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Create a budget in Excel.

Personnel costs are typically the largest portion of your budget, For personnel, you need the columns below to compute effort for your grant. To compute effort, you can use this formula:

=ROUND(Effort X BaseSal,0) X (# of months/12)

This formula allows the user to change the number of months for each person. For example, if hiring a project coordinator that will start later in the first year of the project, you can set the months at nine or six. This is useful when dealing with budgets close to the threshold.

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You can compute mileage travel costs by multiplying miles by the current rate, which can be found here.

Here’s a simple formula that can be used to compute conference travel costs for a NIH application.

The $1,200 total cost includes $440 for the flight, $300 conference registration fee, $120 for ground transportation, $110/night X 2 nights hotel is $220, and $120 for other miscellaneous expenses.

Airfare + Conference Registration + Ground Transportation + Hotel + Misc. expenses = One Trip

$440 + $300 + $120 + $220 + $120 = $1,200

 A formula based on effort can be used for supplies. For example:

Supplies have been budgeted at $100 per month per percent effort, which is $1,260 per year (100 X 12 X 105%)

Other categories can be listed on your Excel sheet as whole numbers. For example:

Postage: $500
Software: $1,000
Biostat Cluster: $1,000

When budgeting a subaward for NIH, you must remember that only the first $25,000 takes Johns Hopkins indirect costs. When budgeting in Excel, you can compute a subaward like this:

This is year 1 of a subaward that includes $100,000 direct costs and $50,000 indirect costs.

CONSORTIUM #1 : Institution Name
Directs (included) $25,000
Directs (excluded) $75,000
F&A (included) $0
F&A (excluded) $50,000

Below is an example of how to compute the totals (directs and indirects) for a first year.

This assumes a Year 1 of $250,000 with one subaward at $150,000.

DIRECT COSTS (excludes subs F&A) $250,000
TOTAL DIRECT COSTS (includes subs F&A) $300,000
BASE FOR INDIRECT COSTS (MTDC) $175,000
F&A (63.75%) $111,563

TOTAL $411,563

Let’s walkthrough the numbers above. The first row indicates the total direct costs of the project without including the subaward indirect costs of $50,000. You must always check the PA/RFA to confirm that a subawards indirect costs are excluded. This is the default unless specified in the PA/RFA. This allows for more direct costs at the prime (JHU).

The second row indicates the total direct costs for the entire project, including and subaward indirects. This is the amount the calculates into the total requested. The NIH ASSIST system will verify that your budget is calculated correctly (see table below).

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The third row is the amount of directs that will be used to calculate the JHU indirects. In this case, the $175,00 is calculated as: $300,000-$125,000. Remember, our subaward total cost is $150,000 and we can only calculate the JHU indirect costs on the first $25,000.

The fourth row is the amount of indirect costs JHU is request. This is BASE DIRECTS X JHU ORGANIZED RESEARCH RATE ($175,000 X 63.75% = $111,563). The current rate agreement can be found here. Rates vary based on the type of research.

The fifth and final row is simply the directs and indirects added together ($300,000 +$111,563)

https://grants.nih.gov/grants/how-to-apply-application-guide/forms-g/general/g.300-r&r-budget-form.htm

https://jhura.jhu.edu/proposaldevelopment/budgets/

https://grants.nih.gov/grants/how-to-apply-application-guide/format-and-write/develop-your-budget.htm

https://www.niaid.nih.gov/grants-contracts/create-budget#05

https://www.gsa.gov/about-us/newsroom/news-releases/fy-2022-per-diem-rates-for-federal-travelers-released-08132021#:~:text=The%20CONUS%20meals%20and%20incidental,76%20to%20%2459%2D%2479.

jhura@jhu.edu

Your department administrator or grants manager should have an Excel template for you to use. If not, the above formulas can be used to create a template.

Budget Justification