Best Practices for Budget Allocations in Multi-Personnel Proposal Submissions

Motivation:

This best practice is motivated by a need for appropriate recognition of each key personnel’s contributions to team research and to promote equitable space allocation and IDC distribution. Appropriate recognition impacts faculty annual review, tenure and promotion, and post-tenure review, and fosters collaboration across colleges, departments, centers, and institutes.

Best Practice:

For any multi-personnel proposal, a separate budget for each key person should be created and documented (preferably within UFIRST Proposal) for all associated personnel to review, discuss and agree on prior to proposal submission. All personnel on the project should have a copy of their budget prior to submission.  Unless otherwise agreed prior to submission and clearly documented (preferably within UFIRST), the IDC distribution should flow to the PIs, departments, and colleges following the direct costs as allocated in the budgets.  

At the time of the award, funds should be allocated to personnel by establishing UF projects according to the predetermined budget allocation.  Should any re-budgeting be required to meet sponsor-imposed constraints, the team should jointly discuss and reach agreement with a preference towards across-the-board percentage-based reductions across projects for any budget cuts that are not tied to changes in the scope of work. Any deficits in following best practices at the pre-award stage should be remedied prior to release of the award.