RSP 502–03: Certification of Sponsored Project Effort

To outline the process for certification of effort for university employees paid from, or with cost share committed to, sponsored projects

United States. Office of Management and Budget. OMB circular A-21 (revised), Cost Principles for Educational Institutions

Office for Research and Sponsored Projects Administration

Effort reporting is the process of verifying that the actual effort performed on a sponsored project during an effort-reporting period meets or exceeds the combination of compensated effort and stated cost-share commitments to sponsored projects.

Employees compensated from sponsored projects or having a cost-share commitment to sponsored projects must certify 100 percent of their effort each effort-reporting period. Effort to be certified comprises an employee’s institutional base salary activities, regardless of the number of hours worked. Incidental work that is in excess of institutional base-salary activities (e.g., supplemental pay, intra-university consulting) and non-effort-related compensation (e.g., bonus pay, allowances) is not included in the effort to be certified.

Certification, per federal regulation, must be performed by an individual with suitable means of verification. All exempt employees which includes, but is not limited to, faculty, academic professionals, faculty associates, postdoctoral appointments, service professionals, and classified staff, as well as nonexempt classified staff, certify their own effort forms. Effort reports for graduate assistants/associates and nonexempt student employees are certified by the PI. Occasionally, when the employee or PI is unable to certify the effort report, another individual with suitable means of verifying the employee’s effort may certify the effort report.

Effort reporting periods will coincide with two pay-period time blocks for nonexempt employees (13 certifications/year) and with academic terms for exempt employees (fall, spring, summer).

For further information on Effort Reports, see the Academic Affairs Policies and Procedures Manual—ACD 303, “Effort Reports.”

For further information on personnel on sponsored projects, see RSP 502–01, “Personnel Employed on Sponsored Projects.”

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