What is PROFR and its intended purpose? 

PROFR is intended to recover the direct costs associated with the time a faculty PI will spend on a project throughout the academic year (i.e. supervising graduate students, directing the research activities, preparing reports, etc.), knowing that the time allocated during the summer is not typically reflective of the full time spent on the project.  Having Academic Year (AY) time in the project budget more accurately reflects the total time spent by a PI on the project as well as the distribution of time throughout the year.

PROFR is required on every sponsored research proposal unless the sponsor, by policy, will not permit AY time. Exceptions are listed below. PROFR is set to ensure a fair standard for all and to avoid case-by-case subjective determinations which would be harder to justify to auditors.

What is the requirement and value?

• requirement is met by T&R faculty Academic Year effort only

• a minimum of 7% of "Base for F&A Costs" within OSP Budget Template (also typically defined as Modified Total Direct Cost - MTDC)

• is not applied when Research (RSCH), Administrative (ADM), or Instructional (INST) faculty are PI (even with T&R faculty in budget as Co-PI)

PROFR can only be waived when:

• AY not allowed by sponsor (example: NSF organizational unit "Operational Engineering")

• Budget is primarily for student support. Any waiver is subject to department head approval.

What is the benefit of PROFR to faculty and the department?

• Effective July 1, 2025 (FY26) and through June 30, 2027 (FY27) a percentage of PROFR charged to a sponsored project is returned to T&R faculty members each fiscal year using returned overhead dollars. The applicable percentage will align with the table below and these funds can be used at your discretion, i.e. class buyouts, etc.

• Starting July 1, 2027 (FY28) AY salary charged via the ISE department PROFR requirement will be retained by the department. 

• ISE aims for a higher level of administrative support to provide timely and substantive customer service. We also aim to reduce as much administrative burden on faculty as possible. Neither would be possible without savings from AY charged to research projects and the returned overhead.

• Overhead is also a valuable resource used to provide salary funding for staff positions as noted above, to enhance new faculty start-up funding, as well as provide funding for department operating expenses and faculty discretionary funds.

How does AY salary savings get returned to faculty?

• AY salary savings have historically been returned to faculty via returned overhead. The department will continue to prioritize funding salary savings via returned overhead because it is a resource that can be saved year over year to support larger purchases, student support, or a course buyout. 

• The federal landscape and potential change to the university indirect rate allowed to be charged, ~60% down to a possible 15%, may result in the department being unable to fund salary savings via returned overhead as the department would receive too small of a portion to do so. We would work to consider other methods to continue to encourage additional faculty time on research projects, more discussion will be had in this area as the future federal funding landscape and indirect policies become clear.