A useful example of a budget proposal can be found on the Australian Research Council (ARC) website. See: http://www.arc.gov.au/pdf/DP13_Sample_Application_Form.pdf
The comments below relate to this sample form.
Salary costs
A critical step in accurately estimating project costs is to calculate the real cost of employing each staff member. Some grants provide guidance on the costs that can be levied against a grant. The ARC, for example, requires applicants to source its own ARC salary scales. This information is automatically populated into the grant application budget section. The ARC calculates on-costs as 28%. This is usually less than the real costs levied by your university.
You will need to check whether you need to seek funds from some other source to top-up the costs. You will also need to factor in additional salary rises that will occur over the cost of the project and include those in your budget. Note in the example, for instance, that salaries being funded by the ARC are not projected to increase over the course of the grant. In fact, they will escalate in keeping with university enterprise bargaining agreements.
The difference between the ARC 28% on-costs and the university’s required overheads will need to be borne by the relevant school and noted under the "University" column in Section C of the budget. For example, if the base salary of a staff member is $61,399, the real cost borne by the ARC would be $78,591.
These amounts have been calculated, and are:
Salary $61,399 + 28% on-costs of $17,192 = Total of $78,591
So $78,591 needs to be entered under the ARC column for each year. The following amounts would need to be entered under the University column, indicating that these additional overheads would be covered by a university source:
$1596 (Year 1)
$4002 (Year 2)
$6479 (Year 3).
If your funding body does not offer a salary scale for particular types of employees, you should use the university salary scales. In ARC grants, for example, funding requests for Research Associates and Senior Research Associates would be based on institutional rates. For ARC grants, an additional 28% to cover staff overheads remains the ceiling. Other sources will need to be found to offset the further costs of employing those staff.
Your university may have different tools to help you calculate your costs. At UWA, for example, a comprehensive set of guidelines and a costing template can be found at http://www.research.uwa.edu.au/staff/applying-for-funding/budget/. This is an invaluable source of guidance. The template will automatically perform appropriate calculations when different base salary amounts are keyed in and for different types of grants.
In-kind contributions
In addition to entering the amount requested from ARC to fund research associates, Chief Investigators and Partner Investigators are required to show the cost of their time on the project ("University" or "Other" in-kind contribution). The proportional cost of salary and on-costs needs to be assessed. Your university may offer assistance in estimating these.
Teaching relief
At the end of 2011 a maximum of $65,944 per annum could be requested for teaching relief. In an ARC bid, this would be registered in the "ARC" column.
Equipment/maintenance/other
Because universities are GST exempt for research activities, you can estimate the costs as GST-exclusive prices. If the University or Other organisation (very important in the case of partner investigators) is to make a contribution, this would be inserted under the relevant column.
Relocation and appointment expenses
Advertising and relocation costs for staff can be expensive and should be included in the budget. You would need to check with Human Resources if in doubt about the potential costs – these need to be well justified.
Other costs
You also need to estimate other direct costs that need to be covered. Make sure you have fully anticipated the real needs of the project. Materials, for example, can be expensive and will need some level of contingent funding for loss and damage.
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