FAQs
Effort Reporting helps ensure that salary charged to sponsored projects accurately reflects the work performed. The University of Utah uses the EDR/ePAR system to support compliant effort certification and salary reporting in accordance with federal regulations and university policy.
Effort is the time you spend on a particular activity, expressed as a percentage of the total time you spend on University functions (teaching, research, service, and administration). It is not just the time paid by a grant; it includes any time you committed to the project, even if the University is picking up the tab (cost sharing).
Effort is not based on a 40-hour or 35-hour work week. It is based on 100% of your University activities. If you work 60 hours a week and spend 30 of those hours on a grant, your effort is 50%, not 75%. Whether you work 20 hours or 80 hours total, your University effort always adds up to 100%.
IBS is the annual compensation the University pays for your appointment. It includes your base salary but excludes "extra" pay like bonuses, overload payments, or income from outside consulting. Federal rules require us to use your IBS when calculating the cost of your effort.
Effort must be certified by the individual employee or an authorized Responsible Official possessing direct, first-hand knowledge or suitable means of verifying the work performed.
Unless your appointment is 100% research with zero other duties, you likely have non-sponsored activities. Writing new grant proposals, serving on the IRB, or attending faculty meetings cannot be charged to a federal grant. We generally recommend a "buffer" (usually 5%) to cover these inevitable University responsibilities.
If a PI or "Key Personnel" reduces their effort on a federal award by 25% or more of the original commitment (e.g., dropping from 20% effort to 10% effort), we are legally required to notify the sponsor and, in most cases, get prior approval.
When your Institutional Base Salary exceeds the NIH salary cap, you still certify your PAR based on 100% of your total actual effort, not your paid salary distribution. The portion of your effort that exceeds the cap limit cannot be charged to the grant and must be recorded on a dedicated cost-sharing line backed by a non-federal university chartfield.
If your award is missing from the ePAR system, it usually means your payroll has not been officially split or allocated to that specific chartfield during the quarter, as the system only populates grants that actively funded your salary. It can also happen if your project is too new to have processed payroll data yet.
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