CAMPUS NOTICE

 

OFFICE OF THE VICE CHANCELLOR FOR RESEARCH

OFFICE OF THE VICE CHANCELLOR & CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

June 4, 2019


ALL ACADEMICS AND STAFF AT UC SAN DIEGO

SUBJECT:    New Benefit Rates in Sponsored Research Proposals

UC San Diego is taking all necessary steps to prepare for a UC-wide transition to a new rate structure for personnel benefits that locally will be effective for budgeting purposes starting July 1, 2019. These new rates, Composite Benefit Rates (CBRs), are a part of UC Path, a unified UC-wide payroll system. The CBRs cover the employer share of fringe benefits costs, and represent pooled rates set as a percentage of eligible salary. While the distribution of university and contract and grant personnel benefit costs are changing, the transition to CBRs does not affect the mechanism by which individual employees pay for their benefits or the amount that individual employees pay.

As communicated earlier this year, and as part of the 2019/20 campus budget development, departments have already incorporated the CBR rates in their planning budgets effective July 1, 2019. Now is the time for investigators to begin incorporating the new rates in all sponsored research proposal budgets.

The link to planning CBRs and other information is provided at the end of this notice.

The transition to budgeting, and subsequent charging, with CBRs will streamline?and standardize fringe benefits budgeting as well as eliminate the significant financial variability that now exists between budgeted rates and actual charges. CBRs will also provide a simplified and predictable method for multi-year budgeting across all contract and grant budgets.

Sponsored Research Proposal Budgets:
- Starting July 1, 2019, all proposed budgets prepared for sponsored research opportunities must incorporate the planning CBRs for the assigned research personnel in applications with deadlines of July 1, 2019 or later.
- Future awards that are made against proposals submitted prior to June 30, 2019, or existing awards that do not allow adjustments in budgeting for the new CBR rates, may be impacted. Grant holders who may experience material negative impact that cannot be mitigated should discuss potential one-time support with their academic leadership. Academic VCs will, in turn, contact the campus budget office if they cannot mitigate within their portfolio.
- SIO has already implemented the use of the proposed CBR planning rates for their sponsored research applications.

If you have any questions, please refer to
https://blink.ucsd.edu/finance/costing-analysis/cbrs/index.html or email CBR@ucsd.edu.



Sandra A. Brown
Vice Chancellor for Research

Pierre Ouillet
Chief Financial Officer