What is Effort?
All employees at JMU devote time to their work; in sponsored programs parlance the time you devote to your work effort. For sponsored programs, effort is generally measured in person-months. If you are a full-time 12 month employee, you devote 12 person-months of effort to your JMU work annually. For sponsored program purposes, academic year employees are counted as devoting 9 person-months of effort to their JMU employment; see JMU Policy 1306. You can find the amount of effort for other types of employees, as well as conversion to person-weeks, etc., in this helpful file.
When you want a sponsored program to compensate you, or any other personnel, for work, you'll account for it in terms of effort. Thus, you might ask your grant to fund two person-months of work, for example.
How Much Does Effort Cost?
To determine how much a particular amount of effort costs, you'll need to use the employee's salary and benefits. If the employee in question is an academic year employee, the annual salary and benefits are divided by 9 to determine the cost of one-person month. If the employee in question is a 12 month employee, the annual salary and benefits are divided by 12 to determine the cost of one person-month.
Your grants specialist will ensure you have the correct salary and benefits when they assist you with budget development; you can also find information about fringe benefit costs in our Budgeting FAQ.
What Can Effort Pay For (Overload, Course Releases, Reassigned Time)?
Although all effort pays for work you do on the grant, this can connect to your income and work balance in a few ways. The first question is: is this effort in addition to your JMU duties or is it replacing some of your JMU work duties?
In addition (i.e., overload): In this case, the sponsored program will pay additional compensation; typically as overload compensation. However, please be aware that JMU Policy 1306 limits total additional compensation. Academic year employees may receive up to three months total compensation, corresponding to the three person-months of the year when they are not working for JMU. Note that the limit is on total compensation from JMU, including summer teaching if applicable.
If you would like to request overload pay for sponsored program work during the employment period (i.e., during the academic year for an academic year employee, or at any time or a 12 month employee), the following three conditions must be satisfied (OMB Circular A-21):
- The work must be in addition to your regular duties.
- The additional compensation must be approved in advance by the granting or contracting agency.
- The work must either be across departmental lines or for a different division or college (i.e., not the division or college in which the employee performs under his or her regular employment), or must occur at a remote location from the employee's regular workplace.
Please note that JMU's internal submission process requires you to additionally submit the Overload Compensation Form in this case; please see instructions on our JMU internal processes for submission page.
Academic affairs employees must also comply with the Provost's additional compensation guidelines. Instructional academic year employees generally can receive no more than 15% of their institutional base salary in additional compensation for work performed during the contract period. Other academic affairs employees (e.g., A&P employees, full-year instructional faculty) are generally can receive no more than 10% of their institutional base salary in additional compensation for work performed during the contract period. Please see the above-linked policy for details, exceptions, and the approval process.
Replacement (i.e., reassigned time): In this case, your total compensation stays the same because some of your existing time is being reassigned to your grant. Conceptually, JMU decreases your salary but the grant makes up the difference. For 12-month employees, reassigned time is the most common use of sponsored program effort.
For faculty, the most common form of reassigned time are course releases, in which you teach fewer classes and devote the time to the grant. Your grants specialist can help you calculate the effort associated with a course release. Tenure-track faculty also frequently have time dedicated to research, which may be devoted to a sponsored program (with AUH and dean approval).
Additional Key Points to Remember
- Sponsors may have additional limitations both on the amount of effort that can be charged and on what it can be used for. For example, some grants do not permit course releases, and the NSF limits the total amount of effort any PI can receive, from all NSF-funded grants combined, to two person-months.
- Your supervisory chain (for faculty, AUH and dean) must approve your sponsored program proposal, including any course releases or other reassigned time.
Reporting Effort
If any type of employee charges effort to a grant, it must be reported as required by Federal OMB Circular A-21, which means for example that if you charge one month of effort, you will be asked to document that you spent the appropriate time (effort) on activities directly related to your grants.
JMU has an Effort Reporting System (ERS) that allows electronic calculation of the effort based on salary expenditures for each semester. Each employee that is paid from a sponsored project should expect to receive an email with instructions on how to complete effort reporting.
Please also note that if someone receives salary or wages on a sponsored programs, they are ineligible to receive participant support costs.
