Effort on Grants

Effort is your time spent on a sponsored project, regardless of whether the sponsor funds your salary.

When you are listed as PI or key personnel on a grant proposal, you are obligated to commit a certain amount of effort to the sponsor.

Here are some suggestions for allocating your effort and the effort of your co-investigators.

Percent Effort	What to Expect
1%-4%	Advisory role. Show up to a meeting occasionally
5%-10%	Serve on a committee or workgroup. Publish papers. Show up to a meeting quarterly
11%-15%	Assist or co-lead an aim of the grant. Provide support, such as analytical/statistical or project lead. Attend a meeting monthly
16% or higher	MPI or investigator with a large responsibility to the award. Attends meeting at the same frequency as the PI.

How To:	How do you calculate person months? Per NIH, “Conversion of percentage of effort to person months is straight-forward. To calculate person months, multiply the percentage of your effort associated with the project times the number of months of your appointment. For example: 25% of a 9 month academic year appointment equals 2.25 (AY) person months (9 x 0.25= 2.25) 10% of a 12 month calendar appointment equals 1.2 (CY) person months (12 x 0.10 = 1.2) 35% of a 3 month summer term appointment equals 1.05 (SM) person months (3 x 0.35= 1.05) 10% of a 0.5 FTE 12 month appointment equals 0.6 (CY) person months (12 x .5 X .1 = 0.6)
Resources:	https://intranet.med.wisc.edu/research/proposals-and-agreements/effort-on-proposals/
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