Salary information for sponsored projects
Salaries can only be requested for University of Nevada, Reno (University) personnel (or personnel you intend to hire as a University employee upon award). Salaries can be requested for faculty, classified staff, letter of appointment faculty, post doctoral researchers, graduate assistants, hourly/student workers, etc. Salaries cannot be requested for consultants, faculty at other institutions, research subjects, etc. There are other mechanisms for remuneration for these cost categories. Also, University employees must be paid through their salary lines. This means that University employees cannot be paid through the “independent contractor” process.
- Learn more about salaries on the University's Human Resources website.
- How to Calculate Faculty Salaries
- Working with the NIH Salary Cap
Cost share / NSF and NIH
NSF policy no longer permits cost sharing. A principal investigator (PI) cannot put forth effort on a sponsored project, budget $0 for the PI's salary and call it institutional support (cost share) in the budget justification. It is recommended that this type of institutional support be listed under the "Other" section of the Facilities and Resource page. While NIH has not formalized this same policy, things of this nature become subject to federal audit. Therefore, caution should be exercised in the cost share budget portion.
More information about the University's Cost Share Policy.
Fringe benefits
Fringe expenses always accompany salary expenses. These expenses cover the costs of health insurance, life insurance, worker’s compensation, etc. Fringe costs should not be confused with facilities and administrative costs (“F&A,” “indirect costs," or “overhead”). These are two distinct, genuine costs associated with sponsored projects and both should be included in the proposal.
Fringe benefit rates correspond to employment category and contract type. Current fringe benefit rates for use in grant proposal budgeting can be found in the Quick Reference Guide.