Summer 2024 Research Compensation - Guidelines

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

Please see the 2024 Summer Research for Nine-Month Faculty memo for the Summer 2024 periods of work and processing deadlines.

2024 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 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, or
      4. Special Administrative Component (SAC) per Faculty Handbook policy C180
   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, please see: https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/policydocs/pappg20_1/nsf20_1.pdf
3. The pay rate for May and June (Rate 1 below) is determined by the 2023/2024 academic year salary, and the pay rate for July and August (Rate 2 below) is determined by the 2024/2025 academic year salary.
4. All Summer Research forms must be processed no later than the deadline given in the 2024 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, in most circumstances, days identified for teaching cannot also be identified as days for 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 for payments requiring manual entry, if the payment is supported by restricted funds the following procedure applies:
      1. Departments must 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 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 (Table 1) from the Active Employee Report in HR Reports, you will only include the $75,000 associated with the 00 Suffix:

Example Calculation for the 3/9ths Summer Research Limit

Example A: Professor X’s academic year salary for FY23/24 is $90,000. Rate 1 for May and June 2024 will be $10,000 ($90,000/9). For FY24/25, Professors X’s academic year salary is hypothetically $95,000 due to a negotiated salary update. Therefore, Rate 2 for July and August 2024 will be $10,555.55 ($95,000/9).

The amount payable in May and August is pro-rated for the number of work days for summer research in each month and the total should equal 1/9^th.  Use .682 as the multiplier for calculating the May payroll, and .318 for the August payroll. (For information on how the multipliers were determined, please see “Basis for Determining 2024 May and August Percentages” at the end of the guidelines.)

The maximum allowable payments for the summer research period of May 13 through August 9 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 B above) 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 2024 summer research period is given below.

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

Calculation:     5 days/15 total work days*Maximum May Payment

            5/15*$6,111.11*.682= $1,389.26

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

Calculation:     10 days/20 total work days*Maximum June Payment

            10 days/20 total work days*$6,111.11 = $ 3,055.555

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

Calculation:     15 days/23 total work days* Maximum July Payment

                        15 days/23 total work days*$6,294.44= $4,105.07

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

Calculation:     2 days/7 total work days*Maximum August Payment

                        2 days/7 total work days*$6,294.44*.318= $571.89

Basis for Determining 2024 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.

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.