Summer 2023 Research Compensation - Guidelines

University of New Mexico faculty with 9-month appointments and who have contract/grant awards with summer salary itemized in the budgets, may receive summer research compensation. Compensation is only for actual time worked and effort spent during the summer research period, and can only be paid for periods the faculty member is actively working on the project.  It cannot be paid to faculty on vacation, committed to other projects, or for time worked outside of the summer research period.

Please see the 2023 Summer Research for Nine-Month Faculty memo for the Summer 2023 periods of work and processing deadlines.

2023 Summer Research Guidelines:

1. The award budget must have adequate funds to cover the summer salary including fringe benefits.
2. In accordance with OMB’s Uniform Guidance §200.430 Compensation—personal services, summer research compensation is limited to 3/9ths of their institutional base salary (IBS). 
   1. UNM’s institutional base salary (IBS) is defined as the 9-month base salary. IBS does not include:
      1. Overload Payments
      2. Extra Compensation as described by Faculty Handbook Policy 140
      3. Monetary Awards
      4. Special Administrative Component (SAC), per Faculty Handbook policy C180
      5. The “Plus” component of Base Plus and Extra Compensation Paid by the University.
   2. Specific funding agencies may have distinct policies. For example, the National Science Foundation (NSF) guidelines stipulate "under normal re-budgeting authority, a grantee can internally approve an increase or decrease in person-months devoted to the project after an award is made, even if doing so results in salary support for senior personnel exceeding the two-month salary policy. No prior approval from NSF is necessary unless the re-budgeting would cause the objectives or scope of the project to change. NSF prior approval is necessary if the objectives or scope of the project change." For additional NSF information: https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/policydocs/pappg20_1/nsf20_1.pdf
3. The pay rate (Rate 1) for May and June is determined by the 2022/2023 academic year salary and the pay rate (Rate 2) for July and August is determined by the 2023/2024 academic year salary.
4. All Summer Research forms must be processed no later than the deadline given in the 2023 Summer Research for Nine-Month Faculty memo. Any exceptions will need to be accompanied by a justification signed by the chair and dean.
5. The faculty member’s FTE cannot exceed 125% FTE for the pay period, including all summer research, summer administration, and summer instruction assignments.
   1. Assignments above 100% FTE must be approved in advance by the faculty member’s chairperson/director.
   2. If a summer teaching agreement is also in effect, usually days identified for teaching cannot be identified as summer research.
   3. Exceptions to 125% FTE must be approved in advance by the Senior Vice Provost. 

6. Requests for summer research salary must be processed using the Summer Research Form and must be submitted for processing via ePAF.
   1. For a faculty member receiving a summer research payment for the first time or the payment requires manual entry, if the payment is supported by restricted funds, the department must:
      1. Submit the completed Summer Research Form to Contracts & Grants (C&G) for review and approval.
      2. C&G will then submit the form directly to the Office for Academic Personnel (OAP) at faculty@unm.edu.
      3. Forms submitted for manual entry that are supported by restricted funds that do not have C&G approval will be returned to the department prior to processing. 

Faculty Members with Approved Base Plus Arrangements:

• Institutional base salary excludes the ‘plus’ component of a ‘base plus’ salary arrangement.
• For faculty members on an approved ‘base plus’ compensation arrangements, they must indicate on the summer research form’s comments section that the faculty member has a base plus salary compensation arrangement.
• For the summer research calculations, to identify the base component eligible for summer research payment, faculty should refer to their “base plus” offer letter for an accounting of their base component or contact their College Administrator for guidance.
• Colleges/Schools with approved “base plus” compensation models must provide a list of faculty with approved “base plus” arrangements to the Office for Academic Personnel and the Office of Sponsored Projects bi-annually (September and February).

Faculty Members with Special Administrative Components

• Institutional base salary excludes Special Administrative Components (SACs).
• SACs can be distinguished from base salary as they are identified with an S suffix associated with their position number.
• See the example below from the Active Employee Report in HR Reports, you will only include the $75,000 associated with the 00 Suffix :

Example for Calculating the 3/9ths Summer Research Limit:

Example A: Professor X’s academic year salary for FY22/23 is $90,000. Rate 1 for May and June will be $10,000 ($90,000/9). For FY23/24, Professors X’s academic year salary is hypothetically $95,000. Rate 2 for July and August will be $10,555.55 ($95,000/9).

The amount payable in May and August is pro-rated by the number of work days for summer research in each month and the total should equal 1/9^th.  Use .591 as the multiplier for calculating the May payroll, and .409 for the August payroll.

For information on how the multipliers were determined, please see the explanation at the end of the guidelines.

The maximum allowable payments for the summer research period of May 16 through August 12 are outlined in the following table:

Example B: Faculty A will receive maximum payment for May, June, July, August.

Example C: Faculty A (see payment schedule from Example A) will be conducting summer research for several weeks during the summer research period. Payment can be pro-rated by the number of days worked in the month. The maximum number for work days per month for the 2023 summer research period is given below.

Example C.1: Faculty A working 5 days (1 week) in May

Calculation:     5 days/13 total work days*Maximum May Payment

            5/13*$6,111.11*.591= $1,389.10

Example C.2   Faculty A working 10 days (2 weeks) in June

Calculation:     10 days/22 total work days*Maximum June Payment

            10 days/22 total work days*$6,111.11 = $ 2,777.77

Example C.3: Faculty A working 15 days (3 weeks) in July

Calculation:     15 days/21 total work days* Maximum July Payment

                        15 days/21 total work days*$6,294.44= $4,496.02

Example C.4: Faculty A working 2 days in August

Calculation:     2 days/9 total work days*Maximum August Payment

                        2 days/9 total work days*$6,294.44*.409= $572.09

Basis for Determining May and August Percentages:

The basis for determining the percentage of 1/9th of the faculty member's salary that can be paid during the partial months of May and August is the percentage of work days in either month.

43.5

Should you have any questions about the form, please call the Office for Academic Personnel at 277-4528 or send an email message to faculty@unm.edu. 

If you have questions about your index/grant, call the Contract and Grant Accounting.