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Effort Commitment and Training Grants

Campus Directive 06-049 issued in 2006 states “A commitment of effort must be indicated on all externally sponsored projects except for specific types of awards that do not require an effort component on the project (i.e., equipment or construction grants).”

Certain training grants are also allowed this exception. If the funding is only for student support and the Principal Investigator is acting as a mentor to the student, the mentoring can be considered part of the instructional activities of the PI.

Example: Fellowships

Most training grants do not fall into this exception. If a Principal Investigator is named on a training grant where a program is established and students are selected, that project must meet the minimum effort commitment requirement.

Example: T-series training grants from NIH

The directive goes on to state “if salary related to the effort commitment is not requested in the budget, an effort commitment still exists. In this situation, the effort commitment is being funded by the University and as such is considered a cost sharing commitment.” In this case, the departmental research administrator is responsible for setting up the appropriate cost sharing entries in addition to any effort commitments set up by Extramural Funds Accounting.

Finally, “if salary related to the effort commitment was initially requested in the budget and
[the PI salary is] subsequently re-budgeted to cover other project expenditures, the effort commitment to the sponsor remains. The effort is then considered to be cost shared by the University.” As in the case above, the departmental research administrator is responsible for setting up the appropriate cost sharing entries in addition to any effort commitments set up by Extramural Funds Accounting.