For salaried employees, personnel costs are calculated by multiplying the estimated percent of effort needed to conduct the scope of work by the employee’s institutional base salary (IBS). Institutional base salary (IBS) is the annual compensation paid by an organization for an employee’s appointment, whether that individual’s time is spent on research, teaching, administration, patient care, or other activities. The IBS does not include bonuses, one-time payments, incentive pay, or income an individual earns outside of their organization.

The budget construction engine in KR PD allows for accurate calculations based on current institutional base salary. 

Some sponsors, like NIH and NSF, may stipulate that personnel requests be made in person-months for senior or key personnel. A person-month is a metric used to express the amount of time devoted to a project and is based on appointment type, usually calendar year (CY), academic year (AY) and summer (SM). Below are examples of calculating person-months based on appointment type.

An investigator has a 9-month academic appointment and is devoting 20% effort to the project. Person months are calculated at 20% effort x 9 months = 1.80 person-months.

A postdoctoral candidate with a 12-month appointment is devoting 20% effort to a project. Person months are calculated at 20% effort x 12 months = 2.4 person-months.

An investigator with a 9-month appointment is devoting 10% effort during the academic year and 20% effort during a 3-month summer term. Person months are calculated at 0.90 AY person-months (10% x 9 months) and 0.6 SM person-months (20% x 3 months).

For more on calculating person-months, refer to the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) “What is a ‘Person-Month’ & How Do I Calculate It?” https://nexus.od.nih.gov/all/2017/03/31/what-is-a-person-month-how-do-i-calculate-it/