Effort Terms and Definitions

Academic Year: For effort reporting purposes, an academic year is the period of a faculty member’s appointment.  Emory faculty are generally appointed for either 9 or 12 months.  9-month appointments typically cover the academic year, whereas 12-month appointments include all months during a fiscal year.

Certification: The assertion by employees funded on sponsored projects, or by someone with sufficient knowledge of the work being performed, that the salaries charged to sponsored projects as direct charges or cost-sharing reasonably reflect the effort expended, work performed, and any allowable paid absences permitted under University policy or emergency guidance during the reporting period. These certifications are required to accept sponsored funding.

Central Administrator (CA): The central administrator oversees the entire effort reporting process and the effort system. The CA creates new effort forms bi-annually and assists departments with any needs.

Certification Period: There are two certification periods per year (September-February and March-August). Once the period opens, effort coordinators review each project and process any salary transfers (retroactive salary transfers, or RSTs) before the PI is notified that the project certification is open for them. Effort coordinators are expected to communicate with the PIs about any questions. PIs or designees are expected to certify the effort and salaries charged to their projects during the reporting period. Information on the effort certification process, including the timeline and roles and responsibilities, can be found on the Cost Studies webpage: https://rbo.emory.edu/cost-studies/effort_certification/effort_certification_process.html

Certifier: The certifier should ensure that the effort spent on each sponsored project is accurately reflected on the effort form. If it is, they click the certify button. If not, they contact the pre-reviewer and discuss an adjustment to the form. The certifier should complete the form by the deadline.

Committed Effort: Amount or percentage of time an individual has communicated to the sponsor that they will work on a specific sponsored project over a specified period.  Commitments are made in the proposal and may be documented by the sponsor in award documents. Changes to committed effort may require sponsor approval.

Cost Sharing: Cost sharing represents the portion of the total project costs of a sponsored project that the sponsor does not bear. Cost sharing can be mandatory or voluntary, committed or uncommitted. Cost sharing of effort is the provision of faculty and/or staff time and related fringe benefits that were committed and provided in support of a project but are paid by other sources of funding and become part of the effort commitment that is certified. Cost-shared effort over the commitment made in the proposal is non-reportable to the sponsor. Cost sharing can be recorded in a companion speedtype or indicated in the cost-share column while pre-reviewing the effort form.

Cost Transfer: Cost transfers occur when an expenditure is moved to or from a sponsored program after the expense was initially charged to another University account or a different sponsored program. This definition also pertains to payroll reallocations and cost-sharing. Cost transfers for salary dollars must be made using the RST (retroactive salary transfer) form in Compass to reflect the changes on the effort form. See Emory’s cost transfer policy: https://emory.ellucid.com/documents/view/17780?security=61111a894fa4b96a643df14d413fb0263aca0c01.

Department Coordinator (DC): The department coordinator is responsible for effort certification at the department level. The DC should run reports for their department to ensure that all forms are certified by the deadline, following up with pre-reviewers and certifiers to ensure the task is complete. The DC should ensure that all forms have the correct pre-reviewer and certifiers assigned to them. The DC should also ensure that pre-reviewers attend training and that certifiers are aware of available training.

Division Head (DH): The division head is responsible for effort certification at the school (operating unit) level. The DH should regularly run reports to ensure that all forms within the school are certified by the deadline. The DH can also reassign department coordinators if they need to change a DC in their area.

Effort: Emory defines effort as the proportion of time spent on any activity expressed as a percentage of the total professional activity for which an individual is compensated by their institutional base salary (IBS). Effort does not equate to any set number of hours per week. Total professional activity time, regardless of the number of hours compensated by IBS, constitutes 100% effort.

Effort Reporting: The mechanism used to confirm that salaries and wages charged to each sponsored agreement commensurate with the actual work performed.

Effort Reporting System (ERS): Emory’s system for pre-reviewing and certifying effort. Access ERS using Emory’s single sign-in at https://effort.emory.edu.

Fiscal Year: Emory’s fiscal year is from September 1 - August 31. Emory’s effort certification cycle runs on the Emory fiscal year calendar.

Institutional Base Salary (IBS): Annual compensation Emory University pays for an employee’s appointment, whether that individual’s time is spent on instruction, research, patient care, or other professional activities, and includes any department chair or program director’s stipend. Emory’s IBS definition excludes salary or pay for other professional activities such as VA appointments, Children’s Hospital of Atlanta appointments, consulting services, bonuses, other one-time payments, and stipend payments to trainees. IBS must be used as the base salary on all grant proposals unless there is a statutory limit on compensation (e.g., NIH cap). See Emory’s policy on institutional base salary: https://emory.ellucid.com/documents/view/25626/?security=d06e10753a2124ca29718e56d2cc10981168bc29.

Key Personnel: The program director/principal investigator and other individuals responsible for the scientific design, conduct, and execution of a project in a substantive, measurable way, whether or not they request salaries or compensation.

Mandatory Cost Sharing: Mandatory cost sharing is a requirement to be eligible for a grant program. Salary above the NIH-designated cap is a form of mandatory cost sharing.

Provisional Award Number (PAN): A provisional award number (PAN) is provided to initiate a sponsored project and incur expenses before the institution approves, accepts, and processes an award. Consult PAN guidance: https://osp.emory.edu/_includes/documents/sections/guidelines/pan_guideline_2016_06.pdf.

Pre-Reviewer: The pre-reviewer ensures that each effort form under their purview reflects the work performed to the best of their knowledge. They should adjust the form using cost transfers (RSTs) or cost-share if any adjustments are needed. They should work closely with the certifier to verify that it does match the actual time spent on the sponsored project. Pre-review of forms should be done early enough to give the certifier sufficient time to certify before the deadline.

Project: For effort reporting purposes, “project” is the unique combination of a fund, activity, and sub-activity set up in the financial system and charged in the general ledger.

Retroactive Salary Transfer (RST): Cost transfers for salary expenses are done through a retroactive salary transfer (RST). All charges to the new account must benefit the project/program/award and be allowable under Emory policies, sponsor policies, and the terms of the sponsored agreement.

Salary and Lab and Discretionary (SaLaD): SaLaD is a non-compensation reward program used by the School of Medicine (SOM) for faculty that exceed productivity levels. When a research‐intensive/research-focus, independent PI faculty member exceeds 65% research salary coverage (as a % of the NIH cap or actual salary if it is lower than the NIH cap) on sponsored research funding assigned to the SOM, the percentage difference becomes “% Eligible for SaLaD.” This percentage is applied to the salary charged to SOM grants and then split 50/50 between the home department and the faculty member’s discretionary account. SaLaD is calculated at fiscal year‐end based on that fiscal year’s effort certifications and distributed in February of the following year (i.e., FY20 SaLaD distributed in February 2021). Therefore, a faculty member will not receive SaLaD without a current effort certification.

Salary Cap: Federal awards issued by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agencies restrict the direct salary paid on their grants, commonly known as the ‘salary cap.’ HHS salary caps are indexed to a specific Government Executive Pay Level (e.g., Executive Level 2). The salary for the Executive Pay Level may vary for each Government Fiscal Year in which the funds are awarded (usually on January 1). The salary cap sets a maximum annual rate of Emory's salary for full-time effort that can be charged to an agency's award. The ramification of effort reporting is the need to set up a companion cost-sharing account to cover salary expenditures over the cap.

Summer Salary or Compensation: Faculty compensated for 9-month academic appointments can earn up to an additional three months of summer paid compensation on one or more sponsored and/or non-sponsored activities. Individuals can earn up to the equivalent of three months of additional salary for that effort, subject to college and sponsor policies and the appropriate college-level approval. If a faculty member has administrative or other non-sponsor-related responsibilities (including vacation or proposal preparation/writing) during the period for which they are requesting summer salary, they are precluded from devoting the maximum allowable 100% effort to sponsored projects and cannot request the full 100% of 3 months of salary from sponsored projects. Summer salary is not included in IBS. When calculating summer salary, compensation cannot exceed the proportionate amount of the individual’s IBS.

Supplemental Pay or Compensation: Compensation by the University beyond the established base salary of a faculty member or administrative professional. Supplemental pay is intended for University activity that requires effort, either in degree or nature, in addition to that defined under the individual’s appointment and their 100% effort distribution. Supplemental pay is not included in IBS. See Emory’s Supplemental Pay for Sponsored Programs Policy: https://emory.ellucid.com/documents/view/25619/?security=4055bf2faab011174ae4c60d22a1a29784537150.

Voluntary Committed Cost Sharing (VCCS): VCCS is cost sharing that is not required by the sponsor but is specifically outlined in the proposal budget. Once awarded, VCCS becomes a binding (mandatory) commitment. VCCS must be tracked throughout the award's life.

Voluntary Uncommitted Cost Sharing (VUCS): VUCS is a cost share not specified in the proposal or a condition of an award. For example, faculty or senior researcher effort over and above that which is committed and budgeted for in a sponsored agreement and where related salary is charged to a non-sponsored speed type. This differs from mandatory or voluntary committed cost sharing, which is cost sharing specifically pledged in the proposal’s budget or is a condition of the award.