The PAPPG very clearly states that the two-month rule is “a general policy,” and also points out that award recipients have the authority to rebudget after award, even when doing so would increase the salary for an affected senior person above the two-month threshold. As I’ve heard Jean Feldman, head of the NSF Policy Office, say on numerous occasions over the last decade and more, NSF fully expects investigators to propose the amount of salary that is commensurate with the effort needed to carry out the proposed scope of work.

That’s the key thing: the salary request has to be justifiable in terms of the scope of the work and the responsibilities assigned to the individual requesting more than two months’ salary. As long as the needs of the project warrant it, there is absolutely no problem asking for more than two months’ salary on a particular grant, or having an investigator with effort on multiple funded projects that adds up to more than two months in any given year (however your institution defines “year” for this purpose). NSF will not quibble about it at all, as long as it’s disclosed in the proposal budget and adequately justified in the narrative and/or the budget justification. There are certain programs (the Division of Chemistry, for example) that prefer not to fund more than one month of salary, and some other programs (notably in the SBE Directorate, which doesn’t have the resources that some of the others do) that prefer not to pay PI/co-PI salary at all—but all of that is subject to the overriding caveat “as long as doing so does not adversely impact the investigator’s ability to complete the project in the time allowed.”

I’ve never worked at an organization that refused to allow requesting more than two months of salary support on an NSF project. I’m not sure why an institution would impose such a restriction, either, since it must of necessity hamper the ability of their researchers and scholars to support their work on important projects. And what would such an institution do in the case of a research associate or research faculty member? They don’t get the standard academic contract that allows them to devote a certain portion of their time to research while still drawing their university salary: they’ve got to have funding, or they don’t get paid.

Hi Carolyn,

I’d fix it if you can because it’s very clear in the NSF guidelines that the limit is 2 months. If there’s a very important reason why it has to be 3 months then there should be a solid justification for it and an explanation about why your university will allow it.  And you also need to make sure that there isn’t any other overlapping commitments on his Current & Pending Support that would interfere with that time period. 

NSF is very competitive and I wouldn’t want to diminish my chances by not following the guidelines. My university wouldn’t give approval for an NSF budget committing over 2 months.  If you can, talk to your Program Officer and let them know the details. In my experience, my NSF contacts have been a tremendous help especially when they know the PI and are familiar with their work.

All the best,

Hollis

Hollis MacArthur M.Ed

Research Administrator

University of California, Berkeley

E-Mail: xxxxxx@berkeley.edu

We submitted an NSF proposal and the budget includes three months salary for the PI, over the PAPPG two months. Do we need to fix this? I don’t see where we can submit a file update for a budget change. Will this negatively impact the proposal?

Carolyn Elliott-Farino

Executive Director, Office of Research

Kennesaw State University

xxxxxx@kennesaw.edu; 470-578-6381

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