DUCM Budget Justification Report

I’m working on a public health writing question and need an explanation and answer to help me learn.

The Budget Justification will allow you to think through potential costs of the research. It shows the funder that you have thought through the detail of what it would take to perform the project you have conceived. This is more of an exercise than a final budget- so please send less than an hour researching costs of items/salaries. Much of the focus should be on showing you have thought about most of the potential expenses your project will incur.

Estimate the following, assuming you have a max of $250,000 per year for the number of years (max 5) that you need to do your project. If you want to get very familiar with allowable costs, you can review this policy: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/nihgps/html5/…

• Personnel Costs: Report the % of total budget that would go to that annually and describe the size of staff you need as well as qualifications. This is a general description, please do not get overly detailed. But do keep in mind that grants usually have you estimate personnel costs in the following way:

1. Determine the Amount of Full-time Effort [FTE] the individual would work on the project
2. Determine the Salary (within guidelines, often provided by employer)
3. Include an additional amount to cover the fringe benefit rate. For this project we will have a 25% fringe benefit rate. This means you need to budget for an additional 25% more in expenses for each member of the team. For example, someone working at 100%FTE who has a salary of $50,000, would cost the project $62,500. So just keep that in mind as you estimate personnel costs. It is very common for Principal Investigators and other staff to work on multiple projects, therefore you do not need to plan on all staff being at 100%FTE.

• Equipment: Equipment is defined as an item of property that has an acquisition cost of $5,000 or more (unless the organization has established lower levels) and an expected service life of more than one year.
• Supplies: Supplies should be itemized by category such as participant incentives, Printed materials for participants, Advertising for study, Local Travel costs for participants or study staff, equipment for biological sample collection, technology equipment such as smart watches that are less than the $5,000 capital equipment expense, etc.