The Budget is very important and should not be constructed casually or left until the last minute. It tells the reviewers what you are going to do based on how you have aligned the dollars available.
Check out typical Budget
Categories to get started. Don't overlook dollars needed for external evaluators.
It is very important to get with the TEES Research
Services budget personnel early in the proposal process. Budgets must be routed before the proposal
is submitted. Be sure to indicate if there will be a sub-award to another institution. The budget
and its justification should be complete and unambiguous. If you are not sure of whom you should contact
in TRS, check the TRS Proposal Administrator
list for your department or institution’s.
Don’t decide to divide the budgeted amounts by the number of participants. Instead be sure you are
aligning budget allocations with effort and cost, including salary. Too little or too much money
budgeted for the PIs can raise a flag. Reviewers identify this as a common and basic mistake, which makes
proposals receive a lower score.
Make sure your department head is aware of your proposal. It can be awkward for them to find out
for the first time about your proposal when paperwork routes to them for signature.
NSF and cost share or matching. NSF does not require cost share (matching) on the majority of
its proposals. Do not include cost share (Budget Line M) unless it is specifically required in the solicitation.
