In February I will be submitting my first ever SSHRC Insight Development Grant application, and I have never written a budget before. What can I request? How much of my budget should be dedicated to student wages? Is there flexibility in how I use the money?

– Anonymous, French language and literature

Dr. Editor’s Answer: I think budgets are a great way to quickly get to the heart of the purpose of a grant application. By looking at a budget, I can see what type of research is included in a proposed project – archival (in travel costs), country-based (in gifts to elders and catering for parties), qualitative (in honoraria), quantitative (in gift card prices) or data flows), artistic or creative (i CARFAC fees), and so on. I can see what kind of knowledge mobilization and dissemination is prioritized; how many researchers are on the team; even if there is an advisory committee for a community-based or industry-engaged project.

In my experience editing research grant applications, I see many errors in budgets. The more complex a contribution is, the more errors creep in – it’s pretty much inevitable. In this month’s piece, instead of focusing on the weaknesses that I regularly see in grant applications—because it will show up wrong or not—let’s instead focus on strengths. So as I answer your questions, I also want to answer one of my own: what makes a budget look good?

What can I request?

The most correct answer to the question “what can I ask for?” is “everything you need to do the job successfully” – but that answer isn’t very helpful when you’re trying to write your first budget.

The Tri-agency guide on financial administration has lots of information about who and what is eligible, and it’s a good idea to be familiar with that document so your reviewers don’t see your budget (and thus your application) as uninformed or lacking in credibility. However, most institutions have a research office that will review your budget proposal before you apply to ensure you meet these eligibility criteria – so I usually don’t recommend spending a lot of time reading that guide.

Instead, I think it’s important that you learn the differences between costs allowed by the SSHRC and costs considered appropriate by expert reviewers. For example, when I have interviewed former SSHRC peer reviewers about their perceptions of budget spending, I have learned that peer reviewers in the humanities are more skeptical of item handling fees which are taken out of journals than their counterparts in the social sciences. These article processing fees can exceed $3,000, and so, for a humanities scholar like yourself, dear letter writer, I would suggest asking your favorite university librarian for details on any institutional open access agreements before including any OA costs in your budget; Ideally, you will have open access covered through your institution, although article management fees are an eligible cost.

Fortunately, reviewers told me that they are willing to be convinced that any type of cost is appropriate for an individual project. Some reviewers may frown on high-cost hardware, high-cost APCs, and multiple international conferences, but even these reviewers seem open to being told that such expenditures are necessary for a specific project, if given a strong enough justification.

To help you brainstorm potential budget expenses, from student salaries to travel and knowledge mobilization costs, I created a budget spreadsheet template which you can use to experiment with a range of expenses and see how they translate into SSHRC budget categories.

The budget categories included in that template are all line items that I consider normal in SSHRC grant applications. It is normal to employ one or more students; it is normal to attend one or more conferences; it is normal to bring your interns to one or more of these conferences to attend and present with you.

But just because an expense is normal doesn’t mean your reviewers necessarily think it’s appropriate for your specific proposed project. So in the 500 characters you have to justify each claimed expense, I suggest you provide a three-part justification:

1. Justify why the cost is necessary
   You need a PhD-level RA to work 10 hours a week to support data collection and analysis and knowledge mobilization; you need an X-spec laptop for that RA to keep research data secure and to ensure that students from low socio-economic backgrounds have access to this opportunity; you must attend this specific conference in this specific year to reach the academics whose future work your results will affect.

2. Justify where the numbers came from
   The RA’s salary is consistent with your institution’s agreement with your student union or with the living wage in your city; the price of the laptop comes from the “Big Box Store”; the location of the conference you will attend in year 2 has not yet been determined, so you have used Halifax as a proxy to estimate costs.

3. Justify how the cost was calculated
   Show the series of additions and multiplications you used to arrive at a particular figure. My budget template shows the numbers I usually want to see in this calculation. You could write something like, for a student salary, “Year 1: $30/hour x 10 hours/week x 48 weeks + 12% benefits (CPP, EI, WCB) = $16,128; Year 2: Year 1 + 3% increased cost of living = $16,611.84” (132 characters) or, for a conference trip, “Flight Cityname–Halifax ($600 x 2 people = $1,200) + hotel ($220/night x 3 nights) x 2 = $1,320) + registration ($200/person x 2 = $400) + per diem ($60/day x 4 days x 2 = $480); airport taxi ($50 one way x 2 trips = $100) = $3,500 Total” (242 characters).

By using this three-part strategy to justify each line, you’ll ensure your experts have the information they need to determine whether your estimated expenses are appropriate for the work you want to do.

In short: ask for what you need, justify why it is needed, and then check with your institution to ensure that each expense is justified.

How much of my budget should be dedicated to student wages?

Again, the most accurate answer here is unhelpful: whatever percentage you need. If your allowance necessarily includes a lot of travel, you may only be able to put a third of your proposed budget towards a student salary.

However, for the overwhelming majority of IDGs that I read, more than half of the budget will be devoted to the combined costs of student salaries and travel expenses.

For example, consider the math I gave above for a single research assistant making $30/hour for 10 hours a week, 48 weeks a year, for two years. The single RA’s expenses total $32,739.84. If you need two RAs, then, just for student salaries, you’re looking at $65,479.68 of your $75,000 maximum – and that’s not even taking into account any hardware or software they might need, or any conferences they might attend.

Do those numbers scare you? You are not alone. I spoke with David Bruce, Director of Research Grants at St. Francis Xavier University, and he shared that he thinks early-career researchers may be too cautious about requesting RA support: “Some researchers may be hesitant because they worry that their RAs will look too expensive. But intern hiring is expensive – that’s to be expected. In fact, it is a matter of equity: if you underpay your RAs, you make RAships available only to those who can afford to take low-wage work. So budget for a living wage and a meaningful number of hours.” I agree with David: don’t hesitate to pay your interns well, or to increase their salaries from year to year to account for inflation.

If you know you want to attend a domestic conference in year 1 and an international conference in year 2, enter those costs into the budget template, see what they are in total, and then manipulate the individual cells for your RAs to see if you can afford it to hire two RAs for 10 hours per week each, or if you need to scale it back to seven or eight.

Is there flexibility in how I use the money?

Oh yes. I’m not a post-awards person – I don’t get to look into that world too often – but I understand that you have a great deal of flexibility with how you spend your grant funds once your proposal is successful. Again, check with your research office to get the official answer here, but my outsider’s understanding is that if the costs are justified, you’ll probably be fine, even if you need to deviate from your plan.

It is because of this flexibility that I ask the researchers I support to name the specific conferences they wish to attend, rather than just providing a lump sum for any old conference in Year 2. Your reviewers must be sure that the funding they award will significantly advance knowledge and, if relevant, policy, practice or public discourse. Without a clear sense of how you will get your results out into the world, your reviewers will not feel confident that funding your project would be a wise use of scarce SSHRC funds.

So tell your reviewers what Plan A looks like. Keep it reasonable, considering your track record and considering the audience you want to reach.

But since you can use your grant funds to go to whatever conference you decide will be best, there’s no reason not to tell your reviewers what you currently think the best option will be. The same goes for the magazines you want to publish in, the places you’ll write magazines for, even the YouTube channels, magazines and podcasts where you’ll be interviewed. Your plans may change. So start with a clear plan and budget accordingly.

Get a copy of Letitia’s Budget Spreadsheet Template for your next SSHRC IDG or IG application.