The CIRES Administration has implemented a procedure to address the administrative impact of projects that require lower or no indirect costs, and projects that have a higher than normal administrative impact. An algorithm has been established for determining how much effort, and when this effort should be added to project budgets.
For projects that require a lower or no indirect cost (due to government law, government solicitation, or a non-profit's official published policy), a sliding scale has been developed, where an Administrative Support Specialist's effort of between 0% and 3% time will be assigned to the project budget as a direct cost. For projects where no indirect costs are allowed, 3% time of an Administrative Support Specialist is budgeted for each month of the project. The time budgeted for an Administrative Support Specialist gradually decreases to 0% effort for a project that allows full CU indirect (57.5% on campus or 26% off campus).
The types of costs that are considered, counted and applied to the algorithm are as follows:
- Participant Support (Payments made to a participant or on behalf of a participant)
- Consultant
- Subaward
- Service Agreement with an Entity
- Non-Employee Trip
- Employee Trip (employee reimbursement for travel)
- TBD hire (Hiring new employee for project)
A number of these various costs can be assigned before any amount is required for Administrative Support Specialist time. Each of these costs are weighted separately, between 1-2 units each, and a project year must exceed 10 units before any Administrative Support Specialist time will be budgeted for that year. The current evaluation is:
| Action Type Per Year | Units |
| Participant support (Payments made to a Participants or on behalf a participants) | 1.5 |
| Consultant | 2 |
| Subaward | 2.5 |
| Service Agreement with an entity | 1.5 |
| Trip for Non-Employee | 2 |
| Trip Employee (an employee reimbursement for travel) | 1 |
| TBD Hire | 1.5 |
This Administrative Support Specialist time will provide support for grant finance, payroll, hiring, HR duties, IT system administration duties, and coordination of agreements for the project (NDAs, use and resource agreements, permits for expeditions, etc...). This work must be specifically for the individual project, or the effort will not be charged. For the budget, a best estimate is used, however if the project is awarded, these costs will only be assigned for specific direct effort in support of the project.