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What is Effort Commitment?

Effort commitment is the portion of time committed to a particular activity expressed as a percentage of the individual's total activity for the institution.

The effort commitment, stated as a percentage of a principal investigator’s time in a grant application, is a real and binding commitment. As long as a grant is active, the investigator must keep track of the effort commitment and is required to account for it, with full grant details, whenever asked by a sponsor or when required by university policy.

When the application is awarded, this committed effort must be tracked in the Effort Commitment system to ensure that the effort and the salary charged to support it are in agreement.

Failure to accurately track and meet effort commitment requirements can subject the university to heavy fines and sanctions that inhibit the ability to receive future federal funds for research.

What is the Difference Between Effort Commitment & Effort Reporting?
Effort commitment is that effort committed or promised prior to or at the start of the project. It is not the actual effort expended, but a projected amount. The amount committed should be a realistic amount that can be adhered to. Effort commitment is tracked in the Effort Commitment system.

Effort reporting is done after the effort has been expended. It shows the actual effort spent on the project. Effort reporting ensures that the effort charged or committed to each research award has actually been met. It is tracked in the Effort Reporting System (ERS).

The cost share information entered in the Cost Share Tracking system is reflected in ERS. It is important that effort commitments are entered in a timely manner to ensure that the information is accurate in ERS.

The federal government holds the university responsible for complete and accurate effort reporting and for ensuring that each investigator’s complement of support accurately reflects their actual programmatic activities.

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