Budgets and Indirect Costs

General budget guidelines

Salary

Refer to the granting agency guides above concerning salary levels for students and Post Doctoral Fellows.

University recommended minimum rates:

For Masters, Ph.D. and Post Doctoral Fellows, you should budget according to the federal council (CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC) guidelines for stipends in your discipline. Professors should budget for the maximum allowed amount at the time of grant application.

• For Post Doctoral Fellows and Graduate Student Research Assistantships, refer to the document entitled "Graduate Student and Postdoc Funding Information on Stipends and Research Assistantships" on the GPSO website.
• For undergraduate students, the minimum wage applies.

Mandatory benefits

The employer's contribution should be included as a separate budgetary item.

Calculated as a percentage of salaries requested, the mandatory benefits are:

• Regular employees (full & part time): 25 - 28% (varies as a function of included benefits)
• Casual employees: up to 12%
• Students and PDFs: up to 12%

In addition to the above:

• 4% additional pay in lieu of vacation time for casual employees, students and PDFs.
• For Post Doctoral Fellows and Graduate Student Research Assistantships, refer to the document entitled "Graduate Student and Postdoc Funding Information on Stipends and Research Assistantships" on the GPSO website.

Goods and Services Tax (GST) - Effective January 1, 2013

Budget items that are subject to goods and services taxes must add *6.937%. This rate includes the Federal GST (*5%), Québec TVQ (9.975%), 67% rebate on the federal GST and 47% rebate on the Québec TVQ.

Further details are available from the McGill Financial Services Knowledge Base.

Purchase of goods & services ($100,000 and over)

According to the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT), all purchases of $100,000 and over must be tendered publicly for a minimum of 15 calendar days. For more information, please consult McGill's Procurement website.

Contact Procurement as soon as the grant has been awarded and the specification of your requirements have been determined. Please note that 4-6 weeks advance notice to Purchasing is required.

Import and export of goods

For general information regarding import and export, please consult McGill's Procurement website.

Should you have specific questions regarding applicable duty or required forms to be completed when importing goods, you may contact Anna Gentile at Procurement at (514) 398-1720, or Sébastien Lavallée at Affiliated Custom Broker (McGill University’s customs broker), at (514) 288-1211, ext. 250.

Animal care

Consult the Manager of the local Animal Facility about per diem rates.

Exchange rates

Use current rates. Contact General Accounting for more information at (514) 398-3880.

Computing costs

Continuing users of the Computing Centre's facilities are advised to base their future estimates on previous costs. New clients should consult with Debra Simpson at (514) 398-7413. More information is also available here.

Budgeting a contract: key differences

When budgeting a contract, one prices rather than costs the work to be undertaken. This is one of the biggest differences between a grant, which only costs the work (direct plus indirect costs), and a contract (incorporates the full cost of carrying out the research or services).

In a contract, the detailed budget remains an internal document: the contractor is only to see the fixed or lump-sum price for the work.

For some projects, the price may be broken down into three or four amounts coinciding with various deliverables through the project's life, or alternatively, broken down by broad categories of expenses that are all-inclusive, such as labour, equipment, consumables and miscellaneous.

In addition to the direct and indirect costs of the research, a contract will also incorporate depreciation of equipment, direct administration charges, contingency and the salary of the Principal Investigator.

For more information on budgeting, please contact an OSR Contracts and Agreements Officer.

Indirect costs

All research incurs indirect costs. The indirect costs of research are institutional costs that benefit and support research. These costs must be included in budget requests to external sponsors of research.

Indirect costs are difficult to attribute directly to a project, but they are nevertheless real and necessary for the conduct of research. They can include:

• Use, maintenance and upgrading of building space, utilities and libraries;
• central technical support of labs, offices, core and other facilities;
• management and administration of research, finances, regulatory requirements and research compliance (i.e. research ethics, biohazards certification, animal care etc.);
• hazardous waste disposal;
• radiation and occupational safety and security; and
• liability insurance.

This is how indirect costs (overhead) are handled at McGill University.

Quebec Government (Provincial)

A report on all research funded activities is submitted, on an annual basis, to SIRU (Système d’information sur la recherche universitaire). SIRU is a department under the jurisdiction of Le Ministère de l’Education, du Loisir et du Sport (MELS). MELS requires that all externally funded research include indirect costs. The university will be penalized by a reduction to the base operating budget when external research funds do not cover these costs. Certain sponsors have been accredited by MELS indirect costs program. This means that the Quebec Government covers the indirect costs for these accredited sponsors.

The following links provide lists of MELS accredited sponsors:

1) Gouvernement du Québec Agencies*
2) Organismes pourvoyeurs de fonds agrées*(accredited agencies)

*Note: Whenever indirect costs are allowed by these sponsors, they should be included in the proposed budget at the rate allowed by the sponsor (default rate is 15% for grants if no ceiling is indicated)

Canadian Government (Federal)

The Canadian Government also has an indirect costs (overhead) program based on research funded by NSERC, CIHR, SSHRC and Networks of Centres of Excellence (not all programs). Indirect costs should not be included in budget requests to these sponsors. For further information about the Canadian Government Indirect Costs program, consult the Indirect Costs Program website.

The Indirect Costs Program helps Canadian postsecondary institutions with the hidden costs of research. By alleviating the financial burden of expenses, such as lighting and heating, the program ultimately helps researchers concentrate on cutting-edge discoveries and scholarship excellence. The annual grant covers a portion of the total indirect cost across all McGill Faculties and affiliated hospitals. In 2011/2012 the university allocated the funds to crucial areas such as operation and maintenance of research equipment and facilities, library resources, research administration and financial support, compliance and management of Intellectual Property. For further information, consult the Outcome_Report_2011/2012.  

IMPORTANT:

New rates for McGill University effective July 1, 2011.

The implementation of these rates will not affect grants and/or contracts that are funded or negotiated prior to July 1, 2011. 

If your research is not funded by the accredited sponsors of the Quebec Government or is not one of the Canadian Government agencies listed above you must include the following rate in your budget:

 Please consult with the OSR in advance of finalizing your funding request if you are uncertain how or what to claim in this category.