Effort Reporting

Effort Reporting


Overview

Effort Reporting, or effort certification, is our means of providing assurance to sponsors that:

  • Salaries charged to sponsored projects are reasonable in relation to the work performed.
  • Faculty and staff have met their written stated commitments to sponsored projects.

Effort certification is completed using UW-Madison’s ECRT system.

Why must effort must be certified?

Effort certification is a federal requirement.

2 CFR 200 “Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards” (aka Uniform Guidance) is the federal government’s cost principles for colleges and universities. It defines what costs are allowable and allocable to Federal grants and other assistance programs. Salary, wage and benefit charges to grant awards are allowable only if they are supported and documented by an acceptable time and effort report.

2 CFR 200.430-431 sets the criteria for acceptable methods of charging salary, wages and benefits to federal grants. It requires a payroll distribution system that allocates salary, wages and benefits to the appropriate project accounts based upon reliable personnel activity reports. It also requires the institution to develop procedures to confirm how an individual’s time should be charged to each grant award.

Roles and Responsibilities

The responsibilities of a principal investigator with effort on sponsored projects include:

  • Completing the UW’s effort training program
  • Certifying his or her effort in a timely manner, in accord with the UW Certification Calendar
  • Certifying effort for the graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and non-PI classified staff who work on his or her projects in a timely manner, in accord with the UW Certification Calendar

The responsibilities of a non-PI faculty or academic staff member with effort on sponsored projects include:

  • Completing the UW’s effort training program
  • Certifying his or her effort in a timely manner, in accord with the UW Certification Calendar

The responsibilities of the effort coordinator include:

  • Reviewing the certified effort statements in order to identify any follow-up actions that may be required
  • Processing the effort statement in a timely manner

Training Requirements

All certifiers are also REQUIRED to complete training so that they understand the effort life cycle and how to use ECRT, the UW effort certification system. Training sessions are offered by RSP. Certifiers have the option to complete training online at any time or to attend scheduled in-person trainings. Please see the RSP Training for Effort Certifiers page for links to online modules and registration for in-person sessions.

Consequences for Failing to Complete Training and Certify Effort

Administrative and Fiscal Consequences

If effort statements are not completed in a timely manner, administrative or fiscal consequences will ensue.

Administrative consequences are enacted if effort statements are not completed within the 90-day certification period. Fiscal consequences are enacted 30 days after the 90 certification period has closed.

Administrative Consequences for Principal Investigators

The university will provide no support for extramural activities on behalf of principal investigators who do not fulfill their responsibilities. Specifically, the university will not:

  • Submit a grant proposal or other project application to sponsors for extramural projects
  • Execute award agreements
  • Establish accounts for spending extramural funds for new or continuing projects
  • Process other documents such as material transfer agreements

Administrative Consequences for Co-investigators, Senior/Key Personnel, or other Faculty and Academic Staff

The university will not submit a grant proposal or other project application that lists an individual who has not fulfilled the responsibilities included above.

If effort statements are not completed (certified and processed) by 30 days after the end of the certification period, fiscal consequences will be implemented.

Fiscal Consequences

If effort statements are not completed by 30 days after the end of the 90-day certification period, the university will transfer sponsored salary charges corresponding to incomplete effort statements to the Dean’s/Director’s suspense project. Fringe benefit charges associated with the sponsored salary charges and F&A charges associated with salary and fringe will also be transferred off the sponsored project. It is expected that Deans and Directors will flow these charges down to department chairs.

No additional time can be taken, and costs moved to a suspense account cannot then be transferred to any sponsored project or back to the sponsored project in which the costs were moved from.

In cases in which certifiers from other departments are paid on another departments, both departments face penalties, thus it is as important to follow-up with associated certifiers.

The university will provide no support for extramural activities on behalf of principal investigators who do not fulfill their responsibilities. Specifically, the university will not:

  • Submit a grant proposal or other project application to sponsors for extramural projects
  • Execute award agreements
  • Establish accounts for spending extramural funds for new or continuing projects
  • Process other documents such as material transfer agreements

Guidelines

Who must certify effort?

  • Effort must be certified for all individuals that have been paid from a sponsored project or committed effort to a sponsored project.
  • Faculty and staff must certify their own effort and may also be responsible for certifying the effort of research staff. University guidelines require that:
    • All faculty and academic staff certify their own effort
    • PIs certify their own effort, regardless of position
    • PIs certify for all grad students, post-docs, and non-PI university staff
  • Individuals working on multiple sponsored project should contact their department effort coordinator to determine how best to report effort.

When must effort be certified?

  • Effort must be certified twice yearly.
  • Time period in which effort is certified is called the certification window.
  • Certifiers have 90 days to certify effort cards once certification window opens.
  • All individuals required to certify effort are notified of applicable dates and deadlines via email.
  • Effort certification calendar

Effort and ECRT Resources and Tools

Note: These resources are housed on RSP’s site.

Contacts

For assistance with effort certification, contact your Departmental Effort Coordinator:

  • Departmental Effort Coordinators List

General questions about effort and ECRT can be directed to your assigned CALS accountant, Sandy Fowler or effort@rsp.wisc.edu.

Effort on Proposals


Effort Overview

Effort is your time spent on a sponsored project, regardless of whether the sponsor funds your salary.

When you are listed as PI, co-PI, or key personnel on a grant proposal, you are obligated to commit a certain amount of effort to the sponsor.

In order to comply with Federal regulations, effort committed to a project must be documented at the proposal stage and tracked (certified) throughout the life cycle of the project.

Effort Commitment

What is an effort commitment?

A commitment is the amount of effort you propose in a grant proposal or other project application, and that the sponsor accepts – regardless of whether you request salary support for the effort.

How are effort commitments measured?

Commitments are expressed in terms of a percentage of your work time over a given project period.

Who needs to record effort commitment on a proposal?

Commitments are recorded and tracked for: the PI, co-PI(s), and senior/key personnel identified in the proposal.

Which proposal components are used to document effort commitments?

  • Award requirements
  • Budget/budget justification
  • Project description/research plan

Limits on effort commitment

  • An individual’s aggregated commitments to sponsored projects cannot exceed 100%
  • Commitments to sponsored projects can only add up to 100% if all of your job duties are allocated to sponsored projects.
  • Proposal-writing, institutional committee service, etc. are not allocable to sponsored projects. Individuals with such responsibilities must reserve some percentage of effort for theses duties (3-5% is recommended) to be funded by unrestricted sources .
  • For investigators with academic or administrative responsibilities, commitment to sponsored projects generally cannot total 100% for any consecutive 12-month period.

Minimum effort commitment

  • Minimum required commitment for PI’s on all sponsored projects, except clinical trials, is 1% of total effort.
  • For clinical trials, commitment to any one trial may be less than 1% as long as the sum of commitments for all the trials totals at least 1% and represents a reasonable level of effort.
  • The minimum effort requirement does not apply to: equipment/instrumentation grants, doctoral dissertation grants, or student augmentation grants.
  • The minimum effort requirement does apply for the PI on a training grant, but not for the faculty mentors, as their effort will be assigned to the trainees’ specific research projects.

Funding Effort

Effort on a sponsored project can be funded in two ways:

  • Paid effort is work for which the sponsor provides salary support.
  • Cost-shared effort is work on a sponsored project for which the university, rather than the sponsor, provides salary support. There are several types of cost-shared effort:
    • Mandatory: Cost sharing required by the sponsor as a condition of the award
    • Voluntary committed: Cost sharing that appears in the proposal but is not required by the sponsor
    • Voluntary uncommitted: Cost sharing not stated in the award documents; usually occurs when more time is devoted to a project than stated in the proposal or award.

An individual’s effort on a given grant may be a combination of paid and cost-shared effort.

For example, if you indicate in a proposal that you will devote 30% of your effort to the grant for one year, and request salary support for 10% of your effort, then:

  • Effort commitment is 30%
  • Paid effort is 10%
  • Cost-shared effort is 20%

Outstanding Effort Tasks

It is important to keep all effort tasks (training, certification, etc) timely and current. According to University policy, failure to do so will prevent submission of proposals and processing of awards.

Changes in Effort Commitment

Agency Approval

Agency approval is necessary for changes that are less than 25% of the total effort commitment. For example, if you committed 10% but only ended up applying 8% to the project, there is no need to contact the agency. If you want to commit more effort, it’s considered voluntary uncommitted cost-share, and there is no need to contact the agency or report on the extra effort. Work with your department effort coordinator or grant administrator if you need to make changes to your commitment.

Special Considerations

  • Reductions in budget. When an agency agrees to fund a proposal at less than the original budget amount, effort needs to be taken into consideration during revisions. If the scope of the project is changing due to less funding, will effort levels remain the same?
  • No-cost extensions. With the exception of grant programs that have a specific minimum effort requirement (e.g., NIH K type awards), RSP no longer requires the update of effort commitments when requesting or receiving a no-cost extension. After a thorough analysis of sponsor polices and Federal regulations, it has been concluded that a no-cost extension simply provides additional time in which the originally proposed effort can take place. More information can be found here.

UW–Madison Campus Effort Resources

RSP Effort Home PageList of links to Effort-related policy, training materials, forms, and tools, from Research and Sponsored Programs (RSP)
RSP Effort Commitment FAQ’s Frequently Asked Questions about Effort Commitment, from Research and Sponsored Programs (RSP)
RSP Effort CalculatorIf your effort on a project varies, this Research and Sponsored Programs (RSP) tool calculates the overall effort percentage for an entire reporting period.
RSP Effort Reporting FAQ’sFrequently Asked Questions about Effort Reporting, from Research and Sponsored Programs (RSP); also includes some information on effort commitment and management.
RSP Effort GlossaryEffort-related terms and definitions, from Research and Sponsored Programs (RSP)

Effort Contacts

For more information or assistance with Effort related to proposal development, contact your department Research Administrator or your CALS Research Division Preaward Team Contact.