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R&R Budget Justification Template
Use the outline below as a template for the R&R Budget Justification Page; include text as applicable. The text
below should be modified as needed so that it pertains to the research being proposed; the primary purpose of
this text is to serve as a foundation from which to build upon.
BUDGET JUSTIFICATION
A. Senior/Key Personnel
Provide the project role, commitment of effort, and area of expertise/experience for each Senior/Key
Person at the applicant organization involved in the proposed project in a particular budget year. Details of
collaborators at other institutions should be provided in the budget justification for each
subaward/consortium organization. Organize by Principal Investigator (PI) followed by all other Senior/Key
Personnel listed alphabetically. Do not include Other Significant Contributors.
Example
Principal Investigator
Henry Smith, PhD, (1.5 calendar months), will serve as PI and Project Director on the proposed project.
Professor of Pathology at Tufts and an HHMI investigator, he has researched nanostructures extensively,
and has over 25 years of highly regarded work in the field. He will have overall responsibility for all
aspects of the project, and will be responsible for organizing and chairing meetings of the advisory
committee. In addition, he will be serving as the lead investigator of the microbiology core investigation.
Senior/Key Personnel
Mary Abbott, PhD, Co-Investigator, (2 calendar months), will serve as Co-Investigator on the proposed
project.
B. Other Personnel
Provide the project role, commitment of effort, and area of expertise/experience for all other personnel at
the applicant organization involved in the proposed project in a particular budget year. Details of
collaborators at other institutions should be provided in the budget justification for each
subaward/consortium organization. Organize alphabetically.
Example
TBN, Postdoctoral Associate, (12 calendar months), will be responsible for performing the proposed
biological experiments, including all molecular biology steps, phage manipulation, protein expression and
purification, and for directing the graduate student to perform experiments.
TBN, Graduate Student (12 calendar months), will devote 100% of his/her research time to the project
and will perform the proposed biological experiments, including all molecular biology steps, phage
manipulation, protein expression and purification.
C. Equipment
List each item of equipment (a single item of property that has an acquisition cost of $5,000 or more and an
expected service life of more than one year) separately and justify the need for each. Allowable items
ordinarily will be limited to research equipment and apparatus not already available for the conduct of the
work. General-purpose equipment, such as a personal computer, is not eligible for support unless primarily
or exclusively used in the actual conduct of scientific research; include costs of shipping and maintenance
agreements as applicable.
D. Travel
Domestic (Canada, Mexico, and US possessions)
Include the purpose, destination, dates of travel (if known; if unknown, specify estimated length of trip),
and number of individuals traveling per trip.
Foreign (outside of North America and/or US possessions)
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Include the purpose, destination, dates of travel (if known; if unknown, specify estimated length of trip),
and number of individuals traveling per trip.
Example
Dr. Smith requests $3,000 total per year for both domestic and foreign travel with her graduate student.
Domestic travel is budgeted at $1,000, to cover airfare, hotel, and per diem, and foreign travel at $2,000.
Total requested for all four years is $20,000. Possible conferences include the ACM Symposium on
Computational Geometry, International Conference on Algorithms and Logic Programming, Bellairs
Winter Workshop on Computational Geometry ACM/SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, and the
Canadian Conference on Computational Geometry.
E. Participant/Trainee Support Costs
Unless specifically stated in the relevant funding opportunity announcement, NIH and other PHS agencies
applicants should leave this section blank. Tuition remission for graduate students should be included in
“Other Direct Costs” as applicable.
F. Other Direct Costs
Materials and Supplies
Indicate general categories such as glassware, chemicals, animal costs, including an amount for each
category. Categories less than $1,000 are not required to be itemized.
Publication Costs
The proposed budget may request funds for the costs of documenting, preparing, publishing, or
otherwise making available to others the findings and products of the work conducted under the award.
Example
We request the amount of $800 in Years 4 and 5 to publish the results of our study. We project that
results will be verifiable and provide data that will produce information which will be disseminated
through conferences and publication in journals. The amount of $800 per year will cover journal page
costs, and production of posters for research meeting.
Consultant Services
Identify each consultant, the services he/she will perform, total number of days, travel costs, and the
total estimated costs. Provide institutional affiliations for those consultants not involved in
consortium/contractual arrangements. Include consultant physicians in connection with patient care and
persons who are confirmed to serve on external monitoring boards or advisory committees to the
project. Describe the services to be performed.
Example
The PI will employ an outside source to provide evaluation and input into his work with nanostructures.
William Griffith, Ph.D., is CEO of Nanolabs, and will devote 5 hours per year to the project. His rate is
$200 per hour, for an annual budget of $1,000.
ADP/Computer Services
The cost of computer services, including computer-based retrieval of scientific, technical, and education
information may be requested. Include the established computer service rates at the proposing
organization if applicable.
Example
The Computer Science Department maintains a full-service computing environment to support research
and instruction. For hardware, computing facilities has available four Sun Enterprise-250 servers (1-2
gb of main memory each), three Sun 240s (2 GBs of memory each), a NetApp file server (1 Terabytes),
45 linux servers dedicated to course support, and about 400 workstations. The cost for each Computer
Science faculty member is $620 and for each graduate research assistant is $310, for a total of $930
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per year. For Dr. Goldwyn, basic computer services are included in the overhead of the School of
Medicine.
Subawards/Consortium/Contractual Costs
Example
A subcontract to Massachusetts Institute of Technology Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory in the amount of $400,000 for four years as described in the proposal is included. The PI of
this subcontract is John Jones. See R&R Subaward Budget Pages and Budget Justification for more
details.
Equipment or Facility Rental/User Fees
List total funds requested for equipment or facility rental/user fees. Identify each rental user fee.
Alterations and Renovations
Itemize by category and justify costs of alterations and renovations, including repairs, painting, removal
or installation of partitions, shielding, or air conditioning. Where applicable, provide the square footage
and costs.
Other