NIH Salary Cap
Updated 3-9-18
These guidelines are set forth to help faculty stay within the rules established by the federal government regarding the NIH salary cap. These guidelines apply to faculty with a salary exceeding the NIH salary cap who charge a portion of any month’s salary to an NIH grant. NIH will pay only the percentage effort based on the current salary cap. This is most challenging for summer salary because the cost shared salary above the cap must be charged to non-sponsored funds; however, it can also have an impact on situations where faculty charge a portion of their academic year salary to NIH grants.
The current NIH salary cap can be found on our Rates and Data for Proposals page.
Academic year salary
Faculty with salaries in excess of the NIH salary cap who have committed effort on an NIH grant and who recover academic year salary from an NIH sponsored project may only charge effort based on the NIH monthly salary cap rate.
Weinberg academic year policy:
- The resulting “cap gap” or difference between the NIH salary cap and the faculty's actual salary is covered (or cost shared) by the Weinberg Dean’s Office.
Summer salary
Weinberg summer salary policy:
- 100% of recovered academic salary is returned to the faculty member by the Weinberg Dean's Office. For this reason, faculty are required to cover their summer "cap gap" from a non-sponsored source.