Our NSF funded investigators tell us that they’ve been told not to request salary for themselves and that it would not be funded.  Our faculty are on 12 month appointments, however, so that may explain the rationale (especially based on the prior NSF policy that restricted salary requests to summer salary only).   They continue to maintain that even if salary is allowed (which it clearly is), their applications would not be competitive and the salary would be stripped from the budget. 

Beth

We recently had an SBE (Sociology) grant where the program officer mandated a cap of $15k per year for summer salary – as well as some other limitations (eg, no conference travel, most students funded via REU supplement funds).        I’ve been told that Economics has restrictions on travel (eg, no conference travel, and research travel limit).      

We have had Chemistry proposals funded with a limit on summer salary (most recently $20k per year).      And prior to current salary policy (when it was two months summer salary and academic year salary only under special circumstances) our chemistry faculty were told not to bother requesting academic year salary even when justified.  

But we’ve never heard of PIs being told not to request salary.    

Franci

Frances Vinal Farnsworth

Associate Director of Grants & Sponsored Programs

Davis Family Library Room 107
Middlebury College

Middlebury, VT 05753

802.443.5889 

Email:  xxxxxx@middlebury.edu

Web:  http://www.middlebury.edu/offices/support/grants

Thanks for everyone’s comments. I am well aware of the prohibition against cost sharing. If we end up not requesting salary we will not put any person months.

I heard from one person who has seen this in anthropology. This is indeed a proposal to SBE (and we rarely submit to SBE); could it be an SBE or anthropology specific quirk? I know the divisions and offices do have differing opinions on things. Has anyone else seen this with anthropology specifically, or SBE more generally? Or can you confirm that you do request – and receive – funding from anthropology or other SBE programs?

Carolyn

Carolyn, we are a PUI and the majority of our funding is from NSF. Please, let me assure you that NSF does pay summer salary. As a matter of fact, most of our PIs prefer to propose summer salary. The only limitation is the 2 month per year rule. It may be appropriate to talk with the PO to gain further clarification.

Colleagues,

We have a PI who has informed me that his program officer at NSF told him that NSF “does not like to provide summer support, and it is the first thing that goes when they negotiate budget just before awards are to be made.” I told our PI that this is not true but he reiterated that this is what his PO told him. Our PI also said his colleague at a private, more research intensive institution (we are a public, predominantly undergrad institution) “expressed a similar sentiment – basically, NSF does not like to pay for effort.”

We have always received funding on NSF grants for PI and co-PI support, except for MRI grants. Has something changed? I am very confident that either our PI has misunderstood his PO, or the PO is sadly misinformed (and hopefully wouldn’t actually be able to cut out all PI salary), but this PI has already had an unpleasant interaction with NSF so I am treading lightly. Wouldn’t NSF wonder why a PI included zero effort on a project (you can’t cost share, remember)?

Frankly, my belief is that the PO is either assuming our PI will request two months during the AY and therefore would not allow summer salary (perfectly logical), or assumes our PI will request two summer months and is saying no to AY salary.  Given the tender psyche of this PI at the moment, I don’t want to be cavalier and tell him to just budget the two months. I would like to offer him assurance that it’s really okay to request effort on the project.

Thanks in advance for any reassurance you can provide me to pass on to our PI.

Carolyn Elliott-Farino, MA, CRA

Executive Director, Office of Research

Kennesaw State University

585 Cobb Avenue NW, room 3143m MD 0111

Kennesaw, Georgia 30144; Tel: 470.578.6381

www.kennesaw.edu/research

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