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Effort is defined as the amount of time spent on a particular activity. It includes the time spent working on a sponsored project in which salary is directly charged or contributed (cost-shared).
Effort is expressed in the proposed budget and budget justification as a percentage of the individual’s total University appointment devoted to the project. Effort should be represented in the format requested by the sponsor but should also be shown in the budget justification in person months (person months conversion tool) as well. For example, for faculty with 9 month Academic Year appointments, if 25% effort is expected during the Academic year and 25% as well for Summer, it would be represented in person months as 2.25 Academic months and 0.75 Summer months. For faculty and staff on Calendar year appointments, 12 months is used as the base upon which percentages are applied; e.g. 25% of a Calendar appointment amounts to 3.0 Calendar months.
For faculty on 9 month academic year appointments, effort can be budgeted as Summer or Academic depending on when the effort is expended. Effort workload is based on a 12 credit hours per semester, 12.5% equates to a 3 credit course, or 1.13 academic months, see the Salary Buy-Out Policy for more information. Summer salary paid directly from sponsored programs may earn three-ninths (3/9) of their stipulated salary.
When you process any allocation to a sponsored program, the percent of effort should reflect actual salary. For example, if you are spending 12.5% effort on a project that equates to $6,200 salary but you have $7,000 in your personnel line, you should only be charging direct effort of 12.5% and not charging 12.7224% to equate to the $7,000 since allocations are effort based. The percent of effort should only be allocated for up to two decimals or reportable effort.
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