how to calculate budget for research proposal

The Research Whisperer

Just like the thesis whisperer – but with more money, how to make a simple research budget.

A napkin diagram of the basic concepts in a project: interviews in South East Asia and trails with a Thingatron

Every research project needs a budget*.

If you are applying for funding, you must say what you are planning to spend that funding on. More than that, you need to show how spending that money will help you to answer your research question .

So, developing the budget is the perfect time to plan your project clearly . A good budget shows the assessors that you have thought about your research in detail and, if it is done well, it can serve as a great, convincing overview of the project.

Here are five steps to create a simple budget for your research project.

1. List your activities

Make a list of everything that you plan to do in the project, and who is going to do it.

Take your methodology and turn it into a step-by-step plan. Have you said that you will interview 50 people? Write it on your list.

Are you performing statistical analysis on your sample? Write it down.

Think through the implications of what you are going to do. Do you need to use a Thingatron? Note down that you will need to buy it, install it, and commission it.

What about travel? Write down each trip separately. Be specific. You can’t just go to ‘South East Asia’ to do fieldwork. You need to go to Kuala Lumpur to interview X number of people over Y weeks, then the same again for Singapore and Jakarta.

Your budget list might look like this:

I’m going to do 10 interviews in Kuala Lumpur; 10 interviews in Singapore; 10 interviews in Jakarta by me.
I’ll need teaching release for three months for fieldwork.
I’ll need Flights to KL, Singapore, Jakarta and back to Melbourne.
I’ll need Accommodation for a month in each place, plus per diem.
The transcription service will transcribe the 30 interviews.
I’ll analysis the transcribed results. (No teaching release required – I’ll do it in my meagre research time allowance.)
I’ll need a Thingatron X32C to do the trials.
Thing Inc will need to install the Thingatron. (I wonder how long that will take.)
The research assistant will do three trials a month with the Thingatron.
I’ll need to hire a research assistant (1 day per week for a year at Level B1.)
The research assistant will do the statistical analysis of the Thingatron results.
I’ll do the writing up in my research allowance time.

By the end, you should feel like you have thought through the entire project in detail. You should be able to walk someone else through the project, so grab a critical friend and read the list to them. If they ask questions, write down the answers.

This will help you to get to the level of specificity you need for the next step.

2. Check the rules again

You’ve already read the funding rules, right? If not, go and read them now – I’ll wait right here until you get back.

Once you’ve listed everything you want to do, go back and read the specific rules for budgets again. What is and isn’t allowed? The funding scheme won’t pay for equipment – you’ll need to fund your Thingatron from somewhere else. Cross it off.

Some schemes won’t fund people. Others won’t fund travel. It is important to know what you need for your project. It is just as important to know what you can include in the application that you are writing right now.

Most funding schemes won’t fund infrastructure (like building costs) and other things that aren’t directly related to the project. Some will, though. If they do, you should include overheads (i.e. the general costs that your organisation needs to keep running). This includes the cost of basics like power and lighting; desks and chairs; and cleaners and security staff. It also includes service areas like the university library. Ask your finance officer for help with this. Often, it is a percentage of the overall cost of the project.

If you are hiring people, don’t forget to use the right salary rate and include salary on-costs. These are the extra costs that an organisation has to pay for an employee, but that doesn’t appear in their pay check. This might include things like superannuation, leave loading, insurance, and payroll tax. Once again, your finance officer can help with this.

Your budget list might now look like this:

10 interviews in Kuala Lumpur; 10 interviews in Singapore; 10 interviews in Jakarta by me.
Teaching release for three months for fieldwork.
Flights to KL, Singapore, Jakarta and back to Melbourne.
Accommodation for a month in each place, plus per diem, plus travel insurance (rule 3F).
Transcription of 30 interviews, by the transcription service.
Analysis of transcribed results, by me. No teaching release required.
Purchase and install Thingatron X32C, by Thing Inc . Not allowed by rule 3C . Organise access to Thingatron via partner organistion – this is an in-kind contribution to the project.
Three trials a month with Thingatron, by research assistant.
Statistical analysis of Thingatron results, by research assistant.
Research assistant: 1 day per week for a year at Level B1, plus 25.91% salary on-costs.
Overheads at 125% of total cash request, as per rule 3H.

3. Cost each item

For each item on your list, find a reasonable cost for it . Are you going to interview the fifty people and do the statistical analysis yourself? If so, do you need time release from teaching? How much time? What is your salary for that period of time, or how much will it cost to hire a replacement? Don’t forget any hidden costs, like salary on-costs.

If you aren’t going to do the work yourself, work out how long you need a research assistant for. Be realistic. Work out what level you want to employ them at, and find out how much that costs.

How much is your Thingatron going to cost? Sometimes, you can just look that stuff up on the web. Other times, you’ll need to ring a supplier, particularly if there are delivery and installation costs.

Jump on a travel website and find reasonable costs for travel to Kuala Lumpur and the other places. Find accommodation costs for the period that you are planning to stay, and work out living expenses. Your university, or your government, may have per diem rates for travel like this.

Make a note of where you got each of your estimates from. This will be handy later, when you write the budget justification.

10 interviews in Kuala Lumpur; 10 interviews in Singapore; 10 interviews in Jakarta by me (see below for travel costs).
Teaching release for three months for fieldwork = $25,342 – advice from finance officer.
Flights to KL ($775), Singapore ($564), Jakarta ($726), Melbourne ($535) – Blue Sky airlines, return economy.
Accommodation for a month in each place (KL: $3,500; Sing: $4,245; Jak: $2,750 – long stay, three star accommodation as per TripAdviser).
Per diem for three months (60 days x $125 per day – University travel rules).
Travel insurance (rule 3F): $145 – University travel insurance calculator .
Transcription of 30 interviews, by the transcription service: 30 interviews x 60 minutes per interview x $2.75 per minute – Quote from transcription service, accented voices rate.
Analysis of transcribed results, by me. No teaching release required. (In-kind contribution of university worth $2,112 for one week of my time – advice from finance officer ).
Purchase and install Thingatron X32C, by Thing Inc . Not allowed by rule 3C. Organise access to Thingatron via partner organistion – this is an in-kind contribution to the project. ($2,435 in-kind – quote from partner organisation, at ‘favoured client’ rate.)
Research assistant: 1 day per week for a year at Level B1, plus 25.91% salary on-costs. $12,456 – advice from finance officer.

Things are getting messy, but the next step will tidy it up.

4. Put it in a spreadsheet

Some people work naturally in spreadsheets (like Excel). Others don’t. If you don’t like Excel, tough. You are going to be doing research budgets for the rest of your research life.

When you are working with budgets, a spreadsheet is the right tool for the job, so learn to use it! Learn enough to construct a simple budget – adding things up and multiplying things together will get you through most of it. Go and do a course if you have to.

For a start, your spreadsheet will multiply things like 7 days in Kuala Lumpur at $89.52 per day, and it will also add up all of your sub-totals for you.

If your budget doesn’t add up properly (because, for example, you constructed it as a table in Word), two things will happen. First, you will look foolish. Secondly, and more importantly, people will lose confidence in all your other numbers, too. If your total is wrong, they will start to question the validity of the rest of your budget. You don’t want that.

If you are shy of maths, then Excel is your friend. It will do most of the heavy lifting for you.

For this exercise, the trick is to put each number on a new line. Here is how it might look.

5. Justify it

Accompanying every budget is a budget justification. For each item in your budget, you need to answer two questions:

Why do you need this money?
Where did you get your figures from?

The budget justification links your budget to your project plan and back again. Everything item in your budget should be listed in your budget justification, so take the list from your budget and paste it into your budget justification.

For each item, give a short paragraph that says why you need it. Refer back to the project plan and expand on what is there. For example, if you have listed a research assistant in your application, this is a perfect opportunity to say what the research assistant will be doing.

Also, for each item, show where you got your figures from. For a research assistant, this might mean talking about the level of responsibility required, so people can understand why you chose the salary level. For a flight, it might be as easy as saying: “Blue Sky airlines economy return flight.”

Here is an example for just one aspect of the budget:

Fieldwork: Kuala Lumpur

Past experience has shown that one month allows enough time to refine and localise interview questions with research partners at University of Malaya, test interview instrument, recruit participants, conduct ten x one-hour interviews with field notes. In addition, the novel methodology will be presented at CONF2015, to be held in Malaysia in February 2015.

Melbourne – Kuala Lumpur economy airfare is based on current Blue Sky Airlines rates. Note that airfares have been kept to a minimum by travelling from country to country, rather than returning to Australia.

1 month accommodation is based on three star, long stay accommodation rates provided by TripAdvisor.

30 days per diem rate is based on standard university rates for South-East Asia.

Pro tip: Use the same nomenclature everywhere. If you list a Thingatron X32C in your budget, then call it a Thingatron X32C in your budget justification and project plan. In an ideal world, someone should be able to flip from the project plan, to the budget and to the budget justification and back again and always know exactly where they are.

Project plan: “Doing fieldwork in Malaysia? Whereabouts?” Flips to budget.
Budget: “A month in Kuala Lumpur – OK. Why a month?” Flips to budget justification.
Budget justification: “Ah, the field work happens at the same time as the conference. Now I get it. So, what are they presenting at the conference?” Flips back to the project description…

So, there you have it: Make a list; check the rules; cost everything; spreadsheet it; and then justify it. Budget done. Good job, team!

This article builds on several previous articles. I have shamelessly stolen from them.

Constructing your budget – Jonathan O’Donnell.
What makes a winning budget ? – Jonathan O’Donnell.
How NOT to pad your budget – Tseen Khoo.
Conquer the budget, conquer the project – Tseen Khoo.
Research on a shoestring – Emily Kothe.
How to make a simple Gantt chart – Jonathan O’Donnell.

* Actually, there are some grant schemes that give you a fixed amount of money, which I think is a really great idea . However, you will still need to work out what you are going to spend the money on, so you will still need a budget at some stage, even if you don’t need it for the application.

Also in the ‘simple grant’ series:

How to write a simple research methods section .
How to make a simple Gantt chart .

Why You Need the Ultimate Library for Your RFP Responses

Respond to RFPs , Responding to RFPs

Updated: Feb 8th, 2024

how to calculate budget for research proposal

Creating an effective proposal budget is key to writing a winning proposal.

But it’s not exactly easy.

Your proposal budget has to be accurate, justifiable, and appealing … all while ensuring profitability for your organization.

(Learn how RFP360 can help you streamline the proposal management process.)

But what exactly is a proposal budget?

A proposal budget is the budget you put forth in a business proposal. It serves as an estimate of the cost your prospect will pay if they select your organization.

Below, we’ll provide advice to help you create an effective proposal budget in the form of considerations, calculators, and communication tips.

5 Key Proposal Budget Considerations

When creating a proposal budget, you must consider five key factors.

Research and development.
Travel costs.
Operational expenses.
Profit margin.

1. Salary Costs

To calculate the salary cost for your proposal, determine who will be involved in the project.

For example, an ad agency might support their clients with:

Account executives.
Creative directors.
Art directors.
Copywriters.
Media buyers.

A software company, on the other hand, might rely on:

Customer success representatives.
Support representatives.
Implementation specialists.

Once you know who will support the prospect if they select your organization, determine how much they make per hour.

Then, simply multiply that figure by the number of hours they will need to work.

2. Research and development

Your proposal budget should also take research and development costs into consideration.

How much did your organization invest in determining whether you had a viable market and offering? How much did you spend actually creating the offering?

While you won’t put the burden of recouping these costs on a single client, they are important to keep in mind.

3. Travel costs

If your employees must travel to satisfy your proposal, factor in these costs, as well.

This may include salespeople, implementation specialists, trainers, account managers, or anyone else who does on-site visits with the client.

4. Operational expenses

Operational expenses are crucial to remember when creating a proposal budget. After all, you have to keep the lights on.

Calculate costs such as marketing, sales, rent, utilities, maintenance, general staff, and any other expenses your organization must incur to continue operations.

5. Profit margin

Finally, understand your target profit margin.

While your business objective likely centers around your customers, you can’t serve anyone if you don’t stay in business.

Understand and consider your profit margin before finalizing your proposal budget.

Proposal Calculators

To help you accurately estimate your proposal budget, we’ve compiled a list of calculator tools.

NFWF Indirect Cost Calculator

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation offers this Indirect Cost Calculator tool “to assist applicants with calculating the allowable amount of indirect costs that can be included in proposal budgets.”

Price&Cost

Price&Cost is a software solution that offers “painless project budgeting and cost tracking.”

While the solution costs $90 per month in their lowest pricing tier, they offer a 14-day free trial.

Here’s a short, one-minute video that explains how it works:

Omnic Calculator

This tool is designed to work as an overall business budget calculator that “you can treat as a business budget worksheet to plan out the budget for upcoming months or to quickly reassess your priorities.”

It can, however, serve as your proposal budget calculator. Just ignore the income sections and focus on one-time costs, salaries, and monthly expenses.

Understanding Client Needs Through Communication

Effectively communicating your proposal budget is key.

One often-overlooked step in this process comes during the client discovery period: Understanding your prospect’s budget.

Creating a proposal budget that’s wildly out of line with their expectations won’t help anyone.

But how do you get your prospects to open up about their budget before you respond to their requests for proposals (RFPs)?

According to sales expert Lilly Ferrick , “You could come right out and ask, ‘What is your budget?’ But in doing so, unless you’ve already established a high degree of trust, you are likely to encounter obstacles.”

Instead, she suggests:

Providing a typical budget range and asking if that falls in line with their expectations.
Asking open-ended questions, like “What kind of budget do you have in mind?”
Asking if they have determined a budget, and helping them determine one if they haven’t.

Approaching the topic in this manner allows prospects to engage in a fluid conversation, instead of locking them into a specific figure before they’re comfortable.

Use the insights gained from this discussion to tailor your proposal to their needs and limitations.

Once you’re ready to present your proposal budget, you’ll want to create a budget narrative — also known as a budget justification.

According to the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), a budget narrative serves two purposes:

Explaining how you estimated the cost.
Justifying the cost.

The key to writing a budget narrative that appeals to prospects is providing adequate detail and tying everything back to return on investment (ROI).

In most cases, organizations aren’t trying to avoid spending money — they’re trying to avoid wasting money.

As long as you can prove the money they invest in your organization will bring value, they’ll happily accept the cost.

How RFP360 can help

RFP360 — the only full-circle RFP management system on the market today — streamlines the entire proposal management process, empowering users to focus on creating compelling content that leads to wins.

“RFP360 has really helped us handle dramatic influxes,” said Technolutions Chief of Staff Laura Gardner. “For example, at one point last year, we had 12 RFPs due in one month, and we were able to submit responses to all of them.”

Learn how RFP360 can improve the proposal management process at your organization.

As RFP360’s sales director, Pat is responsible for implementing strategic growth initiatives, mentoring sales staff, and driving revenue. Before joining RFP360, he led the sales team for a growing tech firm as they launched their North American presence and new go-to-market strategies. When he’s not working or chasing down his one-and-a-half-year-old and three-and-a-half-year-old children, he enjoys golfing and watching live music.

Product & Best Practices
Selling & Enablement
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People & Teams
Company & Events
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About Grants
How to Apply - Application Guide
Write Application

Develop Your Budget

Cost considerations, budgets: getting started.

Allowable direct vs. allowable F&A costs
Modular vs. Detailed Budgets

Modular Budgets

Detailed Budget: Personnel (Sec A & B)
Detailed Budget: Equipment, Travel, and Trainee Costs (Sec C, D, and E)
Detailed Budget: Other Direct Costs (Sec F)

Consortiums/Subawards

Understanding the out years.

Other resources

As you begin to develop a budget for your research grant application and put all of the relevant costs down on paper, many questions may arise. Your best resources for answering these questions are the grants or sponsored programs office within your own institution, your departmental administrative officials, and your peers. They can answer questions such as:

What should be considered a direct cost or indirect cost?
What is the fringe benefit rate?
What is the graduate student stipend rate?
What Facilities and Administrative (F&A) costs rate should I use?

Below are some additional tips and reminders we have found to be helpful for preparing a research grant application, mainly geared towards the SF424 (R&R) application. (Note: these tips do not supersede the budget instructions found in the relevant application instruction guide found on the How to Apply - Application Guide page.

An applicant's budget request is reviewed for compliance with the governing cost principles and other requirements and policies applicable to the type of recipient and the type of award. Any resulting award will include a budget that is consistent with these requirements. Information on the applicable cost principles and on allowable and unallowable costs under NIH grants is provided in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, Section 7.2 The Cost Principles Statement under Cost Considerations /grants/policy/nihgps/HTML5/section_7/7_cost_consideration.htm . In general, NIH grant awards provide for reimbursement of actual, allowable costs incurred and are subject to Federal cost principles /grants/policy/nihgps/HTML5/section_7/7.2_the_cost_principles.htm .

The cost principles address four tests that NIH follows in determining the allowability of costs. Costs charged to awards must be allowable, allocable, reasonable, necessary, and consistently applied regardless of the source of funds. NIH may disallow the costs if it determines, through audit or otherwise, that the costs do not meet the tests of allowability, allocability, reasonableness, necessity, and consistency.

II.1 (Mechanism of Support),
II.2 (Funds Available),
III.2 (Cost Sharing or Matching), and
IV.5 (Funding Restrictions).
Identify all the costs that are necessary and reasonable to complete the work described in your proposal.
Throughout the budgeting process, round to whole dollars and use only U.S. dollars.
Reviewers look for reasonable costs and will judge whether your request is justified by your aims and methods.
Reviewers will consider the person months you've listed for each of the senior/key personnel and will judge whether the figures are in sync with reviewer expectations, based on the research proposed.
Significant over- or under-estimating suggests you may not understand the scope of the work. Despite popular myth, proposing a cost-sharing (matching) arrangement where you only request that NIH support some of the funding while your organization funds the remainder does not normally impact the evaluation of your proposal. Only a few select programs require cost-sharing, and these programs will address cost-sharing in the funding opportunity.

Direct Costs: Costs that can be identified specifically with a particular sponsored project, an instructional activity, or any other institutional activity, or that can be directly assigned to such activities relatively easily with a high degree of accuracy.

F&A Costs: Necessary costs incurred by a recipient for a common or joint purpose benefitting more than one cost objective, and not readily assignable to the cost objectives specifically benefitted, without effort disproportionate to the results achieved. To facilitate equitable distribution of indirect expenses to the cost objectives served, it may be necessary to establish a number of pools of F&A (indirect) costs. F&A (indirect) cost pools must be distributed to benefitted cost objectives on bases that will produce an equitable result in consideration of relative benefits derived.

The total costs requested in your budget will include allowable direct costs (related to the performance of the grant) plus allowable F&A costs. If awarded, each budget period of the Notice of Award will reflect direct costs, applicable F&A, and in the case of SBIR or STTR awards, a "profit" or fee .
For most institutions the negotiated F&A rate will use a modified total direct cost base, which excludes items such as: equipment, student tuition, research patient care costs, rent, and sub-recipient charges (after the first $25,000). Check with your sponsored programs office to find out your negotiated direct cost base.
When calculating whether your direct cost per year is $500,000 or greater, do not include any sub-recipient F&A in the base but do include all other direct costs as well as any equipment costs. NOTE: Direct cost requests equal to or greater than $500,000 require prior approval from the NIH Institute/Center before application submission. For more information, see NIH Guide Notice NOT-OD-02-004 .
For many SBIR/STTR recipients, 40% of modified total direct costs is a common F&A rate, although rates at organizations may vary.

Modular versus Detailed Budgets

The NIH uses 2 different formats for budget submission depending on the total direct costs requested and the activity code used.

The application forms package associated with most NIH funding opportunities includes two optional budget forms—(1) R&R Budget Form; and, (2) PHS 398 Modular Budget Form. NIH applications will include either the R&R Budget Form or the PHS 398 Modular Budget Form, but not both. To determine whether to use a detailed versus modular budget for your NIH application, see the flowchart below.

NIH uses a modular budget format to request up to a total of $250,000 of direct costs per year (in modules of $25,000, excluding consortium F&A costs) for some applications, rather than requiring a full detailed budget. The modular budget format is NOT accepted for

SBIR and STTR grant applications,
applications from foreign (non-U.S.) institutions (must use detailed budget even when modular option is available), or
applications that propose the use of human fetal tissue (HFT) obtained from elective abortions (as defined in NOT-OD-19-128 for HFT) whether or not costs are incurred.

Creating a modular budget

Select the PHS398 Modular Budget form for your submission package, and use the appropriate set of instructions from the electronic application user's guide. You do not need to submit the SF424 (R&R) Budget form if you submit the PHS398 Modular Budget form.
Consider creating a detailed budget for your own institution's use including salaries, equipment, supplies, graduate student tuition, etc. for every year of funds requested. While the NIH will not ask for these details, they are important for you to have on hand when calculating your F&A costs base and writing your justification, and for audit purposes.
In order to determine how many modules you should request, subtract any consortium F&A from the total direct costs, and then round to the nearest $25,000 increment.

A modular budget justification should include:

Personnel Justification: The Personnel Justification should include the name, role, and number of person-months devoted to this project for every person on the project. Do not include salary and fringe benefit rate in the justification, but keep in mind the legislatively mandated salary cap when calculating your budget. [When preparing a modular budget, you are instructed to use the current cap when determining the appropriate number of modules.]
Consortium Justification: If you have a consortium/subcontract, include the total costs (direct costs plus F&A costs), rounded to the nearest $1,000, for each consortium/subcontract. Additionally, any personnel should include their roles and person months; if the consortium is foreign, that should be stated as well.
Additional Narrative Justification: Additional justification should include explanations for any variations in the number of modules requested annually. Also, this section should describe any direct costs that were excluded from the total direct costs (such as equipment, tuition remission) and any work being conducted off-site, especially if it involves a foreign study site or an off-site F&A rate.

See the NIH Modular Research Grant Applications page and the NIH Grants Policy Statement for more information.

Detailed Budget: Personnel (Sections A & B)

Personnel make up sections A and B of the SF424 (R&R) Budget form. All personnel from the applicant organization dedicating effort to the project should be listed on the personnel budget with their base salary and effort, even if they are not requesting salary support.

Effort : Effort must be reported in person months. For help converting percent effort to person months, see Usage of Person Months FAQs .
Salary Caps: NIH will not pay requested salary above the annual salary cap, which can be found at Salary Cap Summary . If salary is requested above the salary cap, NIH will reduce that line item to the salary cap, resulting in a reduced total award amount. In future years, if the salary cap increases, recipients may rebudget to pay investigator salaries up to the new salary cap, but NIH will not increase the total award amount. If you are preparing a detailed budget, you are instructed to base your request on actual institutional base salaries (not the cap) so that NIH staff has the most current information in hand at the time of award and can apply the appropriate salary cap at that time.
Fringe Benefits: The fringe benefits rate is based on your institution's policy; the NIH does not have a pre-set limit on fringe benefits. More information on what is included as fringe benefits can be found in the Grants Policy Statement at /grants/policy/nihgps/HTML5/section_12/12.8.1_salaries_and_fringe_benefits.htm . If you have questions about what rate to use, consult your institution's sponsored programs office.
Senior/Key Personnel: The Senior/Key Personnel section should include any senior or key personnel from the applicant organization who are dedicating effort to this project. "Other Significant Contributors" who dedicate negligible effort should not be included. Some common significant contributors include: 1) CEOs of companies who provide overall leadership, but no direct contribution to the research; and 2) mentors for K awardees, who provide advice and guidance to the candidate but do not work on the project. Likewise, any consultants or collaborators who are not employed by the applicant organization should not be included in section A, but rather should be included in section F.3 of the budget (for consultants) or in section A of the consortium/subaward budget page (for collaborators).
Postdoctoral Associates: Postdocs can be listed in either section A or B depending on their level of involvement in project design and execution. If listed in section B, include the individuals' names and level of effort in the budget justification section.
Other Personnel: Other personnel can be listed by project role. If multiple people share the same role such as "lab technician", indicate the number of personnel to the left of the role description, add their person months together, and add their requested salaries together. The salaries of secretarial/clerical staff should normally be treated as F&A costs. Direct charging of these costs may be appropriate where a major project or activity explicitly budgets for administrative or clerical services and individuals involved can be specifically identified with the project or activity [see Exhibit C of OMB Circular A-21 (relocated to 2 CFR, Part 220)]. Be specific in your budget justifications when describing other personnel's roles and responsibilities.

Detailed Budget: Equipment, Travel, and Trainee Costs (Sections C, D, and E)

Generally equipment is excluded from the F&A base, so if you have something with a short service life (< 1 year), even if it costs more than $5,000, you are better off including it under "supplies".
If you request equipment that is already available (listed in the Facilities & Other Resources section, for example), the narrative justification must explain why the current equipment is insufficient to accomplish the proposed research and how the new equipment's use will be allocated specifically to the proposed research. Otherwise, NIH may disallow this cost.
General purpose equipment, such as desktop computers and laptops, that will be used on multiple projects or for personal use should not be listed as a direct cost but should come out of the F&A costs, unless primarily or exclusively used in the actual conduct of the proposed scientific research.
While the application does not require you to have a price quote for new equipment, including price quotes in your budget justification can aid in the evaluation of the equipment cost to support the project.
Trainee Costs: Leave this section blank unless otherwise stated in the funding opportunity. Graduate student tuition remission can be entered in section F.8.

Detailed Budget: Other Direct Costs (Section F)

Materials and Supplies: In the budget justification, indicate general categories such as glassware, chemicals, animal costs, including an amount for each category. Categories that include costs less than $1,000 do not have to be itemized.
Animal Costs: While included under "materials and supplies", it is often helpful to include more specific details about how you developed your estimate for animal costs. Include the number of animals you expect to use, the purchase price for the animals (if you need to purchase any), and your animal facility's per diem care rate, if available. Details are especially helpful if your animal care costs are unusually large or small. For example, if you plan to follow your animals for an abnormally long time period and do not include per diem rates, the reviewers may think you have budgeted too much for animal costs and may recommend a budget cut.
Publication Costs: You may include the costs associated with helping you disseminate your research findings from the proposed research. If this is a new application, you may want to delay publication costs until the later budget periods, once you have actually obtained data to share.
Consultant Services: Consultants differ from Consortiums in that they may provide advice, but should not be making decisions for the direction of the research. Typically, consultants will charge a fixed rate for their services that includes both their direct and F&A costs. You do not need to report separate direct and F&A costs for consultants; however, you should report how much of the total estimated costs will be spent on travel. Consultants are not subject to the salary cap restriction; however, any consultant charges should meet your institution's definition of "reasonableness".
ADP/Computer Services: The services you include here should be research specific computer services- such as reserving computing time on supercomputers or getting specialized software to help run your statistics. This section should not include your standard desktop office computer, laptop, or the standard tech support provided by your institution. Those types of charges should come out of the F&A costs.
Justify basis for costs, itemize by category.
Enter the total funds requested for alterations and renovations. Where applicable, provide the square footage and costs.
If A&R costs are in excess of $300,000 further limitations apply and additional documentation will be required.
The names of any hospitals and/or clinics and the amounts requested for each.
If both inpatient and outpatient costs are requested, provide information for each separately.
Provide cost breakdown, number of days, number of patients, costs of tests/treatments.
Justify the costs associated with standard care or research care. (Note: If these costs are associated with patient accrual, restrictions may be justified in the Notice of Award.) (See NIH Grants Policy Statement NIH Grants Policy Statement, Research Patient Care Costs )
Tuition: In your budget justification, for any graduate students on your project, include what your school's tuition rates are. You may have to report both an in-state and out-of-state tuition rate. Depending on your school stipend and tuition levels, you may have to budget less than your school's full tuition rate in order to meet the graduate student compensation limit (equivalent to the NRSA zero-level postdoctorate stipend level).
Human Fetal Tissue (HFT) from elective abortions: If your application proposes the use of human fetal tissue obtained from elective abortions (as defined in NOT-OD-19-128 ), you must include a line item titled “Human Fetal Tissue Costs” on the budget form and an explanation of those costs in the budget justification.
Other: Some types of costs, such as entertainment costs, are not allowed under federal grants. NIH has included a list of the most common questionable items in the NIH Grants Policy Statement ( /grants/policy/nihgps/HTML5/section_7/7_cost_consideration.htm ). If NIH discovers an unallowable cost in your budget, generally we will discount that cost from your total award amount, so it is in your best interest to avoid requesting unallowable costs. If you have any question over whether a cost is allowable, contact your sponsored programs office or the grants management specialist listed on the funding opportunity.

If you are using the detailed budget format, each consortium you include must have an independent budget form filled out.

In the rare case of third tier subawards, section F.5 "subawards/consortium/contractual" costs should include the total cost of the subaward, and the entire third tier award is considered part of the direct costs of the consortium for the purposes of calculating the primary applicant's direct costs.
Cost Principles. Regardless of what cost principles apply to the parent recipient, the consortium is held to the standards of their respective set of cost principles.
Consortium F&A costs are NOT included as part of the direct cost base when determining whether the application can use the modular format (direct costs < $250,000 per year), or determining whether prior approval is needed to submit an application (direct costs $500,000 or more for any year). NOTE: The $500K prior approval policy does not apply to applications submitted in response to RFAs or in response to other funding opportunities including specific budgetary limits above $500K.
F&A costs for the first $25,000 of each consortium may be included in the modified total direct cost base, when calculating the overall F&A rate, as long as your institution's negotiated F&A rate agreement does not express prohibit it.
If the consortium is a foreign institution or international organization, F&A for the consortium is limited to 8%.
Consortiums should each provide a budget justification following their detailed budget. The justification should be separate from the primary recipient's justification and address just those items that pertain to the consortium.
We do not expect your budget to predict perfectly how you will spend your money five years down the road. However, we do expect a reasonable approximation of what you intend to spend. Be thorough enough to convince the reviewers that you have a good sense of the overall costs.
In general, NIH does not have policy on salary escalation submitted in an application. We advise applicants to request in the application the actual costs needed for the budget period and to request cost escalations only if the escalation is consistent with institutional policy. See Salary Cap Summary and https://grants.nih.gov/faqs#/fy2012_salary_cap_faqs.htm .
Any large year-to-year variation should be described in your budget justification. For example, if you have money set aside for consultants only in the final year of your budget, be sure to explain why in your justification (e.g. the consultants are intended to help you with the statistical interpretation of the data and therefore are not needed before the final year).
In general, NIH recipients are allowed a certain degree of latitude to rebudget within and between budget categories to meet unanticipated needs and to make other types of post-award changes. Some changes may be made at the recipient's discretion as long as they are within the limits established by NIH. In other cases, NIH prior written approval may be required before a recipient makes certain budget modifications or undertakes particular activities (such as change in scope). See NIH Grants Policy Statement - Changes in Project and Budget .

Other resources to help you create your budget

This page last updated on: September 11, 2019

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Budgets should provide the sponsor with an accurate assessment of all cost items and cost amounts that are deemed necessary and reasonable to carry out your project. They should be based upon your description or the statement of work. Budget justification provides more in-depth detail and reason for each cost and is often considered by reviewers as a good indicator of the feasibility of the research.

A research budget contains both direct costs and indirect costs (overhead), but the level of detail varies from sponsor to sponsor. The first step in developing a budget is to carefully read the guidelines of the funding opportunity being pursued.

There is no magic formula available for developing a budget but there are some basic steps to follow in order to develop an accurate budget:

Define project tasks, timelines and milestones and determine the actual resources and costs required to complete these. Consider whether contingencies are needed (and confirm they are eligible expenses).
Determine the eligible expense categories and maximum amount allowed by the sponsor. Adjust scope of the project to make sure proposed activities fit within the allowance.
Categorize these costs (e.g., salaries, supplies, equipment…) per year, in some cases by quarter.
Ensure that project scope and budget match. Include indirect costs of research as permitted by sponsor and the University policy.

The examples below developed by the University of British Columbia demonstrate two ways to include indirect costs in your budget.

Price model: Indirect cost is built into each budget line item.
Cost model: Indirect cost of research is presented as a separate line item.

Unless the sponsor specifies in writing that they require the indirect costs of research to be presented as a separate line item (Cost Model), the indirect cost should be built into each budget line item (Price Model). Indirect costs are normally included in the price of goods and services worldwide.

For example, you are developing a budget for a funding opportunity with an indirect cost rate of 25%. Your direct costs are $201,000 broken down by expense categories shown in the second column of the table below. The third and fourth colums present the two ways you can include the 25% overhead in your budget using the Price Model or the Cost Model, respectively:

In-kind and cash contributions, like other costs to the sponsored project, must be eligible and must be treated in a consistent and uniform manner in proposal preparation and in financial reporting.

Cash contributions

Cash contributions are actual cash transactions that can be documented in the accounting system. Examples of cash contributions include:

allocation of compensated faculty and staff time to projects, or
the purchasing of equipment by the university or other eligible sponsor for the benefit of the project.

In-kind contributions

In-kind contributions are both non-monetary or cash equivalent resources that can be given a cash value, such as goods and/or services in support of a research project or proposal. It is challenging to report on in-kind contribution, please make sure the numbers you use are well supported, consistent and easy to quantitate.

Examples of an in-kind contribution may include:

Access to unique database or information
Professional, analytical, and other donated services
Employee salaries including benefits for time allocated to the project
Study materials, technologies, or components
Patents and licenses for use
Use of facilities (e.g., lab or meeting spaces)
Partner organization time spent participating in the project
Eligible infrastructure items

Matching on sponsored projects

Some sponsored projects require the university and/or a third party to contribute a portion of the project costs–this contribution is known as matching.

Matching requirements may be in the form of an actual cash expenditure of funds or may be an “in-kind” match. For example:

A 1:1 match would require $100 of a third-party matching for every $100 received from an agency.
A 30% match would mean that of a total budget of $100, the agency would provide $70 and a third party would need to match $30.

Examples of agency programs that include some form of matching from a third party are:

NSERC Collaborative Research and Development Grants
NSERC Idea to Innovation Grants
SSHRC Partnership Grants
CIHR Industry Partnered Collaborative Research Program, and
CIHR Proof of Principle Grants

Additional resources

Current salary and benefit rates for graduate students and postdocs/research associates
SFU Business and Travel Expense Policy
Animal care services

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Creating a Budget

In general, while your research proposal outlines the academic significance of your study, the budget and budget narrative show that you have an understanding of what it will cost for you to be able to perform this research. Your proposed budget should identify all the expenses that are necessary and reasonable for the success of your project—no more and no less. The Office of Undergraduate Research understands that estimates, by definition, are imprecise, yet we encourage students applying for funding to research all aspects of their budgets with honest diligence.

If your research requires you to be in the field or in another city, state, or country, travel expenses may include transportation (airline, train, taxi, etc.), passport and visa fees, as well as fees for any vaccinations you may need to travel. Be sure to include anticipated major incidental expenses, such as printing, copying, fees for accessing archives, etc.

Please note that our funding restrictions prevent us from providing support for lab materials, equipment, software, hardware, etc.

Keep in mind these tips:

Convert all foreign currency figures to U.S. dollars.

Round all figures to whole dollars.

Make sure your budget and your proposal are consistent.

Identify areas where you are making efforts to save money!

Browse through these sample budgets for a better idea of how to outline your expenses and contact us if you have questions!

Sample Budget 1

Sample Budget 2

Sample Budget 3

Sample Budget 4

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Developing a Budget for Your Research Application

Budgets and budget justifications demonstrate feasibility, value for money and detail why you need an item for your project, as well as how you arrived at the costings.

Every research project has two budget categories: direct costs and indirect costs.

The University determines a set percentage for the indirect costs of funded research. Contact Grants Services for the correct figure to use.

Direct costs are costs integral to achieving the research objectives of a grant. The costs directly address the research objectives of the grant and relate to the research plan.

Direct cost examples:

Personnel, e.g. research assistants, student stipends for PhDs, and staff costs. You need to factor in salary increases, on-costs (superannuation and payroll) and casual loadings . Always use the salary level and step corresponding with the skills and tasks required for the role. See the Position Descriptors in the relevant University Enterprise Agreement .
Equipment, maintenance and travel (outline why you are going and for how long)
Teaching relief
Other (e.g. Consumables).

Indirect costs are institution costs that benefit and support research activities at the institution. Although they are necessary for the conduct of research and may be incurred during the project, they are costs that do not directly address the approved research objectives of a grant.

Indirect cost examples:

Operations and maintenance of buildings (e.g. libraries, labs, meeting venues, IT such as computer access, specialist software, databases, secure cloud storage)
Insurance, legal and financial services
Hazardous waste disposal, and
Regulatory and research compliance and administration of research services

All external research activities are expected to contribute to indirect costs except :

Nationally competitive grants, such as ARC and NHMRC. This includes all Category 1 schemes.
Registered charities listed on the ACNC register (opens in a new window)
Grants transferred from another university
Funding bodies that exclude or limit overheads or administrative costs (i.e. indirect costs) in their rules or guidelines
Scholarships and internships
Official Western Partnership projects
Travel award type grants or facility usage type grants (e.g. Endeavour Fellowships, AINSE grants)
Projects costed under $100,000 are discounted by waiving Western’s portion of the indirect costs.

Indirect costs are calculated by determining the direct costs first and then applying the indirect costs formula:

e.g. Direct costs = $50,000 x (indirect cost % figure) = Total project cost

Cash and in-kind support

Your project budget needs to include all cash and in-kind items it requires.

In-kind support is any non-cash contributions that a party gives to the project. In-kind can be contributed by Western Sydney University or by an external party, and can include:

staff (e.g. time committed to the project which is not funded by the project)
non-staff/infrastructure (e.g. if you are using lab space to conduct the project but are not receiving direct payment from the project to 'buy out' lab space)
indirect costs

How to budget personnel and salaries

On-costs are direct costs associated with salary. These costs relate to superannuation, sick leave, payroll tax etc. and must be included your budget.

Access this link for more detail about Western on-costs

For the latest salary figures, please check with the Office of People

An example:

You are a Lead Chief Investigator (CI) on a non-Category 1 funding body project for one year. You commit 0.4 (FTE) of your time to the research = 2 days per week. You are paid at Academic Level E, Step 2, which is $188,944 per annum. You can calculate your salary inclusive of 28% on-costs as follows:

0.4 x 0.28 x 188,944 = 21,161.73

The budgeting of your salary, a direct cost of the research, should be listed as $21,161.73.

If your project covers three years, with the same or differing time commitments, you calculate this figure for each year of your project. Remember to factor in pay rises according to Step increases in multi-year grants.

You may also have a research assistant employed full-time for seven weeks at HEW Level 5, Step 3. You hire the assistant at the casual hourly rate of $48.97, which includes 25% leave loading. You add 16.5% on-costs to this figure:

48.97 x (35 x 7) = 11,997.65

11,997.65 x .165 = 1,979.50

1,979.50 + 11,997.65 = 13,977.15

The total cost to employ the research assistant is $13,977.15.

Note 1: the maximum period a person can be employed on a casual rate is 6 months.

Note 2: For some schemes, the funding provider stipulates a specific maximum rate for funding of salary on-costs, e.g. the Australian Research Council (ARC) funds on-costs at a rate of 30%, so you must use this figure.

Grant Budget Calculator (Staff Login Required) (opens in a new window)

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Writing Tips

How to Outline Expenses/Budget in Your Dissertation Plan

4-minute read

9th May 2023

When drafting your dissertation outline plan , there’s a lot to consider. One crucial section not to overlook is your budget and expenses. A comprehensive budget shows that you have thought through your study thoroughly and are prepared to execute your research plan successfully. Here, we’ll go through the steps you’ll need to take to craft a budget, including a few examples of common budget structures.

Steps to Take to Create Your Budget

1. consult your adviser, committee members, and funding sources for guidelines.

The source or sources responsible for funding your dissertation research will likely have guidelines on what is and isn’t a billable expense. Before defining your projected costs, check your funding organization’s specifications on allowable expenses. It can also help to speak with your adviser and potentially other dissertation committee members about the specifics and general guidelines to ensure everyone’s on the same page when it comes to your anticipated costs.

2. List All of the Costs Associated With Implementing Your Desired Dissertation Plan

Depending on your type of research, setting, and particular project, a wide range of items might be appropriate to add to your budget. Go through your dissertation project plan from beginning to end and list all of the required tasks, along with who will complete them, to ensure you don’t miss any expenses. Although the list below is not comprehensive, and your items might vary depending on your research project, some standard costs to consider are:

● Salaries and wages for all personnel involved in the project (including time and other resources that will be expected from your adviser and committee members).

● Equipment and lab fees.

● Recruitment costs for study participants.

● Participant compensation.

● Software costs for data collection, storage, and analysis.

● Office supplies (including any printing of recruitment materials, study information pamphlets, or conference posters).

● Travel (including transport to and from field sites, conference registration fees, transportation, lodging, and meals).

● Journal or conference submission and publication fees for papers created from your dissertation research.

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● Costs involved with writing, editing, and proofreading services for your dissertation .

Additionally, while it’s advisable to work within the constructs of your funding sources, don’t sell your research study short. After writing down all of the essential costs needed to complete your research plan, ask yourself how you would use any further financial backing. Could you make a good argument as to why supplementary funding would add significant value to your work? If so, consider adding these line items to your budget as well. If you have to negotiate your budget, you can always circle back and reconsider these extra items.

3. Construct Your Budget

The institution overseeing your dissertation project might require your budget to be submitted in a specified structure or template. However, if this isn’t the case, there are several possible approaches to organizing and presenting it – just make sure to check with your institution for any specific guidelines or requirements.

A standard request is to list your expenses by grouping them into direct costs , such as equipment, travel, and wages for people working on the project, and indirect costs , which are expenses that aren’t solely associated with your research project, such as general administration, utilities, and the use of shared services or spaces like libraries. It’s also common to arrange your direct and indirect costs into a Line-Item Budget (LIB) , which simply means that you list each of your projected expenses as a line in your budget.

There are many types of budget templates available for free online. Some designs will include a column to provide more details about each item, while other approaches will list the justifications for the expenses at the end. If you have multiple funding sources, it may be helpful to have columns for each funder and the percentage or amount of each expense they will be expected to be responsible for. Some templates will calculate the total costs for you , but no matter which presentation method you choose, make sure your costs are entered and totaled correctly.

Although the individual items will vary from project to project, these three steps will lead you on your way to preparing a persuasive proposal budget:

● Consult your adviser, committee members, and funding sources for guidelines.

● List all the costs associated with implementing your desired dissertation plan (including the items you hope to get funded if they are justifiable).

● Construct your budget with direct and indirect costs with justifications for each using an appropriate template and confirm your expenses are calculated correctly.

We wish you the best of luck with your budget writing and dissertation proposal. For more help, check out our comprehensive Dissertation Writing Guide . And if you’re interested in using our services here at Proofed, you can try them for free .

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General Information for Preparing Proposal Budgets

Topics covered, definition of a budget, project costs, budgeting facilities and administrative costs as direct costs, cost estimation, escalation factors, cost assignment and allocation, documentation.

A categorical list of anticipated project costs that represent the Principal Investigator's best estimate of the funds needed to support the work described in a proposal. A budget consists of all direct costs, facilities and administrative costs, and cost sharing commitments proposed.

All proposed costs must clearly benefit the project and must be allowable under OMB Circular A-21 , sponsor policies, and University policies.

A facilities and administrative cost may be budgeted as a direct cost only when special circumstances exist that would necessitate or require treating the cost as a direct cost. In such a case, the budget justification must explain the special circumstances and the Principal Investigator and department are responsible for maintaining and retaining all appropriate documation that evidence such special circumstances.

Use generally accepted cost estimation methods such as catalog prices, price quotations, or historical or current costs and appropriately escalate costs over time.

Use inflationary or escalation factors as appropriate.

The current escalation rate for non-personnel cost categories is 3% (excluding vivaria sales and service rates). Effective November 1, 2012, please use a 10% annual escalation rate for vivaria sales and services.
Personnel costs should be escalated in accordance with guidance provided on the Quick Reference page.

When developing a budget, it is necessary to estimate how the project will incur costs during each phase or year. The budget must itemize costs by major cost category for each project year as required by the sponsor's guidelines.

When assigning costs to proposal budget categories, use UCR's financial system budget categories, unless a sponsor's proposal budget form or policies require more detailed categorization.

As appropriate, describe the details of the costs proposed within each major cost category. Use general descriptions that can be tracked and reported through UCR's financial system. The budget justification should disclose the details that make up each cost category, and may include more detailed information regarding the items in each general description, as well as explain the method used to estimate these costs.

The principal investigator and/or department must maintain supporting documentation related to project cost estimates (on a proposal-by-proposal basis) for negotiation and audit purposes. This documentation should clearly describe or demonstrate the processes, methods and data used to estimate project costs.

Examples of supporting documentation include:

Current University salary and wage scales
Projected range adjustments (cost of living increases) and merit increases for personnel costs and the periods to which they apply
Source of the benefit rate used (composite rate or actual rate)
Vendor quotes
Catalog prices
Historical records indicating the supply/material costs incurred for like projects

Guidance by Budget Category

Salary and wages, topics included, project personnel, calculating salaries, calculating merit increases and range adjustments, summer salaries for nine-month appointees, cost sharing personnel costs, employee salary range projections.

When providing information about project personnel, follow the sponsor's guidelines and University policies.

List only UCR project personnel in this category. Salary and wage costs associated with non-UCR personnel must be treated either as consultant costs or as a subcontract. Project personnel usually includes faculty, technicians, post-docs, graduate students and other personnel who are essential to perform the project.

Calculate all project personnel costs using actual salaries. If the individual who will fill a position is not known, calculate the salary by using the mid-point salary from the appropriate UCR salary scale.

Never express personnel costs or effort in terms of hours, except for student, casual and per diem employees who are paid by the hour.

Project anticipated merit increases and range adjustments as appropriate for each position in each budget period. There is a six- to nine-month delay between proposal submission and award, so remember to calculate personnel costs using current actual salaries plus any merit or cost of living increases anticipated between proposal submission and the proposed start date.

List summer salary for nine-month instruction and research appointees using one-ninth, two-ninths or three-ninths of the base salary or apporpirate fractions thereof (e.g., half of a summer month) to calculate the amount requested. Some sponsors (e.g., NSF) restrict summer salary compensation to no more than two months.

Cost sharing that is offered and quantified anywhere in a proposal will become a legally binding obligation upon UCR if the sponsor makes an award in response to the proposal. This obligation includes the requirement to track and report the costs that UCR shared to fulfill its commitment. Please note the University does not cost share on projects proposed to, or funded by, for-profit sponsors.

Cost sharing faculty (nine-month instruction and research appointee) salaries associated with effort contributed during the academic year should only occur, or be offered, when a governmental or non-profit sponsor requires that the commitment of such effort be treated as cost sharing. If salaries of faculty or other project personnel will be offered as cost sharing, do so by listing the percent of effort to be funded by the sponsor as a single budget line item and the level of effort to be cost shared by the University as a different line item.

Example: In response to sponsor mandated cost sharing, a principal investigator will contribute 10% of her effort during the academic year to perform the proposed research. The first line of the personnel budget should indicate the 10% effort and request $0 for salary and $0 for associated fringe benefits. The next line in the personnel budget should be used to request an appropriate amount for the principal investigator's summer salary (commensurate with the level of effort to be devoted to the project during the summer period).

Salary Rate Cap

If an individual's salary rate exceeds a salary rate cap imposed by sponsor policy (e.g., NIH salary rate cap), list the institutional base salary (negotiated salary) in the budget, but calculate salary costs using the maximum salary rate allowed under the cap. This methodology must be disclosed in the budget justification. (Note: The amount of salary in excess of the salary rate cap is an unallowable cost and is not eligible for University cost sharing.)

The table in the Proposal Preparations - Salaries tab shows projected salary increases and should be used in calculating all contract and grant proposal budgets.

Administrative/Clerical Salaries - Special Guidance

Standard treatment, examples of administrative/clerical activities, treatment of administrative/clerical salaries in special circumstances, major project criteria, examples of major projects, questions to address when justifying administrative/clerical salaries.

In accordance with OMB Circular A-21 and University policy, administrative/clerical salaries are considered F&A costs and should not be budgeted in proposals or charged to extramural awards (sponsored programs).

The following list (which is not all inclusive) represents some of the most common, routine administrative/clerical activities:

General departmental administration including maintaining general departmental databases
Contracts and grants administration including proposal preparation
Personnel, payroll and human resource functions, both staff and academic
Accounting, budgeting and financial monitoring functions including bookkeeping and reconciling ledgers
Travel planning
Preparation of newsletters, brochures, correspondence and reports
Purchasing functions including processing and tracking purchase orders, placing low value orders and receiving ordered goods/services
Space management
Equipment inventory
Regulatory committee oversight including preparation of protocols for regulatory committee review

Administrative/Clerical salaries may be treated (budgeted and/or charged) as a direct cost if special circumstances exist that would necessitate or require an extensive amount of administrative/clerical personnel expenses significantly greater than the routine level of support that is provided by UCR departments and units. To treat an administrative/clerical salary as a direct cost, the following conditions must be met:

the sponsored project/program must satisfy the Major Project criteria contained in OMB Circular A-21 (see below); and
the administrative/clerical activities of the individual(s) whose salary and related benefits comprise such expenses can be specifically identified (i.e., with a high degree of accuracy) with the sponsored project/program; and
the administering unit must maintain documentation that explains and supports items 1 and 2 above.

Major Project, as defined in OMB Circular A-21 is a project that requires an extensive amount of administrative/clerical personnel support, which is significantly greater than the routine level of such services provided by academic departments.

The following examples of federal Major Projects are illustrative of circumstances where direct charging of administrative and clerical support is appropriate:

Projects that are geographically inaccessible to normal departmental administrative services such as research vessels, radio astronomy projects, and other research field sites that are remote from campus (e.g., field projects).
Projects that require making travel and meeting arrangements for large numbers of participants, such as conferences and seminars.
Large, complex programs, such as Primate Centers, Program Projects, environmental research centers, engineering research centers, and other grants and contracts that entail assembling and managing teams of investigators from a number of institutions.
Projects which involve extensive data accumulation, analysis and entry, surveying, tabulation, cataloging, searching literature, and reporting.
Projects whose principal focus is the preparation and production of manuals and large reports, books, or monographs (excluding routine progress and technical reports).
Projects requiring the management of large databases; individualized graphics or manuscript preparation; projects involving multiple human or animal protocols; or projects involving coordination of, and communication between, multiple investigators at various locations.
Since training grants are for a different purpose than a traditional research project, these project budgets may include costs that are normally treated as F&A costs. Training grants permit a budget for an "institutional allowance" which authorizes direct charging of appropriate expenses normally treated as facilities and administrative costs if they are reasonable, specifically identified with the project, and budgeted in the award.

The following examples are illustrative of circumstances where direct charging of administrative or clerical salaries to non-federal projects may be appropriate if the costs are budgeted and approved by the awarding agency:

For-profit (Industrial/Commercial) sponsors: Projects performed for these organizations are proposed and awarded to be performed, at least in part, for the benefit of the sponsor. Total costs are the concern of the sponsor, not whether the costs are direct or facilities and administrative.
Non-profit sponsors: Generally the purpose of private foundation funding is to supplement federal research support. Typically, non-profit sponsors do not support the facilities and administrative activities of the research project as indicated by their practice of funding facilities and administrative costs at a rate less than the institution's full F&A cost rate.
State sponsored agreements: State agreements that have defined the types of costs that are direct or facilities and administrative would constitute a different circumstance than costs incurred under federal agreements. UCR must comply with State agency regulations and statutory requirements. Consequently, costs normally treated as facilities and administrative costs could be treated as direct if they are reasonable, specifically identified with the sponsored agreement, included in the award budget and considered allowable by the State or under the terms of the award.

Additional Examples of Activities in Support of "Major Projects"

Competitive and complex procurement (e.g., securing competitive bids for one or more large subcontracts under a UCR prime award)
Conducting a telephone survey or extensive interviewing of human research subjects
Coordinating and managing a high number of consultant contracts/subcontracts
Coordinating extensive travel and meeting arrangements
Extensive data collection or entry
Managing a large projects at multiple sites/locations
Planning and organizing large conferences
Preparing manuscripts/publications beyond the routine
Extensive administrative activities in support of related projects (see OMB Circular A-21 (C.4.d. (3))

The above examples are neither exhaustive nor are they intended to imply that direct charging of these expenses would always be appropriate.

When justifying administrative/clerical salaries in proposal budgets (or before charging such expenses to a sponsored project/program), it is helpful to address the following issues:

Are the administrative support needs of this project significantly greater than the routine level of administrative support provided for other projects in the department? If so, why? Also, describe how the administrative support activities of the administrative/clerical personnel working on the project are necessary for the successful performance of the project.
If a job title or payroll classification implies that an individual's work is administrative in nature, but the person will be engaged in non-administrative work on a sponsored project/program, describe the non-administrative work to be assigned to the individual, as well as how such work is necessary for technical performance of the project.
Can the proposed administrative/clerical support costs be easily and accurately allocated to the project? How will this be done? For example, an administrator working full-time for a project can be allocated easily and accurately to the project. However, if that person works on multiple projects, it may be difficult to accurately document the relative benefit of the administrator's salary (effort) to any specific project. The more projects a person works on, the more difficult it is to accurately and easily document the relative benefit to each project.

Distinguishing Between Stipends and Salary & Wages

Uc c&g manual, 8-515.

Scholarships and fellowships are defined as financial aid paid directly to University students as scholarships, fellowships, stipends, or dependent allowances. This category does not include any disbursement of salaries and wages or honoraria.

UC C&G Manual, 7-217

Salaries and wages charged to sponsored agreements are paid for services of University employees rendered to the project during the period of performance of the particular agreement. All such payments must be made through University payroll procedures. Vacation, holiday, sick leave pay and other paid absences are included in salaries and wages and are charged to Sponsored Programs as part of the normal charge for salaries and wages.

UC Accounting Manual, Section T-182-77

Describes definitions and general rules for scholarships and fellowships, and taxation of both.

OMB Circular A-21, J.41. Scholarships and student aid costs

a. Costs of scholarships, fellowships, and other programs of student aid are allowable only when the purpose of the sponsored agreement is to provide training to selected participants and the charge is approved by the sponsoring agency. However, tuition remission and other forms of compensation paid as, or in lieu of, wages to students performing necessary work are allowable provided that (1) there is a bona fide employer-employee relationship between the student and the institution for the work performed, (2) the tuition or other payments are reasonable compensation for the work performed and are conditioned explicitly upon the performance of necessary work, and (3) it is the institution's practice to similarly compensate students in nonsponsored as well as sponsored activities.

IRS Publication 520 (Scholarships and Fellowships)

Wages and other compensation paid to a nonresident alien for services performed as an employee are usually subject to graduated withholding at the same rates as resident aliens and U.S. citizens. Therefore, your compensation, unless it is specifically excluded from the term "wages" by law, or is exempt from tax by treaty, is subject to graduated withholding.

If you work as an employee in the United States, you must pay social security and Medicare taxes in most cases. Your payments of these taxes contribute to your coverage under the U.S. social security system. Social security coverage provides retirement benefits and medical insurance (Medicare) benefits to individuals who meet certain eligibility requirements...All taxable wages are subject to Medicare tax...Your employer must deduct these taxes even if you do not expect to qualify for social security or Medicare benefits. You can claim a credit for excess social security tax on your income tax return if you have more than one employer and the amount deducted from your combined wages for 1999 is more than $4,501.20.

IRS Code, Title 26, Section 1.117-3, Computation of Taxable Income

Scholarship. A scholarship generally means an amount paid or allowed to, or for the benefit of, a student, whether an undergraduate or a graduate, to aid such individual in pursuing his studies. Fellowship grant. A fellowship grant generally means an amount paid or allowed to, or for the benefit of, an individual to aid him in the pursuit of study or research.

And Section 1.117-4

The following payments or allowances shall not be considered to be amounts received as a scholarship or a fellowship grant for the purpose of section 117: . . . (c) Amounts paid as compensation for services or primarily for the benefit of the grantor. (1) Except as provided in paragraph (a) of Secs. 1.117-2 and 1.117-5, any amount paid or allowed to, or on behalf of, an individual to enable him to pursue studies or research, if such amount represents either compensation for past, present, or future employment services or represents payment for services which are subject to the direction or supervision of the grantor. (2) Any amount paid or allowed to, or on behalf of, an individual to enable him to pursue studies or research primarily for the benefit of the grantor.

Employee Fringe Benefits Information and Guidance

Fringe benefit costs, calculation method, "to be named" positions, employee benefit rate projections.

If a proposal budget requests project personnel salaries and wages, the budget must also request the fringe benefit costs associated with the salaries and wages.

Each proposal must be consistent in the method used to calcuate fringe benefit rates; therefore, actual fringe benefit rates should be used as they offer the highest degree of accuracy. Use the composite fringe benefit rates listed below for "to be named" positions (defined below) or when an employee's actual fringe benefit rate is not known (e.g., budgeting fringe benefits for a new employee).

All fringe beneift rates (actual or composite) are expressed as a percent of salary. Therefore, to calculate fringe benefit costs, multiply the salary requested for each employee by the applicable fringe benefit rate.

Do not escalate fringe benefit rates from year to year in multiyear budgets. Fringe benefit rates remain stable as a percentage of the requested salary.

A "to be named" position is a position or role on a project where the person who will undertake the responsibilities and activities of that position or role is not known at the time of budget preparation. Even if actual fringe benefit rates are used to calculate the costs for all other personnel, use the appropriate composite employee benefit rate listed below for the "to be named" position. Disclose the composite rate used in the budget justification and explain the deviation from use of actual fringe benefit rates.

In accordance with guidance issued by the UC Office of the President, Research Administration Office and the UCR Research and Economic Development Office, use actual fringe benefit rates when estimating fringe benefit costs. Use the composite fringe benefit rates at Proposal Preparation - Benefits when estimating fringe benefit rates for "to be named" positions, or when an employee's actual fringe benefit rate is not known (e.g., budgeting for the fringe benefits of a new employee).

Sometimes it is necessary to provide a sponsor with detailed background information regarding the composite fringe benefit rates. This information is available by contacting the Contract and Grant Officer assigned to your unit.

How to Calculate Fringe Benefit Rates

When preparing a proposal budget, you will need to know not only the salary but also the fringe benefit rate of all employees who will be paid from the award. The term fringe benefits includes the following employment related costs at UCR (not all of the below costs are applicable to every employee):

FICA (Social Security and Medicare)
Workers Compensation Insurance
Employee Support Program
Unemployment Insurance
UC Retirement Plan (employer contribution to resume April 1, 2010)
Vacation Assessment
Staff Recognition & Development Award Program
Other Post Employment Benefit (formerly Annuitant Health)
Benefits Administration Rate
Health Insurance
Life Insurance
Core Life Insurance
UC Paid Disability
General Liability (Percentage Based: Source Code GEL)
Employment Practices (Percentage Based: Source Code GEL)
Graduate Student Health Insurance Program (GSHIP)
Graduate Student Fee Remission
Graduate Student Tuition Remission (Non-resident Students Only)
Dependent Care Reimbursement

To obtain the current year's percentages and flat rate amounts for these benefits, go to accounting's UCR Benefits page and select the correct year.

A Current UCR Employee To calculate a current employee's fringe benefit rate, use UCR's web‐based Super DOPE application to download the individual's actual salary and benefits. (If the employee's position has been reclassified recently, only download actual data from the date of change forward. The goal is to capture information that is most predictive of what the benefit rate will be during a future budget period - so use your judgment as to the appropriate block of time to download.)

From the opening Super DOPE screen (the Criteria tab) select the appropriate fiscal years and periods/months, department and organization code, and then select the employee. Click on the icon to the right of DOS (Description of Service) and select REG (Regular). You may choose to also include any stipend‐type DOS codes if the employee is being paid a stipend that would be continued during the project period.
Click on the Columns tab, which opens showing Common Fields. Select the Title Code, End Date, DOS, Pay Rate, Gross Amount, Time Hours, and Time Percent fields.
Click on the Benefit Fields link and click on the Show Total Benefits option.
Click on the Other Fields link and select the Title Code Desc field.
Click the Search button and download your query results to Excel.
From within Excel, delete any end dates that you do not need (if necessary), and total the Gross Amount and Total Benefits columns.
Divide the sum of Total Benefits by the sum of Gross Amount (don't forget to change the format of the answer to percent) and you have this current employee's fringe benefit rate.

Please note that if an employee's title and pay rate has recently changed or will change, the employee's actual fringe benefit rate may change. As a general rule for non-ladder rank academics and career staff, the lower the salary, the higher the benefit rate. Conversely, as the salary gets higher, the benefit rategets lower.

Note that by not choosing the DOS code VAC, vacation usage has been excluded while vacation accrual costs have been included as part of this calculation.

An Employee Who Is to Be Hired or Is Not Known To calculate the total labor cost for employees who have not yet been hired, you will need to know the official UCR Title that will be used. With the correct title, you can look up the associated salary range on the UC Title and Pay Plan chart, which is on the Human Resources website . Determine the salary at which the new employee is expected to be hired and select the appropriate composite rate from the C omposite Employee Benefit Rates chart at Proposal Preparation - Benefits .

Postdoctoral Scholars (often referred to as Post Docs) These academic employees have different medical, life, disability, and workers' comp rates. If you are calculating these rates for someone who will be hired as a Post Doc, but who is not currently a UCR employee, go to Proposal Preparation - Benefits where all composite rates are listed. For additional information you may also go to UCR Benefits page , click on the Employer Cost link for the correct year, and scroll down to find details of the Post Doctoral Scholar Benefit Plans.

Any Current Employee and Future Employee ("to be named" position) There are currently two benefit costs that are posted outside the payroll system in two different accounts.

General Liability posts in BC47, Other, S&E, in account 780220 Insurance, Gen Liab & Comp
Employment Practices Liability posts in BC47, Other, S&E, in account 780210, Insurance, Employment Related

If the Activity Code for your unit begins with A4 or A5 and you will be preparing a proposal to a State of California, local government or private sponsor that will be associated with such an Activity Code, these benefit costs should be included in your fringe benefit calculation. The current year's rates for these expenses are on UCR Benefits page .

Important Considerations While this may be self evident, it is important to remember that actual costs posted to a Contract or Grant may differ from those costs estimated for budget purposes. There are many instances where budgeted costs may vary from actual costs. The actual rate is what will be charged to the sponsor.

The Communication Worker Fee is not currently charged to Contract & Grant funds and should not be budgeted as a fringe benefit or any other type of direct cost in a proposal budget.

This guidance may not be applicable to ladder-rank academics with 9 month appointments as individuals with less than annual appointments may be subject to significant changes in their actual fringe benefit rate between the academic year and summer months.

Graduate Student Fees and Tuition Remission

Estimating graduate student fees and tuition.

Budgeting Graduate Student Fees and Tuition

Student Eligibility

Payment of fee and tuition remission.

Please use the information located on the Tuition, Fee Remission, GSHIP tab of the Proposal Preparation page to estimate tuition, partial fee remission and graduate student health insurance program costs.

Budgeting Graduate Student Fees & Tuition

Graduate student fees and tuition are considered fringe benefits for budgeting purposes. To comply with UCR's cost accounting practices, budget graduate student fees and tuition by:

Calculate fringe benefit costs as described in Employee Fringe Benefits .
Determine the appropriate graduate student fees and nonresident tuition (as applicable) for the period of time that the graduate student will receive compensation for working on the project and remain eligible for partial fee and tuition remission.
Determine the cost for graduate student health insurance, as applicable.
List the combined costs (fringe benefits plus partial fee and tuition remission plus GSHIP) in the budget as the total fringe benefit cost for the graduate student.
Explain in the budget justification that the total fringe benefit costs include fringe benefits, partial fee and tuition remission and GSHIP. In addition, describe how these cost components were estimated for multi-year projects.
When calculating the Facilities and Administrative Costs (indirect costs) for the budget, remember that F & A costs are not assessed on the partial fee and tuition remission when using the modified total direct cost base described in UCR's Rate Agreement with the Department of Health and Human Services.

To be eligible for UCR's Graduate Student Partial Fee and Tuition Remission Program, a graduate student must meet all of the following conditions:

Partial Fee Remission & GSHIP

The student must have an appointment in the Graduate Student Researcher series serving at 25% time or more across all funding sources for the full academic quarter for which fees and tuition are paid.
The appointment must be effective the first day of the quarter for which fees and tuition are paid.
The student must be within normative time for the degree program.

Non-Resident Supplemental Tuition Remission

The student must have an appointment in the Graduate Student Researcher series serving at 45% time or more across all funding sources during the academic year to qualify for tuition remission.

To comply with UCR's cost accounting practices and UCR's Graduate Student Partial Fee and Tuition Remission Program:

Payment for fee and tuition remission should be made from the same funding source that provided salary and fringe benefits whenever possible.
Departmental, fellowship or other unrestricted funds must be used to pay the fees and tuition of eligible graduate students receiving salary/fringe benefits from General Funds or awards originating from nonparticipating sponsors.

Supplies and Materials

Categorizing expenses, project specification and descriptions, special considerations: for-profit sponsors.

Supplies and materials are consumable items (e.g., animals, glassware, chemicals, reagents, etc.) used in the course of conducting the scope of work for a project.

Estimate supplies using an appropriate cost estimation method such as catalog prices, vendor quotes or historical costs for like projects (appropriately escalated). The estimate should include all costs associated with obtaining that supply or material, including shipping, handling and delivery charges.

Do not propose as a direct cost supplies/materials normally treated as a facilities and administrative cost without adequately documenting in the budget justification the project specific special purpose or circumstance necessitating the charge.

Projects funded by industry sponsors are performed primarily for the benefit the sponsor, the University and the public of California. Generally, these sponsors are concerned with the total cost of conducting a project rather than the classification of costs. Accordingly, direct charging supplies/materials normally treated as facility and administrative costs may be appropriate under such circumstances.

Assign only supply and material costs to this category. Do not propose equipment or other direct costs as supplies and materials.

Use broad categories to describe supply expenses and provide a more detailed description of the category in the budget justification (e.g., glassware would include test tubes, beakers, etc.)

When using a standard budget, propose costs using UCR's major cost categories to enable the tracking of such costs in the UCR financial system. If the sponsor requests or requires more detailed information, provide it in the budget justification.

All proposed supply expenses must be project specific. That is, performance of the project must necessitate the acquisition and consumption of the budgeted supplies and materials.

Do not use words such as "general" or "miscellaneous" to describe supply costs.

University Regulation No. 4 requires full recovery of expenses (direct and indirect costs) incurred when undertaking activites for external entities. Consequently, it is not appropriate to use University funds to support the costs of a project funded by a for-profit sponsor. Likewise, it is not apprpriate to use funds provided by one sponsor to support the costs of a project funded by another sponsor, as doing so could result in the University promising the same exclusive rights regarding project intellectual property to both sponsors and extensive litigation expenses for the University.

Equipment Costs Information and Guidance

Implementation of change in the capitalization threshold for equipment, estimating equipment costs, project specific, describing equipment, fabricating equipment.

Equipment is defined by the University as an article of non-expendable, tangible personal property having a useful life of more than one year and an acquisition cost of $5,000 or more per unit.

Proposal budgets with projected expenditures for equipment items to be received on or after July 1, 2006 must budget for Facilities & Administrative (F&A) costs at the new threshold of $5,000. Since it may be difficult to forecast the beginning date of a project and delivery dates for purchased items, the Office of Research strongly recommends that all proposals submitted on or after January 1, 2006 use the new $5,000 threshold when estimating and budgeting equipment costs.

Estimate the cost of equipment using an appropriate cost estimation method such as vendor quotes or catalog prices. Make sure that sales tax, duty, transit insurance, freight, and installation charges are included in the estimated cost.

All proposed equipment expenses must be specific to the project (i.e., the proposed work could not be performed without acquiring and using the proposed equipment). Do not propose general purpose equipment such as office equipment (computers, typewriters, etc.), furnishings, air conditioners, refrigerators, freezers, etc. without clearly describing the project specific need for such equipment in the budget justification.

It is not appropriate for UCR to propose the use of University funds to support the acquisition of equipment on a project funded by a for-profit sponsor or to propose the use of funds provided by one sponsor to acquire equipment for a project supported by a for-profit sponsor.

To maximize flexibility in purchasing equipment, avoid describing equipment by product name, or referencing the maker of the equipment in either the budget or the budget justification. If it is impossible to describe proposed equipment without referencing the manufacturer, make, model number, etc. then provide this information and include the words "or equivalent" at the end of the description.

If equipment will be fabricated during the course of the project, the cost of material components (even if the cost of these components do not meet the definition of equipment) are exempt from facilities and administrative costs and should be listed as equipment costs. Recharge costs or purchased services directly related to the fabrication of equipment are also exempt from facilities and administrative costs. However, the salaries, wages and benefit costs associated with equipment fabrication are not exempt from facilities and administrative costs.

Travel Information and Guidance

Travel costs, domestic/foreign travel, air carriers, estimating costs, itemization, descriptions.

Travel costs must benefit the proposed project and usually include travel associated with fieldwork and attendance at scientific meetings for the purpose of presenting project findings and/or results.

Budget domestic travel and foreign travel separately. Foreign travel is defined as any travel outside of Canada and the United States and its territories and possessions.

In accordance with University policy, U.S. flag air carriers must be used to the maximum extent possible when commercial transportation is the means of travel between the United States and a foreign country or between foreign countries.

Use historical costs, contact a travel agent or use an internet travel service (e.g., Travelocity, Expedia, Hotwire, etc.) to estimate airfare, hotel and ground transportation (e.g., rental car) costs.

Remember that UCR employees may take advantage of certain State of California fares and rates. In addition, the University has several travel contracts for rental cars and hotel rooms. The information from the contracts can be very useful in estimating travel costs and are availabe on the UCR Accounting Services Department website .

Use current UCR per diem and mileage rates for domestic travel and U.S. State Department approved rates for foreign travel .

Itemize travel costs in the budget justification only.

Do not use words such as "general" or "miscellaneous" to describe travel costs.

Participant Support Costs

Participant Support Costs are allowable direct cost expenses on sponsored programs related to conferences, meetings, symposia or training projects. These expenses include stipends or subsistence allowances, travel allowances and registration fees paid to or on behalf of individuals (but not employees) who participate in such activities. It is important to note that stipends or subsistence allowances, lodging expenses and/or travel allowances associated with bringing colleagues to UCR for the purpose of collaborating on sponsored research programs are not Participant Support Costs and should be proposed in the appropriate direct cost budget category (e.g., travel). UCR receives extramural funding from a broad spectrum of sponsors. Therefore, it is important to refer to sponsor policy and program-specific guidelines prior to preparing proposal budgets to determine if Participant Support Costs are allowable and, if so, how to properly budget and justify such costs. In the absence of specific sponsor guidelines or policies, Participant Support Costs should not be included in UCR's proposals without written prior approval from the sponsor. Prior to rebudgeting funds from Participant Support Costs to another budget category, it is important to carefully review award terms and sponsor policy, and consult with Sponsored Programs Administration, as the sponsor's prior approval may be required or rebudgeting may be prohibited.

Other Direct Costs

Defining other direct costs, consultants, publications.

The other direct costs (or other costs) category includes expenses such as animal per diem costs (the cost of animals should be listed as a supply), human subject honoraria, publication charges, subawards, computer time, maintenance and other service agreements/charges, patient care costs, space rental, consultants, alterations or renovations, equipment rental, etc. Some of these costs are discussed below.

Consultants are individuals hired to give professional advice or services for a fee but not as an employee of the University and they do not perform a portion of the programmatic work. Consultants are used to provide such advice or services when no other University employee with like expertise or experience is available to participate in the proposed project. University policy prohibits University personnel from serving as paid consultants on grants or contracts awarded to UCR.

Do not list consultants in the personnel or salary and wages section of the budget .

Cost estimates should be secured in writing. This may be in the form of a written quote or in a letter from the principal investigator or department to the consultant confirming a verbal quote.

Do not use the words "honoraria" or "honorarium" to describe payments to consultants as it implies that there is no requirement to perform any service.

Review the sponsor's budget guidelines for limitations on consultant costs.

Estimate the cost of preparing and publishing project results by determining the journal(s) in which project results may be published. Then use the established page rate charge(s) assessed by the journal(s) to estimate publication costs based on the anticipated number of pages to be published (based on historical experience).

Entering into a subaward is the means by which a portion of the project work (programmatic or technical effort) is transferred to another entity, UC campus or UC managed lab.

A proposal from the subaward recipient must be secured and included with or incorporated into UCR's proposal. The subaward recipient's proposal should at minimum include a scope of work and budget and must be signed or endorsed by the subaward recipient's authorized official.

Unless otherwised required by the sponsor, the total cost of the subaward (both direct and indirect costs) must be listed as a single cost item in the other direct costs category. If multiple subawards are anticipated, the sum of all subawards should be listed.

Non-Salary Administrative Expenses - Special Guidance

Examples of non-salary administrative expenses, treatment of non-salary administrative expenses in unlike circumstances, examples of unlike circumstance, questions to address when justifying non-salary administrative expenses.

In accordance with 2 CFR Part 200, Subpart E - Cost Principles , non-salary administrative expenses are considered Facilities and Administrative (F&A) costs and should not be budgeted in proposals or charged to extramural awards (sponsored projects/programs).

The following list (which is not all inclusive) represents the most common, routine non-salary administrative expenses:

Basic telephone line, equipment, installation and local telephone services
General purpose equipment
Postage and other mailing expenses, as well as express mail and/or courier charges for routine departmental operations including delivery of proposals
Memberships and subscriptions
General administrative supplies
Normal repairs and maintenance services
Service of equipment installed as part of state funded capital projects or an integral part of a central building service

Non-salary administrative expenses may be treated (budgeted and/or charged) as a direct cost if, as a result of the scope of the project/program, unlike circumstances exist that necessitate or require that a project/program incur non-salary administrative expenses at a level significantly greater than what is routinely provided by UCR departments and units. To treat non-salary administrative expenses as a direct cost, the following conditions must be met:

the scope of the sponsored project/program must necessitate or require non-salary administrative expenses that are significantly greater than what is routinely provided by the department or units; and
the non-salary administrative expenses can be specifically identified, with relative ease and a high degree of accuracy with the sponsored project/program; and

Following are examples of Unlike Circumstance where direct charging of non-salary administrative expenses may be appropriate:

Mailing expenses for projects that involve a large survey.
Departmental administrative supplies used for the production of manuals as described in the scope of work or required as a deliverable under the terms of an extramural award.
Departmental administrative supplies required to conduct, tabulate and store the results of a survey identified in the scope of work of an extramural award.
A membership fee required in order to subscribe to a journal, where the subscription is necessary for performing the work under a sponsored agreement.
Telephone line charges for projects that are geographically inaccessible (i.e., where the geographical separation between the project work site and departmental administrative support would reasonably necessitate such an expense).

When justifying non-salary administrative expenses in proposal budgets (or before charging such expenses to a sponsored project/program), it is helpful to address the following issues:

Are the non-salary administrative needs of this project/program significantly greater than what is routinely provided by the department to other sponsored projects/programs? If so, why? Also, describe why it is necessary to incur the non-salary administrative expenses for the successful performance of the project/program.
Can the proposed non-salary administrative expenses be easily and accurately allocated to the project/program? How will this be done? If non-salary administrative expenses benefit multiple projects/programs, it may be difficult to accurately document the relative benefit of such expenses to any specific project/program.

Budgeting International Scholar Center Fees

Budgeting and allocating international scholar center (isc) fees.

In July 2008, the International Scholar Center (ISC) implemented a fee-for-service model for visa processing services. The following guidance is provided to assist PIs, departments and research units with budgeting ISC fees in proposal budgets and allocating such costs to sponsored awards. Questions regarding this guidance should be directed to the Contract and Grant Officer assigned to your unit or the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research.

Circumstances Where Budgeting and Allocating ISC Fees May Be Allowable

The following are examples of circumstances where it may be allowable to budget ISC fees in extramural proposals and allocate such costs to sponsored awards:

A position that is essential to the conduct of a project will be (or has been) recruited and the recruitment will more than likely result (or has resulted) in the hiring of a person other than a U.S. citizen or a U.S. permanent resident.
The research team for a sponsored program includes a current UCR employee who is neither a U.S. citizen nor U.S. permanent resident, whose visa will expire during the project period and where the employee's continued participation in the research is essential to the conduct of the project.
A proposal includes an international exchange of visitors and the purpose of the program is, in part, to provide support for the travel of such visitors to enable face-to-face research collaborations.

The preceding is not an all-inclusive list of examples. Rather, it is meant to encourage thoughtful analysis and to illustrate that each situation is unique and should be evaluated based on the relevant facts and circumstances.

Allowability

The allowability of ISC processing fees as a direct cost in extramural proposals and on sponsored awards may be determined by considering the circumstances of each case in conjunction with applicable policies and regulations, including but not limited to:

The terms and conditions of the sponsored award
Sponsor proposal and award policies and regulations
UCR/UC costing policies, including UCR's Cost Accounting Standards Board Disclosure Statement
Code of Federal Regulations - 2 CFR Part 200, Subpart E - Cost Principles

Effective Date: July 14, 2008

Facilities & Administrative Costs

Applying f&a cost rates in proposal budgets, calculating f & a costs, f & a cost waivers, definitions.

As a publicly supported institution, the University is obligated to The Regents and the State to recover the full costs of sponsored research activities. Facilities & Administrative (F&A) costs are reimbursement for costs incurred and paid primarily with public funds from the State of California to cover actual operating costs incurred by the University for facilities and administrative personnel necessary to support extramurally funded research. All organizations require an infrastructure of buildings, equipment, management, administrative and fiscal systems, and staff to carry out the activities of the organization.

2 CFR Part 200 defines indirect (i.e., F & A costs) as "those costs incurred for common or joint purpose benefitting more than one cost objective, and not necessarily assignable to the cost objectives specifically benefitted, without effort disproportionate to the results achieved."

As a recipient of Federal funds, UCR is required to negotiate a F&A cost rate agreement with the Department of Health and Human Services (UCR's cognizant federal audit agency) to establish F&A cost rates for use with UCR's extramural awards. The University negotiates "predetermined" F & A cost rates. These rates are final and not subject to upward or downward adjustment based upon actual costing experience. Typically, predetermined rates are significantly lower than those supported by the calculations used by the University to determine its actual F & A cost rate. However, by negotiating a stable F &A cost rate in a multi-year agreement the University avoids annual audits of actual cost data and annual rate adjustments, and also avoids significant rate fluctuations that may result from fluctuating cost pools.

The rates listed on Proposal Preparation - F&A Cost Rates must be used when estimating F&A costs in proposals to extramural sponsors. Use of a rate other than those identified in our F&A rate agreement or approved by the UC Office of the President, requires approval of a waiver request. Contact the Contract and Grant Officer assigned to your unit for questions regarding the appropriate rate to use in your proposal budget.

Calculate the Modified Total Direct Cost (MTDC) base by subtracting the costs listed below from the budgeted Total Direct Costs:

equipment and capital expenditures;
charges for patient care;
rental, lease and maintenance costs of off-campus space;
tuition and fee remission;
financial aid paid directly to University students, but not as salaries and wages, when allowable under the terms of the award;
participant support costs;
subawards issued to other UC campuses; and
the portion of each non-UC subaward that is in excess of $25,000. Simply stated, UCR indirect costs are assessed on the first $25,000 only of each sub-award. Renewal of a prime award generally requires the issuance of a new subaward, hence indirect costs are charged to the first $25,000 of the renewed subaward. The indirect costs charged by a subaward recipient are not limited by this exception.

Then, multiply the result (MTDC base) by the appropriate F&A cost rate to find the F&A cost amount.

Facilities and administrative costs are a normal and necessary part of funding research at the University of California, Riverside. These costs are real expenses that are incurred by the campus and that must be met, either by the sponsor that provides support for the research or by other funds.

In order for UCR to waive or reduce F & A costs on a given project, a compelling reason showing that a higher University purpose will be served is necessary . It is for this reason that UC campuses cannot make independent decisions on these matters; requests for waivers which are received by the Vice Chancellor for Research are forwarded to the Office of the President for review and approval.

It is increasingly the case that requests for such waivers are presented to the Office of Research very close to the time at which the proposal must be approved and submitted to comply with a rigid deadline. Such timing does not allow for proper and fair evaluation of such requests. Therefore, requests for waivers or partial waivers of F & A costs, including a full explanation of the reasons for the request, must be forwarded to Sponsored Programs Administration at least 5 working days before the deadline for submitting a proposal . Each request will be considered independently on its own merits. Approvals are the exception rather than the rule. In particular, requests will not be approved simply because a PI feels more funds are needed for direct costs than would otherwise be available.

The above does not apply for proposal submissions to sponsors for which the University of California has agreed to a reduction or waiver of F & A costs on a class basis.

Address any questions concerning whether a specific sponsor falls under this exemption with the Contract and Grant Officer assigned to your unit.

Organized Research - All research and development activities of an institution including sponsored research. Sponsored research includes all research and development activities that are sponsored by Federal and non-Federal agencies and organizations. This term includes activities involving the training of individuals in research techniques (commonly called research training) where such activities utilize the same facilities as other research and development activities and where such activities are not included in the instruction function.

Instruction - Instruction means the teaching and training activities of an institution, except for research training as described above. Instruction includes all teaching and training activities, whether they are offered for credits toward a degree or certificate or on a non-credit basis, and whether they are offered through regular academic departments or separate divisions, such as a summer school division or an extension division. Instruction also includes sponsored instruction and training which means specific instructional or training activity established by grant, contract, or cooperative agreement.

Other Sponsored Activities - This means programs and projects financed by Federal and non-Federal agencies and organizations which involve the performance of work other than instruction and organized research. Examples of such programs and projects are health service projects, and community service programs.

Direct Costs - Direct costs are those costs that can be identified specifically with a particular sponsored project, an instructional activity, or any other institutional activity and are directly assigned to such activities relatively easily with a high degree of accuracy.

Facilities and Administrative Costs - F&A costs are those incurred for common or joint objectives and, therefore, cannot be identified readily and specifically with a particular sponsored project, an instructional activity, or any other institutional activity.

Modified Total Direct Costs (MTDC) Base - The MTDC base is the total direct costs for a project less those budget items that are excluded by agreement with the audit agency. The excluded costs are: equipment, construction, alterations and renovations, hospital or clinic charges for patient care, space rental or lease, tuition and fee remission, scholarships, participant support costs, and the amount that exceeds $25,000 of any subaward. See the Calculation section for more information.

Off-Campus Projects - Projects that are based at facilities not owned, or leased and maintained by the University. However, if the project is conducted in leased space and the lease costs are directly charged to the project, the off-campus rate must be used. If the project involves both on-campus and off-campus sites, either the on-campus or off-campus rate generally should be applied, consistent with where the majority of the work is to be performed as measured by salary cost. The use of both on- and off-campus rates may be justified if both rates can be clearly identified with a significant portion of project salaries, meaning 25% or more of total salary/wage costs and the project's total salary/wage costs exceed $250,000.

Project Period - Project period means the total time for which support of a program has been approved, initially or by a renewal award. As used by the Public Health Service, Project Periods consist of one or more annual budget periods with funding for future years beyond the initial budget period provided on a non-competing basis.

Total Direct Costs (TDC) - TDC is the total of all direct costs budgeted for a project.

Guidance for Proposals Submitted to NIH

Nih modular budgets at ucr.

Applications for the following types of NIH grants which request funding of $250,000 or less for direct costs per year must be submitted using the modular format:

Individual Research Project Grants (R01)
Small Grants (R03)
Exploratory/Developmental Grants (R21)
SBIR and STTR, Phase I (R41 and R43
Requests for Applications (RFAs)

Unsolicited, investigator-initiated applications requesting more than $250,000 in any year , and applications for grant activities not specified above, continue to follow the traditional application instructions and applicable NIH policies. RFAs soliciting applications greater than $250,000 may be modular at the discretion of the issuing Institute/Center(s), as specified in the published RFA.

Below is additional guidance for the preparation of modular grant proposal budgets at UCR. If you have questions, please contact the Contract and Grant Officer assigned to your department.

Under the modular format, direct costs are requested in increments of $25,000 (modules), up to $250,000 per year. A typical modular grant application will request the same number of modules in each year. Although NIH does not require that detailed budgets be submitted with Modular Grant Applications, detailed budgets should be created by the PI and department administrator to ensure that:

sufficient direct costs are included to complete the project;
the Facilities and Administrative (F&A - formerly indirect) cost base is accurately calculated, as this information must be shown on the Checklist page; and
UCR Extramural Accounting will be able to allocate the funds properly when an award is made.

GENERAL APPROACH

To insure that the proposed budget accurately reflects the funds needed to carry out the scope of work and complies with the modular format:

Prepare a detailed budget as in the past (this detailed budget should be retained in the department files in the event of an award).
If the same level of support is contemplated for each year, divide the total direct costs of the entire project by the number of years of the project, rounding off to the nearest $25,000, to determine the annual level of support to be requested.
Determine the base for calculating F & A for each year by totaling any standard exclusions (equipment, GSHIP, PFR, etc.) and subtracting these from the modular total for that year. This step is necessary to request the annual F&A costs on the Checklist page.
Provide a budget narrative for all project personnel by position, role and level of effort and, when applicable, consortium/subcontract costs.
When variations in the level of funding is needed due to specific project expenditures for one or more years include an additional justification that addresses the reason(s) for the fluctuation.

Additional information pertaining to modular budgets is available from the following NIH web sites:

Modular Budget Sample: Same Modules
Modular Budget Sample: Variable Modules

UCR Academic Personnel Office will annually announce the updated guidelines on the NIH Salary Cap rate on the UCR Academic Personnel website , under Local Compensation Policy and Guidelines, during the winter quarter or spring quarter (based on when the information from the NIH is available).

NIH Grants and Funding Salary Cap Summary

Guidance for Research Projects Operating Abroad

Guidance for research projects operating abroad - insurance and liability.

The UCOP Office of Risk Services has arranged foreign liability insurance for the University's operations outside the USA. The primary goals of purchasing this centrally controlled insurance program are to protect the University and adhere to local insurance laws, while allowing the University faculty and staff to engage in research and educational endeavors abroad with minimal insurance procurement administration and costs.

Before starting any project abroad, there are several items that should be to taken into consideration:

Foreign General Liability

Are you signing a lease for office or research space and being required to provide evidence of insurance coverage?
Are you purchasing any office or research space?
Are you entering into any contracts with foreign government agencies or entities?

If you answer "Yes" to any of the above, UC may be required to procure a general liability policy in the country where you are operating, in order to be compliant with local insurance laws and regulations. UCOP Risk Services has partnered with a global insurance carrier who has the capabilities to issue a general liability policy in most countries abroad, thereby facilitating and minimizing the administration for UC.

Are you conducting any clinical trials abroad and being required to provide the insurance coverage for the trial?

If you answer "Yes", UC may be required to procure a Human Clinical Trial liability policy to adhere to the insurance laws and regulations of the country where you are conducting the trial. Each country has its own compulsory liability insurance requirements for Human Clinical Trials.

Foreign Automobile Liability

Are you acquiring a long-term leased automobile or purchasing an automobile?

If you answer "Yes", you will need to either purchase the compulsory automobile liability insurance from the automobile leasing company or from a local insurance market. Automobile liability insurance is compulsory in almost every country and UC and/or you could face severe penalties and fines if you do not purchase this insurance coverage.

Foreign Workers' Compensation & Foreign Employer's Liability

Are you hiring any local nationals to work for you as an employee?

If you answer "Yes", UCOP Risk Services and our insurance broker, Marsh Risk & Insurance Services, will need to evaluate whether the workers' compensation and employer's liability benefits in the country where you are hiring the employee are part of a government social scheme or require the purchase of an insurance policy. Workers' compensation is compulsory insurance coverage in most countries, and employer's liability insurance is required in several countries.

Are you hiring anyone as an "independent contractor"?

If you answer "Yes", you will need to use the same methodology employed in the USA to evaluate the tasks of the "independent contractor" in establish whether this person would be deemed an employee. If you are unsure of this methodology, you will need to contact UCOP Risk Services.

If you have any questions regarding this coverage or need any assistance regarding insurance issues related to operating abroad, please contact UCR Risk Management .

How to Budget for Open Access Publishing

Open Access Fact Sheet for Researchers Applying for Grants

Preparing Proposal Budget Justifications

Sample Budget Justifications (doc)

As the nation’s largest public research university, the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) aims to catalyze, support and safeguard U-M research and scholarship activity.

The Office of the Vice President for Research oversees a variety of interdisciplinary units that collaborate with faculty, staff, students and external partners to catalyze, support and safeguard research and scholarship activity.

ORSP manages pre-award and some post-award research activity for U-M. We review contracts for sponsored projects applying regulatory, statutory and organizational knowledge to balance the university's mission, the sponsor's objectives, and the investigator's intellectual pursuits.

Ethics and compliance in research covers a broad range of activity from general guidelines about conducting research responsibly to specific regulations governing a type of research (e.g., human subjects research, export controls, conflict of interest).

eResearch is U-M's site for electronic research administration. Access: Regulatory Management (for IRB or IBC rDNA applications); Proposal Management (eRPM) for the e-routing, approval, and submission of proposals (PAFs) and Unfunded Agreements (UFAs) to external entities); and Animal Management (for IACUC protocols and ULAM).

Sponsored Programs manages the post-award financial activities of U-M's research enterprise and other sponsored activities to ensure compliance with applicable federal, state, and local laws as well as sponsor regulations. The Office of Contract Administration (OCA) is also part of the Office of Finance - Sponsored Programs.

Develop Proposal Overview
Blue Pages: Find an RA
Cost Accounting Standards
Budget Table Sample
Direct vs. F&A Costs
Direct Costs Other Than Salaries
Facilities & Administrative Rates
Full Recovery of F&A Costs - Calculating Space
NRSA Stipend Levels and GSRA Max
NIH Modular Budgets
Participant Support Costs
Salaries in Sponsored Projects

Staff Benefits

Uniform Guidance Monitored Costs
Clinical Trials
Create Biosketch
OVPR Cost Sharing
About the University of Michigan
NIH - Other Support Reporting
NSF and Other Sponsors - Current and Pending Support
Principal Investigator Definition
Cost / Price Analysis
Working with Subrecipients / Subrecipient Forms / Letter of Commitment

Budget and Cost Resources

Quick links.

Budget & Cost Resources
UG Monitored Costs
Direct and Indirect Costs
Indirect Cost Rates
Full Recovery of Indirect Costs - Calculating space for certain private sponsor
Direct Costs (other than salaries)
Staff Fringe Benefits
GSRA Cost Estimates

The Principal Investigator has primary responsibility for budget planning, in consultation with the department chair or director of the research unit. Budgets for all sponsored proposals are subject to review by ORSP.

A Special Note About NIH Grant-Related Data Sharing Costs

Certain funding agencies (e.g. the National Institutes of Health (NIH)) are increasingly allowing data management and sharing (DMS) costs to be included as direct costs in proposal budgets.

NIH DMS costs should be shared in the appropriate cost category, e.g., personnel, equipment, supplies, and other expenses, following the instructions and providing details as instructed within the applicable form (e.g., R&R Budget Form or PHS 398 Modular Budget Form).

In most cases, the DMS Plan oversight at U-M will be provided by the principal investigator (PI) and other study personnel. If help is needed, consider these resources:

OVPR Research Data Stewardship page - NIH DMSP resources
U-M Library - Research Guides - Research Data Management
U-M Navigate Webinar - NIH Data Management & Sharing Policy (Nov 1, 2022)

Budget Format

Sponsors often prescribe the budget format that must accompany the proposal, including the specific cost categories that should be identified. The format shown on the sample budget page may be used, however, if one is not specified by the sponsor. Be sure to check with your department, unit, school or college administrator to determine the best practice.

The budget should be subdivided into periods of 12-month duration (unless partial year funding is anticipated). A "starting date" should be specified, since it is essential to ensure accurate budget calculations. If cost-sharing is included, each budget period should include columns for both "Sponsor" and "University" costs. A budget summary should be included for proposals with multi-year funding. All budget entries should be rounded to the nearest whole dollar.

Salary and Wages

The salary category in the proposed budget should include the names and/or titles for all personnel involved in the project. The number of person months or percent effort to be applied to the project should also be shown. Total salary costs can be determined by applying the percentage of effort to the current salary rates. An appropriate escalation rate (e.g., 3%) should be used to determine salary requirements beyond the current fiscal year. While standard percentages are applied to make these calculations, no commitment and no constraint on the rate of increase for a given individual is implied by this procedure.

If a faculty member is working on several sponsored projects, care must be exercised to ensure that no more than 100 percent of effort is committed to the aggregate of all projects and other University responsibilities.

Summer salary:

Summer salary for faculty with academic year (AY) appointments can be figured at one-ninth of their institutional base salary for each month of summer effort. A maximum of two and one-half months may be included for the whole summer. Some sponsors, however, impose specific limitations on summer salaries. The National Science Foundation, for example, usually will not pay for more than two months of summer research at a rate of one-ninth of the AY salary per month.

Technical staff

Costs incurred for the same purpose in like circumstances must be treated consistently. For example, salaries of technical staff should be treated as direct costs wherever the work to be undertaken can be identified with a particular sponsored project. Direct charging of these costs may be accomplished by specifying individual positions within the project budget or through the use of recharge rates or specialized service facilities, as appropriate under the circumstances.

Administrative and clerical support

The salaries of administrative and clerical support staff normally should be treated as indirect costs . However, it may be appropriate to charge these costs directly to a sponsored project when the participation of the administrative/clerical staff being charged to a federal project meet all four of the following conditions as set forth in §200.413 of the Uniform Guidance:

“(1) Administrative or clerical services are integral to a project or activity;

(2) Individuals involved can be specifically identified with the project or activity;

(3) Such costs are explicitly included in the budget or have the prior written approval of the Federal awarding agency; and

(4) The costs are not also recovered as indirect costs.”

The meaning of (4) is the same as that of 200.403(d) above. That is to say, the project must require support services beyond the normal scope necessary for the typical sponsored project (i.e., it is an unlike circumstance).

Personnel may be hired to work on a sponsored project on an hourly basis for periods up to 12 months. Individuals hired on this basis receive no staff benefits other than Social Security and should be advised accordingly. The Personnel Service Center should be consulted to obtain the appropriate hourly rates for various categories of employment.

Staff benefits are charged to sponsored project accounts on a real cost basis. Depending on the mix of personnel assigned to the project, the staff benefit rate may show significant variation. While it may be possible to apply an average benefit rate (30%), it may be more appropriate in some situations to calculate the staff benefits on an employee-by-employee basis. The range of applicable benefit rates are provided in Staff Benefits Table .

GSRA Compensation, Tuition, and Benefits

GSRA Cost Estimates are for budget estimating purposes only and may vary from school to school. A GSRA appointment may be held from May through August, even though the GSRA is not enrolled in the University during that time. If the appointment is for the winter and fall terms, the fringe benefit charges should be budgeted for the full year, since the student is eligible for coverage during the intervening summer even though he or she is not on a GSRA appointment at that time.

The non-resident tuition differential is provided by the University for out-of-state students appointed as GSRAs. In-state tuition should be charged to sponsored accounts for GSRAs with appointments of 25% or greater. However, Schools and Colleges may provide tuition fellowships to cover a portion of the in-state tuition for GSRAs (see GSRA Cost Estimates ). The portion of the in-state tuition that remains after the fellowship is applied must be included on the grant as a charge to the sponsor.

In-state tuition charges should not be included as part of the GSRA stipend. The modified total direct cost (MTDC) base on which the University's indirect cost rate is calculated must exclude tuition charges. Therefore, indirect costs are not recoverable on tuition charges included in proposals for which the indirect cost rate is based on MTDC. Please contact the appropriate ORSP Project Representative should you have any questions.

Consumable Supplies and Materials

Consumable supplies are items used exclusively in support of project objectives. If it can be demonstrated that such supplies are used only in the conduct of the project and not for other purposes and are consumed completely in the course of the project, such items can be included as direct costs. Laboratory supplies, laboratory notebooks, printer paper for research data and reports, and so forth usually can be justified as consumable supplies. However, when supply items are purchased to support the multiple activities of project personnel, they are considered office supplies and cannot be charged directly to federal funds. Such items would include University stationary, pens, tablets, file folders, staples, paper clips, etc.

The estimated costs of consumable supplies and materials should be indicated in the proposed budget. It is generally acceptable to sponsors to provide a breakdown of supplies and materials by broad categories as opposed to the detailed listing of individual items. Contracts awarded by industries holding a prime contract with a federal agency, however, may require detailed itemization of supplies.

Major items of equipment proposed for acquisition should be itemized by descriptive name and estimated cost, and an adequate justification should be provided in the proposal narrative. Items costing less than $5000 or with a useful life expectancy of less than one year normally should be included under "Supplies and Materials." Shipping and/or installation charges associated with equipment acquisitions should be included in the cost estimates but generally are not itemized.

Specialized Services

Charges for computing services should be budgeted whenever these costs are justified. It is essential, however, that the budget clearly differentiate between central computing services provided by Information Technology Services and other computing services.

Other specialized service centers that have an approved user rate should be included in the proposed budget on a cost basis that reflects the recharge rates with the anticipated number of hours or other units of service clearly indicated. Once established, the schedule of rates must be applied to all users of the services/facilities, including internal-university users. Recharge rates are designed to recover, over the long term, not more than the aggregate cost of the services provided. The recharge/user rate should be included as part of the modified total direct cost (MTDC) for the project and should carry the appropriate indirect cost rate .

Consultants and Subcontracts

Federal agencies frequently establish a maximum daily rate of pay for consultants--specific dollar limits for various agencies are available from ORSP. The University must enter into a formal agreement with the consultant prior to the initiation of his or her effort. Consultant agreements as subject to the full recovery of indirect costs at the rate applicable to other direct cost items in the proposed budget.

The entire cost of a subcontract is normally shown as a single line item under "Other Direct Costs." A formal proposal from the subcontractor--including a statement of work, a detailed budget, period of performance, and key personnel--should be included to support this cost element. The Project Director should provide an explanation of why and how the proposed sub-contractor was selected, including the number of bids obtained.

Subcontracted effort requires a formal agreement between the University and the subcontractor, signed by a University official authorized to enter into contractual agreements on behalf of the Board of Regents. See: the Subcontracts and Hybrid Purchase Orders web page for criteria and procedures. Indirect costs are recovered on the first $25,000 of each subcontract.

Indirect Costs

Indirect costs are real costs of University operations that are not readily assignable to a particular project. The sample budget illustrates the procedures for applying the indirect cost rate .

Human Subject Fees

Human subjects often are paid a fee for their participation in research projects. Protocols for the use of human beings in research, teaching, or testing are reviewed and approved, according to federal, state and university policies. (See: Human Research Protection Program )

Other Costs

Funds may be requested from the sponsor to cover travel costs associated with the proposed project. Sponsors often require a breakdown of such travel costs by trip, reflecting the purpose, point of travel, number of persons, number of days, air fare, lodging and meal costs (per diem), and so forth. If foreign travel is contemplated, the proposal should include relevant information (including names of countries to be visited) and justification. Some sponsors have special regulations (e.g., use of domestic air carriers) governing foreign travel.

Costs of preparing and publishing reports of project results should be included in proposed budgets. Since page charges often are billed well after the completion of the research, it may be necessary to secure time extensions to pay these charges prior to the time that the project is closed out.

Other anticipated direct costs should be itemized--for example, equipment rental, maintenance agreements, or off-campus space rental. Telephone services and postage should not be included unless these costs are expected to be major elements in the project (e.g., telephone surveys). "Miscellaneous" or "contingency" categories should not be included. Items normally considered indirect costs should not be included in the proposed budget unless they are extraordinary and for unlike circumstances (e.g., utility costs required to operate a high-energy particle accelerator).

Network costs, including the hardware, software, personnel services, public access sites, and other related costs required to enable University personnel to share software or data or to communicate electronically with other individuals, are generally considered to be part of the physical infrastructure of the University and should not be included as direct costs in the proposal budget, as these costs are indirect in nature and included as a component of the Facilities & Administrative rate. However, individual workstations and specialized hardware and software attached to the network, which are not available to all users, are not included as part of the network costs and therefore may be treated as direct costs and recovered from sponsored projects through the use of approved recharge rates.

Questions regarding the appropriate treatment of network costs as either direct costs or Facilities & Administrative costs in proposal budgets should be forwarded to the Office of Research and Sponsored Projects.

References and Resources

Direct Cost Other than Salaries
Graduate Student Salaries (GSRAs)
Staff Fringe Benefits
Rackham Cost Sharing for Federal Training Grants
Sample Budget Table
Contact your unit-level research administrator for the best practices for your department, school, college, or unit.
Contact your ORSP Project Representative regarding any questions about University policies and procedures.
Contact the Office of Contract Administration for further information on subcontracts and consulting agreements.
For information on how to pay human subjects, please see the Treasurer's Office requester/study-coordinator resources and the HSIP (Human Subject Incentive Program .
Budget Reallocation Process (formerly 7471)
Direct Costs
Facilities and Administrative Costs (F&A)
HSIP (Human Subjects Incentives Program)

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How to Write…

How to Write a Research Budget Plan?

January 20, 2021
7 minutes read

Setting up a research budget plan is really crucial for any Ph.D. candidate or any other researcher. This plan will help you know how expensive your research is. A research budget ensures you if all the costs are covered or if you need any additional funds to cover the research expenses. In conclusion, this guide will help you to provide a realistic appraisal of the research costs.

The simple guide to the research budget plan

Is there a fund? Is there a funding opportunity within the Faculty? How about the cost of publishing your article in an open-access journal? Some Universities fund publication cost too.

Submit the research proposal budget

When you are planning a research budget there is different kind of costs:

Direct Costs:

This kind of cost is utilized solely to execute the research. like expenses on:

Research staff members
Materials & Chemicals
Travel finance: Attending research-related conferences, seminars, and training travel expenses for the surveys and data collection and Visiting expenses to other institutions.

Indirect Costs

These expenses will be reserved for institutional facilities when conducting your research. For example:

Institutional laboratory
Electricity
Water & Energy usage
Telecommunication charges
Equipment: printer, computer, or other electronic items

Types of Research Budget

There is 2 kind of budget designs:

Modular Design Budget

The direct costs are equal to or less than $250,000 annually
You have research grants

Detailed Design Budget

Your direct costs are more than $250,000 per annum
You are applying for grants other than research grant type or its equivalents

Plan your Research Budget

When you find the research question and plan a suitable study design; You can guess the unpredictable charges that can arise while researching. Consider these five main points while planning your research budget:

1-Budget Essentials

Which items will affect your research budget? These are mainly:

The study design
Testing procedures
Sample collection methods
Research settings.

2-Instructions of the Funding Agency

Find the introduction of budget rules and limitations by your funding agency.

3- Categorization of Each Item

You should do a breakdown of the budget item-wise and year-wise with cost calculation. After that, consider the recurring and nonrecurring items that are directly related to your research.

4-Justification of Each Item

For every enlisted item provide a solid justification for its importance in your research budget.

5- Review & Verification of the Research Budget

Reviewing is the most significant step of your budget plan. Above all, Recalculate the cost of each item and the total items. Remember that too low or high budget will raise suspicion in the mind of your reviewers. So stay in the research budget range.

plan a research budget direct cost and indirect costs

Budget Justification

The funding agencies require justification for each item of the budget plan. This document is also known as the budget narrative page. In other words, It reasons the importance of each item. Academictown suggests drawing a three-columned table with:

The name of the item in the first column
The quantity and cost in the second column
A justification statement in the third column

Budget Summary

At last, provide a summarized form of your budget to specify every item with its cost per annum:

The non-recurring items will only be specified under the first-year heading as they have a one-time expense.
The recurring items will be mentioned in both years, along with their costs.

This research budget plan prepares you for all the financial aids you need. The plan will inform you about the expenses of each research item and method. The budget section is the key factor of success or failure for your proposal. For instance, You can manage the items with a spreadsheet. Pointing out and categorizing the direct and indirect costs, at last, will be able to plan and compose a well-scripted budget.

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Budget Salaries for My Research Project

Salaries make up the largest category of direct costs on a sponsored project. When preparing a budget, start by making a list of all Stanford personnel who will support the proposed statement of work. If a person will be hired once the award is funded, simply estimate their salary and percentage of effort and list them as TBD (to be determined).

Project personnel salaries budgeted as direct costs

Stanford employees: the PI, co-PIs, co-investigators, ASR (Academic Staff Researchers), technical support staff, graduate students, research assistants, and administrative support staff (working directly on a major project), Stanford employees acting as collaborators.

Project Personnel salaries NOT budgeted as direct costs

Stanford Hospital and VA employees are not budgeted in the personnel budget category. Stanford Hospital employees are budgeted in “Patient Care.” Check with your RPM (Research Process Manager) in the School of Medicine or OSR for advice regarding VA employees. Other non-Stanford employees may be proposed as consultants or as the personnel in a subaward.

Salary information to include in the budget:

1. The person's role on the project (not job title) and the person's name

Example: Rafael Nadal, Lead Protein Synthesizer not Rafael Nadal, Professional Tennis Player

2. The percentage of effort or person months devoted to the project

This includes all responsibilities (including teaching and research) together and may not exceed 100% FTE. The portion of salary charged to the project is based on the percentage of FTE committed to the project. Remember that any percentage of effort committed in a proposal and subsequently devoted, must be accounted for later as project expenditure (either a direct project charge or cost sharing).

Nominal contributions of effort “as needed” may be included and NOT quantified. In this case, where no % FTE is specified, no cost sharing is committed. A “part-time” commitment, on the other hand, implies a specified % FTE, and that amount should be quantified. If awarded, “part-time” effort must be either directly charged or cost shared.

View how to convert percent effort to person months .

3. The appointment type (academic, summer or calendar)

Nine Month Appointment and Summer Effort A faculty member on a nine-month appointment can only be paid from sponsored projects up to 90% during any of the summer months. Salary charged to sponsored projects during the summer months must be consistent with effort expended during the same period.

Limits on Salary Amounts (Salary Caps)

NSF limits salary compensation for senior project personnel to no more than two months of their regular salary in any one year from all NSF-funded grants. This effort must be documented in accordance with the applicable cost principles.

If anticipated, any compensation for such personnel in excess of two months must be disclosed in the proposal budget, justified in the budget justification, and must be specifically approved by NSF in the award.

NIH will not pay requested salary above the annual salary cap. If salary is requested above the salary cap, NIH will reduce that line item to the salary cap, resulting in a reduced total award amount. When preparing a detailed budget, you must base your request on actual institutional base salaries (not the cap) so that NIH staff has the most current information in hand at the time of award and can apply the appropriate salary cap at that time.

The DHHS (department of Health and Human Service) salary cap limits the amount which can be charged to a DHHS project (or related cost sharing account) by limiting the maximum annual salary rate for a 100%, 12-month FTE. The rate is set annually and applies to all awards made that year.

DHHS establishes the funding limitation for salaries at the time that a competitive award is made. However, if subsequent (non-competing) funding is awarded during a year with a higher salary cap, NIH will allow existing funds to be re-budgeted to that level. Typically, no new funds will be awarded for this purpose.

DHHS salary cap may change annually
DHHS funds salary up to the level of the cap in effect on the award date
Use a special expenditure type to capture difference between actual pay & what can be charged to a DHHS award

View Salary Cap details

Other sponsors

Other sponsors such as Juvenile Diabetes Association may have salary caps. Read the program announcement carefully to determine if a sponsor has a salary cap.

Proposal Preparation Costs

Proposal preparation costs (typically comprised of salary for the PI and/or others) may not be charged to sponsored projects unless the proposal is being prepared for submission to a current sponsor for a non-competing extension or continuation of its currently awarded project. In those circumstances, it is appropriate to charge those proposal preparation costs directly to current projects. Costs for development of proposals for submission to other sponsors, or for work that does not relate to ongoing projects, is not allocable to current projects and may not be charged to those projects.

Guidance for Budgeting Faculty Effort

Effort should be committed as anticipated by the program scope and reflected in the proposal as a percent of effort or in person months.

The equation for calculating man months is % effort x months (academic year, calendar year or summer). 50% of a calendar year appointment is calculated as 50 x 12 = 6 mm

View more information on how to convert percent effort to person months .

Stanford requires a commitment of effort on the part of the PI during the period in which the work is being performed. This effort may be expended during the academic year, summer quarter only, or both. Committed effort shall be direct charged or cost shared.

The requirement of PI effort does NOT extend to:

Equipment grants
Seed grants for students/postdocs where the faculty mentor is named as PI, dissertation support, training grants or other awards intended as student augmentation
limited-purpose awards characterized by Stanford as Other Sponsored Activities, including travel grants, conference support, etc. View definition and examples of Categories of Sponsored Projects

In preparing proposals, PIs must not over commit themselves or others. Distribution of effort must take into account the time required for teaching and campus citizenship.

Individual schools may have their own thresholds for how much FTE faculty members must reserve for non-research activities. Research-only faculty on 12-month appointments may typically charge up to 95% to sponsored projects year round. See below for requirements for summer salary.

PIs may submit proposals on the assumption that not all will be awarded, but, at the time of award, a reasonable representation of time to be devoted to the project, whether that effort will be paid for by the sponsor or by Stanford, is necessary. Subsequent changes in levels of effort may also require advance notification to and approval by sponsors.

View RPH Special Requirements Related to Sponsor Notifications and Prior Approvals

A faculty member who is on a nine-month appointment may be paid from federal and/or non-federal sponsored projects for no more than 90% during any of the summer months. Salary charged to sponsored projects during the summer months must be consistent with effort expended during the same period.

View Frequently Asked Questions on Faculty Effort for more information

Stanford requires individuals new to the position of Principal Investigator (PI) to understand the regulatory environment in which sponsored research is conducted. Stanford requires each of its PIs to complete a brief course: PI Training: Stewardship and Compliance for Principal Investigators . This course outlines the regulatory environment for sponsored research. It is comprised of two modules: 1) Research and Scholarship and 2) Financial Management.

Guidance for Budgeting Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Scholar

Graduate student assistantship.

This is a form of student employment in which the student earns a compensation package that includes both salary and TAL (tuition allowance) for the performance of research or teaching as part of the student’s academic and professional training and development.

Stanford establishes Minimum Salary Rates for RA/TA Appointments . Departments may establish their own guidelines as long as funding rates meet or exceed those established by Stanford.

View graduate students salary and tuition allowance here

(select Salary and TAL Tables on the top navigation of the page)

Note: TA salary is not an appropriate charge on a research grant. Also, stipends, tuition and health insurance are not appropriate charges on research grants other than federal training grants or federal fellowships.

NIH Special Requirements

NRSA Requirements (Graduate Student & Pre and Post Doc Compensation) NIH Stipend Levels for 202 0

Stanford clarification: The Graduate Student Compensation Limit for Fiscal Year 2017 NRSA (National Research Service Award) awards research grants is tied to the "0" level of experience stipend level for postdocs. Therefore, the limit is $48,432 (salary plus benefits and tuition) when budgeting graduate students on research grants.

Postdoctoral Scholars

The Stanford provost establishes minimum funding levels based on the years of cumulative research experience a Postdoctoral Scholar has accumulated when appointed. Departments may establish their own guidelines as long as funding rates meet or exceed those established by Stanford. If you have questions about funding rates or guidelines, please contact the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs .

Staff Salaries by Project Role

You can list other personnel by project role. If multiple people share the same role such as “lab technician”, indicate the number of personnel to the left of the role description, add their person months/percent of effort together, and add their requested salaries together.

The salaries of secretarial/clerical staff should normally be treated as F&A costs. Direct charging of these costs may be appropriate where integral to the statement of work and individuals involved can be specifically identified with the project or activity. Be specific in your budget justifications when you describe the roles and responsibilities of other personnel.

Administrative Salaries as Direct Costs

While administrative salaries and expenses are normally charged through the F&A (Facilities & Administrative) cost rate, federal regulations describe when administrative and clerical salaries can be charged directly to federally sponsored projects.

You can propose charging administrative and clerical salaries to a federally sponsored project if ALL of the following conditions are met:

Administrative or clerical services are integral to a project or activity. The requirement that the cost is “integral” means the services are essential, vital, or fundamental to the project or activity
Individuals involved can be specifically identified with the project or activity
A budget justification must be included in the proposal
The cost are not also recovered as F&A costs

NIH modular grants or similar grant instruments do not require line-item budgets. (Note: Rebudgeting authority may be used to charge administrative expenses not included in the approved budget if specific rebudgeting authority for clerical and administrative expenses is allowed by award and sponsor rebudgeting guidelines. See, for example, NIH administrative requirements .)

All deans' office administrative activities must be consistently treated as F&A costs. Therefore, no deans' office administrative expenses shall be charged directly to sponsored awards . Deans' sponsored project activities are subject to RPH 15.4.3

Any other administrative costs that are required to perform the technical scope of work may be directly charged as long they provide technical benefit to the sponsored project.

Non-federally Sponsored Projects

Direct charging of administrative or clerical salaries to a non-federally sponsored project is appropriate if the services benefit the sponsored project. Some non-federal sponsors may have specific requirements for direct charging of administrative costs. Such requirements need to be addressed in proposals.

Read RPH 15.4: Charging for Administrative and Technical Expenses

Budget Fringe Benefits

Fringe benefits are directly related to salary charges and require separate line items in the budget (apart from salary). There are four separate rates for the following employment statuses.

Benefits-eligible faculty and staff
Casual/temporary employees
Graduate students Research Assistants /Teaching Assistants

The fringe benefit rate is applied to salaries to cover ancillary expenses such as retirement benefits, health and dental insurance, life and disability insurance, contributions to social security and retirement plans.

The federal government reviews and negotiates the fringe benefit rate with Stanford. Use the most current rates by viewing the rate chart on the web. See fringe benefit rate here. An additional rate is added to the benefits rate for faculty and staff on non-governmental awards.

Applying TGP (Tuition Grant Program) Fringe Benefit Rate

The TGP (Tuition Grant Program) Fringe Rate is assessed on regular benefits eligible salaries charged to all NON-government funded PTAs including sponsored projects, operating budgets, and auxiliary PTAs.

Regular benefits-eligible salaries charged to government-funded PTAs, academic service centers and sponsored project cost sharing PTAs are exempt from the TGP charge.

The TGP charge is subject to facilities and administrative costs (F&A) and infrastructure charges. The TGP fringe benefit rates can be found on the Rates page of this site. The TGP charge appears in expenditure type 51770 Fringe Benefits TGP.

If you have any questions or need more information about the application of the TGP Rate, please contact the University Budget Office or , Research Administration Policy and Compliance, at extension 3-9102.

View the TGP Rate

Handling Vacation & Disability Sick Leave Accrual

Stanford's agreement with the Office of Naval Research provides for xx% vacation accrual/disability sick leave (DSL) for exempt and non-exempt employees. The vacation accrual/DSL rates will be charged at the time of the salary expenditure. No salary will be charged to the award when the employee is on vacation .

Include in the budget justification:

"Stanford's agreement with the Office of Naval Research provides for xx% vacation accrual/disability sick leave (DSL) for exempt employees and non-exempt employees. The vacation accrual/DSL rates will be charged at the time of the salary expenditure. No salary will be charged to the award when the employee is on vacation."

Created: 03.31.2021

Updated: 05.24.2024

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Compile a research budget

Get started with your grant application budget plan..

TOP TIP: Each call has different guidelines for what may or may not be included within the budget for your project. Read your call guidelines carefully.

Where to start

Research Design = List resources that you need to conduct the project. Include your time, staff and non-staff resources such as field work, travel, research assistance or software.

Decide on a start date and project duration = The project start date (if your application is awarded) will depend on when you plan to submit your application and the assessment cycle of the funding body.

Consider the time required to recruit staff = If applicable, do you need staff at the start of your awarded project?

Devise a realistic budget plan according to the funder’s requirements and LSE’s financial regulations. Your Research Development Manager will help you compile your budget.

Contact us to compile your budget

Email your Research Development Manager .

8 costs to examine when preparing your project budget:

1. staff salaries.

Staff salaries are often the largest cost of the budget.

Allocate enough money for staffing costs and think about what staff roles the project requires.

How do I determine which level is appropriate?

Consider the amount of time you wish to spend on the project as well as the amount of research assistance and expertise required.

You may need administrative support if you plan on sending out a large number of questionnaires and have a lot of data entry to do. If the study is complex, you may want a senior research fellow with previous experience. It will cost more but it will be an expense worth paying for.

View research staff role profiles

View salary scales

Extra staff costs

In addition, there will be extra costs to include, such as:

recruitment advertising
redundancy expenses
pension costs
national insurance contributions

Named staff

Follow School procedures for including named staff in proposals. If you have a specific person in mind, contact your Research Development Manager .

Check local practice with your Department/Centre Manager as additional procedures on staffing salary levels may apply.

2. Indirect costs

Indirect costs can include:

estates costs and institutional overheads
the cost of using an office
facilities such as HR, IT support and library services

Often a funding body will only pay a contribution towards these. Research and Innovation will calculate these costs based on a standard full economic costing.

To add these costs to your budget, email the Research Development Team .

3. Equipment

This could include items such as a digital recorder or a laptop for carrying out field work.

Some equipment may not be eligible depending on the funder’s regulations.

For example, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) will normally expect a computer to be provided by the host institution.

There are some exceptions - funding may be considered if a standard computer is not adequate for processing vast amounts of data.

Justify equipment explicitly in your proposal. Contact us for further advice.

4. Consumables

Examples of standard project running costs include:

printed brochures for dissemination events
tea, coffee, lunch for meetings etc.
postage and stationery
photocopying
computer supplies (toner)

5. Travel and subsistence

A project may require travel costs to allow you to:

carry out field work
attend a conference
present findings for dissemination purposes
meet co-investigators working on the project

Example travel costs

Estimate your budget with LSE's example cost guidelines .

Calculate travel rates to cover the cost of subsistence and accommodation as well as flights and train costs.

Some funding bodies have set criteria of what they are prepared to cover and may apply funding caps. For example, no business class flights; economy travel only.

Tell your Research Development Manager :

total number of trips needed
number of people who need to travel
year in which each trip will be taken

6. Justification of resources

A common component of a project is the ‘justification of costs’, sometimes referred to as ‘resource allocation’. It's essential to spend time making this section clear.

Expensive items

If an expensive item of equipment is crucial for the project, state how it will be used and why alternative options are not viable.

Staff costs

The same rule applies for the inclusion of those people who have specialised expertise – please state:

what these staff will be doing
why less costly options are not viable

Discuss your costs with the Research Development Team .

7. Research Grants Policy (formerly Research Incentives Policy)

The Research Grants Policy provides financial rewards for staff who win research funding – to enhance their salaries, to buy out their time from teaching and/or to provide unencumbered research funding – and research funding for the departments and research centres which host them.

It came into full effect from 1 August 2021 and applies partially to awards falling prior to this date but after the suspension of its predecessor, the Research Incentives Policy, in June 2020. View the Research Grants Policy

The Research Incentives Policy was suspended in June 2020 and remains active only for eligible legacy projects. It has been replaced by the Research Grants Policy. View the Research Incentives Policy

8. Ineligible costs

Each call has different guidelines for what may or may not be included within the budget for your project.

Read call guidelines. If in doubt, check details with your Research Development Manager in the Research Development Team.

Contact us Get in touch today to discuss your research idea or project

Grant proposal writing Improve your chances of winning a grant with our top tips

Find funding Browse internal and external fellowships, travel grants, collaborative projects and more

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NASA's Roman to Use Rare Events to Calculate Expansion Rate of Universe

A field of galaxies on the black background of space. Some are blue and white, others glow yellow. In the middle of the field is a cluster of five yellowish spiral and elliptical galaxies that form a foreground galaxy cluster. There is one spiral galaxy just below the cluster that has a yellow-whiteish core and is surrounded by diffuse blue material. This galaxy is outlined by a white box, and lines extend from the box’s corners that leads to an enlarged view at the right. Four arrows point at yellow faint points of light that circle the central glow of the galaxy.

Lensed supernovae offer precise, independent measurement

With a panoramic view 200 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope’s infrared view, the sheer amount of data captured by the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will change the landscape of astronomy.

Astronomers interested in studying a variety of topics, including the mystery of dark energy and the acceleration rate of the universe, are readying themselves to best harness this torrent of data the moment it arrives on Earth soon after Roman’s launch.

One team in particular is focused on training Roman to find gravitationally lensed supernovae, objects that can be used in a unique method to measure the expansion rate of the universe. They say Roman’s study of these elusive lensed supernovae can have enormous potential for the future of cosmology.

Full Article

Supernova Refsdal (Hubble image)

Astronomers investigating one of the most pressing mysteries of the cosmos – the rate at which the universe is expanding – are readying themselves to study this puzzle in a new way using NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Once it launches by May 2027, astronomers will mine Roman’s wide swaths of images for gravitationally lensed supernovae, which can be used to measure the expansion rate of the universe.

There are multiple independent ways astronomers can measure the present expansion rate of the universe, known as the Hubble constant . Different techniques have yielded different values, referred to as the Hubble tension . Much of Roman’s cosmological investigations will be into elusive dark energy, which affects how the universe is expanding over time. One primary tool for these investigations is a fairly traditional method, which compares the intrinsic brightness of objects like type Ia supernovae to their perceived brightness to determine distances. Alternatively, astronomers could use Roman to examine gravitationally lensed supernovae. This method of exploring the Hubble constant is unique from traditional methods because it’s based on geometric methods, and not brightness.

“Roman is the ideal tool to let the study of gravitationally lensed supernovae take off,” said Lou Strolger of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, co-lead of the team preparing for Roman’s study of these objects. “They are rare, and very hard to find. We have had to get lucky in detecting a few of them early enough. Roman’s extensive field of view and repeated imaging in high resolution will help those chances.”

Using various observatories like NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered just eight gravitationally lensed supernovae in the universe. However, only two of those eight have been viable candidates to measure the Hubble constant due to the type of supernovae they are and the duration of their time-delayed imaging.

Gravitational lensing occurs when the light from an object like a stellar explosion, on its way to Earth, passes through a galaxy or galaxy cluster and gets deflected by the immense gravitational field. The light splits along different paths and forms multiple images of the supernova on the sky as we see it. Depending on the differences between the paths, the supernova images appear delayed by hours to months, or even years. Precisely measuring this difference in arrival times between the multiple images leads to a combination of distances that constrain the Hubble constant.

“Probing these distances in a fundamentally different way than more common methods, with the same observatory in this case, can help shed light on why various measurement techniques have yielded different results,” added Justin Pierel of STScI, Strolger’s co-lead on the program.

Finding the Needle in the Haystack

Roman's extensive surveys will be able to map the universe much faster than Hubble can, with the telescope “seeing” more than 100 times the area of Hubble in a single image.

“Rather than gathering several pictures of trees, this new telescope will allow us to see the entire forest in a single snapshot,” Pierel explained.

In particular, the High Latitude Time Domain Survey will observe the same area of sky repeatedly, which will allow astronomers to study targets that change over time. This means there will be an extraordinary amount of data – over 5 billion pixels each time – to sift through in order to find these very rare events.

A team led by Strolger and Pierel at STScI is laying the groundwork for finding gravitationally lensed supernovae in Roman data through a project funded by NASA’s Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science (ROSES) Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Research and Support Participation Opportunities program.

“Because these are rare, leveraging the full potential of gravitationally lensed supernovae depends on a high level of preparation,” said Pierel. “We want to make all the tools for finding these supernovae ready upfront so we don’t waste any time sifting through terabytes of data when it arrives.”

The project will be carried out by a team of researchers from various NASA centers and universities around the country.

The preparation will occur in several stages. The team will create data reduction pipelines designed to automatically detect gravitationally lensed supernovae in Roman imaging. To train those pipelines, the researchers will also create simulated imaging: 50,000 simulated lenses are needed, and there are only 10,000 actual lenses currently known.

The data reduction pipelines created by Strolger and Pierel’s team will complement pipelines being created to study dark energy with Type Ia supernovae.

“Roman is truly the first opportunity to create a gold-standard sample of gravitationally lensed supernovae,” concluded Strolger. “All our preparations now will produce all the components needed to ensure we can effectively leverage the enormous potential for cosmology.”

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is managed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, with participation by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech/IPAC in Southern California, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and a science team comprising scientists from various research institutions. The primary industrial partners are Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation in Boulder, Colorado; L3Harris Technologies in Melbourne, Florida; and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging in Thousand Oaks, California.

About This Release

Media contact.

Hannah Braun Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland

Christine Pulliam Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland

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First Look: Understanding the Governor’s 2024-25 May Revision

May 2024 | By California Budget & Policy Center

Table of Contents
Our Statement on the May Revision
Event registration: Examining the Governor’s 2024-25 May Revision

Introduction

Governor Gavin Newsom released a summary of the May Revision to his proposed 2024-25 California state budget on May 10, projecting a $44.9 billion shortfall, or $27.6 billion shortfall, when taking into account early budget action taken by the legislature in April to reduce the shortfall by $17.3 billion. While many of the details are forthcoming, the governor proposes to close the budget gap through the partial use of reserves, spending cuts, and delays or deferrals of spending authorized in earlier years. While the $201 billion General Fund spending plan would protect many investments made in prior years, it also includes cuts and delays to programs and services that affect the day-to-day lives of Californians, particularly foster youth, Californians with disabilities, immigrant communities, students, and families with young children. Notably, the administration’s strategy demonstrates continued resistance to adopting long-term revenue solutions, putting corporate profits over families. This shortsighted approach exacerbates wealth inequality, stalls progress, and undermines the governor’s vision of a California for all.

WHat is the May Revision?

Released on or before May 14, the May Revision updates the governor’s economic and revenue outlook; adjusts the governor’s proposed expenditures to reflect revised estimates and assumptions; revises, supplements, or withdraws policy initiatives that were included in the governor’s proposed budget in January; and outlines adjustments to the minimum funding guarantee for K-14 education required by Proposition 98 (1988) .

The rapid shift from a budget surplus, as was the case in recent fiscal years, to the budget shortfall we face today, is a lingering effect of the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the economy. The projected budget shortfall is primarily the result of state revenue collections that the administration now projects are $12.5 billion lower over the three-year budget window (fiscal years 2022-23 through 2024-25) than was anticipated in the governor’s January proposal. The shortfall reflects the steep stock market decline in 2022 — after significant growth in 2020 and 2021 — that negatively impacted income tax collections from high-income Californians and corporations, as well as the economic dampening effects of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes.

Lower state revenues over the three-year budget window result in automatic adjustments to constitutionally-required funding allocations, including to the state’s main reserve and education reserve accounts, as well as reduced funding for K-12 schools and community colleges.

The governor’s proposed solutions to cover the shortfall would partially draw down on various state reserves . The solutions include using $12 billion enacted through legislative early action in April, however, just $3.1 billion would be used in 2024-25, and $8.9 billion would be shifted to 2025-26. The administration also proposes draining the Safety Net Reserve ($900 million), withdrawing $2.6 billion from the Public School System Stabilization Account for education, and leaving an estimated $22.9 billion for future use.

The administration’s proposals include billions in cuts, delays, and deferrals of critical investments intended to improve the health and well-being of all Californians. Reductions that will disproportionately affect the lives of low-income communities, Californians of color, Californians with disabilities, and families with children include, among others:

Ongoing cuts to CalWORKs for supportive services, home visiting, and mental health/substance abuse services (despite draining the Safety Net Reserve intended to be used to avoid cuts to CalWORKs) and a one-time cut in employment services,
Cuts to programs that help address homelessness and provide affordable housing,
Indefinitely delaying further expanding child care slots,
Various reductions in investments in behavioral health, including cuts to infrastructure, housing, workforce, and youth behavioral health initiatives,
Cuts in ongoing support for public health and one-time investments in the health workforce,
Cuts to services for Californians who are undocumented, including ongoing support for the expansion of In-Home Support Services (IHSS) and delayed expansion of the California Food Assistance Program (CFAP),
Pulling back investments in transitional kindergarten (T-K) facilities and pre-kindergarten (pre-K) inclusivity of students with disabilities.

The revised budget also continues to utilize a controversial accounting maneuver to shift $8.8 billion in K-12 schools and community college (K-14) costs — on paper — from 2022-23 to later fiscal years and pay for these delayed expenses using non-K-14 funds.

The May Revision proposals would protect and maintain some progress made in prior budget years to help improve economic security and opportunities for Californians with low incomes and Californians of color, including expanding full-scope Medi-Cal coverage to all Californians, maintaining investments in cash assistance through the CalEITC, Young Child Tax Credit, and Foster Youth Tax Credit, and temporary rate increases for child care providers.

However, state leaders have the tools and resources to prevent other harmful cuts. By further tapping into the state’s main rainy day fund and permanently reducing tax breaks for profitable corporations, state leaders can ensure corporations pay their fair share and avoid cuts to services that help Californians stay healthy, housed, and put food on the table.

This First Look report outlines key pieces of the May Revision to the 2024-25 California budget proposal, and explores how the governor prioritized spending and determined cuts to balance the budget amid a sizable projected state budget shortfall.

Budget Overview

Economic Outlook : Revised Budget Projects Moderate Job and Wage Growth Revenue : Revised Budget Reflects Additional $12.5 Billion Downgrade in Revenue Outlook Tax Policy : Modified Tax Proposals Include Temporary Business Tax Break Limitations Reserves : May Revision Includes Withdrawal of Reserve Funds, Proposes New Fund to House “Excess Revenue”

Coverage, Affordability & Access : Governor Upholds Medi-Cal Expansion, Amends MCO Tax, Proposes Harmful Cuts Health Workforce: Revised Budget Severely Cuts Health Care Workforce Development Behavioral Health : Behavioral Health Initiatives Mostly Sustained, But New Cuts Proposed Public Health : Cuts to Public Health Leave Californians Vulnerable to Future Threats

Homelessness & Housing

Homelessness : May Revision Reduces Limited Funding for Homelessness Housing : May Revision Proposes Deeper Cuts for Affordable Housing

Economic Security

Overview: May Revision Proposes Alarming Cuts to Vital Safety Nets Refundable Tax Credits : Revised Budget Maintains Tax Credits for Californians with Low Incomes Refundable Tax Credits: Revised Budget Does Not Implement Workers’ Tax Credit Slated for 2024 CalWORKs : May Revision Proposes Additional Cuts to Critical CalWORKs Support Services Food Assistance : Governor Proposes Cuts and Delays to Previous Food Assistance Commitments Child Care : Governor Maintains Temporary Rate Increase, Pauses Slot Expansion Californians with Disabilities : Governor Protects SSI/SSP but Cuts Key Services for People with Disabilities Immigrant Californians : Proposal Eliminates and Delays Vital Services for Immigrant Californians, Maintains Cut to Legal Services Domestic Violence : Governor Does Not Provide Needed Support to Domestic Violence Survivors

Early Learning & Pre-K : Transitional Kindergarten Expansion Continues While Facilities are Cut Proposition 98 : K-14 Education’s Minimum Funding Level Drops Due to Lower Revenue Estimates K-12 Education : Budget Proposal Relies on Reserves to Support K-12 School Funding Formula Community Colleges : Revised Budget Increases Reserve Withdrawals for Community Colleges Funding CSU/UC : Revised Proposal Maintains Deferrals for the CSU and UC Systems Student Financial Aid : May Revision Abandons Commitments to Expand Student Financial Aid

Justice System

State Corrections : May Revision Calls for Deactivating Prison Housing Units, but Not Prison Closures Retail Theft : Revised Budget Continues to Provide Over $100 Million to Address Retail Theft Proposition 47 Investments : Revised Budget Estimates Proposition 47 Savings of $95 Million for Local Investments

Workforce & Climate Change

Other/General Workforce : Governor Proposes Additional Cuts to Several Workforce Programs Climate Change : Revised Budget Proposes Further Cuts to Prior Environment Commitments

virtual event

How does the governor’s administration navigate and prioritize spending in the face of a challenging fiscal landscape?

Join us for this free, virtual event on May 22.

Revised Budget Projects Moderate Job and Wage Growth

The administration’s economic outlook projects trends in major economic indicators that affect state tax collections and revenues in the budget. The revised outlook projects steady, but slowing national economic growth into next year, with California job gains expected to remain relatively weak through 2025. The number of nonfarm jobs in the state is forecast to increase by just 0.1% in 2024 and 0.4% in 2025, following a stronger increase of 0.9% in 2023 and 1.5% in 2019, just before the pandemic. California’s unemployment rate is projected to remain relatively higher in the near term as well: 5.2% in 2024 and 5.3% in 2025, up from 4.7% in 2023 and 4.1% in 2019. Wages and incomes are also expected to grow more slowly this year and next than just prior to and coming out of the pandemic downturn. The revised budget does not project a recession in the near term, but does note that if inflation remains elevated, the Federal Reserve could maintain higher interest rates which could slow economic activity by more than projected.

While the administration’s outlook is useful for understanding how economic conditions might impact budget revenues, it’s also important to consider how economic conditions are affecting Californians with low incomes, who count on programs and services funded by the budget. In March 2024, the majority of California households with incomes under $25,000 (55%) reported having difficulty paying for basic needs like food, housing, and medical expenses, according to the most recent US Census Pulse survey. Black, Latinx, and other Californians of color, as well as households with children were more likely to struggle paying for basic expenses. The Census data from March also show that 42% of Black households with children and 32% of Latinx households with children did not have enough to eat , compared to 15% of white households with children. Among all households with children, about one-quarter (24%) had insufficient food. In addition, the latest Census data show that California continues to have the highest poverty rate of the 50 states based on the Supplemental Poverty Measure, which provides a more accurate picture of poverty by accounting for differences in the cost of housing across communities. Housing costs in California typically exceed costs in the rest of the nation, and rents have risen sharply in many parts of the state in recent years making it difficult for Californians with low incomes to afford housing .

Revised Budget Reflects Additional $12.5 Billion Downgrade in Revenue Outlook

The governor’s revised proposal is based on an updated revenue estimate for the three-year budget window spanning fiscal years 2022-23 through 2024-25. After lower-than-expected tax collections since the governor’s January proposal, the administration now expects General Fund revenues to be about $12.5 billion lower over that window than the January estimate. This is before taking into account loans and transfers, the governor’s revenue proposals, and other budget solutions ( see Tax Proposals section ).

The administration continues to have a more optimistic revenue outlook than the Legislative Analyst’s Office, which recently projected that the three-year total of the “Big Three” General Fund revenues sources — personal income taxes, corporate taxes, and sales taxes, which together make up the majority of General Fund revenues — could be around $19 billion lower than the governor’s January projection.

After accounting for automatic spending changes resulting from the lower revenue estimate, the governor estimates that the downgraded revenue outlook results in a $7 billion addition to the three-year state deficit the governor identified in January.

The administration expects state revenue growth to generally return to the pre-pandemic pattern after the dramatic spike in revenues during the pandemic as the stock market surged and then subsequently corrected.

Modified Tax Proposals Include Temporary Business Tax Break Limitations

In January, the governor proposed a modest package of revenue solutions that included limiting the extent to which businesses can use prior-year losses to offset their taxable profits (“Net Operating Loss carryforwards”), eliminating oil and gas tax subsidies, and other minor tax changes. These revenue proposals made up less than 1% of the total budget solutions proposed in January.

The May Revision modifies the January revenue-related proposals by:

Replacing the previous Net Operating Loss proposal with temporary business tax benefit limits.
Clarifying existing law for how some multinational corporations calculate their taxable income in California.

The updated proposal would suspend the use of Net Operating Losses for businesses with state income above $1 million, and limit total business tax credits that a business can use in a single year to $5 million. The tax credit limit would exclude Low-Income Housing Tax Credits as well as Pass-Through Entity Elective tax credits. These limitations would be in effect for up to three years, beginning with the 2025 tax year, and could be eliminated if the administration determines that the revenue situation has improved sufficiently by the 2025-26 May Revision. The administration estimates these limitations would raise revenues by $900 million in 2024-25 and $5.5 billion in 2025-26.

The administration expects this proposal to raise $216 million in the budget window.

While temporary limitations on businesses’ ability to reduce their state income taxes help to address the deficit in the short-term, the governor’s revised proposal does little to increase state revenues on an ongoing basis and misses key opportunities to make the state’s tax system more fair. Policymakers should consider permanent limitations on business tax credits — as some states already do — to ensure that businesses are not paying next to nothing in state income taxes when they turn large profits. State leaders should also explore other options to permanently increase state revenues by making the corporate tax system more fair and eliminating or reforming other costly and inequitable tax breaks , which are not regularly considered as part of the budget process.

May Revision Includes Withdrawal of Reserve Funds, Proposes New Fund to House “Excess Revenue”

California has a number of state reserve accounts that set aside funds intended to be used for a “rainy day” when economic conditions worsen and state revenues decline. Some reserves are established in the state’s Constitution to require deposits and restrict withdrawals, and some are at the discretion of state policymakers.

California voters approved Proposition 2 in November 2014 , amending the California Constitution to revise the rules for the state’s Budget Stabilization Account (BSA) , commonly referred to as the rainy day fund. Prop. 2 requires an annual set-aside equal to 1.5% of estimated General Fund revenues. An additional set-aside is required when capital gains revenues in a given year exceed 8% of General Fund tax revenues. For 15 years — from 2015-16 to 2029-30 — half of these funds must be deposited into the rainy day fund, and the other half is to be used to reduce certain state liabilities (also known as “budgetary debt”).

Prop. 2 also established a new state budget reserve for K-12 schools and community colleges called the Public School System Stabilization Account (PSSSA) . The PSSSA requires that when certain conditions are met, the state must deposit a portion of General Fund revenues into this reserve as part of California’s Prop. 98 funding guarantee ( see Prop. 98 section ). In order to access the funds in the BSA and PSSSA, the governor must declare a budget emergency — an action that is not included in the May Revision or in the early budget action agreed to by the governor and Legislature in April, but will be necessary to access these funds.

The BSA and the PSSSA are not California’s only reserve funds. The 2018-19 budget agreement created the Safety Net Reserve Fund , which holds funds intended to be used to maintain benefits and services for CalWORKs and Medi-Cal participants in the event of an economic downturn. Additionally, the state has a Special Fund for Economic Uncertainties (SFEU) — a reserve fund that accounts for unallocated General Fund dollars and that gives state leaders total discretion as to when and how they can use the available funds.

The current-year (2023-24) budget, enacted in mid-2023, projected $22.3 billion in the BSA; $10.8 billion in the PSSSA; $900 million in the Safety Net Reserve; and $3.8 billion in the SFEU. However, revenue adjustments in the current year result in updated 2023-24 projections in the governor’s proposed budget — $22.6 billion in the BSA; $2.6 billion in the PSSSA; $900 million in the Safety Net Reserve; and a shortfall of $843 million in the SFEU, which fluctuates throughout the year based on changes in revenues.

In April 2024, the governor and legislative leaders agreed to an early action budget package to partially address the state’s budget shortfall that included drawing down $12 billion from the BSA, a proposal that was also included in the governor’s January budget proposal.

The May Revision:

Includes the $12 billion withdrawal from the BSA, but spreads the withdrawal over the next two fiscal years — utilizing only $3.1 billion in 2024-25 and shifting $8.9 billion to 2025-26.
Withdraws all $900 million from the Safety Net Reserve, despite also proposing significant cuts to the CalWORKs program, a program the reserve is designed to protect ( see CalWORKs section ).
Withdraws $5.8 billion from the PSSSA in 2023-24 and the remaining $2.6 billion in 2024-25.
Projects a 2024-25 year-end SFEU balance of $3.4 billion.

In total, the May Revision proposes to withdraw less from the state’s rainy day funds for 2024-25 than the governor’s January proposal, despite the fact that the administration projects that the budget shortfall has increased since January. Taking into account the remaining reserves in the BSA and the SFEU, the governor’s May Revision projects total remaining reserves of $22.9 billion at the end of 2024-25, compared to $18.4 billion in the governor’s January proposal.

Given that the administration’s approach to resolving the state budget shortfall includes an array of harmful cuts to vital programs and services that help Californians with low incomes, communities of color, and Californians with disabilities, state leaders appear to have additional room to responsibly draw upon reserves to protect those programs and also leave funds available to address future fiscal uncertainties.

New Fund to Capture “Excess Revenue”

The May Revision also signaled the administration’s intent to enact legislation to enable state leaders to save more during future upswings in revenue by requiring the state to set aside a portion of anticipated “surplus” funds — funds that exceed a yet-to-be-determined standard for historical trends. The administration notes that the funds would not be able to be committed until revenues have been realized.

While the specifics of the governor’s proposal are not yet available, any efforts to set aside additional funds would likely interact with other constitutional requirements that affect state spending and reserves, including Prop. 4 (1979; the “Gann Limit”), Prop. 98 (1988), and Prop. 2 (2014). For instance, the administration notes that amendments would be needed to Prop. 2 to allow for increased deposits to the BSA. Any amendments to the constitutional provisions, however, would need to be approved by California voters.

State Budget Reserves Explained

See our report, California’s State Budget Reserves Explained , to learn more about the savings accounts policymakers can use to support Californians in times of budget shortfalls.

Governor Upholds Medi-Cal Expansion, Amends MCO Tax, Proposes Harmful Cuts

Access to health care is necessary for everyone to be healthy and thrive. About 14.5 million Californians with modest incomes — nearly half of whom are Latinx — are projected to receive free or low-cost health care through Medi-Cal (California’s Medicaid program) in 2024-25. Another 1.8 million Californians purchase health coverage through Covered California, the state’s health insurance marketplace.

The May Revision maintains recent Medi-Cal expansions, but pulls back on other health care investments that were established in prior years. Specifically, the revised budget:

Maintains the expansion of Medi-Cal eligibility to undocumented adults ages 26 to 49, but cuts $94.7 million to eliminate In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) for all undocumented Californians.
Cuts $280 million for Equity and Practice Transformation Payments to Providers.
Cuts $62 million from the Health Care Affordability Reserve Fund intended to reduce cost-sharing in Covered California.
Eliminates the Indian Health Grant Program.
Freezes funding levels for county administration of Medi-Cal eligibility.
Eliminates acupuncture as an optional Medi-Cal benefit for adults.
Eliminates $2 million in ongoing General Fund for free clinics.
Does not provide funding to reform the Medi-Cal Share of Cost program.
Does not provide funding to implement continuous coverage for children from birth to age five.

These services help Californians with low incomes who are over the age of 65, blind, and/or disabled live with dignity in their own homes. Under this revised spending plan, about 14,000 Californians would lose access to IHSS solely due to their immigration status. This proposal is both harmful and xenophobic, potentially pushing immigrant families deeper into poverty. These cuts could also lead to increased state spending on nursing home care in the long run. State leaders should not compromise home care for thousands of Californians simply due to their immigration status.

These grants to certain Medi-Cal providers were intended to improve quality, health equity, behavioral health integration, and primary care infrastructure. The May Revision maintains $70 million General Fund expenditures included in the 2022 Budget Act.

These funds are critical for Californians who are uninsured and struggling to purchase coverage as well as for those who are insured but can’t afford to access the care they need.

This aims to improve the health status of American Indians living in urban, rural, and reservation or rancheria communities throughout California. The May Revision proposes to reduce $23 million annually beginning in 2024-25 to eliminate this program.

This reflects a reduction of $20.4 million in 2024-25 and ongoing. This reduction occurs at a time when counties are processing a high volume of renewals and many Californians are losing Medi-Cal coverage .

The estimated reduced General Fund cost for this cut is $5.4 million in 2024-25 and $13.1 million ongoing. Acupuncture is performed to prevent, modify or alleviate severe, persistent chronic pain resulting from a medical condition.

This provides primary care, preventive health care, and additional health services to medically underserved Californians.

This would alleviate financial burdens for many older adults and people with disabilities. Under the current Medi-Cal Share of Cost program, which forces many Californians to choose between paying for their health care, rent, food, or other basic needs. This reform was passed in the 2022 Budget Act but was subject to future appropriation.

California was one of the first states to pass a policy that would ensure that children under age five can keep their Medi-Cal coverage without administrative renewals. Funding is needed to start the necessary steps to implement this policy change.

The May Revise also amends the Managed Care Organization (MCO) tax revenue and expenditure proposal. The MCO tax is a provider tax imposed by states on health care services that essentially reduces, or offsets, state General Fund spending on Medi-Cal. The federal government approved the initial MCO tax proposal last year. In January, the administration proposed to increase the MCO tax and the May Revision proposes an additional amendment to the MCO tax to include health plan Medicare revenue, resulting in an additional $689.9 million in reduced General Fund costs in 2024-25, $950 million in 2025-26, and $1.3 billion in 2026-27. These changes would be subject to federal approval. Overall, the May Revision includes $9.7 billion in MCO tax funds over multiple years to support the Medi-Cal program. However, rather than using $6.7 billion of this amount to continue Medi-Cal provider rate increases, as originally planned, these funds will be used to offset General Fund spending.

The May Revise does protect some health care investments that were established in prior years. Specifically, the budget:

Sustains the ambitious Medi-Cal reform effort known as CalAIM (California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal).
Maintains one-time $200 million ($100 million General Fund) in 2024-25 to support access to reproductive health services.
Maintains commitment to eliminate the Medi-Cal asset test for seniors and people with a disability.

This was originally introduced in 2019. The main goal of this initiative is to better support millions of Californians enrolled in Medi-Cal — particularly those experiencing homelessness, children with complex medical conditions, children and youth in foster care, Californians involved with the justice system, and older adults — who often have to navigate multiple complex delivery systems to receive health-related services. Initial components of CalAIM launched in the beginning of 2022 and the remaining components will go live over the next several years.

The administration plans to develop a federal demonstration waiver that would support access to family planning services for Medi-Cal enrollees as well as strengthen the state’s reproductive health safety net. Access to reproductive health services, including contraceptive care, sexually transmitted infection prevention and treatment, obstetrical care, and abortion services, have a profound impact on the lives of women and pregnant people.

Specifically, the revised budget includes $112.2 million total funds ($56.1 million General Fund) in 2023-24 and $227.2 million total funds ($113.6 million General Fund) in 2024-25 for the elimination of the Medi-Cal asset test which became effective on January 1, 2024.

Lastly, the May Revision includes directed payments to children’s hospitals and public hospitals. This includes an annual allocation of $230 million to support children’s hospitals, with half of these funds provided by the federal government and the remaining half sourced from the Medi-Cal Provider Payment Reserve Fund.

Revised Budget Severely Cuts Health Care Workforce Development

Access to health care services is important for everyone’s health and well-being. The state’s workforce must meet the needs of Californians to achieve equitable access to timely and culturally competent health services. While state policymakers have made considerable investments in recent years to bolster the health workforce, investments in various health workforce areas still fall short.

Despite the clear need to invest in the health workforce, the May Revision cuts over $1 billion over multiple years. This includes:

$854.6 million General Fund across five years for various health care workforce initiatives.
$189.4 million Mental Health Services Act Fund for behavioral health workforce programs.

This includes community health workers, nursing, social work, primary care education and training, and efforts to increase the number of underrepresented individuals in health professions. The May Revision proposes to cut $300.9 million in 2023‑24, $302.7 million in 2024-25, $216 million in 2025‑26, $19 million in 2026-27, and $16 million in 2027‑28 for these initiatives.

These cuts impact the social work initiative, addiction psychiatry fellowships, university and college grants for behavioral health professionals, expanding Master of Social Work slots, and the local psychiatry behavioral health program overseen by the Health Care Access and Information Department.

The May Revision also modifies previous plans to enhance Medi-Cal provider participation under the Managed Care Organization (MCO) tax proposal. While the revised budget maintains $727 million to increase provider rates for primary care, maternity care (including doulas), and non-specialty mental health services, it reallocates $6.7 billion previously intended for other health areas, including primary and specialty care in Medi-Cal, abortion and family planning access, clinics, and the Medi-Cal workforce pool. This redirection of funds towards existing Medi-Cal services is sensible in a budget deficit, but it raises concerns about the impact on timely access to health care services.

The health care workforce and access to health care services are intrinsically linked. If people cannot find a health care provider in their area or face extended wait times for an appointment, they do not have meaningful access to health care. State policymakers must continue to build a health care workforce that not only meets the needs of Californians but also mirrors the state’s diverse population in terms of race, ethnicity, sability, gender identity, and sexual orientation. Doing so will require sustained, ongoing investments, not cuts.

Behavioral Health Initiatives Mostly Sustained, But New Cuts Proposed

Millions of Californians who cope with behavioral health conditions — mental illness or substance use disorders — rely on services and supports that are primarily provided by California’s 58 counties. Improving California’s behavioral health system is critical to ensuring access to these services for all Californians, regardless of race, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, or county of residence.

In recent years, state policymakers have launched various initiatives to transform California’s behavioral health system with the goal of improving access. Proposition 1 , the most recent of these initiatives, was approved earlier this year. Prop. 1 is a two-part measure that 1) amends California’s Mental Health Services Act and 2) creates a $6.38 billion general obligation bond to fund behavioral health treatment and residential facilities as well as supportive housing for veterans and Californians with behavioral health needs.

The May Revise includes some initial funding to begin Prop. 1 implementation, including:

$126.9 million for the Department of Health Care Services in 2024-25.
$85 million ($50 million General Fund) for county behavioral health departments.

Of this amount, $16.9 million is from the General Fund, $28.2 million is from the Behavioral Health Services Act Fund, $31.6 million is from the Opioid Settlement Fund, $10.4 million is from the Behavioral Health Infrastructure Bond Act, and $39.8 million is from the federal government.

This provides mental health and substance use disorder services to Californians through Medi-Cal and other programs.

In the governor’s January budget proposal and the revised budget proposal, the administration maintains funding to continue behavioral health initiatives that state leaders launched in recent years. For instance, the revised budget sustains the Behavioral Health Community-Based Organized Networks of Equitable Care and Treatment (BH-CONNECT) Demonstration , which aims to improve mental health services for Medi-Cal members. The administration assumes that implementation of BH-CONNECT will begin on January 1, 2025. Major reforms to the Medi-Cal program as well as the level of federal funding provided must be negotiated with the federal government through the Medicaid waiver process. As such, implementation will depend on the availability of funding and federal approval.

However, the revised budget also proposes a series of cuts and delays to other behavioral health initiatives. Specifically, the revised budget:

Eliminates $450.7 million one-time from the last round of the Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure (BHCIP) Program.
Reduces funding and modifies the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative.
Cuts $132.5 million in 2024-25 and $207.5 million in 2025-26 for the Behavioral Health Bridge Housing Program.
Cuts $126.6 million ongoing General Fund for CalWORKs mental health and substance abuse services, effectively eliminating this service.
Cuts $61 million General Fund in 2024-25 and ongoing for the Naloxone Distribution Project and Medication Assisted Treatment.
Includes $27.2 million General Fund in 2023-24 and $37.8 million General Fund in 2024-25 for Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Act.

This program provides competitive grants to expand the community continuum of behavioral health treatment resources. The May Revision proposes to reduce BHCIP funding by $70 million General Fund in 2024-25 and $380.7 million General Fund in 2025-26. While BHCIP will receive Prop. 1 bond funds, these funds are inadequate to address the overarching need for state investments. ( See homelessness section. )

The spending reductions — $72.3 million in 2023-24, $348.6 million in 2024-25, and $5 million in 2025-26 — impact school-linked health partnerships, various grant programs, a public education campaign, and a youth suicide reporting and crisis response pilot program. Of this amount, the administration notes that $140 million General Fund proposed in 2024-25 to support a platform is no longer needed. The revised budget does maintain $9.5 million ($4.1 million General Fund) in 2024-25 to establish a Wellness Coach benefit in Medi-Cal, which the administration proposed in January. Effective January 1, 2025, these coaches will offer wellness education, screening, support coordination, and crisis management services to children and youth in schools and other behavioral health settings.

This program aims to address the immediate housing and treatment needs of people with serious behavioral health conditions who are also experiencing unsheltered homelessness. The administration notes that $90 million in Behavioral Health Services Act funding would be provided in 2025-26, resulting in a net reduction of $117.5 million for that year. ( See homelessness section. )

California has led the way in expanding CalWORKs support services, recognizing families often need additional support, like mental health and substance use treatment, to improve their well-being and address barriers to work. ( See CalWORKs section. )

Naloxone is a life-saving medicine that reverses an opioid overdose and Medication Assisted Treatment is treatment for a substance use disorder that includes medications along with counseling and other support.

This is a plan to establish court-ordered treatment for people experiencing both homelessness and serious behavioral health challenges. The revised budget adjusts estimated county funding to align with recent trends in utilization.

Investing in the state’s behavioral health system is crucial for supporting Californians who are coping with mental health conditions or substance use disorders. State leaders should continue to invest in the behavioral health system and address the behavioral health workforce shortage. Policymakers can also invest in efforts to make sure that the behavioral health workforce better reflects the diversity of all Californians, including their gender identities and sexual orientations.

Cuts to Public Health Leave Californians Vulnerable to Future Threats

Everyone should have the opportunity to be healthy and thrive. The California Department of Public Health as well as local public health departments are vital in protecting and promoting Californians’ health and well-being. From improving living conditions to promoting healthy lifestyles to responding to infectious disease emergencies, public health workers are essential.

Despite this important responsibility, funding has not kept pace with the cost of responding to ongoing and emerging health threats. Many Californians suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the state’s lack of preparedness. Communities of color experienced higher rates of illness and death due to historic and ongoing structural racism that deny many communities the opportunity to be healthy and thrive. Structural racism continues to underscore the need to address the root cause of health disparities through public health initiatives.

In an alarming move, the governor’s revised budget proposes significant cuts to public health investments that were established in previous years. Specifically, the May Revision eliminates $52.5 million in 2023-24 and $300 million ongoing General Fund thereafter to improve public health infrastructure at the state and local level. Under this revised spending plan, local health jurisdictions would no longer continue to receive a minimum base allocation to support workforce expansion, data collection and integration, and partnerships with health care delivery systems and community-based organizations. At the state level, these cuts will reduce the capacity to assess and respond to current and emerging public health threats and will weaken key functions such as emergency preparedness and public health communications.

These cuts to public health capacities are short-sighted and harmful. After years of underinvestment in public health, these dollars provided much-needed infrastructure support. Given that public health emergencies and climate change disasters often disproportionately impact people with low incomes and communities of color, these cuts undo progress to advance health equity. State leaders should ensure that counties and cities have the capacity to address ongoing and future public health threats.

May Revision Reduces Limited Funding for Homelessness

Having a place to call home is core to living with dignity and health. Yet homeless service providers served over 330,000 Californians experiencing homelessness last year, underscoring both the need and increased capacity of the state’s response systems. Homelessness providers and localities are serving more individuals and families than ever before partially due to previous one-time state funding investments that provided critical resources for homelessness prevention and resolution services. Despite this, the May Revision proposes no new resources and reduces previous allocations, effectively leaving no significant state funding to address homelessness in 2024-25 or beyond.

The May Revision proposes to eliminate $260 million in supplemental grant funds for the Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) Grant Program in 2025-26, but maintains the last round of funding in 2023-24. HHAP is critical as it provides local jurisdictions with flexible funds to address homelessness in their communities in a variety of ways, ranging from rental and operating subsidies to acquiring shelter, interim and permanent housing beds, and street outreach, among other uses. The May Revision also changes previously proposed funding delays into funding cuts for various homelessness programs that serve diverse populations.

These funding reductions include:

A reduction of $132.5 million in 2024-25 and $207.5 million in 2025-26 for the Behavioral Health Bridge Housing Program.
A reduction of $80 million General Fund for the Bringing Families Home Program.
A reduction of $65 million General Fund for the Home Safe Program.
A reduction of $50 million General Fund for the Housing and Disability Advocacy Program.

This leaves $132.5 million General Fund in 2024-25 and $117.5 million ($90 million Mental Health Services Fund and $27.5 million General Fund) in 2025-26. These funds help provide immediate housing for people experiencing homelessness who have a serious mental illness or substance use disorder ( see Behavioral Health section ).

Appropriated in the 2022 Budget Act, which serves families involved in the child welfare system.

Appropriated in the 2022 Budget Act, which supports the safety and housing stability of individuals involved in Adult Protective Services.

Appropriated in the 2022 Budget Act, which assists people experiencing or at risk of homelessness to connect with disability benefits and housing supports.

Also notable is the increased reduction of $450.7 million one-time from the last round of the Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program (BHCIP), leaving $30 million one-time General Fund in 2024-25. This program provides competitive grants to expand the community continuum of behavioral health treatment resources ranging from wellness centers to psychiatric care facilities. BHCIP will be receiving $4.4 billion in bond funds through Proposition 1 , which voters approved in March 2024. The Department of Health Care Services is anticipated to open funding applications this summer and begin granting competitive awards by the fall ( see Behavioral Health section ). Prop 1. also restructures funds from the Mental Health Services Act, which exists separately from the state budget. It now requires counties to redirect 30% of these funds for housing interventions for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness with behavioral health conditions. However, these funds are inadequate to address the overarching need for state investments, as they focus solely on a specific subset of unhoused Californians.

May Revision Proposes Deeper Cuts for Affordable Housing

All Californians deserve a safe, stable, and affordable place to call home. However, many are blocked from this opportunity due to California’s affordable housing shortage and accompanying high housing costs. Renters, people with low incomes, Black and Latinx Californians, and undocumented Californians are especially likely to struggle to afford their homes . Yet despite noting California’s serious housing affordability challenges, the May Revision proposes deeper funding reductions and scarce new investments to affordable housing programs.

The administration now proposes $1.7 billion in General Fund reductions for various programs that support affordable housing development and homeownership . The May Revision reductions build on those in the January proposed budget . These include:

An additional reduction of $236.5 million General Fund for the Foreclosure Intervention Housing Preservation Program in 2023-24 , bringing the total reduction to $474 million, which will eliminate the program.
An additional reduction of $75 million General Fund for the Multifamily Housing Program , bringing the total reduction to $325 million General Fund, eliminating state funding in 2023-24.
A newly proposed reduction of $127.5 million General Fund for the Adaptive Reuse Program , with $87.5 million from the 2023 Budget Act and $40 million from the 2022 Budget Act, which will eliminate the program.
An additional reduction of $35 million General Fund for the Infill Infrastructure Grant Program , with $25 million from 2023 Budget Act and $10 million from the 2022 Budget Act, eliminating state funding in 2023-24.
An additional reduction of $26.3 million General Fund for the Veterans Housing and Homelessness Prevention Program from the 2022 Budget Act. The January proposed budget already fully reduced allocated state funds for this program in 2023-24.

The May Revision does reinstate an additional $500 million for state Low Income Housing Tax Credits – as has been done since 2019 – which help promote and finance affordable housing development. The administration also highlights Proposition 1 , approved by voters in March, as providing some funding for supportive housing programs. Prop. 1 provides roughly $2 billion in bond funds for the development of permanent supportive housing units specifically for Californians experiencing or at risk of homelessness with behavioral health needs (see Homelessness and Behavioral Health sections). Over half of these funds are designated for veterans. The Department of Housing and Community Development is anticipated to open applications for this funding at the end of 2024. However, these funds are specifically for supportive housing units and fall short in providing the diverse critical investments needed to continue meaningful, affordable housing development in California.

state budget terms defined

What’s the difference between a trailer bill and policy bill? A deficit and an operating deficit? And what exactly is a “Budget Bill Jr.?” Our Glossary of State Budget Terms answers that and more.

May Revision Proposes Alarming Cuts to Vital Safety Nets

While California has made significant investments in its social safety net in recent years, millions of people in communities across the state are still struggling to make ends meet as the cost of living continues to outpace incomes. Poverty, particularly among children and people of color, is on the rise. Despite this, the governor’s proposed budget includes very concerning cuts to vital safety net programs that may have devastating consequences for California families with the greatest needs. Cuts to the Department of Social Services, which administers the state’s safety net programs, total nearly $2 billion in the 2024-2025 fiscal year alone. These cuts target key investments in CalWORKs, food assistance, and child care. The budget proposal outright eliminates several critical support services for CalWORKs families, significantly reduces funding for program administration, and drains the dedicated reserves that were designed to protect the program from cuts.

Additionally, the proposal delays a long-awaited program expansion of food assistance to undocumented older adults and defunds a pilot to increase CalFresh benefits. In delaying and eliminating these vital services, which were small stepping stones to larger expansions that would close gaps in food insecurity across the state, the proposal would take California a step backward. In the child care space, the governor indefinitely delays his promised slot expansion despite the growing unmet need. Other cuts in this space would affect programs that serve foster youth and people with disabilities.

California’s future largely depends on children whose entire lives will be shaped by the extent to which our state invests in their education, health, and well-being. But children cannot thrive unless their families thrive. Despite the budget shortfall, California’s leaders have a responsibility to ensure that our state’s children and families have the opportunity to reach their full potential.

Revised Budget Maintains Tax Credits for Californians with Low Incomes

California’s Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC), Young Child Tax Credit, and Foster Youth Tax Credit are refundable state income tax credits that provide tax refunds or reductions in state taxes owed to millions of Californians with low incomes, boosting their incomes and helping them to pay for basic needs like food. These credits also help to promote racial and gender equity by targeting cash to Californians of color, immigrants, and women who are frequently blocked from economic opportunities and forced into low-paying jobs that fail to provide economic security .

The administration maintains these tax credits in the revised budget while also continuing to cut funding for free tax preparation assistance, education, and outreach, in half to $10 million in 2024-25, as proposed in January. These funds support community based organizations (CBOs) in their efforts to educate community members about state and federal refundable tax credits, connect eligible tax filers to free tax preparation services and assist tax filers in applying for or renewing Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers, which some Californians must have in order to claim tax credits. Cutting this funding will reduce the capacity of CBOs to provide these services.

Revised Budget Does Not Implement Workers’ Tax Credit Slated for 2024

The 2022-23 budget included a new refundable tax credit for workers slated to become available in tax year 2024 if the Department of Finance determined that sufficient General Fund resources were available to support it. This credit was intended to help cover the cost of being a member of a labor union, particularly among workers with lower incomes who are typically excluded from an existing tax deduction for certain business expenses, including union dues. The administration does not include this new tax credit in the revised 2024-25 budget given the multi-year budget shortfall.

May Revision Proposes Additional Cuts to Critical CalWORKs Support Services

The California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program is a critical component of California’s safety net for families with low incomes. The program helps over 650,000 children and their families, who are predominantly people of color, with modest cash grants, employment assistance, and critical supportive services. The governor’s May Revision proposes deeply concerning cuts to CalWORKs administrative and program funding in addition to the significant cuts proposed in January.

The newly proposed cuts include:

A one-time reduction of $272 million in 2024-25 for employment services under the single allocation funding.
An ongoing reduction of $126.6 million for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, effectively eliminating this service.
An ongoing reduction of $47.1 million for the Home Visiting Program, which is designed to support positive health, development, and well-being of CalWORKs families with children under 2.

This amounts to a total cut of $445.7 million. Adding on to the cuts proposed in January , which totaled about $293 million in FY 24-25, this brings the total to about $739 million in cuts to CalWORKs, two-thirds of which would be ongoing. For many years, California has led the way in expanding CalWORKs support services, recognizing families have diverse needs and often need additional support to address barriers to work and improve their well-being. Taking programs away that offer mental health support, crisis intervention (Family Stabilization Program), and parenting support (Home Visiting Program), which research has shown can reduce or prevent the effects of adverse experiences for children, could jeopardize families’ ability to meet all program requirements and maintain access to their grants. Families not meeting strict program requirements will be at risk of punitive sanctions, which will only push them deeper into poverty.

In addition to the proposed cuts, the governor’s budget does not include funding to redirect collected child support payments from the state back to former CalWORKs parents. For formerly assisted families, outstanding child support debt that is collected does not go to the families but rather goes to the state, county, and federal governments as “reimbursement” for the costs associated with the CalWORKs program. Under this change , which was supposed to go into effect in April 2024, these families would have received an estimated annual total pass-through of $187 million annually.

Additionally, the governor proposes drawing down the full $900 million in the Safety Net Reserve, which was created to maintain existing CalWORKs and Medi-Cal benefits and services during an economic downturn ( see Reserves section ). While the governor does not propose cutting cash grants, given the projections of a sustained deficit in upcoming years, fully drawing down the reserve will leave CalWORKs vulnerable to additional cuts, similar to what occurred during the Great Recession . Closing the budget shortfall at the expense of families with low incomes is a short-sighted approach that could have detrimental effects on California’s economy and families facing the greatest needs.

Governor Proposes Cuts and Delays to Previous Food Assistance Commitments

All Californians should be able to put enough food on the table without having to go without other basic needs. But about 1 in 11 California households — and 1 in 8 California households with children — sometimes or often didn’t have enough to eat in March 2024, according to recent US Census Household Pulse data. In recent years, households have been hit with both rising food prices as well as the expiration of enhanced pandemic-era food benefits .

CalFresh — California’s version of the federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — provides modest food assistance benefits to about 5.4 million Californians . The California Food Assistance Program (CFAP) is a state-funded program providing food benefits to certain non-citizens who are excluded from receiving federal benefits, but undocumented immigrants are still excluded from CFAP benefits. The 2021-22 budget agreement included a plan to expand CFAP to Californians aged 55 and older who are excluded solely due to their immigration status. The expansion is currently set to begin in October 2025.

While the governor’s January budget proposal generally maintained prior commitments to improve and expand the state’s food assistance programs, the May Revision proposes cuts and delays that would reverse or pause recent progress, including:

Delaying the CFAP to include undocumented adults age 55 and older until 2027-28.
Eliminating funding for the CalFresh Minimum Nutrition Benefit Pilot Program.
Eliminating the Work Incentive Nutrition Supplement Program (WINS) beginning in 2025-26.
Eliminating all remaining $111.6 million for the Older Californians Act Modernization Funding for Senior Nutrition.

This means those older adults will continue to be excluded from vital food benefits for the next several years. The administration also has not put forth any plans to end this exclusion for undocumented Californians under age 55, even while 45% of undocumented Californians with low incomes are affected by food insecurity.

The 2023-24 budget created this pilot program and included $15 million one-time funding for 2024-25 to provide a state supplement to increase the minimum benefit for selected households to $50 for one year. This pilot program was a small step in acknowledging the inadequacy of the current minimum benefit of $23.

WINS is a $10 supplemental food benefit for some working CalFresh households. The Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates that eliminating the program would reduce food benefits for around 125,000 households . The program is funded through CalWORKs but is only available for households not receiving regular CalWORKs benefits. The program was created with the primary goal of improving the CalWORKs Work Participation Rate (WPR), and it appears the proposal to eliminate WINS is a response to a recent federal law that would require the state to increase the supplement in order for it to continue helping the state achieve its WPR target, which could cost the state an additional $40 million each year. However, this elimination represents a loss of benefits for those households that rely on the additional assistance to keep food on the table, and the administration does not propose any relief for families to offset that loss.

The 2022 Budget Act included $186 million over three years to restore local services and supports for older adults that were reduced during the Great Recession; the 2023 Budget Act spread this funding out over five years instead of the original three years. This funding was intended to enable the local Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) to continue to serve new meal participants brought on during the COVID pandemic. Taking away this funding could leave a gap in food access for a community struggling to stay housed and make ends meet .

Additionally, the budget does not include funding to implement Cal Grant reform, which would allow more college students to access CalFresh benefits ( see Financial Aid section ). The 2022 budget included a plan for Cal Grant reform, but it was subject to sufficient funds being available in 2024, so this was one of several “trigger” proposals included 2022 that will not be moving forward this year.

Finally, the budget includes $63 million in additional funding to implement the universal school meals program to account for an expected increase in the number of meals to be provided and a cost-of-living increase ( see K-12 Education section ). The $63 million is in addition to the increase included in the January proposal.

Governor Maintains Temporary Rate Increase, Pauses Slot Expansion

Thousands of families in California rely on subsidized child care and development programs administered by the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) as a critical resource for supporting their families to grow and thrive. While the state has made improvements to California’s child care system — most recently through reforming family fees and committing to an alternative methodology for child care provider reimbursements — the system is still falling short for many families and child care providers. For example, as of 2022, only one in nine children eligible for subsidized child care received services, despite growing demand. Moreover, the state released data this year showing that 73% of family child care providers do not pay themselves a salary. The administration therefore has an opportunity to advance progress toward creating an equitable child care system that meets the needs of all families and reflects the integral role of child care providers.

The governor’s revised budget:

Pauses planned child care slot expansion at 119,000 new spaces.
Maintains commitment to one-time funding for temporary subsidy rate increases but lacks a detailed plan for meeting federal deadlines to implement an alternative rate structure.
Cuts funding for foster youth child care programs and support services.
Includes $972 million in cost shifts to help ensure that unspent federal relief dollars are not reverted.

In 2021-22, the governor committed to adding approximately 200,000 new child care slots by 2026-27. As of 2023-24, approximately 146,000 new slots were funded. Expansion was paused in 2023-24, and the state is still in the process of rolling out all intended new slots. Specifically, only about 119,000 new slots have been added. The revised 2024-25 budget paused slot expansion at this 119,000 “until fiscal conditions allow for resuming the expansion.” These proposed actions result in a reduction of $489 million in 2024-25 and $951 million in 2025-26 for subsidized child care slots. The April 24, 2024 Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 2 on Human Services and Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 3 on Education Finance discussed the possibility of creating a “reversion account” that would keep unspent funds for slot expansion within child care. This reversion account to maintain unspent dollars within child care is not included in the 2024-25 revised budget.

The 2023-24 budget provided a total of nearly $1.4 billion in one-time funds for temporary rate increases for providers reimbursed through the California Department of Social Services (CDSS). The 2024-25 proposed budget maintains this one-time funding. This one-time funding is set to expire July 1, 2025, which is also the federal deadline determining the new rate structure, per the alternative methodology currently being developed. If the new provider rates are not determined by this deadline, they will revert back to the 2018 regional market rate or standard reimbursement rate. The administration remains committed to developing a single rate structure and alternative methodology for child care reimbursements. However, given the need for spending associated with the alternative methodology to be included in the 2025-26 budget process and Child Care Provider United union negotiations, the lack of a detailed plan (i.e., confirming a timeline for when state agencies produce cost estimates) makes the state more vulnerable to missing the federal deadline.

The Emergency Child Care Bridge Program for Foster Children (Bridge Program) is administered through CDSS. The Bridge Program provides time limited vouchers for child care and child care navigator services for foster care system families and parenting foster youth. The revised budget reduces funding for the Bridge Program, reflecting a reduction of $34.8 million in 2024-25 and $34.8 million in 2025-26. Additionally, the revised budget maintains proposed cuts to the Family Urgent Response System (FURS) by $30.1 million. FURS is a hotline for current or former foster youth and their caregivers to call and get immediate help for any issue they may be experiencing.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) estimates that the state currently has $450 million of COVID-19 federal relief funds that may go unspent (set to expire September 30, 2024). Moreover, as of March 2024, the state had a Proposition 64 child care carryover balance of $296 million. The 2024-25 proposed budget plans to utilize all or a portion of these funds (among others) to offset General Fund costs for child care. Specifically, $596.8 will be shifted for 2023-24 and $375.5 will be shifted for 2024-25. This approach likely aligns with the LAO’s recommendation to minimize federal reversion of COVID-19 relief funds.

Governor Protects SSI/SSP but Cuts Key Services for People with Disabilities

All Californians should be included, supported, and treated with dignity in their communities, regardless of disability status. In California, people with disabilities can access several essential programs and services to manage their needs. The governor’s revised budget maintains a recent increase to the largest cash assistance program serving low-income Californians with disabilities, but builds on January’s proposed cuts and reduces support for key programs serving this population.

Specifically, the governor’s budget:

Protects the recent grant increase to the State Supplementary Payment (SSP) program.

The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and SSP programs together provide grants to over 1 million older adults with low incomes and people with disabilities to help them pay for housing, food, and other necessities. In recent years, state policymakers have made significant investments to increase SSP grants, however, the total grant levels remain below federal poverty levels. After deep cuts to the program during the Great Recession, grants cannot keep up with rising housing costs, making it difficult for low-income people with disabilities to make ends meet.

The governor’s January proposal included:

Delaying, by one year, a scheduled raise for workers who care for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
A funding delay for the Preschool Inclusion Grant program.

The governor proposes to implement this wage increase for around 150,000 workers on July 1, 2025 — one year later than anticipated. This delay would allow the state to avoid $613 million in new state costs in the 2024-25 fiscal year, with these costs instead reflected in the 2025-26 budget. More than 460,000 Californians with intellectual and developmental disabilities — including children receiving early intervention services — are expected to receive supports and services in 2024-25. Delaying pay increases for workers who provide these services could exacerbate staffing shortages across the disability system. This, in turn, would make it more challenging for individuals with disabilities and their families to receive the services that the Lanterman Act requires the state to provide.

The January budget proposal included a delay of $10 million General Fund for this program, which had been delayed to 2024-25 in previous years. This delay essentially postpones its implementation to 2026-27. The Preschool Inclusion Grant program was created in the 2022-23 budget with the goal of supporting preschool programs to include more children with developmental disabilities. This program and proposed reductions are different from the enrollment requirements as part of the California State Preschool Program (see “preschool inclusivity” bullet below).

The May Revision maintains these delays in funding and also:

Eliminates the In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) expansion coverage to undocumented Californians of all ages by cutting $94.7 million ongoing.
Cuts the planned expansion of preschool inclusivity.
Cuts $65 million for the Home Safe Program.
Cuts $50 million for the Housing and Disability Advocacy Program.
Cuts $44.8 million for Adult Protective Services (APS).
Does not include funding to reform the Medi-Cal Share of Cost program.

IHSS is a key health care program that helps older adults with low incomes and people with disabilities live safely and with dignity in their own homes. Under the revised spending plan, about 14,000 Californians would lose access to IHSS solely due to their immigration status ( see the Coverage, Affordability & Access section ) .

Currently, at least 5% of California State Preschool Program enrollment must be for students with disabilities. The administration had planned to increase this proportion to at least 10% by 2026-27. However, the 2024-25 proposed budget cuts funding for this increase, reflecting a one-time General Fund savings of $47.9 million in 2025-26 and $97.9 million General Fund ongoing starting in 2026-27 ( see the Early Learning section ) .

A ppropriated in the 2022 Budget Act, which supports the safety and housing stability of individuals involved in Adult Protective Services ( see the Homelessness section ) .

Appropriated in the 2022 Budget Act, which assists people experiencing or at risk of homelessness connect with disability benefits and housing supports ( see the Homelessness section ) .

This provides abuse intervention and support services to older adults and dependent adults who are unable to meet their own needs. This cut targets a recent expansion effort to address California’s growing aging population, which may limit the program’s reach, particularly for more complex cases.

This would alleviate financial burdens for many older adults and people with disabilities. Under the current Medi-Cal Share of Cost program, many Californians have to live at the maintenance need level in exchange for Medi-Cal services, which forces many to choose between paying for their health care, rent, food, or other basic needs ( see the Coverage, Affordability & Access section ) .

Proposal Eliminates and Delays Vital Services for Immigrant Californians, Maintains Cut to Legal Services

Immigrants are an integral part of California’s communities. They are not just part of the state’s mighty economic engine as taxpayers, entrepreneurs, and members of the workforce — they enrich our cultural identity as the Golden State. They are students, teachers, artists, chefs, religious leaders, colleagues, neighbors, and family members.

California has the largest share of immigrant residents of any state. Over half of all California workers are immigrants or children of immigrants, and nearly 2 million Californians are undocumented, according to recent estimates .

State leaders have made notable progress in recent years working toward a California for all, where all people have access to economic opportunity and essential services, regardless of immigration status. Extending full-scope Medi-Cal eligibility to undocumented Californians is one significant example of this, and the governor’s May Revision maintains the final and most recent step in this expansion, extending coverage to adults ages 26 to 49. However, the revised budget takes a step backwards by eliminating or delaying other vital services for undocumented Californians that other Californians can access. Specifically, the revised budget:

Permanently eliminates In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) for all undocumented Californians.
Delays expanding the California Food Assistance Program (CFAP) to undocumented adults age 55 or older, as promised in last year’s budget.

These services help Californians with low incomes who are over the age of 65, blind, and/or disabled live with dignity in their own homes. This harmful and xenophobic cut will cause about 14,000 Californians to lose access to IHSS solely due to their immigration status, potentially pushing them deeper into poverty ( see Health Coverage section ).

Instead of beginning in October 2025, these vital food benefits will be delayed until 2027, denying hundreds of thousands of older Californians access to assistance at a time when 45% of undocumented Californians with low incomes are affected by food insecurity ( see Economic Security section ).

The revised budget also maintains the governor’s January budget proposal to cut immigration legal services, which are a lifeline for immigrant families. Specifically, the May Revision:

Continues to permanently cut funding for the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) Services program , eliminating $10 million General Fund in 2023-24 and each year thereafter, zeroing out all resources for this program.
Continues to permanently cut funding for the California State University Legal Services program by $5.2 million General Fund in 2023-24 and each year thereafter.

Cutting support for immigrant legal services is harmful. These services are crucial for helping immigrants stabilize their lives and remain in their communities. Immigration legal services can help put immigrants on a pathway to stability , particularly for those without status. Without access to legal services, immigrants can face greater risks of deportation and family separation, which can lead to financial hardship for families and adverse health outcomes . Given that newly arriving immigrants have the potential to grow the economy and contribute to state and local coffers, supporting them is a strategic investment in our collective future.

The governor’s May Revision also reduces $29 million for the Rapid Response program in 2024-25, which helps sustain humanitarian support to individuals and families seeking safety at the California-Mexico border in partnership with local providers. This reversion in funds comes out of the $79.4 million General Fund reappropriated for the Rapid Response program from the 2021-22 and 2022-23 budget acts to 2023-24 as part of the early action budget deal approved by policymakers in April. The revised budget proposes no additional state funding for this program in 2024-25 despite the glaring need for continued investment .

Eliminating and delaying vital services to Californians simply due to their immigration status would have a significant negative impact on immigrant communities and our collective prosperity and is a short-sighted approach to closing the state’s budget shortfall.

Governor Does Not Provide Needed Support to Domestic Violence Survivors

Every Californian deserves to live in a world where they feel safe. However, millions of Californians experience domestic and sexual violence every year — women, transgender, and non-binary Californians, and some women of color are most likely to experience this type of violence.

Domestic and sexual violence prevention programs are proven ways to stop the violence from occurring in the first place by taking a proactive approach and seeking to shift culture on racial and gender inequities. Since 2018, state policymakers have provided small, one-time grants for prevention programs, administered by the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. Besides funding for prevention services, the state also receives federal funding through the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) to help provide essential services to survivors of crime, including survivors of domestic violence. These funds help provide survivors with critical services like emergency shelter, counseling, and financial assistance.

However, cuts to VOCA at the federal level are resulting in roughly a 45% cut to state grants for organizations that support survivors of crime, decimating the funding of many of these organizations who rely entirely on VOCA funding to provide these critical services. Additionally, the last round of prevention grants will run out at the end of 2024 . Prevention efforts take time, and organizations doing this critical work cannot commit to long term programming without permanent, ongoing funding.

In the May Revision, the governor:

Does not provide funding to fill the gap in crime victim services funding.
Does not provide continued funding for domestic violence prevention.
Eliminates all funding for the cash assistance program for survivors.

In 2021-2022, the state stepped in and provided $100 million in one-time funding to backfill federal VOCA funding gaps. However, since 2019, funding has fallen far short of levels needed to maintain the services local organizations provide to more than 816,000 victims of crime. At the current funding levels, programs will have experienced a 67% cut in funding since 2019. While organizations are being forced to pause critical services to survivors of crime, the state continues to spend billions of dollars on prisons. The state could safely close up to five state prisons, which would result in savings of around $1 billion per year – some of which could be used to help support crime survivors ( see State Corrections section ).

While the 2023-24 budget extended state funding for domestic and sexual violence prevention grants, the governor does not propose any additional funding for new grants in the 2024-25 fiscal year, leaving many organizations uncertain as to how they will continue providing crucial services without funding.

In 2022-23, the state appropriated $50 million to establish the Flexible Assistance for Survivors (FAS) grant program. These dollars were meant to provide grants to community-based organizations to provide flexible assistance such as relocation, care costs, or other basic needs to survivors of crime. In January, the governor proposed delaying the $47.5 million program until 2025-26. However, the May Revision removes all state funding for the program, eliminating another support for survivors of crime.

While the governor has failed to include funding to support survivors of domestic and sexual violence among other crimes, a bipartisan group of Assemblymembers have issued an emergency budget request to address the VOCA funding shortfalls, recognizing the importance of protecting the state’s most vulnerable individuals.

GUIDE TO THE STATE BUDGET PROCESS

See our report Guide to the California State Budget Process to learn more about the state budget and budget process.

Transitional Kindergarten Expansion Continues While Facilities are Cut

The California Department of Education (CDE) hosts two early learning and care programs: Transitional Kindergarten (TK) and the California State Preschool Program (CSPP). CSPP provides preschool to children ages 3 and 4 for families with low to moderate incomes. TK serves 4-year-olds, and eligibility is based on age alone in public schools and is not dependent on family income. Given the overlap with the child care and development programs administered through the California Department of Social Services, CSPP is included in recent family fee and rate reform wins (see Child Care section). However, as Universal TK continues to roll out and CDSS child care and development programs face cuts and delays, the administration has the opportunity to ensure that all early learning and care programs have the resources they need to prioritize family needs and early educator well-being.

Continues to fund the implementation of Universal TK expansion.
Maintains CSPP slots and temporary reimbursement rate increases.
Cuts the planned $550 million investment in preschool, TK, and full-day kindergarten facilities.

The initial year one expansion took effect during fiscal year 2022-23 and covered children whose fifth birthdays fell between September 2 and February 2 (the previous cut-off was December 2). The year two 2023-24 expansion provided eligibility to children who turn 5 between September 2 and April 2. The year three 2024-25 expansion will extend eligibility to children who turn 5 from April 2 to June 2. The revised budget includes $550 million from the General Fund for this year three expansion. As Universal TK continues to roll out, TK programmatic delays from 2023-24 are still relevant. Specifically, the following are delayed until 2025-26: 1) the reduction in TK classroom ratios to 1:10 and 2) the deadline for TK teachers to earn 24 units (or equivalent), a child development permit, or an early childhood education specialist credential.

The revised budget includes $1.4 billion in 2024-25 to maintain projected CSPP enrollment. As shared in the Child Care section , the 2023-24 enacted budget included one-time funding for temporary reimbursement rate increases and a commitment to developing an alternative methodology for provider rates. While this increase was negotiated by Child Care Providers United (CCPU) – representing home-based providers – the per-child temporary rate increase also applies to CSPP providers. Thus, the one-time funding promised for CSPP provider temporary rate increases is proposed to be maintained for 2024-25. Specifically, the revised budget includes $53.7 million from the General Fund to support reimbursement rate increases. Moreover, if the state does not determine the new rate structure by July 1, 2025, CSPP providers will also have their rates reverted to the 2018 standard reimbursement rate.

Facilities investments are intended to help build new school facilities or retrofit existing buildings in order to provide appropriate spaces for preschool, TK, and full-day kindergarten. The 2023-24 enacted budget reflected $550 million in 2024-25 to support this facilities program. This funding was delayed to 2025-26 in the January budget proposal. However, due to the projected budget shortfall, the dollars that were delayed to 2025-26 are now cut. The administration suggests that preschool, TK, and full-day kindergarten facilities could be added to an education bond proposal.

K-14 Education’s Minimum Funding Level Drops Due to Lower Revenue Estimates

Approved by voters in 1988, Proposition 98 constitutionally guarantees a minimum level of annual funding for K-12 schools, community colleges, and the state preschool program. The governor’s May Revision assumes a 2024-25 Prop. 98 funding level of $109.1 billion for K-14 education. Because the Prop. 98 guarantee tends to reflect changes in state General Fund revenues and estimates of General Fund revenue in the May Revision are lower than estimates in the January budget proposal, the governor’s revised spending plan assumes a decrease in the Prop. 98 guarantee in 2023-24 and 2022-23. Specifically, the May Revision assumes a 2023-24 Prop. 98 funding level of $102.6 billion, $3 billion lower than the $105.6 billion funding level assumed in the governor’s January budget proposal. The 2022-23 Prop. 98 funding level of $97.5 billion is roughly $800 million below the $98.3 billion funding level assumed in January, but it is $9.8 billion below the level assumed in the 2023-24 budget agreement – the largest decline in an estimated Prop. 98 guarantee for a prior-year since Prop. 98 was adopted.

To address this unprecedented drop in the 2022-23 Prop. 98 guarantee, the governor’s May Revision proposes using the same complex accounting maneuver as the one he proposed in January: the revised budget plan attributes $8.8 billion in reduced Prop. 98 spending to the 2022-23 fiscal year, which would help reduce state General Fund spending to the lower revised Prop. 98 minimum funding level. However, the revised spending plan would not take away the $8.8 billion from K-12 schools and community colleges — dollars they received for 2022-23 that have largely been spent. Instead, the governor proposes to shift the $8.8 billion in K-14 education costs — on paper — from 2022-23 to later fiscal years and pay for these delayed expenses using non-Prop. 98 funds.

The May Revision also reflects withdrawals of $5.8 billion in 2023-24 and $2.6 billion in 2024-25 from the Public School System Stabilization Account (PSSSA) – the state budget reserve for K-12 schools and community colleges ( see Reserves section ). Because the revised 2023-24 PSSSA balance of $2.6 billion is not projected to exceed 3% of the total K-12 share of the Prop. 98 minimum funding level in 2023-24, current law would allow K-12 school districts to maintain more than 10% of their budgets in local reserves in 2024-25.

Budget Proposal Relies on Reserves to Support K-12 School Funding Formula

The largest share of Prop. 98 funding goes to California’s school districts, charter schools, and county offices of education (COEs), which provide instruction to 5.9 million students in grades kindergarten through 12. The governor’s May Revision maintains the proposal made in his January budget to withdraw funds from the Public School System Stabilization Account (PSSSA) – the state budget reserve for K-12 schools and community colleges – to support the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), the state’s main K-12 education funding formula. Specifically, the governor’s revised spending plan:

Allocates $7.5 billion from the PSSSA to support ongoing LCFF costs.
Increases one-time funding for green school buses by roughly $395 million, for a total of approximately $895 million.
Reduces K-12 school facilities funding by $375 million.
Provides funding for a 1.07% COLA for non-LCFF programs and the LCFF Equity Multiplier.
Increases funding for universal school meals by $63.3 million.
Maintains $25 million in ongoing funding for literacy screening training.

The LCFF provides school districts, charter schools, and COEs a base grant per student, adjusted to reflect the number of students at various grade levels, as well as additional grants for the costs of educating English learners, students from low-income families, and foster youth. The May Revision includes a 1.07% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for the LCFF. To pay for the additional ongoing costs, the proposal would withdraw $5.3 billion from the PSSSA to fund the LCFF in 2023-24 and $2.2 billion to fund the LCFF in 2024-25.

The May Revision sustains a commitment made in the 2023-24 budget agreement to support the greening of school bus fleets through programs operated by the California Air Resources Board and the California Energy Commission in 2024-25. The governor’s proposal would increase 2024-25 funding for green school buses above the $500 million included in his January budget, but would reduce funding committed to the program to $105 million in 2025-26.

The 2022-23 budget agreement included an intention to allocate $875 million in one-time, non-Prop. 98 General Fund spending for the School Facility Program (SFP) to support K-12 facilities construction in 2024-25. The Legislature’s “early action” package approved the governor’s January budget proposal to reduce the 2024-25 SFP allocation by $500 million. The May Revision proposes to eliminate the remaining $375 million in 2024-25 SFP funding.

The governor’s January budget proposal included $65 million to fund a 0.76% COLA for the LCFF Equity Multiplier , established as part of the 2023-24 budget agreement, and for several categorical programs that remain outside of the LCFF, including special education, child nutrition, and American Indian Education Centers. The May Revision would increase ongoing funding to support these COLAs in 2024-25.

California established a Universal Meals Program in the 2022-23 school year that provides two free meals per day to any public K-12 student regardless of income eligibility. The governor’s January budget proposed $122.2 million to fully fund the program in 2024-25, and the May Revision proposes to increase this funding to pay for growth in the projected number of meals served and a COLA ( see Food Assistance section ) .

The 2023-24 budget agreement included a requirement for school districts to begin screening students in kindergarten through 2nd grade for risk of reading difficulties by the 2025-26 school year. The May Revision sustains the governor’s January budget proposal to provide funding to administer these literacy screenings.

Revised Budget Increases Reserve Withdrawals for Community Colleges Funding

A portion of Proposition 98 funding provides support for California’s Community Colleges (CCCs), the largest postsecondary education system in the country, which serves high percentages of students of color and students with low incomes. CCCs prepare more than 1.8 million students to transfer to four-year institutions or to obtain training and employment skills.

The 2024-25 revised spending plan increases withdrawal amounts from the Prop. 98 reserve for CCC apportionments and provides additional resources to fund an increase in the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA).

Specifically, the governor’s revised budget includes:

Reserve withdrawals totaling $914.1 million from state budget reserves for CCC apportionments.
A 1.07% COLA for apportionments and other programs.

The governor proposes a withdrawal of $381.6 million from the Prop. 98 reserve (also known as the Public School System Stabilization Account or PSSSA) ( see Reserves section ) in 2023-24 and $532.6 million in 2024-25 for the Student Centered Funding Formula (SCFF).

This includes $100.2 million ongoing Prop. 98 dollars for the SCFF. The revised spending plan also provides ongoing Prop. 98 resources to provide the same percentage COLA to other CCC categorical programs and the Adult Education Program.

Revised Proposal Maintains Deferrals for the CSU and UC Systems

California supports two public four-year higher education institutions: the California State University (CSU) and the University of California (UC). The CSU provides undergraduate and graduate education to nearly 460,000 students at 23 campuses, and the UC provides undergraduate, graduate, and professional education to more than 290,000 students across 10 campuses.

The governor’s revised budget includes additional cuts to higher education and maintains funding deferrals for both of the state’s public university systems.

The January proposal included:

A deferral of $240 million General Fund dollars from 2024-25 to 2025-26 for the CSU.
Deferrals totaling $259 million General Fund dollars from 2024-25 to 2025-26 for the UC.
A reduction of $494 million in General Fund dollars for the California Student Housing Revolving Loan Fund Program.

These dollars were meant to fulfill multi-year funding increases as part of the CSU compact. Under this proposal, the governor intends to restore this funding commitment in 2025-26, along with the scheduled base increase for the fourth year of the agreements. Additionally, the administration would also provide a one-time payment of $240 million in 2025-26 as part of the deferral.

This includes a deferral of $228 million for base increase as part of the multi-year compact with the UC and $31 million to support the UC in increasing the number of resident undergraduate students. In 2025-26, the governor intends to restore the $228 million on top of the increase scheduled for the fourth year of this compact and provide a total of$62 million for resident undergraduate enrollment, reflecting the deferred amount and that year’s increase for this purpose. The administration would also provide one-time payments of $228 million and $31 million to compensate for the deferrals in 2024-25 of the same amount.

The proposal pulls back $194 million in 2023-24 and $300 million in 2024-25. This program provides interest-free loans to campuses for new student housing projects.

The May Revision maintains these proposals and also include the following cuts in higher education:

An ongoing reduction of nearly $14 million General Fund for the Proposition 56 General Fund backfill that supports Graduate Medical Education programs at the UC.
An ongoing cut of $13 million General Fund for the UC Labor Centers. This funding provides support for economic research and labor education across various UC campuses.
A reduction of $485 million General Fund of unspent one-time dollars for the Learning-Aligned Employment Program. The program provides resources for students at public colleges and universities to earn money while learning in a field related to their educational and career interests ( see Workforce section ).
A $60 million General Fund cut for the Golden State Teacher Grant Program. This program provides awards to students in professional preparation programs and who are working toward a teaching credential.

May Revision Abandons Commitments to Expand Student Financial Aid

The budget shortfall and proposed solutions significantly impacts access to financial aid opportunities for California students. The May Revision does not include funding for the anticipated reform to the Cal Grant program and reduces funding for the Middle Class Scholarship (MCS).

Specifically, the revised spending plan:

Does not trigger the Cal Grant Reform Act.
Walks back expansion of the MCS.

Given the multi-year shortfall, the revised spending plan does not include funding for the Cal Grant Reform Act, which was included in the 2022-23 budget, and the governor does not propose any budgetary actions to phase in the program. Trailer bill language as part of the 2022-23 budget stated that the reform would become operative if General Fund dollars “over multi-year forecasts” are available beginning in 2024-25. The Cal Grant is California’s financial aid program for low-income students pursuing postsecondary education in the state. These grants support students by providing financial assistance so they can afford the costs of college attendance, including meeting their basic needs such as housing, food, transportation, and child care. The Cal Grant Reform Act would reach thousands of new students who were previously not eligible and would also allow more students to qualify for CalFresh food assistance, freeing up resources for institutions to support students with other non-tuition costs.

The May Revision proposes an ongoing cut to the MCS of $510 million . The revised spending plan also includes an additional spending reduction of more than $20 million, reflecting revised program estimates. These two actions reduce total spending for the program down to $100 million ongoing, reflecting an 88% drop from the 2023-24 total funding level. The May Revision also maintains the January proposal to abandon a planned one-time investment of $289 million that was included as part of the 2023-24 budget. The state created the MCS program in 2013-14 to provide partial tuition coverage to CSU and UC students who were not eligible for Cal Grants. The program was revamped in 2022-23 by increasing funding and implementing new rules. Due to these changes, a broader group of students received the awards. Eligible students include those who qualify based on income (maximum household income is $217,000), low-income students who qualify through other requirements, and community college students in bachelor’s degree programs.

Overall, these budget choices have consequences for college affordability, degree attainment, and overall student well-being. Students pursuing postsecondary education confront significant hardship to afford basic necessities , and they are often forced to make difficult decisions that impact their college experience and degree completion .

May Revision Calls for Deactivating Prison Housing Units, but Not Prison Closures

More than 93,000 adults who have been convicted of a felony offense are serving their sentences at the state level , down from a peak of 173,600 in 2007. This sizable drop in incarceration is largely due to justice system reforms adopted since the late 2000s, including Proposition 47 , which California voters passed with nearly 60% support in 2014 . Despite this substantial progress, American Indian, Black, and Latinx Californians are disproportionately represented in state prisons — a racial disparity that reflects racist practices in the justice system as well as structural disadvantages faced by communities of color.

Among all incarcerated adults, most — about 90,000 — are housed in state prisons designed to hold roughly 75,500 people. This overcrowding equals 119% of the prison system’s “design capacity,” which is below the prison population cap — 137.5% of design capacity — established by a 2009 federal court order. California also houses around 3,000 people in facilities that are not subject to the cap, including fire camps, in-state “contract beds,” and community-based facilities that provide rehabilitative services.

Calls for deactivating 46 housing units across 13 state prisons, for ongoing annual state savings of around $80 million.
Fails to advance a plan to close state prisons.
Proposes deep cuts to the Adult Reentry Grant (ARG) program.

The housing units proposed for deactivation contain roughly 4,600 beds. However, the state prison system currently operates with about 15,000 empty beds . Moreover, closing housing blocks rather than entire prisons saves the state less money because ongoing operational and staffing costs are higher when prisons remain open. For example, while the governor’s proposal would reduce state costs by around $80 million per year, the state would save around $200 million per year for every prison it closes. Given California’s challenging fiscal outlook, state leaders should be exploring ways to significantly reduce spending on prisons in order to ensure the wise use of state tax dollars and maximize state savings.

In recent years, California has ended the use of private prisons and shut down three state prisons. State leaders can — and should — go further. In fact, due to the large number of empty prison beds, the state could safely close up to five additional prisons, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office . Closing five more state prisons would save around $1 billion per year — dollars that could be redirected to help incarcerated individuals successfully transition back to their communities as well as support crime survivors, reduce poverty, increase housing stability, and address substance use and mental health issues. Unfortunately, the May Revision fails to advance a plan to close more prisons, with the governor instead focusing on deactivating selected prison housing units for far less state savings.

Community-based organizations use ARG funds to help formerly incarcerated people successfully transition back to their communities. In January, the governor proposed to cut $7.8 million in unspent ARG funds from 2022-23 as well as to delay $57 million in ARG funds budgeted for 2024-25 to the next three fiscal years (2025-26 to 2027-28 — providing $19 million per year). The May Revision maintains the $7.8 million cut and also proposes two significant reductions: 1) eliminate (rather than delay) the $57 million budgeted for 2024-25 and 2) cut $54.1 million in ARG funds budgeted for 2023-24. The governor’s proposal represents a major step back from recent efforts to ensure that people released from prison are prepared to successfully reenter their communities.

Revised Budget Continues to Provide Over $100 Million to Address Retail Theft

Retail theft is defined in several ways in California law:

Shoplifting
Commercial burglary
Organized retail theft

Shoplifting occurs when the value of stolen goods is $950 or less (petty theft) — a limit set by Proposition 47 of 2014 . Shoplifting is generally a misdemeanor, but may be charged as a misdemeanor or a felony if the defendant was previously convicted of certain severe crimes or is required to register as a sex offender.

Commercial burglary covers higher-value retail theft (grand theft) and can be charged as a misdemeanor or a felony.

Organized retail theft , a specific type of theft created by the Legislature in 2018 , is punishable as a misdemeanor or a felony.

Robbery , a felony, occurs when force or a threat of force is involved. “Smash and grab” incidents are prominent examples of robberies affecting retail businesses.

Retail theft rose following the isolation and social breakdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In California, commercial burglary and robbery rates continued to exceed their pre-pandemic (2019) levels as of 2022, the most recent year for which statewide data are available. In contrast, California’s statewide shoplifting rate remains below the 2019 level despite a recent increase.

In January, Governor Newsom proposed to provide $119 million in 2024-25 to address organized retail theft and other crimes. This was the same amount of General Fund support provided in the current fiscal year (2023-24) despite the large budget shortfall the state is facing.

The May Revision modestly reduces the total funding level from $119 million to $115.4 million. This reflects a $3.6 million cut to the Vertical Prosecution Grant Program, which would see its funding reduced from $10 million to $6.4 million in 2024-25. The governor does not propose cuts in 2024-25 to other components of his organized retail theft package, which includes $85 million for local law enforcement agencies and $24 million for state-level task forces and prosecution teams.

Revised Budget Estimates Proposition 47 Savings of $95 Million for Local Investments

Overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2014, Prop. 47 reduced penalties for six nonviolent drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. Consequently, state prison generally is no longer a sentencing option for these crimes. Instead, individuals convicted of a Prop. 47 offense serve their sentence in county jail and/or receive probation.

By decreasing state-level incarceration, Prop. 47 reduced the cost of the prison system relative to the expected cost if Prop. 47 had not been approved by voters. The Department of Finance is required to annually calculate these state savings, which are deposited into the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Fund and used as follows:

65% for behavioral health services — which includes mental health services and substance use treatment — as well as diversion programs for individuals who have been arrested, charged, or convicted of crimes. These funds are distributed as competitive grants administered by the Board of State and Community Corrections.
25% for K-12 school programs to support vulnerable youth. These funds are distributed as competitive grants administered by the California Department of Education.
10% to trauma recovery services for crime victims. These funds are distributed as competitive grants administered by the California Victim Compensation Board.

As of the 2023 Budget Act, the state has allocated roughly $720 million in savings attributable to Prop. 47 — funds that have been invested in local programs that support healing and keep communities safe. For example, a recent evaluation shows that people who received Prop. 47-funded behavioral health services and/or participated in diversion programs were much less likely to be convicted of a new crime. Specifically, individuals enrolled in these programs had a recidivism rate of just 15.3% — two to three times lower than is typical for people who have served prison sentences (recidivism rates range from 35% to 45% for these individuals).

The May Revision estimates that Prop. 47 has generated an additional $94.8 million in state savings due to reduced state-level incarceration. These dollars will be allocated through the 2024 Budget Act, increasing Prop. 47’s total investment in California’s communities to more than $800 million since these savings were first allocated through the 2016 Budget Act.

Governor Proposes Additional Cuts to Several Workforce Programs

The revised budget proposes to cut spending on several workforce development programs to help address the multi-year budget problem. ( See Health Workforce section. ) Specific cuts include:

$50 million General Fund in 2024-25 and 2025-26 to California Jobs First (formerly called the Community Economic Resilience Fund).
$20 million General Fund in 2024-25 to the California Youth Leadership Corp
$20 million General Fund in 2025-26 to the Apprenticeship Innovation Fund at the Department of Industrial Relations.
$10 million General Fund ongoing for the Women in Construction Unit at the Department of Industrial Relations.
$10 million General Fund in 2025-26 for the Department of Industrial Relations’ California Youth Apprenticeship Program.

This program is an inter-agency partnership that supports strategies to diversify local economies and develop sustainable industries that create high-quality, broadly accessible jobs.

This is an initiative of the Workforce Development Agency, certain community colleges, and non-profit organizations that prepares historically marginalized youth to become community organizers and change agents in their local communities.

This is in addition to the $40 million General Fund delay in 2024-25 that was included in the governor’s January budget.

This aims to increase opportunities in the construction industry for women, non-binary, and underserved communities.

This provides apprenticeships for youth ages 16 to 24. This cut is in addition to the $25 million General Fund spending delay in 2024-25 that was included in the governor’s January budget.

In addition, the revised budget cuts $485 million General Fund in unspent one-time funds for the Learning-Aligned Employment Program in 2022-23. This program places eligible students at public colleges and universities in employment opportunities related to their area of study or career objectives. ( See higher education sections .)

Revised Budget Proposes Further Cuts to Prior Environment Commitments

Californians across the state have increasingly seen the effects of climate change through devastating fires, droughts, and floods, but communities of color and low-income communities are often hit hardest by these catastrophes due to historical and ongoing displacement and underinvestment. Additionally, these communities are more likely to be exposed to environmental pollutants for the same reasons.

Significant investments in climate resilience were made through recent years’ budgets. Most of the commitments were one-time investments intended to be made across several years, so there are significant unspent funds remaining. In January, the governor proposed budget solutions that included $2.9 billion in reductions and $1.9 billion in delays of climate investments committed in previous budget agreements. Several of these proposals were included, or partially included in the early action agreement between the governor and the Legislature.

The May Revision proposes around $1 billion in additional reductions to climate and environment programs for 2022-23 as well as further reductions to planned spending beyond the current budget window. Reductions are proposed in areas including but not limited to clean energy and transportation, water and drought resilience, and wildfire resilience.

Significant new reductions that may disproportionately impact low-income and under-resourced communities include:

$399 million for the Active Transportation Program across 2025-26 and 2026-27 ($300 million in 2025-26 and $99 million in 2026-27).
$268.5 million for the Cleanup in Vulnerable Communities Initiative ($136 million in 2023-24, $85 million in 2025-26, and $47.5 million in 2026-27).
$140 million for the Equitable Building Decarbonization program across 2024-25 and 2025-26 ($53 million in 2024-25 and $87 million in 2025-26).

This program supports walking and biking options with the goals of improving safety and mobility and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Transportation Commission notes that 85% of funds committed have gone to projects benefiting disadvantaged communities.

The initiative was created in 2021 and committed $500 million across four years to clean up hazardous waste sites in communities subject to environmental hazards.

This program provides funds for 1) energy retrofits for low and moderate income households and 2) incentives for the adoption of energy efficient technologies, at least half of which must benefit under-resourced communities. This appears to be in addition to the $286 million proposed reduction across several years included in the January proposal.

Understanding How Digital Media Affects Child Development

A man and a smiling little boy sitting in his lap look at a mobile phone.

Technology and digital media have become ubiquitous parts of our daily lives. Screen time among children and adolescents was high before COVID-19 emerged, and it has further risen during the pandemic, thanks in part to the lack of in-person interactions.

In this increasingly digital world, we must strive to better understand how technology and media affect development, health outcomes, and interpersonal relationships. In fact, the fiscal year 2023 federal budget sets aside no less than $15 million within NICHD’s appropriation to investigate the effects of technology use and media consumption on infant, child, and adolescent development.

Parents may not closely oversee their children’s media use, especially as children gain independence. However, many scientific studies of child and adolescent media use have relied on parents’ recollections of how much time the children spent in front of a screen. By using software embedded within mobile devices to calculate children’s actual use, NICHD-supported researchers found that parent reports were inaccurate more often than they were on target. A little more than one-third of parents in the study underestimated their children’s usage, and nearly the same proportion overestimated it. With a recent grant award from NICHD, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine plan to overcome the limitation of relying on parental reports by using a novel technology to objectively monitor preschool-age children’s digital media use. They ultimately aim to identify the short- and long-term influences of technology and digital media use on children’s executive functioning, sleep patterns, and weight. This is one of three multi-project program grants awarded in response to NICHD’s recent funding opportunity announcement inviting proposals to examine how digital media exposure and use impact developmental trajectories and health outcomes in early childhood or adolescence. Another grant supports research to characterize the context, content, and use of digital media among children ages 1 to 8 years and to examine associations with the development of emotional regulation and social competence. A third research program seeks to better characterize the complex relationships between social media content, behaviors, brain activity, health, and well-being during adolescence.

I look forward to the findings from these ongoing projects and other studies that promise to inform guidance for technology and media use among children and adolescents. Additionally, the set-aside funding for the current fiscal year will allow us to further expand research in this area. These efforts will help us advance toward our aspirational goal to discover how technology exposure and media use affect developmental trajectories, health outcomes, and parent-child interactions.

Justice Department takes 'major step' toward rescheduling marijuana

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department took a significant step toward rescheduling marijuana Thursday, formalizing its process to reclassify the drug as lower-risk and remove it from a category in which it has been treated as more dangerous than fentanyl and meth.

President Joe Biden announced the “major” move in a direct-to-camera video posted to his official account on X. “This is monumental,” Biden said in the message. “It’s an important move towards reversing long-standing inequities. … Far too many lives have been upended because of a failed approach to marijuana, and I’m committed to righting those wrongs. You have my word on it.”

The Biden administration has been signaling that it would move to reschedule the drug from Schedule I — a strict classification including drugs like heroin — to the less-stringent Schedule III, which would for the first time acknowledge the drug’s medical benefits at the federal level. The Drug Enforcement Administration submitted a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register on Thursday afternoon, triggering a 60-day comment period that will allow members of the public to submit remarks regarding the rescheduling proposal before it is finalized.

Biden first directed federal agencies to review how marijuana is scheduled in October 2022, weeks before that year’s midterm elections. The process was led by the DOJ and the Department of Health and Human Services.

“Look folks, no one should be in jail for merely using or possessing marijuana. Period,” Biden said in Thursday’s video, his third time speaking extensively on the topic since his directive two years ago.

The second time Biden addressed the issue was during this year’s State of the Union address, making history by referring to marijuana from the dais in the House chamber. “No one should be jailed for using or possessing marijuana,” he said at the time.

Vice President Kamala Harris also released a video Thursday, hailing the progress.

“Currently marijuana is classified on the same level as heroin and more dangerous than fentanyl. We are finally changing that,” Harris said. “We are on the road to getting it done.”

During the first 30 days of the comment period, interested parties could request a hearing regarding the rescheduling proposal. Under the statute, the DEA would be required to hold a hearing before an administrative law judge.

After the DEA reviews and considers the public comments, and at the conclusion of any requested hearing, the DEA will issue a final order to reschedule marijuana. (The DEA could decline to reschedule the drug but that’s unlikely given the administration’s strong support).

The entire process can take anywhere from a few months to up to a year.

Once completed, federal scientists will be able to research and study the potential medical benefits of the drug for the first time since the Controlled Substances Act was enacted in 1971. It could also open the door for pharmaceutical companies to get involved with the sale and distribution of medical marijuana in states where it is legal.

For the $34 billion cannabis industry, the move would also eliminate significant tax burdens for businesses in states where the drug is legal, notably removing it from the IRS code’s Section 280E, which prohibits legal cannabis companies from deducting what would otherwise be ordinary business expenses.

The Justice Department’s rescheduling decision could also help shrink the black market, which has thrived despite legalization in states like New York and California, and has undercut legal markets, which are fiercely regulated and highly taxed.

Dr. Kevin Sabet, president of the anti-marijuana legalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, blasted the decision. “It’s become undeniable that politics, not science, is driving this decision and has been since the very beginning. This decision won’t legalize marijuana, and it won’t release anyone from prison or jail,” Sabet said. “This is setting the stage to create the Big Tobacco of our time.”

During his time in office, Biden issued pardons for prior federal offenses of simple possession of marijuana and issued a proclamation granting additional pardons for simple possession, attempted simple possession and use of the drug.

The White House has also urged governors to do the same in their states and some have heeded the call, including in Oregon and Massachusetts.

Democrats in Congress are pursuing a partisan effort to remove cannabis entirely from the Controlled Substances Act, empowering states to create their own cannabis laws and prioritize restorative and economic justice for those affected by the “war on drugs.”

“Congress must do everything we can to end the federal prohibition on cannabis and address long-standing harms caused by the War on Drugs,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said earlier this month.

Julie Tsirkin is a correspondent covering Capitol Hill.

Monica Alba is a White House correspondent for NBC News.

IMAGES

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Sample research budget template
How To Prepare A Budget For A Research Proposal : Enterprise
How To Prepare A Budget For A Research Proposal

VIDEO

Creating a research proposal
Cost Allocations
Basic Structure of Research Proposal
How to Calculate Budget Deficit
DEFINE BUDGETS AND FORECAST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BUDGET AND FORECAST PRACTICAL EXAMPLE OF FORECAST
How to get Funded Project/Project Grant/ Research Proposal Financial support

COMMENTS

How to make a simple research budget
A good budget shows the assessors that you have thought about your research in detail and, if it is done well, it can serve as a great, convincing overview of the project. Here are five steps to create a simple budget for your research project. 1. List your activities. Make a list of everything that you plan to do in the project, and who is ...
PDF Preparing a Proposal Budget Toolkit
Proposal Budget Overview A budget is a financial proposal that reflects the work proposed. It outlines the expected project costs in detail and should mirror the project description. A budget is presented as a categorical list of anticipated project costs representing the researcher's best estimate of the funds needed to support the proposed work.
PDF Writing a Proposal Budget
What is a Proposal Budget and why is it needed? Before we get started talking about all the pieces of a budget, let's make sure that we're on the same page about what a budget actually is. A budget is a financial proposal that reflects the work proposed. It outlines the expected project costs in detail, and should mirror the project description.
How to Estimate a Proposal Budget: Calculators, Research ...
When creating a proposal budget, you must consider five key factors. Salaries. Research and development. Travel costs. Operational expenses. Profit margin. 1. Salary Costs. To calculate the salary cost for your proposal, determine who will be involved in the project.
How to budget your grant proposal
A precise estimate of the budget is really the best approach to win a grant. And importantly, once your proposal has been funded, you will find that having carefully estimated the different costs at the application stage will not only guarantee an optimal use of the funds, but also make the practical implementation of the research project ...
Develop Your Budget
Develop Your Budget. As you begin to develop a budget for your research grant application and put all of the relevant costs down on paper, many questions may arise. Your best resources for answering these questions are the grants or sponsored programs office within your own institution, your departmental administrative officials, and your peers.
The Budget Calculation (Qualitative Research Proposal Series)
This is Part 2 of a four-part series on proposal writing for qualitative research. Please read Part 1 of this series, ... This could mean a reusable budget calculator in a spreadsheet, or using a ...
Develop a research budget
A research budget contains both direct costs and indirect costs (overhead), but the level of detail varies from sponsor to sponsor. The first step in developing a budget is to carefully read the guidelines of the funding opportunity being pursued. ... such as goods and/or services in support of a research project or proposal. It is challenging ...
Creating a Budget
Creating a Budget. In general, while your research proposal outlines the academic significance of your study, the budget and budget narrative show that you have an understanding of what it will cost for you to be able to perform this research. Your proposed budget should identify all the expenses that are necessary and reasonable for the ...
How to plan and write a budget for research grant proposal?
A well-justified budget can enhance the evaluation of the research proposal by reviewers and funding body. The last most important part is to review the budget and verify the costs and calculation. It is better, if other research team members can review the budget plan and re-calculate the costs thoroughly.
How to Develop a Budget for a Research Proposal
Abstract. Novice investigators may be intimidated by the task of proposal budget preparation. Often a basic understanding of the mechanics of budgeting, paired with a good working relationship with the institution's sponsored programs office, can alleviate much of the stress investigators encounter in developing budgets.
Developing a Budget for Your Research Application
The budgeting of your salary, a direct cost of the research, should be listed as $21,161.73. If your project covers three years, with the same or differing time commitments, you calculate this figure for each year of your project. Remember to factor in pay rises according to Step increases in multi-year grants.
How to Outline Expenses/Budget in Your Dissertation Plan
Steps to Take to Create Your Budget. 1. Consult Your Adviser, Committee Members, and Funding Sources for Guidelines. The source or sources responsible for funding your dissertation research will likely have guidelines on what is and isn't a billable expense. Before defining your projected costs, check your funding organization's ...
PDF Training Guide: Preparing Research Proposal Budgets
reference for preparing budgets for proposals. This guide outlines the basic points covered in most standard budget details. Exceptions will occur, but generally those are specific to the type of work being performed on the project or an exception according to specific solicitation requirements. Example calculations are scattered throughout the
How to Estimate Your Research Project Budget Effectively
Be the first to add your personal experience. 2. Estimate your resources and costs. Be the first to add your personal experience. 3. Align your budget with your funding sources. Be the first to ...
Preparing Proposal Budgets & Budget Justifications
Definition of a Budget. A categorical list of anticipated project costs that represent the Principal Investigator's best estimate of the funds needed to support the work described in a proposal. A budget consists of all direct costs, facilities and administrative costs, and cost sharing commitments proposed. Project Costs
Figuring Out Funding: How to Create a Budget for a Research Grant Proposal
Putting together a budget for a grant proposal can be a daunting task, especially when you are new to grant writing. This workshop walks faculty through the ...
Budget and Cost Resources
A "starting date" should be specified, since it is essential to ensure accurate budget calculations. If cost-sharing is included, each budget period should include columns for both "Sponsor" and "University" costs. A budget summary should be included for proposals with multi-year funding. All budget entries should be rounded to the nearest ...
How to Write a Research Budget Plan?
The plan will inform you about the expenses of each research item and method. The budget section is the key factor of success or failure for your proposal. For instance, You can manage the items with a spreadsheet. Pointing out and categorizing the direct and indirect costs, at last, will be able to plan and compose a well-scripted budget.
PDF Preparing a Cost Proposal Handout
Provide any escalation rates for out years. ". Fringe Benefits and Indirect Costs (F&A, Overhead, G&A, etc.) - The proposal should show the rates and calculation of the costs for each rate category. If the rates have been approved/negotiated by a Government agency, provide a copy of the memorandum/agreement.
Budget Salaries for My Research Project
Salaries. Salaries make up the largest category of direct costs on a sponsored project. When preparing a budget, start by making a list of all Stanford personnel who will support the proposed statement of work. If a person will be hired once the award is funded, simply estimate their salary and percentage of effort and list them as TBD (to be ...
Compile a research budget
Tell your Research Development Manager: total number of trips needed. number of people who need to travel. year in which each trip will be taken. 6. Justification of resources. A common component of a project is the 'justification of costs', sometimes referred to as 'resource allocation'.
PDF How to Enter Proposal Budgets
To enter a budget on a Research.gov . proposal initiated by a Principal Investigator (PI), access the Budget(s) landing page either by clicking the Budget(s) link on the proposal main page or by clicking the Budget(s) link on the proposal menu. Refer to the Budget Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on the Research.gov About Proposal Preparation and
NASA's Roman to Use Rare Events to Calculate Expansion Rate of Universe
Astronomers investigating one of the most pressing mysteries of the cosmos - the rate at which the universe is expanding - are readying themselves to study this puzzle in a new way using NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Once it launches by May 2027, astronomers will mine Roman's wide swaths of images for gravitationally lensed ...
First Look: Understanding the Governor's 2024-25 May Revision
The Budget Center team outlines key pieces of the May Revision to the 2024-25 California budget proposal, identifies harmful cuts, and explores spending priorities. ... This funding provides support for economic research and labor education across various UC campuses. ... The Department of Finance is required to annually calculate these state ...
The Budgetary and Economic Effects of permanently extending the 2017
The Budget Effects Table 1 shows our estimates of changes to revenues that would result from enacting a permanent extension of certain TCJA provisions over the next decade. Projections for 2025-34 indicate a total reduction in revenues and commensurate increase in federal deficits of $4.0 trillion, with over 80 percent arising from the ...
House GOP budget proposals fall short for tech agencies
NSF is requesting $10.2 billion next year, $1.14 billion more than Congress provided in FY24. The agency wants $30 million for the second year of its AI research pilot, more than $2 billion for R&D in critical technology areas like AI and quantum and $1.4 billion for STEM education and workforce development programs.
Understanding How Digital Media Affects Child Development
By using software embedded within mobile devices to calculate children's actual use, NICHD-supported researchers found that parent reports were inaccurate more often than they were on target. A little more than one-third of parents in the study underestimated their children's usage, and nearly the same proportion overestimated it.
Tech: Budget season
NIST is requesting an increase of $13.9 million for quantum and $47.5 million for AI research, as well as nearly $312 million for facility needs. NIST director Laurie Locascio said at a hearing yesterday that budget cuts would make it hard to protect existing federal staff. The FY24 budget cuts resulted in a hiring freeze and letting go of ...
Justice Department takes 'major step' toward rescheduling marijuana
During the first 30 days of the comment period, interested parties could request a hearing regarding the rescheduling proposal. Under the statute, the DEA would be required to hold a hearing ...