GRADUATE STUDENT COMPENSATION

Release Date:  December 2, 1998  (Superceded by NOT-OD-02-017)

P.T.

National Institutes of Health

This notice supersedes the notice that appeared in the NIH Guide for Grants and
Contracts, Vol. 25, No. 8, March 15, 1996, about the compensation of graduate
students with funds from National Institutes of Health (NIH) research grants. 
The purpose of this notice is to raise the maximum amount provided by NIH
research grants for the compensation of a graduate student employee from $23,000
to $26,000.  As before, the amount provided for compensation includes salary or
wages, fringe benefits, and tuition remission.

These following operating guidelines apply to individuals who are employees of
the grantee institution, not to individuals in a training status.  NIH has a
separate appropriation under the authorization of the National Research Service
Act to award institutional research training grants and individual fellowships
to support research training.

OPERATING GUIDELINES

Effective immediately, NIH will provide up to $26,000 for graduate student
compensation on competing grant and cooperative agreement awards.  No adjustments
will be made to noncompeting total cost award levels or future year commitments. 
NIH staff will review the compensation requested for graduate students on
competing grant and cooperative agreement applications for which a budget is
submitted.  NIH will not request budgets for those applications submitted
following modular grant instructions solely for the purpose of reviewing graduate
student compensation, although the role of a graduate student must be described
in the budget narrative section.  However, this does not eliminate the
requirement that institutions ensure that reasonable rates of compensation are
being charged to NIH research grants.

When submitting budgets that request support for a graduate student, the
applicant institution should provide in the budget justification section the
basis for the compensation level.  If not provided, this information will be
obtained from the institution's business office for any request that appears
excessive.  NIH institutes and centers will review the requested compensation
level and, if it is reasonable, will award the actual amount requested, up to a
maximum of $26,000.  Institutions may rebudget funds to charge more than $26,000
to the grant award, provided it is in accordance with OMB cost principles
requiring that costs reflect reasonable compensation (e.g., does not exceed the
amount paid to a first-year postdoctoral employee at the same institution
performing comparable work).

INQUIRIES

These guidelines are effective immediately.  Questions about these guidelines
should be referred to the grants management specialist identified on the notice
of grant award.

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