Pre-Award Support
Pre-Award Contacts
Dr. Phyllis Danner, CRA Dr. Corrine Vaughn
Assistant Vice-President for Director of Research Management
Research and Sponsored Programs
Phone: 615-277-1621 Phone: 615-277-1672
E-mail: pdanner@tnstate.edu E-mail: svaughn@tnstate.edu
- Grant budget assistance - Grant budget assistance
- Grant submissions - Grant submissions
- Departmental accounting and budgeting - RSP data aggregation
- Funding agency reporting/point of contact - Research contract processing
How to calculate salaries and fringe benefits
This section includes guidelines on the costs of salaries and wages that will be paid to TSU research investigators and personnel (current personnel and those to be hired, including students). Be sure to follow guidelines of the funding agency for requirements about appropriate salary charges.
Base salary: Calculate salaries and wages for grant budgets using each person’s institutional base salary and time/effort committed to the project.
Budgeting for 9 month Faculty: Most faculty at TSU are on 9-month appointments, and their effort and compensation on a research grant project will be determined using the methods below.
Calculating release time of 9 month faculty: Faculty members requesting a 3-credit hour release for a semester is equal to 20% effort. To determine a dollar amount for this effort to be budgeted in the grant for 20% release for an academic year multiply 20% x the faculty member’s base salary. To that end a faculty member with a $50,000 base salary would multiply .20 x $50,000 = $10,000.
Summer salary calculation: TSU allows 9-month faculty to earn up to 33% of their salary during the summer. Also keep in mind that some funding agencies (including the National Science Foundation) limit summer compensation to 2 months – be sure to check the program guidelines carefully for these restrictions. To calculate a researcher’s summer pay simply multiply the base salary x 33%. For example a researcher with a base salary of $50,000 can receive $16,500 of summer salary (0.33 x $50,000 = $16,5000).
Fringe Benefits
When grant funds are used to pay salaries and wages, fringe benefits must also be determined and calculated. TSU has a fringe benefit rate of 35% for full-time employees that should be used to calculate fringe benefits for grant proposals. (See Benefit Rates Memo)
Calculating fringe benefits for release of a 9 month employee: Using our example above of, a research investigator with an annual salary of $50,000 that requests a 3 credit release (or 20% effort) totaling $10,000 must also calculate fringe benefits for the $10,0000 (20% effort). To do this multiply 0.35 x $10,000 and the grant will pay fringe benefits of $3500. This calculation will also be used to determine fringe benefits for summer salary.