Personnel classifications include various types of faculty appointments (see the USNH Online Policy Manual for definitions of personnel classifications):

• Professional, Administrative, Technical (PAT)
• Operating Staff (OS)
• Hourly labor
• Various types of trainees (post-doctoral appointees, graduate students, and research associates)

Project personnel costs reflect the salary (or wage basis for OS and hourly labor) of each UNH individual to be employed on the project. Salaries for personnel are generally expressed as a percent of effort or in person months, whereas wages are expressed with hourly rates and number of hours to be devoted to the project. This percent of effort, person months, or hourly rate/hours is then converted to and displayed in the budget as a dollar figure. In some cases, a sponsor may request that personnel costs for salaried employees be proposed only in dollars rather than percent of effort. Because the percent-of-effort method is espoused by OMB Circular A-21, PIs/PDs should endeavor to persuade all sponsors to use the percent-of-effort method for salaried employees.

Various sponsor guidelines may limit the percent of effort allowed to be charged to a sponsored program, time period (such as only summer but not academic year), place ceilings on the maximum salary base used to calculate a fraction of salary requested, or place other constraints on the types of personnel supported under a particular program.

Federal sponsors limit the allowability of direct cost reimbursement for administrative or clerical staff, considering such costs normally to be F&A costs. But, such costs could be allowable if direct, substantial benefit to the specific project can be demonstrated. (The budget justification narrative must include the rationale.) Charging these items as direct costs when they are not project-specific will result in UNH’s non-compliance with OMB Circular A-21, section J.F.6 (B) and with the Cost Accounting Standards appendices to A-21.

OSR Grant/Contract Administrator (GCA) approval is a necessary step before direct costs can be included in the proposal budget. (See UNH policy and procedures on Salaries, Wages, and Fringe Benefits Charged to Federally-Sponsored Agreements.)