Prepare Proposal

Cost-sharing represents unrecovered costs (a subsidy) provided or sacrificed by the college or a third party to meet the proposed project’s overall budgetary requirements. ORP policy is to provide cost-share only in instances where the sponsor requires mandatory matching contributions, not to exceed sponsor requirements.   

Depending on the type and level of cost-sharing, these subsidies must be approved by either ORP, Office of Research Finance, the Provost, or the President. To be sure the appropriate approvals are in place prior to proposal submission, the PI must discuss the matching requirements initially with their SPA as soon as possible. Under no circumstances should the PI or Co-PI provide an estimate of costs or cost-sharing to the sponsor in advance of budget development with their SPA.  

Senior Personnel 
Budgeting for senior personnel is calculated based on current salary with a 3% increase included for inflation or raises.  

Salaries and associated fringe benefits of SUNY employees who perform services on Research Foundation-administered sponsored projects while remaining on the SUNY payroll are reimbursed by the Research Foundation to SUNY through the Income Fund Reimbursable (IFR) process. This is an RF SUNY process for all SUNY campuses, not just ESF.  

The Standard rate is 5% for PI and 3% for Co-PI (but may change based on the level of their involvement). If PI would like to reduce IFR, the PI needs to submit a request with justification to SPA that is sent for review by VPR/OM/Director.

Summer salary may be included in proposal budgets for academic year faculty only.  

Note: Some sponsors such as NSF restrict the number of months of salary recovery.  For specific details please contact your SPA.   

Other Personnel
HR establishes the most current rate minimums for all other staff. A 3% annual increase to current rates will be included in the budget.  

“Other personnel” includes regular employees, post-doctoral assistants/associates/researchers (maximum contract period is five years), summer employees, graduate students, and undergraduate students.  

Research Project Assistant (RPA) positions are for graduate students at a 50% full-time employee rate with tuition remission. Hourly graduate students are not eligible for tuition remission. There are several student titles within the graduate student category; please work with your SPA to select the correct designation.  

Undergraduate Students
Line to be used for ESF or other SUNY students, not students from another non-SUNY institution.    

Fringe-benefit rates are based on current SUNY RF rates approved by DDS. Access SUNY’s fringe benefit rates here >  

Summer Employees can only be hired outside of the academic commitment period. If the staff member is extended beyond Sept. 30, the entire appointment must be updated to charge the regular employee fringe rate.  

Equipment is defined as one item acquisition cost $5,000 or more, and useful life of one year or more.  

Alternately, if multiple pieces of equipment operate independently and each one is below $5,000, it would fall under materials and supplies. If it does qualify as equipment, ensure to budget insurance and maintenance costs.   

Please provide travel location information to your SPA. Some state awards do not allow out-of-state travel and for foreign travel, destinations must be pre-identified.   

This category of a budget includes funds to support programming for audiences that will receive training/mentoring/professional development from the staff on the proposal. 

This includes direct costs such as stipends, travel, subsistence, activities for participants or trainees in connection with conferences or training projects.  

This does not include materials to facilitate programming for participants or travel/subsistence for staff who are facilitating programming.  

Contractor selection for budgeting purposes should be the best estimation based on price reasonableness. Additional procurement steps may be required during the pre-award period.  

SPA must be in contact with all subaward institutions as fast as possible to solidify their budgets.  

Tuition will be budgeted at the weighted average rate for each Research Project Assistant budgeted at an appointment level of 50% FTE or prorated in accordance with Graduate School policy.  

A 4% increase to the current tuition rate will be calculated each year.  

Please follow the links below for the current SUNY ESF annual rate listing by fiscal year on the RF SUNY site:  
Federal Rates - MTDC Base: The table provides the rates to be applied to a Modified Total Direct Cost base. Access it here >  
Non-Federal Rates - TDC Base: The table provides the rates to be applied to a Total Direct Cost base. Access it here >  

Exceptions to these budgeting practices are allowed on a case-by-case basis, depending on the type of agreement (see distinctions below), and need to be submitted to your SPA and approved by the necessary parties.   

This budgeting process is used for contracts and grants administered by ORP.