

Fringe benefits are the employer-paid costs tied to payroll (benefits like retirement, insurance, FICA, etc.). Under Uniform Guidance, fringe is part of compensation costs and is treated separately from salary.

At UCA, yes—fringe must be budgeted/charged on salaries and wages using UCA’s published fringe rates (see “Frequently Used Information”), unless the sponsor has a documented cap/policy that limits it (in which case the difference may need to be covered as cost share).

Work backward: 1. Decide the salary dollars you want charged to the grant (based on effort % and the salary period). 2. Add fringe using the correct UCA rate for that employee/term. Total personnel line = Salary + Fringe. OGSR can help you translate a target dollar amount into an effort % that fits your appointment period and the sponsor’s rules.

IBS is the salary that corresponds to your 100% UCA effort for a given appointment period. For most 9-month faculty, “3-month summer IBS” typically means the summer salary base equivalent to three months, often calculated as (9-month salary ÷ 9) × 3 (i.e., one-third of the 9-month base), before applying effort %.

Uniform Guidance expects compensation charges to be reasonable and consistent with institutional policy. It is UCA’s policy to charge a 2% COLA raise on salaries every year after the first project period. If COLA raises are not issued, OGSR and Post-Award Grants and Contracts will work with the grantee and the awarding agency’s program officer to negotiate how the leftover funding will be expended.

UCA’s federally negotiated indirect-cost (IDC) rates are as follows:

• On-Campus Employees with Effort toward a Grant: 33.20% of salaries and wages.
• Off-Campus Employees with Effort toward a Grant: 14.64% of salaries and wages.

Because UCA receives federal funding, the US Department of Health and Human Services acts as the “cognizant agency,” the watchdog for most educational institutions that receive federal grant money. HHS audits UCA’s receipts every four years to ensure we follow the guidance provided in 2 CFR 220, Subpart E, formerly known as OMB Circular A-21, and don’t overcharge for indirect costs.

In mathematical terms, the rate is determined by dividing the indirect-cost pool by direct costs based on the previous four year’s receipts:

The indirect-cost pool numerator accounts for institutional expenses that keep the lights on but cannot be cleanly assigned to a single, specific microscope or research paper. Federal auditors allow UCA to aggregate these into two main buckets.

Facilities: Building depreciation, interest on structural debt, equipment depreciation, operations and maintenance (utilities, janitorial services, campus security), and library operations that grant activities expend above normal, daily university operations.

Administration: General administration (payroll, HR, legal), departmental administration (the operational costs of administrative assistants and other support staff that manage purchase orders, personnel action forms, and quotes for services and equipment), and the Offices of Research and Sponsored Programs and Post-Award Grants and Contracts, which assure grants and contracts meet federal guidelines prior to award and monitor grant activities post-award, including research compliance with human participants and animal subjects.

The modified total direct cost base denominator includes the following example expenses:

• Direct faculty/staff salaries
• fringe benefits
• travel for conferences and project development
• lab supplies
• the first $25,000 of any subaward

Examples of costs that would be excluded from the denominator would be capital equipment (items over $5,000), student tuition remission, rental of off-campus space, and any subaward expenditures beyond the first $25,000.

So, in the previous negotiation, UCA spent $10,000,000 in MTDC on grant-eligible activities (paying researchers, buying pipettes, funding project travel).

After complex space-use studies (calculating how many square feet of buildings devoted to grant projects consume electricity and how many hours payroll spends processing grant stipends, for example), HHS agrees that UCA spent $3,320,000 in back-end support to sustain grant-specific activities.

The math translates to $3,320,000 / $10,000,000 = 33.20%.

It depends on the role and campus norms, but the big rules are: 1) pay must be reasonable for the work performed and consistent with UCA’s practices; 2) graduate assistants are often appointed at 20 hours/week with enrollment requirements (per Graduate School policy) and are paid through UCA payroll; 3) administrative graduate assistants must be paid an assistantship that is equivalent to $11/hour. 4) pay for teaching and research assistants should be discussed with chairs and deans. Undergraduate student workers are paid at least minimum wage. In Arkansas, that is $11/hour for non-tipped employees. For a specific budget, OGSR can help you select an appropriate pay rate consistent with the unit’s typical GA/student worker pay.

Follow UCA’s written travel practices which are inline with Uniform Guidance as follows: estimate by the components of transportation + lodging + meals/incidental/per diem + registration + local ground transit. Uniform Guidance allows travel to be charged on an actual cost, per diem, mileage, or a combination (applied consistently for the trip).

At UCA, these are separate budget categories/account codes: Individual Travel – Official Business (non-conference travel) and Individual Travel – Conferences (conference-related travel)

Budget a reasonable placeholder trip using a realistic estimate (e.g., one domestic conference): airfare, lodging nights, per diem/meals, registration, ground transit. In the justification, say “one national conference (TBD)” and describe what the travel accomplishes (presenting results, required training, project coordination). Uniform Guidance focuses on travel being necessary, reasonable, and consistently treated.

Professional services are consultant/professional fees paid to individuals/entities with specialized expertise who are not UCA employees (e.g., evaluator, statistician, artist/performer as contractor, lab service provider). They must be reasonable, justified, and properly classified (contractor v subawardee when applicable).

Generally, no—if the person is a UCA employee, payment is normally handled as salary/effort or approved extra service/overload, not as a “professional service” contractor payment. Extra service pay is tightly controlled: it must follow written institutional policy and, in many cases, be specifically budgeted/approved by the sponsor.

Indirect costs (F&A) are the university’s shared costs that support research and sponsored projects (e.g., facilities, utilities, administrative infrastructure) that can’t be assigned to one project with precision, so they’re recovered through a negotiated rate.

UCA’s IDC rates are negotiated with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (UCA’s cognizant agency) and documented in UCA’s federal rate agreement.

UCA’s federally negotiated indirect-cost (IDC) rates are as follows:

• On-Campus Employees with Effort toward a Grant: 33.20% of salaries and wages.
• Off-Campus Employees with Effort toward a Grant: 14.64% of salaries and wages.

Because UCA receives federal funding, the US Department of Health and Human Services acts as the “cognizant agency,” the watchdog for most educational institutions that receive federal grant money. HHS audits UCA’s receipts every four years to ensure we follow the guidance provided in 2 CFR 220, Subpart E, formerly known as OMB Circular A-21, and don’t overcharge for indirect costs.

In mathematical terms, the rate is determined by dividing the indirect-cost pool by direct costs based on the previous four year’s receipts:

The numerator accounts for institutional expenses for sponsored projects that keep the lights on but cannot be cleanly assigned to a single, specific microscope or research paper. Federal auditors allow UCA to aggregate these into two main buckets.

Facilities: Building depreciation, interest on structural debt, equipment depreciation, operations and maintenance (utilities, janitorial services, campus security), and library operations that grant activities expend above normal, daily university operations.

Administration: General administration (payroll, HR, legal), departmental administration (the operational costs of administrative assistants and other support staff that manage purchase orders, personnel action forms, and quotes for services and equipment), and the Offices of Grants and Sponsored Research and Post-Award Grants and Contracts, which assure grants and contracts meet federal guidelines prior to award and monitor grant activities post-award, including research compliance with human participants and animal subjects.

The denominator includes the following example expenses:

• Direct faculty/staff salaries
• fringe benefits
• travel for conferences and project development
• lab supplies
• the first $25,000 of any subaward

Examples of costs that would be excluded from the denominator would be capital equipment (items over $5,000), student tuition remission, rental of off-campus space, and any subaward expenditures beyond the first $25,000.

So, in the previous negotiation, UCA spent $10,000,000 in MTDC on grant-eligible activities (paying researchers, buying pipettes, funding project travel).

After complex space-use studies (calculating how many square feet of buildings devoted to grant projects consume electricity and how many hours payroll spends processing grant salaries, for example), HHS agrees that UCA spent $3,320,000 in back-end support to sustain grant-specific activities.

The math translates to $3,320,000 / $10,000,000 = 33.20%.

By university policy, grant applicants are required to apply the negotiated IDC rate when the sponsor allows it. If the sponsor has a published, consistently applied limitation (e.g., “IDC capped at 10%”), UCA will honor the sponsor’s limit—but OGSR needs that documentation during routing.

Usually, if it’s a UCA employee, compensation should be handled through payroll (salary/effort or approved extra service pay), not as a stipend. Stipends are generally treated as student/participant support and are restricted by sponsor and institutional rules. If you’re thinking “stipend” for an employee, talk to OGSR early so it’s classified correctly.

Scholarship: Typically a student aid/tuition-support mechanism supported by a funding opportunity such as the NSF Noyce Scholarship Program. Stipend: Money paid to a student/participant with no work obligation. Tuition remission: Project-paid tuition costs when allowable. Uniform Guidance allows certain tuition remission/support if consistent with institutional policy and treated appropriately.

Yes. While the university makes every effort to keep the cost of tuition down, hikes are inevitable. Applicants should include a 4% increase for every year of the project.

Cost sharing is required only when the sponsor explicitly makes it a condition of the award (usually in the program guidelines/NOFO). UCA defines mandatory cost share and requires documentation of the sponsor requirement before routing.

Functionally, yes—“match” is a common sponsor term for cost share (UCA treats them under the same policy umbrella).

A “match rate” is usually expressed as follow: •1:1 match = UCA contributes $1 for every $1 sponsor provides •25% match = UCA contributes 25% of total project costs (or sometimes 25% of sponsor share—always check the NOFO wording) OGSR will help you translate the sponsor’s language into a concrete required dollar amount and documentable sources.

UCA’s policy prioritizes: •Department/college resources first, then •Limited OGSR support (case-by-case), and •Allowable third-party contributions/intramural sources when permitted. Federal funds may not be used as cost share.

UCA policy does not allow voluntary committed cost sharing because it creates binding commitments that negatively impact the university by…

• Increasing the requirements for auditable record-keeping by imposing a substantial tracking, monitoring, recording, and documenting burden on the PI and university administrators.
• Redirecting departmental, school, college, or central resources from other mission-critical uses to support sponsored agreements.
• Producing an adverse effect on the university’s indirect-cost rate. In the calculation of the IDC rate, the denominator is the university’s organized research base – the direct costs associated with sponsored projects and non-sponsored research. The numerator is the university’s research pool expenses, or the facilities and administrative costs associated with supporting organized research. The total amount of the university’s cost-sharing must be included in the denominator. The increase in the denominator serves to decrease the university’s overall IDC rate.
• Increasing the university’s exposure to audit liability. Cost sharing commitments are subject to audit, and a failure to provide the level of cost sharing reflected in the approved award budget may result in a disallowance of award costs, refund of award funds to the sponsor, and possible termination of the award.