On sponsored projects, effort represents how much time personnel expect to spend on a project, and the sponsor compensates the university's unit accordingly for "borrowing" time during the employee's contracted hours. However, with teaching loads and expected scholarship and service, faculty may find it difficult to budget more than 5-10% during contract hours. When feasible, they may request to replace course teaching time with sponsored research time through a course buyout. A Course Buyout is when grant funds “buy” a faculty member’s released time by paying the unit so that the equivalent amount of university effort (%) can be spent working on the funded project while also allowing the unit to hire a replacement instructor for the course(s).
If you plan to request a UIS Course Buyout, it is highly recommended that you discuss this possibility with your department chair or school director, as well as your dean, at the time of proposal preparation. This conversation will help them begin preliminary preparations for course coverage - waiting until the award stage may be too late.
Please note that as of Fall 2025, you no longer need to complete a separate form for the UIS Course Buyout. This process has been integrated with the Non-Instructional Assignment (NIA) process. Thus, after you receive a Notice of Award, please follow the Non-Instructional Assignment (NIA) process to get the necessary formal approvals.
Budgeting Guidelines
The cost per course buyout is calculated at 1/8th of a nine-month Institutional Base Salary (IBS) plus benefits/fringe for each course released. For grants that require indirect costs to be assessed on salary and benefits, this must be accounted for in the budget at the time of proposal submission. See samples below using Fiscal Year 2026 rates.
| Institutional Base Salary* | 1/8 of 9-month contract | Fringe | Indirect Costs | Single Buyout Cost for sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $65,000 | 12.5% (or 1.125 academic months) | 47.03% | 41.2% (on-campus) | $65,000 * 0.125 * 1.4703 * 1.412 = $16,868.02 |
| $85,000 | 12.5% (or 1.125 academic months) | 47.03% | 17.8% (off-campus) | $85,000 * 0.125 * 1.4703 * 1.178 = $18,402.64 |
| $110,000 | 12.5% (or 1.125 academic months) | 47.03% | 10% (sponsor limited) | $110,000 * 0.125 * 1.4703 * 1.1 = $22,238.29 |
| $75,000 | 12.5% (or 1.125 academic months) | covered by unit | 0% (not allowed by sponsor) | $75,000 * 0.125 = $9,375 |
INCLUDING: Regular Salary, Endowed Chair or professorship stipends; and Paid Professional leave (pay for sabbatical, vacation, and sick leave- not including sick leave pay payouts when departing from the university);
EXCLUDING: Administrative stipends; Summer salary for non-12-month appointees; Service in excess payments; Royalties paid by the university; Reimbursements; and Any compensation of external professional activities, such as consulting or compensated peer review activities.
NOTE: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) sets an annual salary cap to limit the Institutional Base Salary (IBS) used to calculate salary and fringe benefits costs for an NIH application budget. Effective January 1, 2024, the annual salary cap is $221,900. If a faculty member’s actual annualized base salary exceeds this amount, then the salary cap of $221,900 must be used as the annual base for salary and fringe benefit cost calculations in the application budget.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) require that salary requests in grant budgets be expressed as months. No more than 2 months’ of regular salary may be requested for any senior personnel in any one year without proper justification and budget approval. The limit of two months’ salary includes compensation received from all NSF-funded grants²
FAQs
- What if my sponsored research extends to more than a single semester or I want to participate in a course buyout for multiple terms?
- That is fine, we simply ask that a new form be completed for each term of buyout.
- When does the 1/9 rate apply for a summer course buyout?
- The 1/9 rate only applies to faculty members with 12-month appointments.
- Can faculty still do an overload of coursework?
- A buy-out falls within 100% of an employee's university effort. An overload is effort expended above 100% of university assignments. It is the responsibility of the faculty's Dean to decide if a project falls outside of a faculty member's scope of duties, and may apply for an overload of coursework through the Service in Excess process. Our guidelines suggest that deans maintain balance and not overload faculty so that research can get done.
If your questions are not addressed on this page, please submit your question to ora@uis.edu
¹Notice on Salary Limitation on Grants, Cooperative Agreements, and Contracts