The proposal budget is the financial plan of action that reflects the costs required to perform the proposed work statement. The following information has been prepared to help you develop your budget plan. It is important to demonstrate that the budget proposed is reasonable. 

A budget justification should be submitted to allow for each budget category to be explained relative to the proposed research. The budget justification explains how the estimated costs for the categories were derived and explains the need for the cost. Budgets should be prepared for the entire proposed project.  

While our budget sheet template has been designed to make it easy for an applicant to complete it on their own, we encourage all applicants to consult with their local grant administrators to ensure that budgets are correctly completed.  Faculty in CLAS are asked to reach out to clasgrants@uconn.edu to work with the Grant Management Services (GMS) team to complete the budgets for internal funding program applications.

Download and save the budget sheet template to your computer: OVPR_Internal-Funding_Budget-Template_FY26-for-FY25-competitions

 The following categories are generally included in the preparation of a proposal budget: 

• Salary: List all personnel, including the names and roles devoted to the project. 
• Fringe benefits: Automatically computed on the budget sheet template except for ‘other,’ refer to Storrs/Regional Fringe Benefit Rates and UCH Fringe Benefit Rates. 
• Equipment: Tangible, non-expendable, individual property having an anticipated life of one year or more with a unit acquisition cost of $5,000 or greater. For information see equipment definitions on the accounting website. 
• Travel (transportation & Per Diem): Includes any travel necessary to conduct research (in support of specific project aims). For information on travel procedures and processes, see the travel website. 
• Materials & Supplies: Any consumable not falling into the category of equipment, as defined above. 
• Participant Support: Indicate incentives, travel, and other subsistence costs necessary for the project. 
• Animals/Animal Care: Animal costs should reflect the type of animal, the number of animals and the unit cost per animal. Per Diem costs should list the number of days of Per Diem. Please refer to OAC for per diem rates. 
• Contractual Services: Fees and charges for specialized services, such as library access fees, laboratory analysis fees, consultant fees, subject fees, etc. 

General guidelines regarding allowable/unallowable costs that are consistent with other OVPR internal funding opportunities. If you have a budget need that does not fit within these guidelines, please reach out to the OVPR Research Development Internal Funding team at research@uconn.edu to discuss options.  

Allowable costs include:  

• Graduate Research Assistants
  • AY Graduate Research Assistantships (20 hour/week).  Can choose GA level and specify percentage effort on the project.
  • Summer. You may request up to $2000 per student per annum.
• Postdoc or other research assistant/technician salary 
  • Postdoc stipends should follow the NIH NRSA stipend levels. You may enter the base salary of each postdoc and record the postdoc’s effort percentage on this project.
• Student Labor. Undergraduate student labor is paid on an hourly basis, plus fringe benefits. Please refer to the student employment website for levels of experience and compensation. Please enter the total amount you are budgeting for all undergraduate student labor costs
• Summer Fellowships. Storrs/regional campus faculty members on nine-month appointments may receive salary during the summer months. A maximum of $3,000 per award (plus fringe) may be requested for single PI proposals and $5,000 per award (plus fringe) for Multi-PI proposals (limit $3K per PI). The request for summer funds must be carefully justified. For more information, contact the OVPR. 
• Course buyouts   
  • Course buyout may be requested for Storrs/regional campus faculty, but the PI must explain why release time is vital to the project. Faculty requesting funds for course buy-outs must include a statement of support from the department head.
    • ‘The department supports a course buyout for ‘PI name’s’ application for the ‘award name’ program entitled ‘project title,’ under the OVPR’s terms for the inclusion of course buyouts in internal funding awards.’
  • Amount requested cannot exceed the minimum per-credit adjunct rate for the course being replaced.  For more information, contact the OVPR.
  • Limit of one per PI (Principal Investigators) per project
  • Please refer to the payroll department.
• Fringe costs 
• Equipment purchases 
• Travel to conduct research or meet with collaborators (travel approval may be required) 
• Materials and supplies 
• Participant support costs 
• Animal/animal care costs 
• Contractual services (including fee-for-service contracts with partner institutions)  

Unallowable costs include:  

• Subawards to partner institutions 
• Faculty member salaries 
• Clerical or administrative personnel salaries 
• Including personnel whose primary purpose is to explore funding sources and/or prepare grant applications 
• Service/maintenance contracts on equipment 
• Laboratory renovations, or other infrastructure renovations 
• Institutional memberships in professional organizations 
• Computers, laptops, tablets, or other standard office equipment (computers that serve a specialized research function beyond what standard office equipment can provide are allowable) 
• Travel to professional meetings to present the results of the research 
• Travel to explore extramural funding opportunities 
• Costs associated with the publication of results of the research including page charges, purchase of reprints, or journal costs.