Managing Effort Commitments

Effort Commitment is the amount of time proposed in a grant proposal or other application and accepted by the sponsoring agency. It is referenced in the Notice of Award and becomes part of the Terms & Conditions of the Award. Effort Commitment may be adjusted, but changes might require sponsor’s approval PRIOR to any change in committed effort.

UTMB policy mandates that departments have an internal control system to effectively monitor the committed effort of faculty and key personnel to help ensure effort/payroll allocations on sponsored projects are reasonable reflections of the actual work performed and that individuals are not overcommitted. This also helps identify when sponsor approval will be required for the change. 

Managing your effort commitments is a critical piece of proper project management. It helps ensure we are compliant with all aspects of our award agreements. Review the procedures and training materials to ensure you understand your role in the process.

Roles & Responsibilities

Principal Investigator

  • Propose effort for sponsored projects in a manner that complies with UTMB policies and procedures
  • Expend effort on sponsored projects
  • Ensure that effort devoted to sponsored projects is equal to the commitments to sponsors
  • Obtain sponsor’s prior approval for significant changes in work activity for sponsored projects, when required in the terms and conditions of an award
  • Monitor salary charges and effort on a monthly basis
  • Certify effort in a timely and accurate manner
  • Monitors his or her own commitments across all institutional activities.
  • Manages the commitment of all key personal named in the notice of award
  • Communicates any changes in commitment to their department’s grants administrator/ effort coordinator.
  • Must be familiar with all terms and conditions of their award(s).  

Department Staff

  • Advise faculty when prior approval is required before a change in commitment can be made.
  • If the reduction is greater than or equal to the sponsor stipulated threshold, the department grants personnel is responsible for notifying  OSP Pre-Award so that a prior approval request can be submitted to the sponsor.
  • Manage effort commitments of their faculty and updates sourcing of personnel on grants as quickly as possible.
  • Monitor sourcing changes and assure that changes post correctly.
  • If the department grants personnel is not the Lead Effort Coordinator (LEC) it is the responsibility of the grants personnel to communicate with the LEC to assist with issues where cards do not balance between salary and certified effort.  

Central Administration

Pre-Award analyst

  • Is Responsible for communicating any issues from Effort Reporting team to the department and for holding the progress report until all issues have been resolved to the satisfaction of the department and the Effort Reporting team. 
  • Reviews effort commitments at:
    • Application submission
    • Just-in-Time
    • Receipt of Award Notice
    • Progress Report
    • No Cost Extension request

Effort Reporting Team

  • Notifies the Lead Effort Coordinator of unbalanced cards during the effort reporting period. 
  • Compiles information on the key personnel certified and sourced effort to compare to the RPPR for accuracy. 
  • Calculates the average of effort on the specific project and will provide a copy to the Pre-Award that will be shared with the department.