Sections A through J on the Budget Form must contain estimated costs for the potential expenditures that are listed. The Budget Justification addresses and expands on each of these expenditures.

1. Cost Proposal Principal Investigator

   Enter complete name of the Cost Proposal Principal Investigator (PI).

2. CXC Science Proposal No.

   Enter the 8-digit CXC Proposal No. assigned to the Science Proposal.

3. Institution.

   The name of the proposing institution.

4. Section A. Direct Labor.
   • Salaries/Wages: List personnel, individual person-months, total cost for the individual.
   • Other Direct Labor: Costs and/or stipends for individuals providing research assistance, such as graduate students, post-doctoral research asssociates, and science data aides. Administrative and secretarial/clerical personnel should also be listed is this category. List personnel, individual person-months, total cost for the individual.
   • Direct Labor Total: Total Salaries/Wages and Other Direct Labor.

   The Budget Justification should include a breakdown of work assignments for all funded investigators taking part in the investigation.

5. Section B. Fringe Benefits.

   Provide the base, rate and total of any fringe benefits to be charged as a direct cost to the award.

6. Section C. Equipment [Items costing $5,000 or more].

   Provide estimated costs for workstations and other equipment. List items and their cost separately.

   The Budget Justification must explain the need for items costing more than $5,000 and describe the basis for the estimated cost. General-purpose equipment, including workstations, are not allowable as direct costs unless specifically approved by the SAO Grant Officer. The form for Certification for Purchase of General Purpose Equipment Valued Over $5,000, or equal, must be completed and submitted as part of the cost proposal for any general-purpose equipment, including workstations, requested to be purchased with award funds.

   Requests must be reasonable for the amount of data to be analyzed. Programs that are not complex or that will be analyzing a small amount of data should not request high-end workstations or large data storage devices. Institutions are encouraged to provide partial support of at least half of the purchase cost of all items of equipment exceeding $10K. Investigators may split the purchase cost of an item among several Programs when the complexity of the individual projects does not warrant the full cost of purchasing the item.

   To assure compatibility with NASA's data systems, requested workstation systems must be capable of establishing one of the existing portable data analysis environments supported by the CXC. Information on the minimum computer system and platforms for which the software is available can be found on the CXC web page (http://cxc.harvard.edu/). Click on "Data Analysis" and then "Download", or by direct link at http://cxc.harvard.edu/ciao/download/.

7. Section D. Travel.

   List the costs for domestic and foreign travel. Itemize travel by destination, number of days, and the cost of each trip. In the budget justification, describe the purpose of the proposed travel, specifically who will be traveling, the departure location and destination, estimated airfare and perdiem rates, length of trip, the relationship of the travel to the grant, and the basis of the cost estimate. [Note: For Non-Profit Non-Academic Organizations, foreign travel destinations listed on the proposal must be specific. If additional foreign travel is added or if the destination changes after the proposal has been approved, prior approval from the SAO Subawards Section is required by Part 230 of Title 2 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) [formerly OMB Circular A-122].

8. Section E. Supplies.

   Provide general categories of supplies and the estimated cost.

9. Section F. Publication Costs.

   Provide the number of papers, total pages, and total cost.

10. Section G. Computer Services.

    Provide the type of service and total cost.

11. Section H. Other Direct Costs.

    Enter a brief description of any other direct costs not listed above and the total for each cost. The budget justification should address each item and the basis for the estimate.

12. Section I. Indirect Costs.

    Provide the rate, base, and total for the institution's indirect costs. The Cognizant Federal Agency and the Date of the Negotiation Agreement with the Federal Agency should be provided below the rates. A copy of the signed Negotiated Agreement must be attached.

    For institutions without a Federally-negotiated rate, a charge of 10% of direct costs, less items that would distort this base such as major subcontracts or equipment purchases, normally will be allowed provided that: the charge does not exceed $5,000; documentation is maintained to support the amount charged; and costs are included in the approved Award budget.

    If unapproved rates are used, explain why, and include the computational basis for the indirect expense pool and corresponding allocation base for each rate. The indirect cost rate should not be applied to Co-I costs since these funds will be awarded directly to each Co-I institution.

13. Subtotal.

    Enter the sum of items above. This is the total cost of support requested for the PI on the project.

14. Section J. Co-I Awards.

    Funds to be awarded directly to Co-Investigators (Co-Is) should be listed in this category. Provide name, institution and total dollar amount for each Co-I requesting funds. Section J only allows for three (3) separately funded Co-I's. In cases where there are more than three (3) separately funded Co-I's, consolidate the Co-I's and dollar amounts to a maximum of three (3) for Section J of the budget form and provide the required details in the budget justification.

    Although collaboration on GO Projects is encouraged, the costs associated with collaborative projects must be reasonable. Costs for all Co-Is must be fully justified in their budget justification including an estimate of their percentage of effort on the project. Trips to scientific conferences or a significant amount of salaries for Co-Is who are marginally associated with a project will not be supported.

15. Project Total.

    Add the subtotal and Co-I amounts. This is the total cost of support requested for the project.

Allowability of the above costs is dependent upon conformance with the Terms and Conditions for the CXC Observing Program Awards.

For-proft organizations should note that profit is not an allowable cost and should not be included in any Chandra proposal. Management fees of up to 3% may be permitted on a case-by- case basis.

Proposals involving NASA employees as either a PI or as a Co-I should use the full cost accounting method authorized at their Centers at the time proposals are due for the entire proposed period-of- performance.

Assistance with the RPS System is available by contacting the CXC Help Desk.

Questions regarding the hardcopy forms and the cost proposals should be directed to Carol Dzengelewski in the Subawards Section.