Summer Research Salary Policy
Effective: November 19, 2025
At Brandeis, faculty are compensated for nine-month academic appointments that may involve the expectation of non-sponsored activities. Certain faculty are permitted to expend up to an additional three months of summer research effort on one or more sponsored projects in the period beyond the academic year. As this pay is optional, it is processed separately from “regular payroll” to align with the period when effort is dedicated to sponsored projects.
This policy does not reflect compensation for teaching or administrative activities performed during the summer. It is also separate from arrangements that many faculty have elected to have their academic year salary payments evenly distributed over 12 months (as opposed to 9 months).
To ensure full compliance with federal regulations, Brandeis University allows a maximum of 90% of a faculty member's summer time (2.7 summer months) to be charged to federal awards. To charge more than 90% of a summer month to federal awards, a faculty member must either identify unrestricted funds to be used or obtain a written exception from their Dean and the Vice Provost for Research, in which the faculty member verifies that 100% of their time will be devoted to the work of the federally sponsored project(s) (i.e. no vacation time/no university work). In all cases, faculty must be prepared to provide detailed backup demonstrating their effort on the awards for the full period. If the sponsor has a salary cap, charges to the sponsored project will be capped. It may be possible to use gift or endowment funds for the over-the-cap fraction of a salary, but consultation must be made with the appropriate post-award grant administrator to review the details of these funds if there is intent to use such funds. [Kindly note that university funds from the school budgets are not available to contribute to salary over-the-cap (for NIH) or additional salary during the summer months.]