Personnel and Fringe Benefits
This resource provides detailed guidance for budgeting personnel costs and fringe benefits on sponsored awards within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS). It outlines requirements for faculty effort, research assistants, postdoctoral associates, professional staff, and other research appointments, with specific instructions for calculating effort, complying with agency policies, and applying fringe benefit rates. The guidance also links to key FAS and federal resources to help ensure proposals are accurate, compliant, and aligned with sponsor expectations.
Overview:
Teaching faculty in the FAS hold 9-month appointments
Their salary payments are distributed equally over a 12-month period (July – June)
One month of supplemental salary = base annual salary divided by 9. This is also referred to as a ninth or 1/9 If the sponsor guidelines permit, PIs may choose to receive supplemental salary or academic year salary from their sponsored awards. Academic year salary payments may be eligible for the Faculty Academic Salary Incentive Program (FASIP).
Budget Justification & Effort Guidance:
- Sponsors may request effort be expressed as a percentage or in person-months. We should follow the sponsor’s preferred format. Although FAS faculty have 9-month appointments, the percentage of effort should be calculated based on 12 possible months of compensation.
- Example: A PI is requesting one ninth for supplemental salary: the percentage is 1/12 = 8.3% effort over a 12-month period. This is equivalent to 1.0 person month.
- Unless mandated by the sponsor, the type of salary (supplemental or academic) does not need to be specified to the agency, but it should be disclosed to departmental and school reviewers at the time of proposal review and submission.
When no salary is requested:
To avoid unintentional committed cost sharing, the FAS recommends the following language to describe Academic Year effort: “The University pays salary to full-time faculty members in the FAS based on a nine-month academic year, with the understanding that they will ordinarily teach and conduct research freely and flexibly and not make substantial, specific quantified cost-sharing commitments of time and effort to specific organized research projects.”
Additional Resources:
Effort Reporting Policy, including guidance on Academic Year Salary and the Faculty Academic Year Salary Incentive Program (FASIP)
Agency-Specific Requirements
National Science Foundation (NSF):
- The NSF does not require PIs to indicate a level of effort in the budget or budget justification when no salary is requested. The role of all unpaid personnel should be described in the Facilities, Equipment, and Other Resources tab.
- Senior/Key Personnel must estimate a level of effort in their Current and Pending Support documents, but this estimate is not considered a commitment and does not need to be included in the budget justification or in the GMAS research Team.
As a general policy, the NSF limits senior personnel to 2 months of salary per year across all NSF awards. Further guidance can be found in the most recent NSF’s Proposal & Awards Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) Note: this would include both supplemental AND academic salary
- When salary is requested, the budget justification should include the following statement:
- "[X] month of salary is requested for [name PI here] in [X] years, with one month being equal to 1/9 of their academic-year salary. Such rates are determined by the Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences for the standard Harvard fiscal year of July 1 through June 30."
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
- The NIH requires Senior/Key Personnel to list measurable effort (in person months)
- “Zero person months” or “as needed” is not allowed
- Any committed effort that is not included in the budget would be considered cost sharing.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Department of Energy (DoE), and Department of Defense (DoD)
In general, no formal effort commitment is required. Check RFP for additional guidance
Graduate Students:
Graduate students may be supported in a variety of ways. Each appointment is treated differently in the proposal budget and has post-award implications.
- Fellowship/stipendee (object code 6440)
- Payment to the student for living expenses as part of a scholarship or fellowship, not in exchange for work performed
- Salaried research assistant (RAs) (object code 6140)
- Bi-weekly compensation in exchange for work performed
- May take the form of salary and tuition remission
- Hourly research position (object code 6110 during the Academic Year, object code 6120 during the summer months)
- Hourly compensation in exchange for work performed
Agency-Specific Requirements
- NIH: Total grad student compensation (salary + tuition) may not exceed the NIH zero-year postdoctoral stipend rate.
Undergraduate Students:
- Undergraduate students are paid hourly via temporary payroll (object code 6110 during the Academic Year, object code 6120 during the summer months).
Additional Resources:
Postdoctoral fellows may be appointed in a variety of ways.
- Employee research fellow (object code 6150)
- Bi-weekly compensation for an employee postdoctoral fellow supported by research grants, contracts, startup, gifts, or endowments under the direction of a Harvard Principal Investigator
- Stipendee with benefits (object code 6450) or without benefits (object code 6452)
- Payments from external funds for postdoctoral fellows conducting their own research while receiving mentorship from a faculty member
Effort beyond 1.0 FTE requires mentor approval. Combined appointments may not exceed 1.25 FTE, subject to restrictions from the Fellow’s primary sponsor.
Additional Resources:
FAS Appointment and Promotion Handbook: Postdoctoral Fellows
Refer to the FAS Office for Faculty Affairs Research Appointment Matrix for object codes, fringe rates, and additional guidance for other research appointment types.
Any non-technical administrative and clerical salary charged to a federal award must be specifically identified within the project activities. The accompanying budget justification must:
- Describe why the project requires administrative support beyond normal departmental support
- Clearly demonstrate how duties benefit the project.
Budget annual salary and fringe based on estimated working weeks (e.g., 48 weeks for exempt staff who take 4 weeks' vacation; 49 weeks for non-exempt staff who take 3 weeks’ vacation
For union positions that last at least one year, budget one week of severance pay per year of service if allowed by the sponsor.
Additional Resources:
Fringe Benefits rates are a direct cost item that represent the pooled cost of employee benefits divided by the total salaries in each University employee class. Proposals should be budgeted using approved fringe rates rather than basing out-years on projected rates.
See the FY26 Fringe Benefits Rates, the current Fringe Benefits Rate Agreements , and the FY26 Fringe Rate Breakdown.
Appointment-Specific Guidance:
- Undergraduate and Graduate Students:
- No associated fringe benefits while enrolled
- Summer fringe rate applies to hourly RAs, only if the student is not also enrolled in summer courses
- Postdoctoral Fellows:
- Administrative and Clerical Staff:
- Harvard charges a vacation assessment on all exempt and non-exempt employees. As an employee takes vacation, the central vacation pool will be charged so that vacation salary is not charged to an award. Be sure to include the regular rate and vacation rate in the budget calculation.